L U N A T A L K with Eva Moon

Folklife 2008

May 26, 2008 on 5:37 pm | In Backstage Pass, General Musing, Music |

Another year, another Folklife under our belts. (A friend asks, “Forklift? Are you desperate?”) /me shrugs. Maybe. Over a quarter of a million people descend upon Seattle Center for four days of, um, self-expression. It’s one of the largest festivals in North America and surpassed only by the Fremont Festival in June (which we will also be playing) for attracting Seattle’s most eccentric. Saturday was sunny, hot and jammed.

The fountain is a kid magnet even on a cool day.

Heartbreakers in training:

Heartbreakers, semi-retired:

Secrets from beyond the divide. If you’re an official Folklife performer you can get into the hospitality center. (And with four days of continuous programming at 19 official stages these coveted buttons are as rare as hen’s feathers.) The hospitality center is a large, poorly-lit, stuffy barn with the single distinct attraction of half-price beer. This is enough of an inducement to even override the Perpetual Cotton-Eyed Joe Jam of Doom (below). We’ve been performing (and swilling hospitality beer) at Folklife for 11 years and the Jam of Doom is always going on. Always. Every time we’ve been there. The individual players change, but the song never ends. I firmly believe it has been going on, unbroken since the dawn of time. And if it ever stops, the world will come to an end.

Cheetah pelt: $995
Delux Dreadlock Starter Kit: $70
Assorted gourds: $249
Being nine CD sales away from quitting your Microsoft dev day job: Priceless.

Sunday Night: Balkanarama closes the annual Balkan Party. Sunday was less jammed than Saturday, despite fine weather. Something about news of flying bullets puts a damper on enthusiasm. But even that doesn’t seem to affect the Balkan party (what’s a few rounds among enemies?): The place is packed with some 500 dancers. w00t.

Ferko and Mike lead the way:

The full band (phew! Kevin arrived from another gig, bass in hand, not more than a minute before downbeat). Paul Beck (right) sits in on cymbalom - an annual treat for us.

Afterwards: Lug gear the quarter mile to the peformers’ parking coventry, drive home and do a body check for random piercings, tie dye, fairy wings or tattoos in Sanskrit. You never know.

See more like that one:

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• Bailout Man
• Tough Love
• The Wages of Beer
• The Point of the Needle