Sunday, August 31, 2008

23a-08 bonus report, 4 Corners Folk Festival: Pagosa Springs Colorado

4 Corners Folk Festival

My last day in Pagosa and I’m heading over to the 4 Corners Folk Festival. I decided to enjoy a really great Mexican meal at the Elk Horn CafĂ©. You have to look for the Mexican menu on the back side of the menu. Then it was off to the festival. After parking the truck in a free parking spot and hopping the bus for the free ride to the top of water tower hill we almost got run over by a Pagosa Police car racing down the very narrow dirt road. The police car ended up in a ditch and we barely made it safely around the edge of the switch back. Talk about excitement before even getting to the festival.

Passing all the tenters on the side of the hill, we get dropped off at the top of the hill. I’d call it a mountain myself. A short walk up through the tall pine trees and I arrive at the big tent just over the top of the hill. I’d brought my own chair, but with 1200 seats under the tent, I decided to get a close up view and sit in comfort under the tent. Good thing too, as it rained out a couple of times during the early afternoon.
Listening to the music, feeling the vibe from the artists and the audience. The smells of the food vendors mixed with pine bark and sawdust, smoke from the BBQ grills all lent an air to festival.
Having a micro brewed beer at the Breckenridge Brewery’s beer garden. Talking to tipsy tipping drinkers telling about life in a small town of 600 near the Colorado/Utah boarder. Getting away from it all. Did you know that Colorado has the most micro brewery’s in the country? Dave Furst come on out here.... :)

Unlike many folk festivals I’ve attended, this one had only one large stage, which was fine with me as I didn’t have to treck between stages to hear the entertainment. Now the entertainment the day I went consisted of 3 folk groups all from Australia and England. The others from the U.S. All the groups play their own songs, so I didn’t get that old time feeling one often gets when attending folk festivals. I kind of missed not hearing a couple old standards. I must admit though that it was neat to hear new folk songs and the singers are very proud of their song writing skills.

I talked to a musician in the audience who was here to also participate in the workshops and he was very excited to have had the opportunity to play along with one of the groups, the Waifs. He said it was the highlight of the weekend and probably of his career. Earl Scruggs was scheduled for Sunday, but I’d be missing that as the tickets were $45 per day and I felt one day was more than enough.

On to other adventures, now filled with a bit of folk music to travel along the byways…