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June 9-10, 2006
Finally!  It's summer and  time to hit the road for the fiddle festivals.  Jill and Leslie packed up the vanjo and headed down 81 towards Glen Lyn in Southern Virginia and the home of the late, great fiddler, Henry Reed.  This festival is an act of love, put together by Mr. Reed's descendants to keep his music alive in his home town.  The surrounding community comes out in the evenings to listen to the competition, giving the festival a warm and friendly atmosphere.

The festival takes place in the town park nestled in the mountains and on the banks of the beautiful New River.  Chris Via and the rest of the organizers make sure the the festival grounds are clean and attractive.  It is "rough camping" but the porto-johns are kept clean throughout the festival and, this year, a portable hand-washing station was added to the amenities.  There is a large tent to shade the audience from the sun and a wonderful stage, built to look like a log barn.  There is a food vendor and a few craft and instrument vendors, and on Saturday morning the town has a big flea-market in the field adjacent to the festival grounds that is fun to browse.

This year we set up camp next door to Laura, Don and Henry, some friendly folks from Richmond.  Laura and Don are fiddlers and that made for good campsite jamming.  Don makes and repairs fiddles in Richmond.  We also met Dan, from Norfolk, a multi-instrumentalist and bee-keeper.  We went home with some of his honey, made by his bees from the wildflowers in the Great Dismal Swamp. The Rounders were there again and Jill ran into some folks she played with two years ago. Of course, Alan Jabbour was there, leading his annual fiddle workshop.  We also met Doc and Arletta.  They both fell in love with the area and retired there.  Lucky people.  Doc had his pretty Australian Cattledog, Jango, there with him.  Hope to see everyone next year.