Fellow festivarians,
I wasn’t there but I guess Delfest 2009 was hit by a huge storm over the weekend. Here’s some footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIu5iZJxbTI
:eek :eek
Glad everyone’s OK!
And that does not even really do it justice. It was a freaking intense storm that lasted for a good hour at least. I still have bruises on my hands from the hail while trying to save a tent. The festival was fantastic though, with the one exception that they did not bother to tell us that they moved the Crooked Still set up two hours on Sunday Morning so we missed it. 
my sister went to that festival, she called me right after the storm to tell me about it
after just watching that video, i had no idea it was that intense! she said it was like a hurricane, and dang, looks like she was right!
thats awesome the storm came right during vince’s set! i mean, barring the music being stopped, looks like he did blow the roof off the place! heres a gold medal for ya buddy :medal
Part of the reason why I went was Crooked Still and I missed them. Sam Bush didn’t get to finish his set, and late night Railroad Earth was really late night and the only thing they would tell us was “after the main stage”. Well we had a camp to repair; we had to guess when “after the main stage” was.
On the 1-10 scale of festivals with 10 going to Rocky Grass, this was a 4 at best. They ran out of non-diet drinks on Sunday! They moved the schedule around without telling people; you had to leave the music area to get free water, they had ATVs running over people who walking to the music area, the campground had those big parking lot lights on all night, they didn’t recycle glass. The worse food I’ve ever had at a festival use to go a country festival in Iowa, the pizza at Delfest was only worth buying to pass around to see how fast people spit it out. (Although the Italian booth was a savior, slow but at least it was real food). Good beer, but while they offered a cup to re-use, they people kept giving me new plastic cups since the re-use cup was smaller than the others they gave you at the same price! The sound was good, and I can’t blame them for the hail. But really if it wasn’t for the music, the festival wouldn’t have any merit to at all.
Just saying to this: It isn’t worth to travel to.
Time for Planet Bluegrass festivals now. They do it right.
Apollo,
I also attended DelFest but sounds like we had somewhat different experiences. Overall I would give it a 7.5.
Remember this is only the 2nd year of the festival so they definitely have some kinks to work out. I agree with you that not announcing the Crooked Still time change was a big no no!
I didn’t eat too much of the vendor food but the breakfast burrito and fish tacos had were tasty. :thumbsup
Overall the best things about this fest was the music lineup and the vibe!
Del McCoury all 3 days! Leftover, Old Crow, RRE, Sam (yes, cut short), Ollabelle. Lee Boys, Infamous Stringdusters, Tim O’Brien, Dark Star! We had an awesome camping site 50 yds from the entrance so we could just chill at our spot, drink our free beer, and meet cool festivarians whenever we wanted to.
If you are within 6 hours drive (we were less than 3) I highly recommend visiting this festival for years to come. :cheers
DEL YEAH!
I was at Delfest as well.
My take: Awesome time. Del is the man. Can’t believe he was up till 4 am playing with everyone on saturday night after that storm.
That storm was freaking insane. Campsite destroyed but oh well, raged all night. I ended up leaving sunday and missed the day. disappointed about that but oh well.
Ronnie is so freaking good, spitting image of Del and his voice, wow, Midnight Blues was so good I was blown away. I always knew he was good, but damn I was loving it.
RRE also had two fantastic sets. I have seen them 15-20 times and both were awesome sets.
Would def do again!!!
I would drive 3 hours for it; but I’m a from Colorado and while the line up was great (and the sound was as good as Planet Bluegrass) that was all Delfest had to offer. It’s a lot don’t get wrong, it’s why we drove there. But there are many festivals with nearly as good lineups a lot closer to home, and ran better. This may be the 2nd Delfest, but it’s ran by High Sierra and those folks should know the logistics of a festival much better than it showed.
Don’t get me wrong. The music & the sound are the most important thing at a Festival, the people 2nd. We meet some wonderful people. So the main things were great, but the rest of it was a mix bag at best. (Yea those Fish Tacos were good, too bad the storm got them). Really having back stage traffic share the road as the people camping? Can you think of another festival you’ve been at that does that? Or another festival where you can’t just buy a soda with your meal? Just some basic stuff that I found puzzling.
I was there. I had an awesome time. My wife and I drove from Colorado in order to lug my bass for the academy. We were the first folks there (we even beat Ronnie McCoury, who camped next to us for the whole week), and while I agree about the food, I thought they did an admirable job in the face of tremendous adversity. Getting to know (AND PLAY WITH!!) the DMB was the best part for me. That band is at the top of the game. Leftover’s set was too short, schedule changes were in flux, and the weather gods were angry, but I plan on driving cross country again next year. It was worth it just to listen to Jeremy Garrett (on guitar!) and Travis Book from the Stringdusters sing sweet harmony in my ear at our campfire next to the river. The academy rocked! and the campground picking was sweet. I met at least 3 other groups of folks from Colorado. I expect to see them there next year too. There was an undercover police presence, and at least 26 folks were detained for marijuana. One of those detained was a police officer from out of state (according to inside sources at the Allegany County courthouse, we know some folks who work there). I will post some video of our weather experience, which was mostly inside of our RV. I deny any complicity in a joyride in Ronnie McCoury’s golf cart. We were never there!