National Folk Fest

This year was the third and final NFF held here in Richmond. We do plan to continue the Folk Fest event here next year (the point of NFF is to build awareness & to train cities on how to hold their own celebration in the years that follow)... but I fear that it will fizzle out like many things seem to do in this city. I don't mean to be a nay-sayer... I just enjoy this event so much, I fear it will end or will not be as big & as successful as this year's. (We DID break the attendence record with over 175,000 attendees thus taking over the title from Bangor, ME... this is fantastic news so hopefully I am just being a pessimistic worry-wort).
I volunteered in 2005 (I helped assist vans driving through people traffic). After the one day of fun and two days of attendence that year, I went on to volunteer for two days in 2006 (I served beer at night and sold CDs the following day). This year, I couldn't volunteer since I had Evie to watch over, but we had a great time without being involved.

The event is huge filling both Brown's Isle and part of the "mainland". Six stages with hourly revolving acts keep people constantly migrating from one show to the next while buying food, hand-crafts and CDs. And when you find a place to rest, we just sit and listen (or dance). The weather was great, the people are all friendly (the audience is a wide range of cultures and ages) and the music is inspirational. Best of all? Its all FREE.

Honestly, I love this event and I am sad to see that it is already over.
Evie hung in like a baby trooper. We went on Saturday with Eric, Kelly and Lisa for roughly 3 hours. Yes, she fussed and I had to hold her most of the time (trying to get her to nap and then take a bottle) but hell, she is only 3 months old. I was still delighted with how well she did (even if it meant I couldn't fully enjoy the shows like last year).

We went back for more on Sunday after Rob returned from a comic convention. Sunday was a bit rougher since we were all tired from the weekend's events but at least we tried. We stayed for about 1 1/2 hours with the second half of that time being mostly tears (Evie's, not Rob's).
I think its really important to keep Evie out-and-about attending things of this nature. Rob... hates things like this (crowds and the slow moving pace from stage to stage). But, he was also never taken to things like this as a kid. I was dragged to everything. That's the difference between being an only child and 1 of 3, I suppose.
Then again, I also traveled to see the Grateful Dead and Phish concerts so this migratory/band following lifestyle is one I have come to enjoy. Rob is more a quiet jam-at-home type.

Curious? Here's a sampling of NFF. This is Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver (I recorded Doyle's turkey call, too. Yes, he performed turkey calling, but I thought you'd prefer to hear the music. I could be wrong. The call was also very entertaining...)