CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: Fortunato
Date: 21 Mar 04 - 09:12 AM

Ray, et al. We won't be at Mt. Airy this year, we're playing at the Washington Folk Festival. Clifftop is looking iffy as well.

In the meantime, we may switch to Union Grove on May 28 - 30. Never been but should be fun.

Anyone else going besides Banjo Ray?

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: Fortunato
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 08:44 PM

Ray,
Yes, yes, I go back some 28 years with Lars et al. Even before I played old time guitar with Doc Scantlin and the Red Hot Peppers. Sorry you won't be at Clifftop this year, perhaps another time, eh?

If you come to Mt. Airy, please look for Susette and I, we'll be set up near Lars and Chris. It'll be a rare treat to be sure.

Russ,

Thanks for the info, I do love my showers and that's why we motel it at Mt. Airy, in part.

All the best. Chance

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 08:25 PM

Lots of good info. A couple of additions.

Showering has occasionally proven chancy in the past. The water supply is very finite. If the water starts to run low, they close the showers. Never been a problem with the indoor plumbing.

The wife and I used to prepare meals but have decided that we have better things to do with our time. Preparing hot food over a camp stove stopped being fun several years ago. These days we take only food items that require NO preparation other than pulling the top off a can. We supplement that with food from the vendors (varies from acceptable to very tasty) and the lodge dining room.

If you decide to camp in the stage field give up any idea of jamming DURING some of the contests. They really crank up the sound and they have VERY large speakers.

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: BanjoRay
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 07:53 PM

Chance - I stayed with Lars Hanlin, Debby McClatchy and the Roustabout Team at Camp America in 2002- a fine bunch, though Chris Romaine wasn't there. They usually camp near the toilet block down past the basketball court. If you see Lars or Jim Bollman tell them Ray (the British banjo guy) sends his regards. I won't get there this year, I'll be jamming at Sidmouth, Devon around that time, but I'm hoping to get to Union Grove and Mount Airy in early June.
Does anyone know what's a good early day to get to Union Grove for the start of the jamming and in time to get a decent tent space?
Cheers
Ray

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: Fortunato
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 07:47 PM

Pete,

1) (Lars H and the usual suspects) I might have known they'd be where you said the all night jams were. We've been setting up near these old friends at Mt. Airy but we don't stay up all night...

2)Oh, yeah, my oldest son (a neo-hippie)talks about those folks, I think.

Sincere thanks for your offer to camp near you and share your communal meals. I can't think when I've had a more welcoming offer.

We've had the 8 inches of snow and now comes the freezing rain. Susette and I had a pretty good session, we played 8 more miles to Louisville and Foggy Mountain Top and Little Annie and some more.

I'll see you at Mt. Airy (maybe I have and it didn't register), but what's NEFFA?

chance

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 05:25 PM

l) Camp America (Chris Romaine, Lars H, and others) are almost always down past the basketball court, on the loop road, on the left. When the road divides by custom everybody turns R. . . go about another 200 feet and look to your left.
2) Keep going on the ring road, as it turns around and starts leading back to the main area, just before you get to the bathrooms, there is Hobo Pie on the left. Hobo Pie is both a very good band AND a source of food-- the very wonderful people who make them put a bunch of fillings inbetween two slices of white bread and heat till gooey. It can be nourishing (better than any hamburger!) or sweet (ask the kids) . . . FREE because they can't charge (but have been known to accept donations under the table)and it's a labor of love. I'm avoiding mentioning names of the people involved deliberately.
The meals in the main lodge are edible; that's about the most that can be said for them, and served cafeteria style; price around $5 for a breakfast and maybe $8 for a dinner. It's a much better deal to get a cooler and ice and a camp stove and make your own. Better yet, camp near us and be part of our communal meals.
Gosh, this is wonderful to think about. . . it's 20 F out and tomorrow's forecast is for freezing rain gradually changing to snow, with 6-8 inches expected. But NEFFA and mt. Airy and Clifftop are coming!

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: Fortunato
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 04:43 PM

Thanks, Chip, yeah, Baxter is booked. I'll ask for you when we get there. Yeah, we'll just jump in, but it's a snowy/icy day in DC and I'm dreaming of warm weather-festival sessions. The gigs we're planning here in DC are fun, but old time jam sessions are like frog's hair and hen's teeth. I may just have to get out the jug and pull my banjo playing wife out of her work mode and pick a few tunes...

Hope to see you there and thanks again Chip.
regards Chance

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: GUEST,Chip Arnold
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 04:33 PM

Come prepared to camp and if you have a cooler and a campstove, so much the better. It would be much too hard to tear yourselves away to a motel even if there was one. There is Baxter State Park just up the road. Some folks stay there though I'll bet it's booked already.
We camp up near the water tower (see Pete's directions) and find it a more laid back area. Ask around for Tish and Chip and you'll find us. Down the hill to the right is pretty intense! "A great place to visit but I wouldn't want to live there."
Clifftop can't be described. Just come on and jump in!

Chip

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: Fortunato
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 03:45 PM

Pete, Thanks a bunch, we'l certainly look you up. Would happen to know where Roustabout/Camp America/Lars Hanslin and Chris Romaine usually camp?

Banjo Ray, Thank you. I know we'll enjoy it. What are the meals like? Price? What's a Hobopie?

Chance

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: GUEST,Pete Peterson
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 03:24 PM

Please come! and make yourself known to us. Ray has given you a pretty good description and I agree with everything he has said. The toilets around the site are Portapotties which are pumped out almost every day-- if you are up for a hike you can go visit the flush toilets, which are in the same place as the showers.

When you get in the gate and pay your $$, they will give you a map-- the road goes up to this big lodge (which is where the meals are) and forks.

If you go LEFT, you wind up near the water towers, which is relatively quiet compared to other areas.

If you turn RIGHT and RIGHT again at the next fork, that leads you down a hill, past the basketball court, onto a loop road. This IMHO is where the greatest concentration of all-night jams is, and where I often go wandering in search of a new jam. (There are also some flush toilets down there, too)

If you turn RIGHT and then bear LEFT you will pass our usual spot on the right (ask people for Pete Peterson or Randy Johnson) and tghen go Into the Woods, where there are again large numbers of late night musicians.

This sems so incomplete. . . but I count the days till the next Clifftop. (189, just a little more than half a year away)

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: BanjoRay
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 12:32 PM

The quitest bits of the campsite tend to be in the same field as the competition stage, because people who want to jam for the whole festival don't camp near the P.A. system. When the competitions/concerts end, peace descends on this part. The rest of the campsite is pretty much a sleep-free zone until a long way after midnight. I just loved lying in my tent listening to some great music drifting through the trees. Hotels are (a)miles away (b)mostly booked up. There are toilets around the site, and a shower block behind the main cabin - was a buck a throw in 2002. There's a washeteria under the cabin, round the back with a few machines/driers. Meals are served in the cabin during the official festival period, and snacks can be bought from various wagons. You can also buy instruments and recordings from some really good knowledgeable dealers.
It's a great week - enjoy it!
Ray

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: Fortunato
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 11:29 AM

Thanks, Amos.

Subject: RE: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: Amos
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 10:39 AM

SOme information here, if that helps.

A

Subject: CLIFFTOP '04 , INFORMATION PLEASE!
From: Fortunato
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 10:12 AM

Dear friends, Susette and I are making plans to go to Clifftop this year and I'd like to ask you folks to give put us in 'the know'since we haven't been before and we hear it's a BIG FESTIVAL.
We will get there around noon on Wednesday the 4th.

1) Where might it be good to pitch the pavillion in case we want to camp/sleep instead of just hang out?

2) If we want to catch a night in a hotel, what's close? Is it feasible to go out to eat and sleep or should one just resign oneself to camping?

3) What is the shower/toilet situation?

4) Last and most important, does anybody have a 'neighborhood' we would be welcome in? It's always nice to have company and someone you 'know'.

Thanks a heap, All information GREATLY APPRECIATED. Excessive detail encouraged!