Monday, March 30, 2009

Bluegrass Music Festival

Let me start from the beginning because I just realized I haven't really blogged about this gigantic event. So I received a call on March 7 asking if I would be chairperson of the bluegrass fundraiser festival. The details that I received that day were as follows:
1. I would work with another person (that person had not been ask yet).
2. That person and I would set up 5 committees to implement the plan that we would come up with.
3. Those 5 committees would have a chairperson each and we would be over those people.
4. The 5 committees would be Food, Publicity, Grounds, Volunteers, and Entertainment.

So what did I say? Of course, I said yes. I did not know at that time what I was getting into.

My partner ended up being a girl named Shannon with which I had only had a little contact. It was a perfect match. We worked for weeks trying to get everything together. The committees didn't work out that well. We had several people tell us they were going to head up committees or take care of things that never was completed. So we just started hacking through ourselves. Another girl, Kerri, came on in the last 2 weeks and between the three of us this is the result.

The pictures you are about to see were taken by a bluegrass friend, Jeff Catlin. He is a wonderful photographer and you can go here and see more of his awesome pictures.
The festival was supposed to be at a place called Willow Creek Ranch (outdoors) but it poured for 3 days before the festival. We changed the location to a huge barn in our local state park (which is only a mile from my house. It is called Table Rock State Park and the ranger is a friend of ours. This was the entrance to the festival.
This is a picture of the man the festival was named after. It was call the Papa John Foster Memorial Music Festival. He was a big supporter of all our youth learning to play the traditional music of our mountains. He died in June. The poem was written by one of the fiddlers (teenager) and this picture was presented to his family.
This was at the very beginning of the festival. The barn filled up really fast and we figured that we ended up with about 500 people coming in throughout the day.

This is some of the YAMs getting tuned up on the back porch. There was also a funnel cake man in the corner (that is the reason for the tables).I love this picture of Gabe.
This is our group of elementary school YAMs. There is also a smaller group called the YAM band that does all the performance outside our area. Gabe is the band and the even smaller group that they take other places.

A few more pictures of my favorite YAM.
There was also a tribute to two of the instructors, Dan and Normah. The picture that was presented to them was drawn by one of our local art teachers who retired a few years back. You can't tell much about the drawing but it was beautiful.
This little girl, plays the big bass and the guitar and at the moment seems to be Gabe's girlfriend. Although neither of them will admit it. But they won't deny it either.
This was one of the last bands to play and by far my favorite. They are called Tucker's Town (from Hootie and the Blowfish) and were more contemporary. The girl playing the bass is Papa John's granddaughter and she has a beautful voice. I am lookin forward to hearing them again.

We had a very successful day and I was exhausted when I finally made it home. We stayed at the barn for 12 hours on Saturday (this included set up and clean up) but it was well worth it. I haven't heard the final count on how much money we made but I know that it was well over $3000. I finally a bit more rested (after a nap on Monday afternoon) so I'm ready to start planning for next year. More important than the money, was that I made several new friends who will be friends for life (especially Shannon and Kerri.) We are having a big party to celebrate our success on April 19. So there will be more pictures to come.

6 comments:

Windy said...

Looks like all of your hard work paid off! Glad you enjoyed it enough to be talking about next year already:)

Marian said...

WOW!!! That looked like it was so much fun! That's how it usually happens, a few women doing all the work ~ I will I could hear Gabe play :( His little "friend that's a girl" is c~uuute!!

Marian said...

I meant to say, "wish I could hear Gabe play" Tell them kiddos Aunt says hey & I love em!

Kitty Scraps said...

Hi Miz Tami,
Nice to meet you! Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving such a sweet comment *smiles* If you do happen to make this project just be sure to cut down your backing piece a tiny bit to make up for the bulk from the fabric and wire so it will fit back into the frame. You could use a piece of foam core board instead of the piece that comes with the frame if you wanted to. They would cut the foam core board for you in the frame shop of HL if you shop there, probably wouldn't cost more than 50 cents or a dollar to have it cut. The backing that came with the frame was harder to cut but I did manage it with a heavy duty box cutter. Good Luck with it and be sure to come let me know if you make one so I can see it *smiles*

Southerner said...

Looks like you did a great job planning and pulling this event off! That little "friend" is a cutie:)
You asked where I am- I am just living life(baseball every night) and other things so just have felt like my priority is my family instead of worrying about getting out a post. I really have had too much emphasis on the blog world and kind of looked up to see someone I don't want to be remembered as( on computer all day) I am trying to be the housewife I used to be. I hope to find a balance so I can enjoy the blog, but it not be so much time into my day. I miss everyone!

the Nebraskans said...

Great job sis!! I'm going to have to start some volunteering if I don't find something to do soon. Hopefully something as fun as this. Gabe looks great I can't wait to hear him sometime.