We Survived!

By the time we took the stage today, my shirt was soaked. I drank about a gallon of water. After we played, we sat out front and listened to other performers. There were some really good players there and what was nice is that they were all folkie's.
Usually when we play we play we get thrown in with rock, blues, R&B or groups with banjos and cloggers. I don't have anything against banjo's and cloggers or any of the other kinds of music for than matter, but usually when people come to hear the blues, they aren't ready for singer/songwriter folk music and they look at us as if we were airlifted from Botswana and dropped at the festival by mistake.
The Birmingham Folk Festival, except for the choice of dates, was a refreshing venue. In years past, it has been a private festival, but this year it went public and the choice of locations was exceptional.
Avondale Park is one of the oldest parks in Birmingham. The Park has lots of old trees and a spring fed pond with fat geese that love visitors with loaf bread.
The park also has a very nice pavilion that was build back during the depression by the Works Progress Administration (WPA) which built parks, schools, bridges, and other stone structures. Putting people to work is what helped bring our country out of the great depression.
The WPA also built the amphitheater at Avondale Park which has been used down through the years for music performances and plays.
Hopefully next year, they will pick a festival date earlier in the spring or in autumn so that us old folk won't get heat stroke.
If you'd like to read about the festival and the interesting history of Avondale park, click on this link and read a story in the Birmingham Weekly written by our old friend Cortney Haden who is a treasure a for us who love Birmingham.