Friday Harbor

[Whistlin'Dixie]

Did anyone go? How was it?

[Doug_Tipple]

Did anyone go? How was it?

I went to Friday Harbor once a few years ago. I didn't get off of the ferry, however. From what I could see standing on deck, Friday Harbor looked beautiful and expensive. Jon C went to the flute class this year, and I am sure that he will tell us more about it. Best wishes, everyone.

[AaronMalcomb]

Actually Jon's flutes went without him. I believe John Kerr was a C&F attendee as well as another person on DCrom's thread about his new flute.

I didn't go due to the class filling up fast and to my decision to attend some piping workshops this summer.

[Jon C.]

Actually Jon's flutes went without him. I believe John Kerr was a C&F attendee as well as another person on DCrom's thread about his new flute.

My flutes get all the fun...

[monkey587]

I went. It was great. Snow, hail, rain... everything!

[johnkerr]

Yes, I did go to the Friday Harbor camp earlier this month - my first trip to the other Washington (I'm from DC) as well as my first visit to the west coast in general. I had a great time, both at the camp and on the couple of days beforehand that I was bumming around Seattle. I think I experienced all four seasons of weather in the one week! (Maybe even in one day, whatever day it was that it snowed overnight...) When I travel I don't generally tend to self-identify as a C&F person, so I may well have met some of you (and you may have met me) without either of us knowing it. I did meet Jon C. at the South Lake Union concert the Sunday prior to camp, and had a chance to try his Delrin flutes briefly on the Sunday after, during one of the tea stops we made as I helped transport Catherine McEvoy from Anacortes down to Seattle. (Did she end up buying that flute, Jon? She did seem to like one of them, although I can't remember which one it was...)

Besides any C&Fers I may have unknowingly met, I did run into quite a few folks I had met previously at Gaelic Roots, East Durham, etc, so I didn't lack for company even though I may have been the only East Coast person there. This camp has a reputation for intimacy, and it was partly that which brought me there, although the main draw was the chance to take concertina with Gearoid O hAllmhurain and see Catherine McEvoy again. (I think by the end of the week she had gotten over thinking of me as some kind of traitor because I was taking concertina class rather than flute. Perhaps Gearoid told her how long it's still likely to be before I become a presentable concertina player.) So if anyone is wondering who I am, I'm the guy who was playing flute in the sessions but not in the flute class. And it was in the sessions where the real intimacy of this camp became obvious. At most if not all other camps, you rarely see the instructors in a session unless it's a pre-arranged one that's usually way overcrowded. But at Friday Harbor, all of the instructors (Gearoid, Catherine, James Keane, Daithi Sproule, Patrick Orceau, Randal Bays et al) could be seen just walking up and joining in on sessions that had already been started by the students - which in the world of Irish music camps is practically unheard of. Perhaps it was just the good mix of instructors they had this year (and Randal announced from the stage at the final concert on Saturday that he intends to bring them all back next year), but whatever it was it was nice.

As I mentioned elsewhere, it was interesting for me as an East Coast guy to play in the sessions at Friday Harbor. As I said, almost all of the other campers were from the West Coast or at least west of the Rockies. When the sessions would start up each night, just the campers would be playing and I found that I knew most if not all of the tunes. (I played Banish Misfortune more times last week than I have in the entire rest of my life, but they weren't all beginner/generic tunes being played at these sessions.) But anytime I started up a set that's common here in the DC session scene (RiRa branch anyway) it seemed that not too many of the Westerners would join in. (Hopefully the reason wasn't the way I was playing them...) Later on in the evening after the mostly Irish instructors would join the session and eventually form the core of it, I found that my tune repertoire intersection went down to about 50%. But I got lots of great new tunes recorded that I'll start learning and playing.

So, would I go back? Well, it's a very long trip for me, so probably not. But that would be the only thing keeping me away so, really, you never know. I just might...

[Gaaslaj]

I was there, met John K., recognized him form CF. Intense week, 18 of us in Catherines flute class! Lots of tunes. On the last night, I heard that a session in town went until 4:30am. The most fun I had was on the ferry ride to and from Anacortes when there was a "floating" session! The trip back was great, with sunshine, blue water, views of the San Juan islands going by, and great music... J.

[Jon C.]

Yes, I did go to the Friday Harbor camp earlier this month - my first trip to the other Washington (I'm from DC) as well as my first visit to the west coast in general. I had a great time, both at the camp and on the couple of days beforehand that I was bumming around Seattle. I think I experienced all four seasons of weather in the one week! (Maybe even in one day, whatever day it was that it snowed overnight...) When I travel I don't generally tend to self-identify as a C&F person, so I may well have met some of you (and you may have met me) without either of us knowing it. I did meet Jon C. at the South Lake Union concert the Sunday prior to camp, and had a chance to try his Delrin flutes briefly on the Sunday after, during one of the tea stops we made as I helped transport Catherine McEvoy from Anacortes down to Seattle. (Did she end up buying that flute, Jon? She did seem to like one of them, although I can't remember which one it was...)

She is buying the Delrin Pratten.

Besides any C&Fers I may have unknowingly met, I did run into quite a few folks I had met previously at Gaelic Roots, East Durham, etc, so I didn't lack for company even though I may have been the only East Coast person there. This camp has a reputation for intimacy, and it was partly that which brought me there, although the main draw was the chance to take concertina with Gearoid O hAllmhurain and see Catherine McEvoy again. (I think by the end of the week she had gotten over thinking of me as some kind of traitor because I was taking concertina class rather than flute. Perhaps Gearoid told her how long it's still likely to be before I become a presentable concertina player.) So if anyone is wondering who I am, I'm the guy who was playing flute in the sessions but not in the flute class. And it was in the sessions where the real intimacy of this camp became obvious. At most if not all other camps, you rarely see the instructors in a session unless it's a pre-arranged one that's usually way overcrowded. But at Friday Harbor, all of the instructors (Gearoid, Catherine, James Keane, Daithi Sproule, Patrick Orceau, Randal Bays et al) could be seen just walking up and joining in on sessions that had already been started by the students - which in the world of Irish music camps is practically unheard of. Perhaps it was just the good mix of instructors they had this year (and Randal announced from the stage at the final concert on Saturday that he intends to bring them all back next year), but whatever it was it was nice.

We all went to a session next store after the South Lake Union concert, was there until about 12:30am. Seems like Catherine was just warming up at the concert... I gave Gearoid O hAllmhurain a ride back to his hotel, (hope that doesn't make ME a traitor) he was a great guy, and very patient when I got lost...