Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..

Subject: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: GaryD
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 12:24 PM

I just got a brochure about an upcoming folk festival in Altimont New York from our friends at Folk Legacy... I'd give my eye teeth to attend (well maybe a molar, at least). Problem is I have a TBone taste, but a Hot Dog Wallet... I'm not prepared to pay huge hotel bills for a place to sleep when I just want to wallow in great music of all types, and wouldn't be there much anyway. Any of you who are around there.. Any suggestions or alternatives for us? Also..any information about the festival would be great... Depending on the information I get, we may either fly or drive from Central MN. Any help would be appreciated.. Thanks, Gary

Subject: RE: Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 12:33 PM

Well, there's on-site camping there.

Subject: RE: Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: Midchuck
Date: 21 Apr 00 - 12:44 PM

You want to camp on site, and you want to plan to jam a lot. So you have to drive, so you can transport instruments and camping gear, unless you own your own plane.

Their official website is here.

A website by a friend of ours with pictures from last year's festival is here.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: Charlie Baum
Date: 23 Apr 00 - 12:44 AM

Forget the hotel! Plan on camping on-site. The extra cost over a festival ticket is marginal. You'll need a tent to keep you dry (there WILL be a shower, or at least heavy morning dew, at sometime during the festival). There are bathrooms with flush plumbing available. If you've got an RV, you can even get electric and water hook-ups. What makes camping at this festival a little different than at some other festivals is that you can camp at the West end of the campground if you want a quiet space to fall asleep early at night, and it's quiet. Or you can set up at the Eastern end of the campground if you're going to jam all-night. So you can actually sleep in the campground, or have music surround your tent--it's your choice. No matter where you camp, you can jam all night in the Festival spaces outside the campground--the performance areas and other fairgrounds buildings are available.

You can pack your own food, or shop at one of the supermarkets on Route 20 between Albany and Guilderland just before you arrive, or buy your food on site. You will meet at least a couple of dozen Mudcatters, probably more. You will make music all night--the concerts begin on Friday Afternoon, and the official sing-arounds go until 2 a.m., though in practice, they go much later than that. If you've got the stamina, you can make music until dawn. For about $70/person for the all festival ticket, it's an entertainment bargain you can't pass up.

--Charlie Baum, who has been to every Old Songs festival since 1983, except the year his father died.

Subject: RE: Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: Marymac90
Date: 23 Apr 00 - 02:28 AM

If you absolutely HAVE to have a private bed and bath, there is a motel that's quite close to the site (at least driving), and though it's not elegant, nor part of any nationally advertised chain of clones, it's decent, but I'm sure it fills up for Old Songs way early. It's name is escaping me right now, but probably somebody will remember.

You'll have to figure the economy of it out for yourself, but if you fly, you'll have to rent a car, to get to the festival, and to the motel. You probably won't want to be bringing camping gear unless you're a VERY light-on-the-gear camper. You wouldn't bring folding chairs on a plane for instance, so you'd have to sit on the ground at the main stage, at least. Some workshop stages have benches or chairs available. If you drive, you will need a couple of days for travel in each direction, so maybe you'll miss 4 days of work instead of one.

The reason all these little details about camping without your own car come to my mind is because I am only a fairly recent car owner. I remember the year I took Greyhound to Schenectedy, and took a cab to Altamont. I can also remember hitch-hiking to festivals in my youth! I can't get along any more without my air mattress, folding chair, ice chest, etc.

It is a REALLY wonderful festival, and I plan to be there again, and I expect to enjoy it even more now that I know other mudcatters! Festivals are always more fun when you have a group to enjoy them with. See you there!

Mary McCaffrey

Subject: RE: Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: Jeri
Date: 23 Apr 00 - 09:26 AM

Re seating - festival rule: if someone sets up chairs and leaves them up, and they aren't sitting in them, you're allowed to use them. You just have to give them up when the people return. It took me a long time to learn that the people who spread out huge tarps at the front are not claiming all that ground. They have a place to sit, but any open space is fair game.

I've never stayed in a motel for the festival, so I can't help there. I usually don't go to bed until the sun starts coming up anyway. I went to a concert at the site once, and stayed in a very cheap, very run-down motel right on Rt 146, less than 5 miles from the site. I think it cost less than $40 a night. (Damned if I can remember the name. The place was reeeeallly run down, but the bed was comfortable and everything worked.) A note on the quiet vs jamming areas of the campground: the quiet area is only quiet until the kids start waking up at 6 or 7 in the morning. The area for jamming is usually quiet for a bit later.

Subject: RE: Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: GaryD
Date: 23 Apr 00 - 04:35 PM

Great!...I appreciate your fine info..I'm still interested in more, anecdotes, or whatever. What about renting camping gear or whatever over there...Dragging a lot of stuff thousands of miles isn't particularly appealing, but we've done it before.. Also, are there any hostels or private dwellings where a room or space rented?.. Or do you just feel the camping part of it would outweigh those alternatives?... By the way, you know you guys are getting me really cranked!..I hope we can do it.. thanks, Gary

Subject: RE: Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: Midchuck
Date: 23 Apr 00 - 06:33 PM

I'd really urge you to camp on site if you can possibly bring it off. You don't need to do much cooking if you don't want to, provided you bring a reasonable supply of cash - there's an ample variety of food vendors. You can have your choice of either food that's healthy for you, or food that tastes good. And there's even a beer truck, or has been in past years. If you play, or even just sing, the concerts are the least important part of the experience.

Just remember to bring an instrument that you don't care that much if you trip over a tent peg in the dark and fall on, while trying to walk and drink beer at the same time....

It's also a good idea to bring a good sharp jacknife in case there are too many enthusiastic drummers again this year.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 23 Apr 00 - 06:54 PM

The camping part is great! I don't know about renting, but I believe Bill Sables bought a pup tent at a Walmart last summer for $26 or so just to camp at Old Songs. There'll be a big contingent of Mudcatters there this summer- it's a wonderful festival and you probably would never leave the grounds anyway, so why waste money on a motel room?

Subject: RE: Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: GUEST,Barry Finn
Date: 24 Apr 00 - 12:21 PM

Took the whole family camping there a couple years ago, wouldn't consider it any other way. Barry

Subject: RE: Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: Hotspur
Date: 24 Apr 00 - 12:50 PM

It's not like you're going to spend any time in your sleeping quarters anyway, there's too much good stuff going on!

Subject: RE: Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: Sandy Paton
Date: 24 Apr 00 - 01:16 PM

Come to the Folk-Legacy booth (near the main stage). We'll be the unofficial Mudcatters rendezvous-point again this year. Last year it was a frequent singing circle of about a dozen of us. The late-night song-swaps in the Dutch Barn make a great place to gather, too, but only after everything except the late-night dancing has been concluded.

Sandy

Subject: RE: Help: Folk Festival Altimont NY..
From: Art Thieme
Date: 24 Apr 00 - 11:04 PM

I was there several years ago and it was a wonder of a fest. Andy and Bill Spence are fine folks. This makes me wish I was still on the road.

Art Thieme