Two years ago we organized an informal concertina gathering in Seattle. It was held in an area home and food and light beverages were provided. The intent was simply to provide an opportunity for people in the area (and beyond) to gather and spend an unstructured afternoon and evening in the presence of other enthusiasts, talking, playing, or just listening, however they were inclined. We had a nice turnout and I think just about everyone expressed an interest in attending another such event if we were inclined to hold it again. I was distracted last summer, but I recently spoke with Kevin, who opened his home for the last gathering, and he said he'd like to host another gathering again this summer.

I think the biggest flaw with our approach last time is that we didn't announce the event with sufficient lead time for some of those inclined to attend to make plans. With that in mind, I'm placing this post now to give people time to think about the event. Nothing is set in stone as yet, but the tentative plan is to hold this on Saturday, the 26th of July. Kevin states that he has only one spare bedroom available, but there is "plenty of floor space" if anyone wants to overnight Friday or Saturday and avoid local hotel/motel rates. While many of those that came last time were “local,” we also had some travel 100 miles or more to attend this and a few stayed over Saturday night and enjoyed a late-night session.

Perhaps I can best represent the nature of this event by referring you to the write-up I did about the last one. We had more than a dozen people attend then, and I wouldn't be surprised if given adequate opportunity to plan, 15 to 20 show up this time. If you have an interest and think you may be able to attend, let me know and we'll put your name on our list. We'll use your contact information only for coordination details such as questions and driving directions. I'll include a somewhat corrupted form of my email address here, altered to discourage the efforts of robotic spam agents, and leave it to you to reveal the correct address by deleting the three capitol "X"s

bruceX@angloplayerX.comX

Hope to see you there.

The previous gathering was a lot of fun, I am looking forward to another. Keep us all informed of the timing for the next one.

Dan

Kathy and I will be there.

And just as a reminder for the locals, there is a weekly (and very friendly) Irish Session out in Duvall every Tuesday night.

Will there be unicycles?

And if you're hungry before it, I can thoroughly recommend Teddy Bear's BBQ Restaurant in Duvall (and Dave's Glenmorangie afterwards! )

Thanks for the hospitality, when I was in the neighbourhood, Dave and Kathy!

Things look to be on track for our gathering. Several people have confirmed and we are hoping for cooperative weather. If you haven't contacted us to get on the list, it's not too late. We've settled on the 26th and that seems to work for everyone that's been in touch with us. We'll be sending out a round of emails about a week prior to the event to provide directions.

It's happening this coming Saturday, the 26th of July.

By now all those that have indicated that they plan to attend should have received an email with the necessary particulars (address, time, etc.). We are expecting about 15 people, give or take a few conditional "Maybe's." There should be a good mix of Anglo, English and Duet players present and a few non-bellows instruments may surface by dark (or later). The weather in Seattle has been ranging in the comfortable 70's most days recently and we are hoping that holds through the weekend.

If you've expressed the intent to come but haven't received an email with location information, let me know.

Bruce

Things went well and I've placed a photo and a few related words here.

My thanks to Paul for making this forum available and giving us a way to connect for things such as this.