The First NanciNet Convention

NOTE: I designed these pages as a stream of consciousness journey. If you prefer an orderly approach, use this table of contents to halp you navigate. -shelly Brisbin

The members of NanciNet check in from all over the United States and the world, with reviews of concerts, questions about Nanci and interesting stories. The question many of us ask ourselves, as we happily sort through the piles of messages is this: who are these people?

In August, a few of us had the chance to find out, when Nanci Griffith performed at the fifth Rocky Mountain Folks Festival in Lyons, Colorado. This show served as the magnet to bring many of us together for a weekend of music, camping, music, fun, music and camaraderie. Oh, there was music too. What follows are snapshots of the event, as taken by myself, (Shelly Brisbin) Frank Feuerbacher (my husband) and Bill Peete (a nice guy from California).

The festival commenced on Friday, August 18. We had arranged via e-mail to occupy a camp site on the festival grounds. Some folks chose to stay in hotels in Boulder, but everyone spent most of the weekend on the festival grounds. We followed the @ signs to the camp site, which we shared with members (some of us have dual membership) of Alan Rowoth's folk_music mailing list. It was a regular cyber folkie heppenin'! The festival setting was a large grassy meadow with a river running alongside. Music started in the late afternoon, continuing through the evening and the next two days. Those who wished to (and most of us did) could listen to music for 16 hours each day, beginning with the first act at 10 in the morning, and ending up with one of the many campfires, which ran late into the night.

If you're gonna watch and listen to music for hours and hours, you ned good seats, right? I was a folk festival newbie, and was introduced to the time-honored tradition of the "Land Rush." We designated a team of folks to go down to the festival gates a couple of hours before the music started. When the gates swung open each day, these hardy souls walked quickly (you're not supposed to run) onto the grounds with tarps and chairs at the ready. The group's task was to find a choice place to set up "camp," and reserve it for those who still lay sleeping in our tents, or who had walked into town for coffee.

Our runners did particularly well on Sunday, setting our big orange tarp at almost dead-center, and reasonably near the stage. This was particularly fortuitous for those of us who'd come especially to see Nanci's closing set that night. We got a little rain during Ani Di Franco's Friday night set, and more during Cheryl Wheeler's way cool Saturday night show, but the weather was otherwise delightful. When we got hot in the mid-day sun, Frank and I headed for the river to douse ourselves with bracing water.

Who Was There?

If you've read the NanciNet messages about the Folks Fest, you know that we had the pleasure of meeting James Hooker. We also enjoyed getting to know each other. Here are a few mug shots.

Mark (our friendly list manager) & Laura Ferguson	Gail & Gavon	Steve Clark

Return to The Blue Moon Page. All pages are copyright 1995 by Shelly Brisbin (sbrisbin@comland.com).