Still feeling the shock and awe of the festival. If our leadership in Washington could formulate this kind of shock and awe then the world would be a much brighter place.

I mentioned the music. Every booth had music from their culture, usually playing on a small stereo, but occasionally with a live performer or group of performers. The Taiwan gooth had a drum band playing bamboo drums and others. The bamboo drums were tuned lengths of bamboo that carried the melody while the other drums carried on a complicated rhythm.

I saw the Samoans dancing and playing pan pipes. The smallest had a high pitch, like a piccolo and the largest must have sounded like a bass viol. I couldn't make out their sound with all the ambient noise. THe amazing thing was that the players were also dancing very energetically! They must have had enormous stamina. They were up there for a full half hour set and didn't stop playing or dancing for very long at all between numbers.

I saw the Polynesians swaying their very seductive style accompanied by guitar, drum, and uke. I saw other dancers re-enacting battles and love stories.

Everywhere you looked at the festival there were bright colors, on the people, in the booths, in the trees, everywhere. People gathered from different nations, chatting and comparing their work. They told jokes and laughed easily without animosity or anger. People helped each other with loads and with hanging banners. It was a very comfortable and happy environment.

Once I get a few moments I will provide more details of what we did. I took notes as I went.