After the Land Rush....

After the Land Rush and many of the the campsites are claimed, or re-claimed from a year of vacancy (which is what we CHOOSE to believe happens in OUR Pecan Grove)....everyone settles in to finding the neighbors that weren't uncovered in the Land Rush Line-Up or who are beginning to arrive as we re-create this annual, magical, acoustical Brigadoon.

The afternoon I arrived the heat was pretty oppressive, but by the weekend, Kansas was whipping up some good storms (on the outside edge of the seasonal hurricanes which usually have a strong impact there.)

Jim is watching the weather map, but having sailor Jeff with his nautical knots (there's an unlikely alliteration!) we feel secure in the battening of our hatches.

So when the winds blow strong and bring in the storm clouds from the north, scudding by at a furious rate of speed, our proud Scottish flag unfurls and the walls of our  carpeted "living room" keep us relatively warm and dry.

But how quickly it becomes hoodie weather!

But we are adaptable and this year we opened our own e-Library for quiet perusing of books, magazines or the editing of lyrics or chords on the songs that are shared between different i-devices.

Guess which one is reading an actual book (with paper pages?)

Land Rush is what begins "Winfield"....

Walnut Valley Festival 2003 (ariel view from the South)

The Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield officially opens on the Wednesday of the 3rd full weekend in September with Pre-Festival Workshops.

The interior gates are staffed and volunteers are checking armbands beginning Thursday for entrance to the festival grounds.

But as long-time festival goers know, the REAL festival begins the week BEFORE the festival opens with the LAND RUSH.


   

These are the two years that I participated in the Land Rush with my pals Jim and Jeff (in 2009); Jim and Juel (in 2010).  In the 2010 video, the front of Jim's white pickup is visible on the left side of this view as the campers are heading (in assigned numerical order) into the Walnut Grove (or West Campground.)  My van was parked under the streetlight just to the right of this view during the massive thunderstorms the night before.

The hard-core participants have gotten in line for this Land-Rush more than a week before this, at the end of August.

Once in line, the greetings to neighbors, the seeking out of old friends, and the picking of new and old tunes and story swaps begin....and continue throughout the festival.

I was able to arrive this year on the afternoon of Land Rush after leaving my home in Fort Collins at 3:18 am.   (more to come....)