NEFFA 2005

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2005
From: Barbara Shaw
Date: 12 Apr 05 - 01:25 PM

We had a great time but got home exhausted Saturday night around 11:00. Should have brought the luggage cart to roll the bass along rather than lugging it along with guitar, banjo and 500lb gig bag crammed with stuff from one end of that huge school to the instrument check at the other end. Thanks to Jim Bean for helping on one of the trips. And Frank should have brought a backpack, because there was only so much junk we could jam into my purse. So now we know.

I really didn't care for the remote parking. After getting to the high school, we ended up driving several miles back toward where we came from to get to the lot. Then we waited in line with about 100 people at a forgotten bus stop. A driver finally showed up to get us about 1/2 hour later. At the end of the day, we had to take a bus to this remote lot, get our car, and then go back to the school to get all our instruments and stuff, and then retrace our ride to get back onto the highway. Round trip added over an hour to the day which was not fun.

I was told at the check-in table that they are looking for another venue, so that issue might get better.

Other than that, I was totally dazzled by the programs and talent and good food and vendors and friendly crowds. And what a crowd! I couldn't believe how many people, literally thousands! There was a steady agenda of workshops and dances, plus some of the greatest music you could ever hope to hear in every corner of the grounds.

It was nice to see some mudcatters (yes, MMario's mudcat t-shirt gave him away) and other folks I knew from the folk community around Connecticut. I was hoping that was Animaterra's Morris team I took photos of, thinking it sure looked like I remembered her looking when I met her at NOMAD last November! Should have also grabbed some photos of Dick & Susan & Sandy & Caroline. Karen K did a great program of gospel and ballads, and we were pleased to be part of it.

If we get to Old Songs, we for sure will camp. This day-tripping is too tiring and we end up missing some of the fun!

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2005
From: Janice in NJ
Date: 12 Apr 05 - 11:12 PM

I sometimes think there are two festivals at NEFFA, three if I count the dance events. But let me focus on the two musical festivals. One is the festival of the inner core, many of whom are Mudcatters, and the other is everyone else. It's impossible to characterize the inner core precisely, but I know them when I see them. They are the long time festival, club, and society regulars, almost all of whom perform the traditional English language music of the British Isles or North America. This group was out in force at the Sunday morning memorial to Tom Gibney.

The everyone else group includes most, if not all, of the foreign language performers, as well as many of the off beat performers, including people who do the stuff for children, who give the educational presentations, and who lead the jams.

I'm not saying this division is bad, I'm just saying it exists, and that I try to make a point out of sampling both festivals. Yes, I saw the Woodchucks, as I always do, but I passed up hearing Judy Cook's Songs of Eating so I could hear Heather Lev do a wonderful workshop on the life and music of Malvina Reynolds And yes, I heard the Animateera Women's Chorus lead Sing for Joy, but I also stuck around for Tom Neilson's Outlaws in History. I believe I was the only one who did so.

Has anyone else had this two festival experience at NEFFA? Or am I barking up the wrong tree?

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2005
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 05:45 AM

Janice, I feel there are probably three or four or more- there's the morris dancers' festival, the "meet old friends in the hallway and never get to a workshop" festival, and the cafeteria schmoozers festival in addition to the ones you mentioned!
Allison-who-wishes-she-had-met-you

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2005
From: GUEST,MMario
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 09:24 AM

at least three or four...but that's the beauty of it - there is something for everyone - including those (who like myself) want to sample this that or the other thing...or just park one's self in the corridor and enjoy the shifting sounds.

Subject: RE: NEFFA 2005
From: GUEST,David J.
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 01:05 PM

That there are 2, 3, or 4 separate festivals rolled into one is wonderful. The problem is that many festival goers don't allow themselves the opportunity to experience more than a single strand. A good case in point is the Japanese folk songs workshop I went to Saturday morning. It was a truly wonderful event that I was certain the dyed-in-the-wool traditional music crowd would appreciate. Here was a 20-something foreign graduate student singing the songs she learned at home from her parents and grandparents. In other words, she was a genuine "source singer," as the academics like to say. But where were they? No Sandy, no Caroline, no Joe, no Dick, no Judy, no Howard, etc. A lot of Asian faces, though.

Fantasy thought: The singer should have called her workshop "Folk Songs of the Outer Hebrides." She could have sang the exact same songs, claimed the language was an obscure dialect of Scots Gaelic, and said she was the daughter of a silkie. Everyone would have believed her!