It was a great festival, best yet. I know alot of work went into this behind the scenes. Tom, Linn, Barbara (many hats, I think she does a bit of everything)) & Brue + the many others on the commitee, the many voluteers, the local supporters & sponsers, all who make this a FREE festivals & not to skip on the many performers who pretty much donate their skills, talent & time. This was truely a festival of camaraderie with audience & performer where one pretty much blended with the other, very much for the most part a participatory finishing off with an open air shanty blastwith every one shoulder to shoulder. It was great to ( and says so muchabout the festival itself) to have some great singers from afar. From England Hilary Ward who was just a peach & a very lovely singer with a great delivery fror onot only moving the songs but for very moving songs & then a wonderful hidden gem in Andy Kenna from the old school in Liverpool & one of the few whose's left who can deliver that unique style of singing. Then there's Rika & Jon from Vancover, BC, salwarts of the Northwest for their scholarship, research, collections & by all means their ufatiguing ability to roust the house to their feet.
As far as having fun the rain did nothing to damper the festival, it was a great time at least for the 3 of us (Finn & Haddie) just not long enough. It was spread out in a great way, intown but not so far apart that one who can't travel by feet alone, like myself had difficulty. Some of the venues held in pubs where the rowdy singing level was great for roof raising, as with 3 Sheets to the Wind had going on & where it wasn't just the festivals goers joining in but those at the bar drinking & those at tables eating also joining in (where it's sometimes a comptition to sing over the din of the regular patrons), to the quite venues where you could hear a pin drop if it weren't for the singers themselves. Then with the shanty sessions, the Friday unofficial opening of the festival was crowed but unbeatable, very much a joining in of festival goes & performers a great way to start off the blending atmosphere of mixing everyone together so that all would be shoulder to shoulder ear to mouth with each other, it's a shame that the Saturfay shanty sing was so crowded & understaffed that I saw a few singers not even bother to try & fight their way to a unavailabe fool spot & turn out the door & find another place to dine. A stwo singers were walking out my wife & singing partner & his wife turned to join them & leave me & Ken to wait for drinks & no food but I have to sya side from that the singing was penomenal. Maybe next year the committee will consider a larger venuse more accomadating with more than 1 umhappy
wait staff to attend to the hungry, thirsty crowd & paying crowd(sorry, my one & only staunch complaint, this was not a mistake it also happened last year). The last minute rain dodge bring the open air Market Sq venue indoor to the Ri Ra was a brilliant move, thanks to who ever managed that. We performed at the Ri Ra & the crowd in my opinion was better than it would've been had it been outside , even in good weather. It was a sit or stand as you please, drinks & food were available, the sound as far I i was concerned both as a performer & a listener was pretty good (far better that it would'vve been out side) it was still very much opened & available to passers-bye & hopefully it generated an unexpected cash flow for the venue (who was pleasantly staffed to handle the crowd), enough that they'd be happy to become a participating festival venue next year, maybe even a thought that they'd be a nice Saturday shanty venue.
Anyway, there you go Charlie. One more thing one of the best singing treats of the weekend was at Dave's party, festival geor Tim Radford (of England but as of lately from Woods Hole, Cape Cod) singing a Wassail song, it has to be one of the best, no the best, singing of a Wassail song that I have ever heard, in my entire life (& he was one of the singers that left the Press Room Saturday to get a bite
to eat elsewhere). Great to have seen & heard you sing again Tim, nice seeing you at the festival. So it was truely a wonderful abit small not so local festival festival that is slowly growing yr by yr. ino what will someday become a template for others.

A suggestion to the commitee, I know of a good number of out-of-towners (including my one of my singing partners) that stayed at various hotels, motels rooming houses. Maybe looking at one place that would discount & be opened to becoming a venue for additional festival bookings could be researched, it might also be an alt to housing some performers in the future.

Barry