Hello

[tstermitz]

The Spanish Peaks festival is the only one I've actually been to. It's a small, mostly regional event in La Veta, CO with a varied cast of teachers/performers.

The best part is that it is a casual and low-key festival, in a quiet town (village, I guess) in Southern Colorado, about 3 hours South of Denver.

The biggest negative is that some of the events are scattered to different venues 20-30 minutes away.

Of historical note, this part of Colorado was once part of Mexico... or actually it was the Northernmost reach of the Spanish frontier, settled long before the English came to the East coast of North America.

[ytliek]

Schools & Workshops Traditional Irish Music that include whistle instruction here in the USA.

https://www.catskillsirishartsweek.com/
https://www.swangathering.com/catalog/cl/celtic-week/
https://acadiatradschool.org/
https://oflahertyretreat.org/
http://www.cascadiairish.org/
https://portalmusicweek.com/
https://www.tionol.org/
https://www.eastcoastpipers.com/
http://centerforirishmusic.org/

You could add this one:

https://www.ccemadweek.com/

Added to the Whistle Instruction list (sticky above). Anyone here can add to the list as there may be lots more schools & workshops that I do not know about. Same for books and tutorials and other resources for whistle instruction. The sticky above is supposed to be a group effort for the whistle community.

[busterbill]

One way to step into an existing session is to ask one of the good players if they give lessons. Tell them you have been playing on your own for a long time and would like to sit down with someone and work up the tunes the group plays. Becoming comfortable playing with one of the persons in the group will make it easier to do that first "sit down" in the circle.

[piperjoe]

Well, even Joanie Madden was a learner once

Yeah...when she was two!

Piper Joe