Greetings from the San Francisco bay area. After I posted a thread about the Festival Of The Sea at San Francisco's Hyde Street Pier happening this September 9-10, Joe Offer suggested that it would be a great weekend for a West Coast Mudcat gathering. We PM'd each other about it and talked on the phone, and it looks like a great opportunity for this to happen.
The festival runs from 10 am to 6 pm, Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 9-10. The Hyde Street Pier is on San Francisco's Fisherman's Wharf, and is the main component of San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, a National Park of historic ships. Every year a free to the public festival is held, showcasing the SF bay's and West Coast's maritime heritage. There is live traditional music all day from a stage on the pier, aboard ships, and at various other areas. There are many seafaring demonstrations, children's crafts, a tugboat race, boatbuilding demos, all sorts of activities.
Here are some ideas about a gathering:

1. TRANSPORTATION AND LODGING. There will be a small contingent of local Mudcatters performing at the festival. Would any of you be willing to open your places up for visiting Mudcatters? (I'll be staying in my office on the site, and unfortunately can't have guests in my place across the bay when I'm not there, according to the rental agreement -damn) The performers will have parking passes, so if they can accomodate, transportation shouldn't be a problem. There is airport to door shuttle service available if we can't get to everyone by car.

2. MEETING PLACE AT FESTIVAL. Around the main stage on the pier, or aboard the nearby ferryboat EUREKA, up in the passenger deck would be good places. The pier is the most visible, the seats on the ferry the most amenable to jamming. Why not purchase Mudcat T-shirts? A great identifier.

3. ACTIVITIES AT THE FESTIVAL. Aside from the many activities mentioned above, there will be a closing all hands sing-all on the stage to mark the close of each day. It will be an informal concert of chanteys, where performers take turns at the mikes leading chanteys, while the others follow in on the choruses. Maybe a pickup Mudcat chantey group will will come together and do a song at the closing? Certainly the Catters who are official performers could teach you a song or two. The choruses to chanteys are pretty easy to pick up. There will also be an evening chantey sing open to all, aboard the schooner C.A. Thayer after the close of Saturday's fest, from 8pm-midnight. This is an open session of sea songs and chanteys.

4. CONCLUSION. It would be nice to do something together to bring our weekend to a conclusion. A favorite hangout of local Mudcatters is the Sunday Irish music session at Berkeley's Starry Plough Irish pub. Shay Black, a great singer and great guy hosts the session. Don't know if he'll be back in time from his vacation to be there that night. You will usually find Riggy, radriano, me, BSeed, Dave and Pam Swan there, and it is a popular event for other festival performers as well. It promises to be a great night.

So, there you have it. Not too much structure, I don't think, so everyone won't feel herded around. Just enough activities in common, though, to make for an event within an event. The more I think about it, the more Ifeel this promises to be quite a weekend for our online community. So, 'Catters, these are ideas; not a final word by any means. I just wanted to throw that out there and see if there's interest, and to hear your ideas. So, what do y'all think?

-chanteyranger