Hello Guest. I well understand your anger and frustration. The Folklife Festival has grown from a small grass roots start into one of the biggest deals around. I think I performed in the first 17, or so, and then occasionally after that. I stopped going and performing on a reguliar basis some years ago, after I also saw signs of the festival becomming way to big for it's britches. It used to be FUN for the performers. The festival went out of it's way to make it so with various performers perks: free parking, hospitality room, slumber room, instrument checking available, etc. Then, with success came the changes: the City of Seattle decided to try to make money off it by charging admission. We stopped that dead in it's tracks. I for one, wrote them a letter and said that if they charge, I'll send them a bill for all my past performances. My letter was one of the kinder ones they received from the many hundreds of performers that have performed, FOR FREE, over the years.

Having said all that, I will add that indeed, Don Firth and I, as well as many others, WILL be performing this festival on Monday, May 26th, at 1pm, in the "Olympic Room." The title of the concert is "Coffee House Reunion." We are going to be there because we all sang in the Seattle coffee houses from the late fifties into the early sixties ... and we are STILL ALIVE.

I will post the complete list of the concert performers a little later.

Again, I understand and hear your frustrations. For some years now, I've felt that the festival is a victum of it's own success! CHEERS, Bob(deckman)Nelson