Ok, So Who's Going To Neffa?

[David Barnert]

The New England Folk Festival Association's annual festival is this weekend at Mansfield (Massachusetts) High School. I'll be there all day Saturday. My Morris team is performing out front from 5 - 6 PM.

 

http://www.neffa.org

[jdms]

I'll be around--not, alas, performing in any capacity this year...

[Jim Besser]

The New England Folk Festival Association's annual festival is this weekend at Mansfield (Massachusetts) High School. I'll be there all day Saturday. My Morris team is performing out front from 5 - 6 PM.

 

http://www.neffa.org

 

Missing it, sadly; no sides to play for!

[Jody Kruskal]

I'll be there looking for hallway jams and general fun. Also I'll be:

 

* Playing for Half Moon Sword, Saturday at 5:00 pm, main entrance. (See you there David!)

 

* Performing a Solo Concert set Saturday, at 8:00 pm in the High School room 117, Concertina Songs: Silly to Sublime, telling American stories that are hilarious, gritty and true. Stories of train wrecks and wrecked marriages, death-row convicts and lonesome lovers, heroes, losers, swaggering braggarts, and lazy slackers. Lots of great choruses, so plan to join in the fun.

 

* Presenting an Old-Time Concertina Workshop, Sunday at 12:00 noon in the High School room 117, all systems of concertina - old-time, techniques and tunes.

Edited April 19, 2013 by Jody Kruskal

[Ron Geering]

I'll be around Saturday at 2:00 with the Vineyard Swordfish (main entrance). Maybe Sunday for the West Gallery.

[David Barnert]

FYI, from the NEFFA web site:

 

The events in the Boston area are changing as we speak, but the Festival is nowhere near the lockdown zone, and the Festival is going on. We hope that events will resolve themselves soon, and travel restrictions lifted.

[Wolf Molkentin]

FYI, from the NEFFA web site:

 

The events in the Boston area are changing as we speak, but the Festival is nowhere near the lockdown zone, and the Festival is going on. We hope that events will resolve themselves soon, and travel restrictions lifted.

 

 

I whish you and all the others all the best with the Festival - in order to respond to deadly hatred: enjoy yourselves and all that great folk music all the more!

[Jody Kruskal]

 

FYI, from the NEFFA web site:

 

The events in the Boston area are changing as we speak, but the Festival is nowhere near the lockdown zone, and the Festival is going on. We hope that events will resolve themselves soon, and travel restrictions lifted.

 

 

I whish you and all the others all the best with the Festival - in order to respond to deadly hatred: enjoy yourselves and all that great folk music all the more!

 

I think I can speak for all... we will not let the murderers stop us!

[Jody Kruskal]

It is hard to decompress after something as grand and rich as NEFFA. I had a great time playing, dancing, eating and talking with friends old and new.

 

So many people! Many thousands attending make this an event that brings old friends together and throws new people together for music and dance at a scale that is unbelievable. The contra dances had perhaps a dozen long lines with many hundreds of folks dancing together. The halls were ringing with small impromptu jam sessions and chance meetings of choice musicians playing a smorgasbord of musical styles. At one point i was serenaded with five Swedish nyckelharpa playing in unison like a miniature cathedral of resonance.



 

Standing (or floor sitting) room only at my own solo concert was very gratifying, and every seat was taken at my old-time concertina workshop too.

 

Lots of great English and American dancing on my personal NEFFA dance schedule as well as Schottische and Polska, Waltz and Zwiefacher dancing made for an active and unforgettable weekend that is hard to beat for fun and active participation.



 

The food was great too. I mostly sampled the Lithuanian's fare. They prepared an amazing spread including delicious beet salad, stuffed cabbage, meat dumplings and potato pancakes with sour cream and apple sauce that was amazing as always, but so many other culinary choices elsewhere that I thought I had died and gone to food heaven.

 

NEFFA is the best. See you all there next year!

Edited April 27, 2013 by Jody Kruskal

[Jim Besser]

It is hard to decompress after something as grand and rich as NEFFA. I had a great time playing, dancing, eating and talking with friends old and new.

 

t was amazing as always, but so many other culinary choices elsewhere that I thought I had died and gone to food heaven.

 

NEFFA is the best. See you all there next year!

 

Neffa has always been my favorite festival, mostly because there's so much jamming, and such high quality. Some years, I never actually make it into a session, just jam all day. I always look for sessions where your Grand Picnic fiddler is holding forth, they're always the best.

 

Alas, the last two years the groups I usually go with haven't gone. Maybe next year with my ceilidh band.

 

If anybody's interested, here's a

on NEFFA 2008, with a little concertina content at about 4:30 with several c.netters.