If you know us, you have already heard about the huge hammered dulcimer festival which we’ve attended since 1991. It’s always held at the Osceola County Fairgrounds in Evart, Michigan.

We are involved with the management of the festival. I’m the Webmaster, Workshop Chairman, and Vice President. John is my right hand man. He sets up the workshop areas, helps me with the workshop area rest area, and also runs the one-on-one classes each day. Of course, there is the running and maintenance of the copy machine and dozens of little chores.

This event will start on July 19th and run until July 22nd, but we arrived on Tuesday, July 10th. Right now the fairgrounds is about 80% full and those sites that are still vacant are reserved, or on the distant edges without any hookups and a bit of a hike to the restrooms.

This year it’s been a bit of a struggle. The state fairgrounds inspector came through and determined that many of the campsites were illegal so they can’t be used. That’s made it tough to fit in people who have always attended. It’s never been a problem before, but this year, finding a place to park your trailer, van or tent will be tough.

Hopefully it’ll work and everyone will be happy, but each day it gets tougher as folks realize that they aren’t able to be where they expected.

It’s been really hot. Today we probably got to about 90 before a storm came through and cooled things down about 10 degrees.

To keep folks comfortable, we filled our small kiddie pool and several of us cooled off by dipping our feet. The picture shows Marj Mountainsong (left) of Eugene, Oregon, Gwyn Besner (right) from Traverse, City, Michigan. The pool was really refreshing. Tomorrow, I think it will be a tad cooler (88), but Monday and Tuesday we expect it to return to the mid 90’s, before it drops back down into the 80’s through the end of the festival.

The pool will be enjoyed and appreciated by lots of us.

What do we do in the time before the festival starts? Well, we talk, play music, and enjoy renewing old friendships and making new ones.

Many folks think of the pre-festival time as the most fun. It’s always so hectic when the actual festival activities begin. Seems like we’re rushing around constantly and never have time to take a breath.

We really haven’t had time to join a jam. Yes, John’s played a few tunes but mainly inside the air conditioned trailer where it was comfortably cool. Maybe tonight we’ll at least take a trip around the campground to enjoy some of the wonderful music which is only played here.