Champlain Valley Folk Festival

We spent this past weekend at the Champlain Valley Folk Festival over at Kingsland Bay in Ferrisburg, Vermont. Kingsland Bay is a lovely site on the shore of Lake Champlain and the CVFF is an excellent event that is a highlight of our summer. For us it as much a social get-together as it is a music and dance event, not that the music and dance are anything less then wonderful. Having attended much larger festivals that are similar, we've come to really appreciate the CVFF for its scope, its setting and the slant of performers one is likely to encounter. My perspective is that "folk" is almost a little misleading; I'd almost call it more of a "regional traditional" festival, i.e. lots of Quebecois performers as well as bands and players from all over the world, but not so much of the typical singer-songwriter lets-all-sway-together kind of stuff. Maybe its just that I sorta pass that stuff up, but I think there is less of that typical folk stuff, and I'm glad for it.

A highlight of the weekend was going for a swim au natural around midnight after the Saturday night contra dance. Crowfoot played the dance and they rock, so we were all sweaty and ready for a cool dip to top off the night. So, a pile of dancers all descended down to the pier and jumped in, while an improptu session of fiddlers and other players provided accompanyment. Camping is just a short walk away, so we were back at our tents and cozy in short order.

Unfortunately Sunday turned rainy early on in the day. The rain didn't really stop anything from happening, but it always puts a bit of a damper on things.

A few highlights for me were: Dancing to Crowfoot, watching Reveillons! perform, seeing our friend Joanne Garton dance and play, and hearing Tim Eriksen play for the first time in a few years. I also joined in on an Irish session and had a really good time. Sometimes sessions can be a bit overwhelming, but this one felt good.