Aaah, the Louisville Fest. Well, occasional “hurricanic” winds aside (see ‘playing in the wind’ thread), it was a beautiful weekend weatherwise. Turnout was tiny, unfortunately – they didn’t market the thing at all from what I could tell. There are also about five other big festivals in the area that same weekend, so there was a lot of competition for attendance.
But it was very pleasant, and this is just the Fest’s second year after a long hiatus, so it’s still finding its feet.
The one thing that was really cool was the Saturday night session. They brought in sandwiches, opened a keg of Guinness, and pretty much all the musicians just sat down and went at it hammer and tongs. And there was some terrific playing! I had to leave around 10:30 to get back to the farm – unfortunately right around the time Frank Claudy and Phillipe Varlet showed up – but the session was a boomer. In addition to the Amazing Flute Playing Lineup of Glen Road (like, 4 of the guys also play flute in addition to other instruments, and very well, I might add), there were some really good flute players from … well, I don’t know where they were from! They weren’t performing at the fest – from what I understand they just came in for the sessions, as did some other musicians. Anyway, there were at least 30 people playing at most any point, all really good players, and it was AWESOME at certain moments. If you’ve never heard Bev Buchanan on button box, well … shoot, it was great. Even a sean nos singer named Maggie Smith took a turn, and she just broke my heart – it was the most amazing thing I’ve ever heard. My only disappointment was that Turlach Boylan didn’t play much flute over the weekend – I’m utterly fascinated with his style – but he’s also a lovely tenor banjo player, and seems to be concentrating on that.
Anyway, it was a great festival from a musician’s standpoint, probably the high point of Irish music in the Louisville area – although I agree with Random Notes that the best craic wasn’t on stage, alas.
Hopefully it’ll all come together a little better next year. It’d be great to be able to put together a musician’s festival that’s also entertaining for “civilians,” and then of course, get enough people to come that you can afford to put it on next year …
AND NOW, THE CINCINNATI FEST:
Random Notes, if you go to Cincy I suggest you try to hunt down David Copley (the author of this thread). He is a highly respected flutemaker from just north of Cincy. I owe him a note, in fact, but he’d be great to talk to – if I get up there Sunday, I aim to track him down and look at his six-key. Anyway, look on www.CincinnatiCelticFest.com for his band’s performance time, and then maybe you can nab him after?
And of course, this girl can’t say enough good things about John Skelton. I was just talking to him this morning, and he said there’s lots of fun stuff to buy up there, so you’ll probably have better options for spending money. 
And if you’re in the neighborhood, don’t miss his workshop. He’s a great teacher, and hey, he lives in Versailles, not too far from you at all, so you could even take a lesson now and then!
OK, back to work. Sorry for the rambles … can you tell I work in advertising?
xo,
cat.