Here’s a wrap-up of our Saginaw Subterranean Hammered Dulcimer Club’s performance/camping weekend at Carriage Days in Gladwin:

When it came to weather, we had it all! The rain and cold made for a miserable Thursday and Friday (about 8″ of rain and highs in the 60’s) but we had a decent Saturday, and Sunday couldn’t have been prettier. The crowd was still scarce, but we had a good play in the reenactor area.

As far as the music and our friends, we enjoyed them completely! Our group of club members was smaller than some years, but we certainly fit together nicely and had a good time! Someone commented that our music was better with a small group because we stayed together.

Unfortunately the Carriage Days organizers haven’t figured out how to arrange the schedule to work for us and we came away with the feeling that they were having a hard time fitting us in. We were made to feel we were “in the way.” Too often we had to compete with over-amplified music and the idea that they had two music groups scheduled at the same time, under the same roof, is unthinkable.

As a camping location, it is perfect. Lovely shady campsites, with hookups. And the organizers seem to be determined to make the event work, but we may have to pass next year. True, they give us “free” camping, but each member spent much, much more than just the cost of camping. The fuel to get there was about three times the cost of the campsite.

So the weekend was a mixture of fun and disappointments and uncertainty about our future involvement with Carriage Days.