Summerfolk in Owen Sound, Ontario in 1999. Over-crowded camping with round-the-clock racket and no hot water, Edmund's blessed Coleman stove ... and wonderful music.

Unfortunately, that festival was on the brink of outgrowing its venue; within a couple of years its main-stage area was so overcrowded that I could not stand it. I would have been willing to put up with the daily "land rush" for seating and the horrid camping if the programmers had not turned away from traditional repertoire in favour of singer-songwriters whom we found much less likely to be worth the discomfort of the camping and the cramping.

It helped that, just when we realized we didn't like Summerfolk any more, we discovered the more sympatico Celtic Roots Festival down the road in Goderich.