Ron is right - it was great. Seven stages and a lovely crafts pavilion, thanks to Bill and Rita, who both organized the crafters and exhibited their own work. Over four hundred performers, all living in the Washington, DC area, sang, played, danced, taught dancing ( in the glorious Spanish Ballroom at Glen Echo,) told stories, and offered their craft goods for admiration and sale. Familiar faces like Judy Cook, Cathy Fink and Marcie Marxer, Jennifer Cutting and her group OCEAN, Reed Martin, Eleanor Ellis, and Bill Baker performed, along with folks making music and telling tales from all over the world.

I had great fun as the MC at the Chautauqua Stage, introducing Alan Jabbour, Linn Barnes and Allison Hampton, Carey Creed, Mary Gordon Hall, Lynn Hollyfield, , songs from the Republic of Georgia,( a capella with spine-chilling harmonies,) Paraguayan harp, Sikh, folk and classical music from India, a Brazilian singer and her group, Trio Sephardi (Tina Chancey, Howard Bass and Susan Gaeta,) the great Ladino singer Flory Jagoda, (a true national treasure,) a Tibetan one-man orchestra, playing Tibetan hammered dulcimer, lute, and long horn( think alp horn,) the Washington Toho Koto Society, workshops on maritime songs and ballads (thank you, Charlie Baum, both for putting that ballad workshop together and singing brilliantly,) a squeezebox session, and Bob Rychlik, who is single-handedly bringing the fujara to the world.( In case you didn't know, the fujara is a six-foot fipple flute from the Savakian mountains, with a lovely and haunting sound.) And that was just my stage!