We went to the 40th annual Walnut Valley Bluegrass Festival today. I first discovered this 4-day music festival when I was in college and have been back all but two or three years since (two years ago we missed because we were in China). It's a wonderful, laid-back experience with musicians every place you turn and some fabulous people watching. There are four stages playing bluegrass, folk, old-time, cowboy, Irish, and acoustic music of all sorts. People bring their lawn chairs and wear their tie-dye and wander from stage to stage to hear performers. We look forward to the festival all year.
We were late getting there this morning, as a major storm rolled though and it poured for two hours. Once the rain quit, we went to hear some music. The festival is at the county fair grounds and we ended up sitting in the pig barn. It wasn't the best place to see or hear, but it did keep Rachel contained!
Later we moved up in to the grandstands.
Rachel tolerated her confined space by chatting with anyone within talking distance, but this is where she would have preferred to be.
Eventually, Rachel got sent home for a nap. It was certainly not her idea, but made the rest of the afternoon more pleasant for everyone else. We sat in the sun and enjoyed John McCutcheon, Tom Chapin, and Michael Mark - three of my very favorite musicians.
Our friend and pastor, John, came and sat with us. Katherine somehow managed to talk him into letting her borrow his i-pad.
Katherine's favorite part of the festival had nothing at all to do with music. In the crafts building she discovered a woman spinning wool into yarn and was absolutely fascinated.
We had to go back and watch the woman twice. She was very friendly and talked to Kate about what she was doing and how this was the way people made yarn in "the olden days". She gave Katherine tiny bits of soft wool and Kate carried them around all evening.
We had fair food for dinner (Kate and I shared a huge baked sweet potato and a grilled reuben sandwich - yummy!) and left just before the next big storm hit. Happy Bluegrass!
