Columbus Day Weekend
The Infamous Stringdusters celebrated their inaugural festival,
The Festy Experience. Taking place in the rolling hills of Appalachia at the beautiful grounds of the
Devils Backbone Brewery in Nelson County VA. With 360 degree panoramic mountain views, beautiful weather, friendly folks and a stacked line up, I couldn't think of a better place to spend a fall weekend.
The Infamous Stringdusters played ninety minute sets both nights in front of The Festy Stage crowd as well as late night campsite jams for those willing to brave the late night cold. The second round of those late night jams lasting until 5 am Monday morning.
Other artists to grace the presence of the crowd on The Festy Stage throughout the weekend included Stillwater N.J. jamgrass band
Railroad Earth whose sound was so good and crisp, I remember it reflecting off the nearby mountains to create a "surround sound" feel. Also legendary flat picker Tony Rice and his band
The Tony Rice Unit, The sweet and soft voice of Aoife O'Donovan, and energetic banjo playing from Gregory Liszt of
Crooked Still from Boston MA., Virginia native and guitar legend
Larry Keel and Natural Bridge, and last but certainly not least the instrumental extravaganza
Toubab Krewe from Asheville NC
The Festy presented lots of opportunities for impromptu jams and collaborations, a musicians and music lovers delight. The collaborations began early on Saturday with Travis Book, bass player of The Stringdusters joining
Sara Siskind for a portion of her set, then joined by Andy Falco (Guitar) shortly thereafter. At one point Sara telling the crowd "why have one duster when you can have two". Sara also explained her love of music to the crowd simply and beautifully, "I don't know I just love music so much, that if I couldn't play it every day I would just die".
The Mandolin player of Love Canon joined the newly formed
Misty Strings of Charlottesville VA. for a fantastic and one of my favorite sets on the Southern Stage. Fiddle player of Love Canon joined Larry Keel as well as Larry's brother Gary Keel on guitar. Trees on Fire were joined by fire dancers on the side of the Southern Stage, and to finish off The Festy, members of The Infamous Stringdusters joined Toubab Krewe for some bluegrass/african jams. Stay tuned to the
CosmicVibesLive You Tube channel for videos from many of these awesome performances.
From arrival to departure at The Festy Experience we just felt right at home, charmed with that good ole southern hospitality. A big thank you to
Devils Back Bone Brewery, our friends at
Starr Hill Brewery (for letting us put our flyers out), our awesome neighbors (on both sides at camp), Stephanie at
Make It Bigger Mama Publicity,
The Artist Farm,
CERBERUS Productions, LLC and of course
The Infamous Stringdusters and all the bands. We had an amazing time and we can't wait until next year's Festy Experience.
Please enjoy some photos from The Festy Experience by clicking on the individual links below.
Robinella
Sara Siskind
Crooked Still
The Tony Rice Unit
Trees On Fire
The Infamous Stringdusters (night 1)
Railroad Earth
Morwenna Lasko & JPUN Quartet
Misty Strings
Larry Keel and Natural Bridge
The Infamous Stringdusters (night 2)
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