If you’re in the San Francisco area this weekend, this is pretty cool. If you look at the schedule of workshops, there’s a ton of stuff guaranteed to satisfy any tastes. You might also notice I’m doing a one hour workshop on tin whistle playing on Saturday. (Never a trad cop around when you need one.) There will be a slow session on Sunday, not to mention ceili dancing, not to mention African, Gypsy, Middle Eastern, Indian dancing, and so on.
They also have an open mic where you get 10 minutes to go for the gusto. I might get up the nerve. 
Tony
Thanks for mentioning this Tony. It’s always fun and always free!
FYI for those of you who may have missed Tony’s workshop on Saturday, I’m teaching my workshop today (Sunday) at noon. Stop on by for a tune!
Cheers,
tim
http://www.sffolkfest.org/2007/index.html
I’m teaching my workshop today (Sunday) at noon. Stop on by for a tune!
Like I said, never a trad cop around when you need one.
John Hamilton (concertina) and I sat outside in the cold and played tunes together. People came over with guitars and stuff and joined in. There was no set place for any kind of session on Saturday, which was an oversight of the planners. I saw all kinds of people walking around with instruments and nowhere to play. We figured if we started something people would join in, which happened. Some people even danced in the streets (literally).
In my workshop, just to show you what I was dealing with, a guy who had never touched a whistle before, dashed out to the Hobgoblin booth, bought a whistle and rushed back, pulling it out of the package. I handed out ‘Master of Irish Traditional Music’ certificates to everyone at the end. (Just kidding.)
My other workshop story is funny, but I don’t want to post it. Never know who’s reading. Ask me in person if you get the chance.
By the way, the whistle the guy bought was a Feadog Pro with the heavier nickel tube. He asked me to try it after the class. It had a slight buzz in the bell note and throughout the upper octave. I pointed it out, but said, that for $11, it was fine.
Tony
I was there for a few hours on Sunday, I may have been the guy with a wooden flute walking past your slow session, if that was you. It was some slow session, at least; I’ve never met you, and was kind of occupied at the time, so I don’t know.
My wife and I played some tunes in the nook leading to the elevator on the second floor of the main building, next to the stairwell, maybe for about an hour or so. The acoustics were amazing but weird; I could have sworn that the sound of my flute was coming from downstairs. We got kicked out because we could be heard from the auditorium where they were about to have some music.
We were on our way back from a weekend trip and just weren’t into the festival this year, so we didn’t stay for too long. The venue sucks compared to the old one, it was really not very conducive. I didn’t even know Hobgoblin HAD a booth!