Centralia Washington Old Time Music Campout
Someone said, “If somebody bombed West Virginia’s annual Clifftop Music Festival, old-time stringband music in America would cease to exist!”
This statement, rather morbid, does give some indication of the number of musicians who attend this and other top-billed eastern old-time music festivals. One reliable estimate of this year’s Clifftop event, for instance, claims over 4000 musicians camping, eating, drinking and playing around-the-clock music on a few acres of very hilly West Virginia real estate. Along with these very crowded conditions, many eastern festivals are at remote locations with limited grocery, restaurant or motel availability, important items to many of us at the upper end of chronological maturity.
After three trips to Clifftop, and several to North Carolina’s Mount Airy and Union Grove music campouts over the last eight years, I decided to look elsewhere for my annual long-distance tune-collecting forays, a place with talented musicians, pleasant weather, close-by amenities, and no bugs or mud. A few minutes’ Internet search for “fiddle campouts” provided a quick solution in an entirely different area of the country: Washington State’s Annual Centralia Old Time Music Campout, led by Ray and (Port Townsend Fiddle Tunes tutor) Randi Leach.
The campout is held for 9 days in mid-August, midway between Portland and Seattle on I-5. There is level camping next to a river, complete sanitary facilities, a large jam tent, spontaneous potlucks, fair weather, friendly and talented old-time musicians, close proximity to stores, restaurants and motels, and perhaps the best of all… unlimited blackberries (the edible kind) surrounding the grounds.
Carol and I usually make the two-day drive to Centralia, but decided this year - our third - to fly to Portland and rent a car for the 2-hour drive to the campout. As usual, we added a few days to the trip to take in local tourist attractions. This year’s post-campout tour was Washington’s North Cascade Mountains. Again we came back with tune-suckers [recorders] full of tunes either new to the Albuquerque area, or no longer played here.
For more information about this event, many photos, and a cool video clip, check out the Centralia website.
Tim Shaffer/Carol Langer
This statement, rather morbid, does give some indication of the number of musicians who attend this and other top-billed eastern old-time music festivals. One reliable estimate of this year’s Clifftop event, for instance, claims over 4000 musicians camping, eating, drinking and playing around-the-clock music on a few acres of very hilly West Virginia real estate. Along with these very crowded conditions, many eastern festivals are at remote locations with limited grocery, restaurant or motel availability, important items to many of us at the upper end of chronological maturity.
After three trips to Clifftop, and several to North Carolina’s Mount Airy and Union Grove music campouts over the last eight years, I decided to look elsewhere for my annual long-distance tune-collecting forays, a place with talented musicians, pleasant weather, close-by amenities, and no bugs or mud. A few minutes’ Internet search for “fiddle campouts” provided a quick solution in an entirely different area of the country: Washington State’s Annual Centralia Old Time Music Campout, led by Ray and (Port Townsend Fiddle Tunes tutor) Randi Leach.
The campout is held for 9 days in mid-August, midway between Portland and Seattle on I-5. There is level camping next to a river, complete sanitary facilities, a large jam tent, spontaneous potlucks, fair weather, friendly and talented old-time musicians, close proximity to stores, restaurants and motels, and perhaps the best of all… unlimited blackberries (the edible kind) surrounding the grounds.
Carol and I usually make the two-day drive to Centralia, but decided this year - our third - to fly to Portland and rent a car for the 2-hour drive to the campout. As usual, we added a few days to the trip to take in local tourist attractions. This year’s post-campout tour was Washington’s North Cascade Mountains. Again we came back with tune-suckers [recorders] full of tunes either new to the Albuquerque area, or no longer played here.
For more information about this event, many photos, and a cool video clip, check out the Centralia website.
Tim Shaffer/Carol Langer
posted by NM FolkMADS at 7:33 PM
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