Hi Pete, it was great seeing & hearing you, Ron & Martin ("2 Black Sheep & A Stallion" for those of you who don't know them) again, you guys well always be a welcome treat here.
I was great to meet up & hear new & old friends. Gibb you did some wonderfull add-libbing with your renditions from your Hugil shanty repitoire.
Tim Radford, it was a pleasure finally meeting up with you & getting to hear you sing so womderfully, even far beyond what I had been told
Met up with new Mudcatter Kathy W & her Jim who came from Chicago & were very pleased that they did, hope to see you again next year.
The 2 day symposiums were the highlights for me, well as well as all the singing. Even if I disagree with some presenters views, the educational value & information taken from those I treasure. The only elephant in the room, IMHO was that the songs are never more important than those that love to hear them sung even if they don't give 2 shits about the histories, origins, lineages, backgrounds, for without the listeners we'd have no more reason to sing than to ourselves (I'll leave this for a thread).
After 4 days of the festival you'd think that I'd be full but it always seems as if it should be at least a week long, there just isn't enough time to spend with everyone, there's only so many places you can be at one time & I can't get to hear & see enough. For me it goes be far to fast. I missed an early-late night sing so I could wallow in the wonders of staying at the shanty blast only to miss some folks that I probably won't get to hear again only to end up staying up till 5 in the morning listening to another large group of wonderfull singers & going onboard the Conrad to sleep as it was dawning. Maybe if there were 48 hrs to a day a 4 day festival like this would be enough, but I don't think so. Maybe 2 of these festivals a year would do it?

Barry