The Walnut Valley Festival
I've been thinking about going to the Walnut Valley Festival for the first time next month. It's a big folk and bluegrass festival in the US, and hosts national championship competitions for Guitar Flat Picking, Bluegrass Banjo, Hammer Dulcimer, Mountain Dulcimer and the international Fingerstyle Guitar and Autoharp championships, plus Mandolin and Old Time Fiddle contests of their own. And they're less than an hour away, in Winfield, KS.
There are four official stages, and three or four unofficial stages, a couple of which have been a standing tradition for many years. There are multiple unofficial websites, including websites for many of the regular camping groups. One person says about 50% of the campers bring instruments, and there's a lot of non-professional stuff going on.
(Funny, as big as it seems to be, if you google for "folk festival" or "bluegrass festival", they don't show up in the first page. So I may be misled about just how large it is.)
I missed the pre-order on tickets, so I'll have to pay full gate price, which seems kind of high... $35 for one day. (Pre-order price is still $30.)
I think I'm going to go. It feels kind of awkward going by myself (Karen doesn't want to go), but it's also kind of nice... I can spend my time any way I want without worrying about boring someone else.