Winfield 2007 WVA Festival (36th year)12-16 Sept.

Subject: RE: Winfield 2007 WVA Festival (36th year)
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 10:45 PM

John -
We've been on the phone with the relatives in Winfield and they say no big water problems with the county fair.

We haven't started packing yet, but Michelle's been making a list. I'm on the hook to cook for the Downtown Association again so we need to be there by Wednesday. I'm thinking we drive up on Saturday the 8th and just hang out until the festival starts.
- Phil
Winfield 2006

Subject: RE: Winfield 2007 WVA Festival (36th year)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 05 Aug 07 - 06:03 AM

Refresh

Subject: RE: Winfield 2007 WVA Festival (36th year)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 07:31 AM

Of perhaps special interest this year:

Because of flooding at the facility in early June, the fairground crew has requested that people avoid arriving before 23 August.

Don Shorock has posted some pictures from just before the river crested, for the curious. There's a link right at the top of the Pickers' Paradise page for the curious, or go direct to:
Rainy June Weather…

Click the 2007 link for this year, (be sure to scroll down to the pictures) or –

compare the 2005 flood when it was about the same (step through the 3 days of pictures).

Although Don "misdated" some of this year's pictures, making it a little ambiguous, my reading of the times given (corrected) versus the hydrological data from the National Weather Service indicates the water may have risen additionally as much as about 4 feet after the pictures were taken.

The county fair at the same fairgrounds should be starting about now. We drove through the pecan grove to take a look around last week, and although some of it is still a bit damp it should be in good enough shape by the time we all get there.

Brag about it here, if you can make it. Whine if you can't.

Let people know who to look for or make plans to meet.

Stop by if you get there. Ask anybody in the Pecan grove where "Thumper" is – we're pretty notorious.
(If I live through the hassle of getting everything loaded, and we actually get there.)

John

Subject: RE: Winfield 2007 WVA Festival (36th year)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 07:25 AM

For reference:

Winfield (35th Annual) 2006 WVA Festival (first 50 posts, of 75)
Winfield (WVA) 2005
Winfield (WVA) Festival 2004

The Official website: Walnut Valley Vestival 2004
The "unofficial" site where all the good stuff is: Don Shorock's Unofficial WVA – Pickers' Paradise
Far too many pictures from past years on Lin's site at http://waterhole.smugmug.com/. (Several other camps have websites – see the WVA and/or Pickers' Paradise for links.)
See Following
John

Subject: Winfield 2007 WVA Festival (36th year)
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 04 Aug 07 - 07:16 AM

Time is growing short, and I'm not packed yet.

In reverse order of happening - last first.

Official Festival Dates: September 12 – 16, 2007 (Wed thru Sun)
The official festival is when all the hired guns get there and put on their acts, and the hobby and craft people are set up to sell their stuff to pay the mortgages. A few music vendors bring their really high priced stuff – good place to look them over if you can look rich enough.

(Martin gets kinda testy if I try to touch anything, but the Ohme guys are all usually pretty much asleep. McSpadden is usually too crowded to get close to unless you flash a wad of money over the heads of the people in front of you – then they're pretty friendly about letting you do tryouts. Mel Bay usually has a large booth, sometimes with stuff that's not easily found elsewhere – including on their website.)

Landrush September 6, 2007 (approximately 07:00)
All campers must exit the campground and re-enter in lineup order as part of, or after, landrush to try to get their favored campsites and electrical and water hookups as needed. When you get to camp after landrush, you're "at the festival" even though it doesn't start for about a week.

Lineup 07:00 September 1, 2007
The WVA takes over the fairground and you're "allowed" to line up for the big Landrush. No permanent setup – it's just to get in line and wait, but the pickin' sort of gets started pretty regularly then.

Pre-Lineup: 07:00 am 23 August 2007
Unofficially, you can camp in the RV park for 14 consecutive days, if the grounds haven't been reserved by someone. At least one group that meets there has been "uncooperative in the extreme" and due to their likely presence, and the need to clean up flood effects, the fairground crew has very specifically requested NO EARLY ARRIVALS.

The county has stated, a little more specifically than in previous years, that no one who enters prior to 07:00 am, Thursday, 23 August 2007 will be "in line," but in a rare departure they have said (maybe inadvertently) that "order of entry after that time" will be tracked for purposes of the eventual lineup to get into the lineup to get in line.

See more to follow.

John