What was your Favorite Folk Fest?

Subject: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Jayto
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 12:43 PM

What has been your favorite Folk Festival you have ever attended?

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: The Sandman
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 01:01 PM

whitby, 1976.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Midchuck
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 01:15 PM

Old Songs before they put in the camping restrictions and half ruined it.
About '99 thur '02 or so.

Peter.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: C. Ham
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 01:20 PM

All time = various Mariposas of the 1970s

Last decade = Champlain Valley 2000-2001

This year = Ottawa

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: john f weldon
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 01:29 PM

Newport 65 when Bob Dylan... ...ah you all know the story...
Why? Because the journey was an adventure, and when I tell some people about it they think it was the most important event of my life.

This soundless video of the trip comes from a super-8 camera.

newport journey 65

As to the best for musical reasons, that would be a tough choice. Maybe Champlain Valley 86, when I discovered that there were a lot more talented musicians around than I had suspected.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,Greycap
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 01:43 PM

Any 70s Cambridge at Cherry Hinton hall

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 02:23 PM

Newport '65 for me, too.

I've told this story here before, but I know you, Jayto, haven't seen it yet, and it bears repeating.

I was not yet quite 18 years old at the time, had just graduated from high school, and made the trip from New Jersey to Rhode Island with one of my buddies and a couple of his friends.

During the early stages of the Saturday night main-stage concert, I got on line at a beer booth, bought two cup (which was the per-customer limit), and immediately proceeded back to the end of the line to buy two more for the rest of my party, starting to drink from my own papercup, of course.

A couple of local police were observing, and while they had apparently conceded that it would be impossible to completely clamp down on underage drinking, they would keep a sharp eye out for repeat offenders lining up for repeat purchases without returning to their seats to enjoy the music. I fit the profile exactly, and was hauled off to the local jail for the night. No formal charges, no crimial record ~ the couple-dozen or so of us rounded up on Saturday evening were released around sunrise, early Sunday morning.

So, that's how and why I just missed the historic performance by Bob Dylan with Mike Bloomfield, Al Kooper, and the rhythm section of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. I'll never be able to give eyewitness testimony as to whether or not Pete Seeger really tried to cut the cable with an ax ~ I wasn't there, I was just a few miles away in a jail cell.

I had been in attendance at the Butterfield Band's afternoon "workshop" appearance, and observed Dylan and Kooper looking on from the side, looking very weird and out-of-place with their electricly frizzy hair, dark sunglasses, tight pants, highheeled boots and brightly colored shirts. (The rest of us, performers and fans alike, tended toward a much grungier and more casual style.)

I figured something had to be up. As you may or may not know, Dylan had already "gone electric" as a recording artist, even if he had not begun doing live shows with any kind of backing band ~ "Like A Rolling Stone" had already been recorded and released, and was a current radio hit at the time, blaring from car radios even in the festival parking area. People should not have been shocked and surprised by that "historic moment" later that evening, but apparently, many were. I'm sure that there were many folk-purist types who never deliberately listened to top-40 radio, but it would have been difficult NOT to at least overhear the ubiquitous airplay of Dylan's first great rock anthem during that summer of 1965.

That was my first experience of a jail cell, by the way, but not the last. In subsequent years, I would become more-or-less "radical" and would participate in various acts of civil disobedience. While my first arrest had absolutely no idealistic or polical motivation, it was, to an extent, "countercultural," and I suppose it served me as an introduction to some things that happended in later years.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Beer
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 02:33 PM

The 30th Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Festival which took place in 2006.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 02:44 PM

Miskin

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: john f weldon
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 02:47 PM

PoppaGator, that's a sad tale. We stayed out of the slammer, so i can report that tales of booing etc are grossly exaggerated.   From where I was sitting, the audience was enjoying both acoustic & electric sets.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 02:50 PM

Great Hudson River Revival - I believe it was 1978.   It was the first "big" festival that the Clearwater produced on the banks of the Hudson.   I remember meeting Steve Goodman and doing a quick interview. Arlo Guthrie was there and a surprise guest - Elizabeth Cotton. I think it was the first time I saw Pete Seeger.

A couple of years later, I will always remember the "final" performance from the original Weavers with special guests including Holly Near.   I also remember Emmy Lou Harris performed - and I can still fondly recall that she was wearing what had to be the tighest jeans I've ever seen. Ahh memories!!

The early Hudson River Revivals were amazing experiences for me. I remember seeing Martin, Bogan & Armstrong and being blown away! The early revivals seemed to carry on the spirit of Newport (the original) and mixed in quite a bit of traditional music from musicians who were practitioners and not entertainers. It really helped solidify my love affair with folk music.

Sadly, the time they are a changin and recent Revivals have not lived up to my expectations.   The festival has been replaced in my heart by Old Songs, which is beyond a shadow of a doubt my favorite festival.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Fidjit
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 03:00 PM

Cambridge 72. Steeleye at their best. Etc.

The last Miskin. Where I sang my voice away.

White Horse 2008.

Chas

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: cptsnapper
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 03:08 PM

Norwich in the 70s

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Jock O' Dreams
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 03:08 PM

Miskin, by a mile!

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: john f weldon
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 03:09 PM

I think this counts. In 1968, the American Government used the Expo 67 American Pavillion in Montreal as an all-summer long folk fest. Bill Munroe & company. Elizabeth Cotten. Roosevelt Sykes. ...and... ...a long, long list of great performers.

Does anyone else remember this, or was I hallucinating?

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: C. Ham
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 03:15 PM

John,

I do believe it was in 1971, not 1968. If I recall correctly, it was called the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Hawker
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 03:23 PM

Miskin

Bude this year.... but then I am biased.
Cheers Lucy

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,Guest: elmore
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 03:49 PM

Fox Hollow 1966. Changed my life.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: C. Ham
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 03:52 PM

I went to Fox Hollow a couple of times in the 1970s. What I remember most was that it rained constantly both times I was there.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: john f weldon
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 04:08 PM

C.Ham.. ..for those years, I'll trust your memory over my own. Still, I think there were events in several years, which I may be mixing together.
I also saw Pete Seeger and the Hudson Valley guys, and Joan Baez, and I'm pretty sure that was 68 or 69, but maybe at another location on the Expo site.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: C. Ham
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 04:11 PM

There may have been events in other years, but I distinctly remember attending often over the summer of '71.

I think I remember seeing Joan Baez at Expo '67.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 04:12 PM

Any Brandywine Mountain Convention when it didn't flood.

Ditto Morris Brothers Festivals.

All Clifftops.

Russ (Permanent GUEST)

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: muppitz
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 04:15 PM

Cleethorpes the year I went skinny dipping at 6am, 1997, nearly froze to death but it was lots of fun!
The rest of it was a complete blast as I recall, I think that years festival was the same one I saw Jez Lowe for the first time too, all in all a good time!

muppitz
x

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Steve Gardham
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 04:21 PM

Whitby in the days of the fringe events run by Roy Acko and the Taffy Thomas spectaculars.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 06:06 PM

Nearly ALL of them over the last forty years !

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 06:21 PM

Cambridge '75 for me. Or was it '76 ?

Anyway, the mighty David Bromberg made it his own as I remember, both on the main stage with his band, and also in the guitar workshop along with Dick Fegy. In that same workshop I also recall Isaac Guillory (first time I had seen him but I know he was an old hand at Cambridge), Paul Geremiah, Stefan grossman and Ton Van Bergeyk (sp ?)

There were some English performers as well, I believe ...

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 06:31 PM

Hands down, the Eisteddfod in Massachusetts in the many years it was run by my friend Howard Glasser. Howard's warmth, generosity and modest set the tone for the festival, year after year. I think I performed there in six different years. Not only was the music wonderful, but ballads and song were unusually respected there. Not that there weren't instrumentalists, too, but Howard was more of a song man, and the line-up of performers reflected that. The performers mostly did music from the British Isles. I was one the token Americans...

Second place would go to the North Country Folk Festival in Ironwood, Michigan. It was a folk festival with authentic folks. Ironwood is on the upper penninsula of Michigan and there are many different European ethnic groups that settled there. The Firday night dance featured traditional music and dance from seven or eight different countries, with the dancers and musicians in traditional costumes. In the whole weekend that I was there, I not only didn't recognize what I was eating, but I couldn't even pronounce it. It was all traditional food cooked my local residents. They had someone making a canoe, and a group of lumberjacks built a log cabin from the groun up, in three days. Talk about traditions!

Jerry

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Mark Ross
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 06:33 PM

Philadelphia '76, where I got to play with Merle Travis(a just-the-2- of-us session backstage as well as a workshop)Steve Goodman, Jethro Burns, Steve Goodman, a late night blues jam with Gatemouth Brown and Carl Martin, Winnie Winston, Pat Chamberlain, Saul Broudy, and somewhere in there Brownie McGhee showing me progressions in his room at 2AM, with a bottle of Dewars on hand for lubricating the strings and the mouth.

Mark Ross

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Bill D
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 06:36 PM

The first year at Winfield, when Doc Watson played with Norman Blake & Dan Crary...well, the 2nd year, also, when Doc met Merle Travis, and played with Norman Blake, Dan Crary & Tony Rice.......and a little kid named Jimmy Gyles won the flat pick contest BOTH years.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 07:02 PM

Over the years I've had four favourites. Maldon (NW of Melbourne) and Numeralla (S of Canberra) were excellent weekend festivals in the years I was able to go to them (I was there at the beginning of both but now live too far away); they both encouraged a lack of separation between performers and audiences but each had its own character.

Nariel (at Nariel Creek, in Victoria and near the upper Murray) has always been a favourite; the locals have maintained good relationships between their traditions and those of the visitors. A great, but low-key, event.

The National (peripatetic around major cities in Oz until 1992, when it became sedentary in Canberra) still engages actively participatory relationships between audiences and performers and has the full range from the super stars to the eight-year-old buskers.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,Jim
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 07:35 PM

My first Folk Festival, the 1961 Mariposa F.F. held in Orillia, Ont. was great. The first time I got to meet a bunch of fellow folkies.

The 1965 Mariposa Festival in Maple Leaf Stadium in Toronto was probably my favourite. I got to meet John Hurt before I even knew who he was. After talking to him for a few minutes amnd discovering that he knew Rev. Davis personally, I ran to my brother and our buddy and told them that I'd met a personal friend of Gary Davis. Imagine my surprise when I saw him perform later that day.

My current favourite is the Shelter Valley Folk Festival near Grafton, Ontario. Well run and always a good time.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Rabbi-Sol
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 07:36 PM

For me it will always be the Sea Music Festival at Mystic, Connectict. Every year it seems to get better and better. Although it is a low budget affair no other festival can match the comradarie and close knit relationships that have developed there over the past 30 plus years.

                                                    SOL

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: john f weldon
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 08:11 PM

It's not the particular festival, or the headliners. It's the odd moments.

Watching a Texas fiddler teach tunes to a Massachusetts banjo-player, and then start to jam like old friends.

Or the old-time session that started under a tree and became a long-lasting old-timey=mass-choir of fiddles & banjoes that kept on going for hours...

Or those groups that form for a year, or a few months, and create a unique sound; but they won't last long, or even make a CD, but... ..if you were there... ...give you a thrilling experience that not everyone can share...

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 08:27 PM

My first MUSIC (not folk) festival & the most memorable was Woodstock. 6 of us late teens & early 20 somethings went.

I don't remember the years but the last 3 of the late 60's Newport festivals (anyone remember the yr of the last of those?)

I with Jerry on the Eisteddfod's at South Eastern Mass Un. For me during the mid 70's to sometime in the 80's. That's were I had my 1st heavy doses of non American trad folk music, what a long lasting love affair.

I'm also with you Sol, Mystic is my yearly favorite. I've been going since, I think the start & missed only a few.

Barry

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 08:32 PM

"My first MUSIC (not folk) festival & the most memorable was Woodstock. "

I thought you looked familiar!

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 08:57 PM

Hey, I was at Woodstock, too...

Jerry

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: C. Ham
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 09:00 PM

I saw the movie.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: topical tom
Date: 25 Aug 08 - 11:47 PM

I have been to many but for sheer talent I would choose Newport Folk Festival 1984.True, the performers were almost solely American.The line-up included Arlo Guthrie, Tom Paxton,Taj Mahal,Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Mimi Farina, Doc and Merle Watson,and Bela Fleck and the Newgrass Revival.
For venue, I would say Champlain Valley, though Newport harbour with all it's boats was hard to beat.For a smaller festival,Apple Hollow in Franklin, Quebec certainly,in my opinion,deserves honourable mention.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 01:31 AM

Oh ya, I think it was the last Fox Hollow, I was on my way home. I sailed from Hawaii to San Deigo, hitch-hiked up to Vancover, lost my heart for a 2nd time & bought a car in Seattle & drove straight to Fox Hollow, stayed up singing till the sun rose with my friend Mark. Must've been around 1980. When I finally got home I had a dime in my pocket.

Barry

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,woodsie
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 03:51 AM

Without a doubt KNOCKHOLT in kent every June and September - pur magic with an intimate crowd of nutters!

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,Marymac90
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 09:12 AM

Fox Hollow 75 to 77--intimate and magical!

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: open mike
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 09:59 AM

WAS? why past tense?
i am about to attend for the 30th time (or so)
www.strawberrymusic.com festival..
happens twice each year
near yoseimite nat'l park in the high sierra.
Laurel
i camp at dung beetle camp

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 11:12 AM

Now that Miskin is no mre, Knockers is my fave too but it is really more of a folk ale than a folk fest...

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: john f weldon
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 11:34 AM

TTom - well Apple Hollow is the friendliest & folksiest. It just needs to grow a wee bit. Which, one imagines, it will!

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 01:13 PM

"Here!" "Yo!"

Count me in as one more Woodstock attendee.

I was there for just about 24 hours, sunrise Saturday through sunrise Sunday.

I had not planned to attend; I was living at my parents' house in New Jersey after failing to graduate from college (as expected) in June '69, working 40 hours Mon-Fri at a factory job and saving up to return to school for one lousy three-credit course.

The newspapers, of course, were full of stories about the massive crowds, the NY Throughway being closed, etc. Shortly after getting home from work Friday evening, I got a phone call from a friend who was living with his folks, in circumstances not unlike my own, out on Long Island ~ "Wanna go to Woodstock?"

My initial reaction, of course, was "No way." How could we expect to get within miles of the place?

He explained that an old friend of his knew the back roads of the Catskills like a native, having summered there with his family all his life, and had volunteered to navigate if given a ride. This guy lived on Staten Island.

Some of you may know your Metropolitan New York geography, but I'm sure that many others do not. Suffice it to say that it took quite a while, on a Friday evening, for my buddy to leave suburban Long Island in his vintage 1947 Pontiac sedan, drive the Belt Parkway around Queens and Brooklyn to the Verrazano Bridge, find his friend's home somewhere on Staten Island, continue west across the Ooterbridge Crossing into central New Jersey, and finally pull into our driveway in Plainfield around midnight.

We took the Parkway only about as far as the NJ-NY state line and then moved over to two-lane back roads. It was dark, I had no idea where we were and how quickly we were making progress, and I eventually fell asleep in that old Pontiac's big comfy back seat. I awoke as we were pulling up to park at the side of a road, just as the sun was coming up.

"This is about as close as we're gonna get," said our guide (a fellow I had never met before, would never see again, and whose name I can't remember). We got out to walk and, in no more than 15 minutes, we came to the top of a hill and could see the stage down at the bottom. Yes!

Woodstock was, of course, famously wet and muddy, but the day we were there was the driest. The effects of the previous days of heavy rain were evident, of course; the footing was slippery and in places the mud was pretty deep. It started to rain ~ just a bit ~ about the time the music was supposed to start, which delayed things for a while.

If I remember correctly (lol), the music finally got underway sometime during the afternoon. I'm just about positive that Canned Heat was the first act to appear after the rain had pretty-much stopped, but the skies were still pretty gloomy. Santana was playing when the sun finally broke through. One act followed another for the rest of the afternoon and evening, all the way through until sunrise Sunday.

Bands I know we witnessed after dark included, in no particular order, the Who, Sly & Family Stone, CSN&Y ("we've never played in public before"), Jefferson Airplane, and last but not least, closing the proceedings as the sun was coming up with his famous rendition of the National Anthem, Jimi Hendrix.

When the music stopped that early Sunday morning (with an announcement that there'd be a long break before starting the "next day's" schedule), we stood up, walked to the car, and returned to our respective homes. We followed (I assume) the same back-road route that got us there, and didn't encounter any traffic, roadblocks, or hindrances of any kind. All three of us were up and at 'em
and at our respective jobs that Monday morning.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Tim Leaning
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 01:41 PM

Staithes last three years.
But then not been to Saddleworth,cambridge,whitby,Scarbro et al .....
Maybe when we retire?

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Cats
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 01:57 PM

Woodstock... I was in the wrong country and got thrown out of the cinema for being too young to see it. Did you all realise that you are x rated?

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 03:15 PM

During my 24 hours at Woodstock ~ early in the day, before the music began ~ I was skinnydipping in a waterfall when a bunch of Japanese-looking fellows with film cameras and microphones showed up and persisted in shooting for several minutes.

Perhaps I'm part of some nudie film somewhere, but if so, I never saw or heard about it. I know for a fact that no footage including me is in the Woodstock movie.

Well, I suppose it's the world's loss. I was not nearly so flabby then as I am now, and probably looked reasonably human even without clothes on.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: growler
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 03:45 PM

I ,sadly, don't get time to go to many,but Rochester Sweeps is always enjoyable

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Mrs Scarecrow
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 03:51 PM

Miskin

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Beer
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 04:51 PM

2000,2001 and 2003 at the Montreal Celtic Festival I got to see and speak to many great entertainers. Here are some of the performers that appeared although there were man, many more.

Danu, Shooglenifty, Ashely MacIssac
Barra MacNeils, Laura Risk, Richard Wood
Jerry Holland, Anita Best, Pamela Morgan
Trio Marchand, Orealis, Tuna
Solas, Mary Jane Lamont, J.P. Cormier
The Innis Sisters, David MacIsaac
Sharon Shannon, Brendan Nolan,Bealach
La Boutine Sourante, Tejedor, Ishbel MacAskill and Tony McManus.
To bad it came to and end.

Thanks Tom and John for mentioning Apple Hollow. Although I consider the first year very successful we have a long way to go before I would consider us established as a festival.
Beer (adrien)

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: The Barden of England
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 04:54 PM

SIDMOUTH!!!

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: mike gouthro
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 07:56 PM

Great thread.

To: John F Weldon

Thanks for the video clip you posted at the beginning of this thread. It answered a question I've had when seeing your name here at Mudcat. Namely - are you related to Peter Weldon? Seeing a young Anna McGarrigle in your Newport clip confirms that there is a family connection.

I'm guessing Peter may be your older brother. I was involved in running the Montreal Folk Workshop at Moose Hall on Park Avenue in the mid/late sixties. Our club was a regular venue for the Mountain City Four, Jack Nissenson and Chaim Tannenbaum. I count Peter's unique voice and powerful guitar playing as an early inspiration for me along with artists like Dave Van Ronk.

We're you ever part of the entourage when the Mountain City Four appeared at the Folk Workshop? Their first Workshop performance was in January 1966.

Mike

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: john f weldon
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 08:10 PM

Mike -
Close, but no cigar. I'm Peter's cousin, not brother. His brother is Chris, whom you may have met. Clever to have spotted young Anna. The others are Dane Lanken, Anna's husband & father to Sylvan and Lily. The fourth is Bruce Mackay, who also had a singer-songwriter career in the sixties. We travelled on two Lambrettas, and slept in fields.

Moose Hall sure brings back memories... ...Jean Carignan, the MTC4 (which grew to maybe 8-10 members). I still have a tape (now digitized, of course) of a wild MTC4 concert which included Ron Doleman on the clarinet & Kate doing her Ma Rainey impersonation.

I have never performed in public. Oh well, once... ...but I was dressed as a giant rabbit.

cheers
JFW

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: john f weldon
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 08:13 PM

...I must add that thursday is Peter Weldon's 70th birthday, but, being a grouch, he refuses to have it recognized in any way...

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: C. Ham
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 08:30 PM

The Montreal Folk Workshop at Moose Hall was a little before my time, but i remember going when it was at the William Tell on Stanley and at the Moghul (sp?) Lounge on Mackay near Dorchester.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: mike gouthro
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 09:57 PM

Apologies for diverting from the folk festival topic.

John

Thanks for the feedback. I recognize Dane now that you mentioned him. The curly hair is unmistakable. I remember Bruce Mackay as a major name on the folk scene but I can't recall him performing at the Workshop. Cafe Andre comes to mind as one of his venues. In 1968 Chaim did a fantastic version of Bruce's Geneva Brown. I have a number of tapes of MC4 visits to the Workshop including the one you mentioned but I haven't moved them to digital yet.

C Ham

The Workshop certainly moved around after losing the Moose Hall location. It was briefly in Cafe Andre. It was also in a 2nd floor legion hall on the south side of Dorchester near Mountain I think. I wasn't in Montreal when the Workshop was in the William Tell. I believe its last days were in another 2nd floor legion hall above the Novo Rex tavern - but I may be confusing this with the Mogul Lounge you mentioned. My direct involvement with the Workshop was from early 66 to the fall of 68.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: CupOfTea
Date: 26 Aug 08 - 11:22 PM

I'm already packing for my yearly trek to my favorite - The Fox Valley Folk Festial in Geneva Illinois, on an island in the middle of the Fox River. This will be my 23rd year there - would have been the 24th consecutive year if the fest hadn't been flooded out under three feet of water last year.

My first time there, a fresh NIU grad student, I volunteered to help, having been an active volunteer at home. I joke that my Master's degree ought to have been in textiles AND folk music, because I learned so much, was introduced to the music of so many wonderful people and started precious friendships on that island. I've got vivid memories of Art Thieme swapping tall tales and odd instruments with Dan Kedding... getting to know Lou & Peter Berryman & beading back stage with Louie...Watching the Cooper & Nelson lineup change from trio to duo to trio and so on, get better each year...how wonderful it was to hear Peter Bellamy, and how very sad it was that to get his back catalog from him, he was selling duped tapes he made himself... John Robets and Tony Barrand...an English Music Hall workshop with Heather Woods, John Roberts & David Jones that had Claudia Schmidt in tears of laughter, and inspired to write poetry from that experience... dozens of jam sesions... after festival song sessions... Families and bikers, dog walkers and the casual path hiker finding folk music for perhaps the first time...

Ok, those are MY precious memories - but you must picture a truly lovely site, the penultimate summer weekend of Labor Day, a hefty line up of Chicago-area locals who are heavy hitters musically, midwestern folk stars, and international names now and then, great food, great facilities, beautifully managed, well organized volunteers. As a small festival, I think it would be hard to beat. Fox Valley Home page

I do love Old Songs, and severly miss not being able to go most of the last decade, but Fox Valley and it's densely packed small size has my heart, always.

Joanne in Cleveland

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Dave Sutherland
Date: 27 Aug 08 - 03:03 AM

Murray it was 1975 - my one and only Cambridge. As I remember Nic Jones and Tony Rose were exceptionally good, 5 Hand Reel did their rapidly growing reputation no harm at all and it was Vin Garbutt's first appearance!

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Alio
Date: 27 Aug 08 - 04:51 AM

Many favourites - and for different reasons e.g. line up, the singing, people I've met etc..

But think my favourite has to be the Orkney Folk Festival - just amazing. Brilliant atmosphere. Breathtaking scenery. Talented people.

And Fylde of course - my favourite regular North West one - I modelled Saddleworth on it.

Ali

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,Winnie the pooh
Date: 27 Aug 08 - 11:09 AM

My best festival was Sidmouth until 1995 then it was MISKIN WHICH WAS A ONE OFF FESTIVAL THAT mac and I started in the early 1990's,then Miskin Man RUN IT FROM 1996.


Scooby

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,aeola
Date: 27 Aug 08 - 03:19 PM

I find it hard to pick one as they all have something special, I agree with Ali,but as a relative newcomer to folk I would have to say the first of the ill-fated Coombe Abbey fests when I had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Tom Paxton.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Fran
Date: 27 Aug 08 - 03:42 PM

Bridgnorth 2005

Even with a broken arm, 2005 was the worst year of my life so far but that stood out as a ray of light and things got better from then onwards, I cried a lot though, I remember starting in the middle of Harvey Andrews song The Centurion and not being able to stop. The people next to me thought I was nuts!

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,Joe G
Date: 27 Aug 08 - 05:29 PM

I'll never forget 5 Hand Reel in Dunelm House at Durham in the late 70's - my first fest where I managed to eat my paper plate as part of my breakfast, slept in a cotton tent with no ground sheet which was ripped to shreds when a dog tripped over a guy rope, and performed an impromptu dance with Hart & Hounds Morris Team on the campsite at about 2am!

Other great memories:

The Malt Room at Kendal - never seen so much sweat run down a wall!
Rene Kelani at Musicport
John Tams & Barry Coope at Shrewsbury
Remy Ongala at Morecame railway station (Womad)
Tickled Pink at Towersey

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Sam Hudson
Date: 27 Aug 08 - 05:32 PM

Since the question was in the past tense, I'm going to say 'Cleethorpes'. A sad loss - for us, always the first of the year and very often the best of it, too.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 27 Aug 08 - 05:36 PM

Fox Hollow and Mariposa in the seventies. Clearwater for the 90's .

Roanoke Fiddler's Club (not a festival, but a montly meeting of exceptionally inspired yet modest and welcoming performers) for this century.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: danensis
Date: 28 Aug 08 - 04:17 PM

Another vote for Bridgnorth - especially the church ladies with their tea and chatter.

John

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Dave Earl
Date: 28 Aug 08 - 04:31 PM

MISKIN

For the best atmosphere anywhere

Dave

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,old git
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 06:50 AM

As a performer..Orkney 2005 and the sadly shortlived Portpatrick maritime festival and the equally shortlived Plymouth Maritime festival. As for the rest Cleethorpes ,Whitby,the old style Beverley,Hull Sea Fever,Lancaster,Saddleworth and any fest that has good singarounds

geoff t

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: PoppaGator
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 03:35 PM

Back in 1973, I attended the Arkansas Folk Festival and enjoyed the wonderful experience of sitting in, on washtub bass, with a group fronted by Jimmie Driftwood.

It was raining cats and dogs, and the regular schedule of events had been cancelled; everyone in attendance (there weren't many of us) moved from the courthouse square into the courthouse itself and gathered in a single courtroom. The area in front of the judge's bench was designated as an impromptu "stage," and festival elder statesman Jimmie D began to sing and play, backed by about a half-dozen local musicians.

Most of the players were quite excellent, but the resident tub-thumper was an exception. I was sitting on the floor, up front, and apparantly my body-English efforts to express an adequate bass-line caught the bandleader's attention, because he invited me up to take over the bass ("Can you play that thing? Think you can do better?") I did think so, and I did play for the rest of the afternoon, even taking a few solos with Mr. Driftwood's encouragement.

I've told this story here at Mudcat before, and someone later posted a message saying yes, he knew exactly who I was talking about and indeed the guy was a terrible gutbucket player.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Folkiedave
Date: 29 Aug 08 - 03:46 PM

You went skinny dipping in Cleethorpes? It's always been a five mile walk whenI wanted to do that!!

The Carol Festival held biennially at Grenoside is very dear to my heart - also the first Cleethorpes and Whitby Festivals. Bradfield Traditional Music Festival. Bromyard 2008 I hope.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Gurney
Date: 30 Aug 08 - 03:39 AM

Bromyard in the early 70s. I recommended it to one(now a)Catter and he hasn't had a proper job since.

Proper job as in "Do you do this for a living, or do you have a proper job?"

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Sandy Mc Lean
Date: 30 Aug 08 - 08:51 AM

I live in a very musical part of the globe and my favourites are all close at hand:
(1) Celtic Colours    Cape Breton Island
    http://www.celtic-colours.com/
(2) Stanfest          Canso, Nova Scotia
   http://www.stanfest.com/splash.asp
(3) Hank snow Festival Bridgewater, Nova Scotia
   http://www.novanewsnow.com/article-241608-Hank-Snow-Tribute-a-huge-success.html

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: r.padgett
Date: 30 Aug 08 - 05:11 PM

Cleethorpes was amazing on the Pier and in the pubs in the 70s

Fureys throwing beer at one another at Cleethorpes in the railway station bar

Mike Harding/Benny Graham/June Tabor/Clive Wolfe/John Kirkpatrick/Robin Garside & Paul Gough/Barbara Dixon/ Derek and Dorothy Elliot/John Conolly and Steve Heap and Pearce Butler running singarounds (you betcha!!)/Watersons/Jim Eldon/Jock Manuel and John Conolly's mum Vi was a star and nearly forget Dave Burland/Nick Jones/ Tony Rose

some fond memories

Ray

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,old git
Date: 31 Aug 08 - 03:41 AM

and of course when we moved to The Winter Gardens ,Ray, there were the great Booker and Padgett singarounds in the Gardens Bar

fond memories indeed

geoff

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: JP2
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 02:53 AM

Absolutely ANY of the late 60s/early 70s Festivals like Keele,Whitby,Heart of England,Bromyard,Loughborough(when it was held at the Edward Herbert building on the University Campus), but then,we'd got our own teeth,own hair,no encumberances,marital or otherwise,the world was our lobster and a Minivan to sleep was a bit of a luxury.
Forty years later I think Bromyard is still my favourite,I love the town,although it is a bit quieter on the Friday and Saturday nights now we don't get the itinerant hop pickers.
Good lineup again this year,just hope the weather holds.

JP2.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,rob the roadie
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 05:45 AM

Middlewich Folk and Boat has to be up there with the best of them as the Chester Festival both "local" as I could drive to them and go home for a sleep . Lots of free friendly events at both and a good range of guests without huge prices.

Must also mention the Songwriter Festival at the Taybank in Dunkeld which is on Saturday Sept 6th.

12 hours of FREE live music . Over 20 acts perform throughout the day.
Cant be bad.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 09:35 AM

Was it the first Cleethorpes Festival that Michael Cooney was at?

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,bigJ
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 10:08 AM

I've just come across a two-page duplicated programme for the Cleethorpes Folk Festival. The cost of a 3-day ticket was thirty shillings (£1.50). On Saturday the 23rd of May there was a 'Musician's Session' with Robin and Barry Dransfield; a Festival Barn Dance with Ken Clark, The Yetties and Folkweave; a concert in the Pier Pavilion Hall with The High Level Ranters; Ray and Archie Fisher, The Broadside, Monkseaton Morris and Frank Roddy.
The trouble is - it's not dated.
Anyone care to guess when it might have been - pre-decimalisation, obviously.

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,Golightly
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 11:42 AM

Cleethorpes 1970?

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Lowden Jameswright
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 02:20 PM

Whitby - every year

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: the button
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 03:51 PM

First Beverley, which was also my first festival. I was (*calculates on fingers*) 13 years old. Went this year too, after a long gap. Must say, I miss the Picture Playhouse & the Memorial Hall as venues (played in the MH as part of a "scratch" ceilidh band at a later festival).

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: growler
Date: 01 Sep 08 - 04:31 PM

What abouy Rochester sweeps UK

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,Mad Jock
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 06:17 AM

THE NEXT ONE!

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Cats
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 06:21 AM

Bridgenorth and Miskin

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: Leadfingers
Date: 02 Sep 08 - 06:36 AM

Been thinking about the dozens of festivals I have attended over the years , and have a shrt list of ones that stood out ! Stanford In The Vale has to be in the list , especially the year I was with Pigfoot and my old mate skipy had to let me in with out taking any money off me ! I managed ALL the Bracknell Festivals until they changed it to the Mixed format , and I have been part of the Sidmouth fringe for FAR too long now !
And Towersey - I was there the year they announced they had bought the field , and then the year they raised enough to build the Rugby Club House .

Subject: RE: What was your Favorite Folk Fest?
From: GUEST,Mad Jock
Date: 15 Sep 08 - 03:52 PM

Dougie MacLean's Amber Festival at Pitlochry in October.