I went to The Willy Clansey Week in Milltown Malby Co Clare last year and the Joe Mooney festival in Drumshambo Co Leitrim. I was advised that it was best to go on the early days of each of these because they get crowded on last few days. Well I never seen such a crowded festival like them and I only attended day 1, 2 & 3! In one pub I counted 8 separate sessions all of a very high standard and when we eventually left to get some food there was a queue of about 100 people mostly with instruments outside on the street waiting to get in, so when the two of us left they let another two musicians in. I couldn’t believe it. When anyone asks what is Willy Clancy like? The answer: TOO BUSY!!!! I can’t wait to go back again this year, but yes I prefer a quieter festival. I also noticed that many musicians travel a long way to get to these festivals only to play music with the same group in their regular home sessions. Each to their own!

yes definitely!

But you need experienced players for the small jams…
or you tend to run out of tunes…

…but my most blissful moments have been in groups of 2 - 4 where we know the same tunes.

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Originally posted by martyjoe

I went to The Willy Clansey Week in Milltown Malby Co Clare last year and the Joe Mooney festival in Drumshambo Co Leitrim. I was advised that it was best to go on the early days of each of these because they get crowded on last few days. Well I never seen such a crowded festival like them and I only attended day 1, 2 & 3! In one pub I counted 8 separate sessions all of a very high standard and when we eventually left to get some food there was a queue of about 100 people mostly with instruments outside on the street waiting to get in, so when the two of us left they let another two musicians in. I couldn’t believe it. When anyone asks what is Willy Clancy like? The answer: TOO BUSY!!!! I can’t wait to go back again this year, but yes I prefer a quieter festival. I also noticed that many musicians travel a long way to get to these festivals only to play music with the same group in their regular home sessions. Each to their own!

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THat sounds crazy!! A line to get in and play sounds like a nightmare...
Well, At least you guys don't have to worry about Irish Trad 'dying out'....

I like to play with one or two other people. What I really miss from my younger days are house parties where there would be three or four musicians in the kitchen, along with half-a-dozen or more 'fans', and any number of other partiers throughout the house, and wandering in and out of the kitchen.

Unfortunately, no one I know now wants to play fiddle tunes with me for more than about five minutes, and I haven't been to a party in decades, other than a few I was hired to play for, so ... c'est la vie .....

Yes the party days were great. We used to drive around Melbourne in the wee hours of the morning after playing a gig and find a random party and crash with our instruments. We were almost always welcomed once we started playing music. But that was in the early 80’s I don’t think that sort of thing happens now.

I went to an "event" not long ago. There is always a regularly scheduled "jam" - usually attended by as many a 30 or more folks. I sit and listen mostly - I might get an instrument out and play 1 or 2.

It may have just been me, but it seemed like some friends were a little put-off because I didn't join in - after they "invited" me. Sorry.

Instead - I spend a few hours with a few new friends - and thoroughly enjoyed myself.

And just got back from another "event" - maybe a little more than a hundred. Great time playing at a few jams with 5 or 6 at most.

2 more planned - and looking for more.  Help. Don't let me miss one.

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Originally posted by tonyelder

I like the smaller festivals....

I like smaller jams...

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Those are 2 different things. Larger festivals don't just have large jams; can give more opportunity to have smaller jams. I just see it as having more diverse options, unique combinations of individuals.

Getting ready for just such environment; annual Alaska Folk Festival... hundreds of musicians to potentially play with, (some I've known for over 40 years). Plenty of small jams opportunity, most in hotel rooms, back room of pub/cafe, or someones kitchen.

Some of the much smaller gatherings... seems more likely that everyone ends up feeling compelled to invite everyone in, not make anyone feel excluded, so ends up joining in big group.

Forgot to add. For many folks, it's not just physically playing tunes, (esp with strangers)... it's a social gathering, hanging out with and visiting with old friends, and meeting new ones; a sense of community relationships.

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Originally posted by alaskafiddler

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Originally posted by tonyelder

I like the smaller festivals....

I like smaller jams...

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Those are 2 different things.

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Yeap. And that's all I meant. When it comes to "gatherings" - those are my preferences.  Nothing more.   

 

I've been thinking more and more of the Aura festival at the Aura Community Hall in the woods somewhere northeast of L'Anse. MI. It's usually in conflict with a larger event, Hiawatha Traditional Music festival, but every 4 or 5 years they don't conflict and I get to spend an afternoon at and I always have a great time. Bands and pick-up bands sign up for 15 minute slots on stage inside the hall and then the jams are outside the building, where I always meet someone I know. Incredible accordion playing. Also lots of C&W bar bands, etc. Beer, hot dogs, fry bread. 4th full weekend in July. Hiawatha is the 2nd from the last full weekend in July. I'm committed to volunteering at Hiwatha to a large extent, but maybe I'll volunteer some at Aura instead.

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Originally posted by martyjoe

I went to The Willy Clansey Week in Milltown Malby Co Clare last year and the Joe Mooney festival in Drumshambo Co Leitrim. I was advised that it was best to go on the early days of each of these because they get crowded on last few days. Well I never seen such a crowded festival like them and I only attended day 1, 2 & 3! In one pub I counted 8 separate sessions all of a very high standard and when we eventually left to get some food there was a queue of about 100 people mostly with instruments outside on the street waiting to get in, so when the two of us left they let another two musicians in. I couldn’t believe it. When anyone asks what is Willy Clancy like? The answer: TOO BUSY!!!! I can’t wait to go back again this year, but yes I prefer a quieter festival. I also noticed that many musicians travel a long way to get to these festivals only to play music with the same group in their regular home sessions. Each to their own!

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I went to the first Dunmore East Bluegrass Festival some 30 years ago.  Never seen anything quite like it before or since.  I absolutely loved the "pub crawl" organization throughout that beautiful little town and the people, as always in Eire, were just great.  It was well-attended, but nothing like the nightmare you described.  

As for jams, give me 2-6 pickers.  Any more than that and I'm just staying around to be social rather than for the enjoyment of the music.

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Originally posted by boxbow

I've been thinking more and more of the Aura festival at the Aura Community Hall in the woods somewhere northeast of L'Anse. MI. It's usually in conflict with a larger event, Hiawatha Traditional Music festival, but every 4 or 5 years they don't conflict and I get to spend an afternoon at and I always have a great time. Bands and pick-up bands sign up for 15 minute slots on stage inside the hall and then the jams are outside the building, where I always meet someone I know. Incredible accordion playing. Also lots of C&W bar bands, etc. Beer, hot dogs, fry bread. 4th full weekend in July. Hiawatha is the 2nd from the last full weekend in July. I'm committed to volunteering at Hiwatha to a large extent, but maybe I'll volunteer some at Aura instead.

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I've always thought of the UP as being very unique - in a lot of ways. Even a different culture than down in the "lower 48" (as we use to call it).   Gotta be kool place to be.

Aura is very much a picker's event; originally a fiddle contest, I've heard. Limited camping. Hiawatha is more of a performance event with several stages, albeit with a big emphasis on workshops and campsite jams. There's festival camping, so it's rather cramped. We make it work anyway. And I got the schedule for Aura wrong. It's the 3rd full weekend in July while Hiawatha is the 2nd to the last full weekend. That isn't always the same weekend.
As for the UP, I've lived over half of my 68 years here and I'm still figuring it out. My wife is a local girl, as is her mother and grandmother. She informs me that I'll never be a Yooper. Nothing personal. It's just an accident of birth and, gracious as ever, she doesn't hold it against me. It's home to many cultures, from indigenous people to the various waves from all over Europe who came for furs and lumber, copper, gold and iron. Until I came here from Iowa I had never encountered a community with such a living culture of homemade music.

In the early 90s up until the early 2000s I attended a lot of small informal festivals/gatherings in West Virginia and far Western Maryland. Got a lot of one on one time with fiddlers now gone on... Grover Broadwater (and his brother Robert), JC Hollis, Larry Rush, Homer Beaman, Joe Coe, Elmer Rich. Little gatherings at state parks and state forests, contests, community centers... Very eclectic jams...could be a Merle Haggard song... then a traditional fiddle tune... some bluegrass... even polkas...random old timers showing up and singing one song or a playing a fiddle piece no one could follow... I enjoyed those events more than any big official festivals I've been to. There's a nice one in Morgantown, WV called the Worley Gardner Festival that still has that experience... totally free...held in a school...little jams here and there

https://www.hangoutstorage.com/fiddlehangout.com/storage/photos/medium/23/23185-132310642026.jpg

This is the downside (for some) about living here.  I took these shots today, April 6, 2026.  There is at least 30" of snow everywhere.  The really tall banks are just from the snowblower.  The 3rd picture of my backyard is closer to 48".  I happen to think it's a big plus but it does seem to bug some people. 

Looks very similar to what our home looked like in Anchorage. We didn't mind the snow that much - or the other stuff that goes with it. We have a LOT of fond memories. - and miss our friends there.

Our back yard - from the deck.