I go to a billion and a half festivals and concerts and take a million videos and half a trillion pictures. So I'm going to be posting my festival adventures, pictures, and videos here.
Before leaving our beloved motel room for the last day of Celtic Fling, five (out of six) of us piled into the one bed for a group shot.
Christy is a genius and came up with this in the wee hours of the morning (I have video of her giving it to the guys. There will be a later video/more pictures post when it gets uploaded):
I have absolutely NO idea why Leks was wearing those glasses that Dan has been seen wearing on occasion. He claimed Jamesie punched him in the glasses.
Speaking of Jamesie, Albannach, despite having the SAME set times each day as Scythian, showed up halfway through Scythian's first set. The guys got Davy, Jamesie, and Aya up on stage to do "I Will Go" with them.
We wandered off and spotted the fiddler from The Town Pants. I have decided that someone needs to let her know she has to start shopping in the women's department for her dresses, not in the toddler department.
We caught all three of Icewagon Flu's sets on Sunday.
George and Kevin decided to try out the decorations at the Swashbuckler Stage:
My messed up foot reunited with the spot where I tore my tendon at Celtic Fling two years earlier:
What is this that I see? Jabba has FINALLY learned that he needs to move himself right up front in order to see? There was no yelling, no throwing of things, no complaining (that I heard of) to Fling staff. It was all sorts of peaceful. Relief!
He needs to upload his videos to YouTube. He's always videoing the entire sets.
Joey was happy. As usual.
Scythian played their lovely waltz "If Ever You Were Mine" and Dan said something about it being for the couples and the single people can have Ben & Jerry's. Heather ran off and returned with our substitute Ben & Jerry's: cherry water ice. We singletons shared it while crying and moaning about our loneliness.
We'll end the picture portion of this update with Joey. He started out wearing just the frilly blue shirt. He added the vest for the 2nd set. Then for the third set he added the brown bow tie. He told everyone to take his picture in black and white because he had just been informed that the brown bow tie did not match the black vest.
Ceann led the Sunday night ceilidh. They put together a completely random Murder Mystery story, which I have compiled here.
Then there was the final jam session part of the ceilidh:
Sigh. Oh Celtic Fling. Do I really have to wait another year for you to return?
We were back on the Ren Faire grounds on Saturday for the first full day of Celtic Fling. As the Official Sticker Boys were not in attendance, The Other Shane did sticker duty.
Pam brought mini instruments with her. The maracas were a big hit and I still have my kazoo in my bag for future use.
Scythian had the first set at 11:30am on the Globe Stage. Despite playing before noon, they were full of energy. Are we surprised?
Pat, Kelly, Bridget, and Erin came for the entire day. It was Bridget's 8th birthday so for her birthday present, Scythian played "Fields of Athenry" for her, per Bridget's request (she wanted the "Let The Free Birds Fly!" song).
And here's the birthday song (please attempt to ignore me singing along to the "It's a Long Way To Tipperary" part near the end):
We scurried up the hill to the Swashbuckler Stage to catch one of Icewagon Flu's sets. Pam supplied the backup whistling.
Kevin supplied the Irish dancing (I did as well, but that video will have to be uploaded and posted later):
One word for you all: mandolin.
Some numbers for Jackie to think about: 1:15-1:30.
Just in case we thought they might be slacking during the 2nd set of the day, Dan busted out the jumps again.
We ran over to the Endgame Stage where we caught some of Ceann's set, followed by a full set of The Town Pants. The Town Pants used to have a guy fiddler who had a very tall mohawk. Either he had a sex change and renamed himself Ivanka or they got themselves a new fiddler. She wore short dresses both days.
We wandered back to the Globe for Scythian's final set, followed by a full Enter The Haggis set. I love Brian's hair color.
I think he asked Dan for some jumping tips.
Tim was in the house! Woo! Now upload your stinkin' pictures, please! I need some ceilidh pictures since I was videoing and the ones I've seen have all been blurry.
Pam, Christy, and I helped various bands with their whistling needs throughout the weekend. We're indispensible to bands.
Howard (aka Friend of Alan Doyle & GBS!) was at the Fling. When he found out that Jackie and I would be at the GBS Harrisburg show in October, he said to come find him and he would try to introduce us to Alan Doyle.
Jackie and I will be hunting him down and will be bringing duct tape and rope...
We didn't get the ENTIRE crowd of people who had been up for a group shot, but we did manage to get a good chunk of us before the ceilidh!
Oh the Ceilidh. This is the part of the Fling that makes the admission price completely worth it. Scythian led the ceilidh Saturday night. Here are two video compilations of them introducing the various bands, as well as clips of those various bands. It's the Cliff's Notes version of the first part of the ceilidh. This first one includes Brother, Town Pants, Rathkeltair (listen to Scythian's song for them), and Alison Barber:
The second video includes Ceann (VESTS!!!), Albannach (watch it!), Icewagon Flu, and Enter The Haggis:
Then there's the actual jam session part of the ceilidh. I videoed the entire thing.
Then we all headed to Farmers Hope for a game of Texas Hold 'Em with candy instead of money. I think I only won twice both Friday and Saturday nights. I have this problem where I can't FOLD. I think it's against my religion or something. But I learned how to say that F-word on Saturday night. It took all I had in me, but I managed to say it several times.
Before heading back to the lovely motel to be all sorts of cozy with the other ladies, I had to get a picture with Maximus. I wish I had gotten a picture with Joey as well, just for those short shorts.
On Friday, June 26th, Kirsten and I headed out to Manheim, PA for the start of Celtic Fling 2009. We were rolling down the stinkin' PA Turnpike (the road I loathe for its boringness, the road that has spawned many hate poems) when Pam, who was maybe 30 miles ahead of us, called to inform me that she was stuck in traffic because of an accident. Not wanting to sit in traffic, especially not with my lovely car going all Honda on me and overheating recently in traffic, I decided to take the upcoming exit. Thankfully I had a PA map in the car (no idea where it came from as I haven't used a real map in ages) and we figured out a lovely scenic route to the PA Ren Faire grounds that took a bit longer than the Turnpike would have (sans accident), but it was a much nicer drive.
We arrived at the motel, only to discover that, despite the fact Kirsten had booked a room with two double beds back in March, we had a room with one king size bed. This wouldn't be too big of a problem if it was just the two of us. But there were going to be SIX girls in the room. The woman working the desk didn't have another room to put us in (she was unaware of how many girls would be in the room. We kept that on the downlow) so we decided to just deal with what we have.
It could have been worse. Heather and her crew had booked three rooms at this same motel but arrived to discover there were no rooms for them. After many phonecalls and "discussions" with the motel lady, she had one room for them at our motel (the Street Team took that room) and Heather found two rooms at the motel next door. Such unnecessary drama. After settling ourselves in our room and discovering that the double air mattress I brought along for Jill and Aly, just in case they needed it, just fit between the wall and the bed, and after I had finished having a good long giggle fit at the amusingness of cramming six girls into this one room and at the thought of four of us snuggling in bed (thank goodness it was a king size bed and not a double), we headed over to the Fling.
Oh Celtic Fling. How I adore thee! To make things even more awesome, I found a WHOLE DOLLAR in the pocket of my pants that I had not worn since last summer. Woo! After doing the "I'm So Going To Sticker You!" dance with Dante (I failed to sticker him. *sad face*), I spotted Joey wandering around nearby. With a sword. Heaven help us. He was also sporting a pretty pink ponytail holder. Very threatening.
Ceann kicked off the Fling. Partway through the set, while Pam, Heather, and I were dancing around off to the side of the stage, Patrick from Ceann saw me and asked, from the stage, "Are you making another video this year?" I gave him a thumbs up and he said, "Are we actually going to be in it this year? Or is it going to be all Scythian with a tiny clip of Ceann again?"
Ha! Patrick should be happy I added that Ceann clip to the Jump Around video. That was a very last minute addition, if I recall correctly. I felt I needed to include them. I am very much amused that 1) Patrick knew I made videos, 2) that he wanted to be included in the new video more than they were in the old one, and 3) that he shared this with all of Celtic Fling from the stage.
Maeghan did the Swashbuckle Shuffle on stage for Ceann to finish up their set.
Then this band that no one had even heard of took the stage. They were okay. Oh wait, that's not a picture of the band. Oh well. We're much more attractive than them anyway.
Dante wrote a song about Patrick Murphy that the guys performed since Gaelic Storm was there as the headliner that night. Great song!
It started to rain right when Scythian finished their set. Perfect timing. The merch table was uncovered and the Street Team discovered a previously unknown job for them: plastic tarp tent poles.
Here's some video of us being tent poles. Jackie, there's a message for you from me and Heather at the end of the video:
It stopped raining fairly quickly, so Gaelic Storm wasn't delayed. Patrick gave us a spoons solo (after a delayed start, thanks to him talking too much and the crowd not quieting down):
After the show, we headed to Farmers Hope down the road where we played Texas Hold 'Em with the giant playing cards. This time around we didn't use sugar packets for money. We all brought bags of candy, which was a much more welcome substitute for the money. Meaghan won several times.
Back to the motel where Pam, Suzi, Kirsten, and I snuggled on the bed and Jill and Aly had the air mattress on the floor. The room was, in a word, cozy. Here's Jill and Aly on the floor next to my side of the bed. Good to know I had a nice cushion to fall on in case the three in the bed pushed me out.
The time of year when flip flops replace those pesky shoes that enclose your feet and make them sweat.
The time of year when t-shirts, shorts, and flowy skirts replace boring polo shirts and dress pants.
The time of year when non-stop music pounds in your ears.
The time of year when you dance barefoot on the grass or blacktop in public and no one thinks you're weird. Well, that might not be completely true...
The time of year when you sweat so much that one might think you got caught in the rain.
The time of year when that aforementioned sweat makes fun sweat pictures (such as a cat head, a heart, or the American Eagle logo).
That's right, it's summer festival season! The time of year when you reconnect with your festival family, that interesting group of people you may not see outside of festivals, but that doesn't matter. They're every bit a part of your family anyway. Awww, sappiness.
Moving on...
Here's the summer festival lineup for me this year:
June Celtic Fling - Manheim, PA
July Grandfather Mountain Highland Games - North Carolina (this will be my first time there) Grassroots - Trumansburg, NY (another first) Dayton Irish Fest - Dayton, OH (yet another first)
August Dublin Irish Fest - Dublin, OH (another first! This one actually starts the last day of July) Musikfest (camping for two days this year)
September Kansas City Irish Fest - Kansas City, MO (first time) Pittsburgh Irish Fest - Pittsburgh, PA (first time) Irish 2000 - Albany, NY Wildwood Irish Weekend (possibly. The Elders will be there.) or Celtic Classic - Bethlehem, PA (Gaelic Storm will be there)
October Sunflower Fest - Cumberland, MD (the first annual one)
Phew, what a lineup! Since Celtic Fling doesn't start for two weeks, I may go back through past festival pictures/videos and upload some of them if I have the time.
