Faerieworlds - The Music

I wrote this post a couple of days ago and wondered why no one had commented on it. Er, I forgot to push "Publish Post". That's me, always on top of things!

I promised otherworldly creatures but instead I decided to show you the bands today. Well, musicians are sort of otherworldly creatures, aren't they?

Here's the main stage. Folks sitting, folks dancing up front. I don't know who's performing at this particularly moment. There were so many great bands. The music went from opening each day 'til closing, which meant until midnight on Friday and Saturday. And there was a main stage and a smaller stage on the other side of the festival, so it was virtually impossible to see and hear all the performers.

I was most excited last year to see one of my favorite pagan bands, Gaia Consort. Here are the two main singers, Chris and Sue - I have never seen that woman when she wasn't smiling!

Y'know how one fantasizes about life - how one's garden will look perfect the next year or your living room will look like something out of a decorating magazine or everyone will have the perfect time at a family gathering. Reality usually gives us something short of our fantasy. Our garden will look pretty but you can see the weeds, the living room usually has cat toys and iced tea glasses scattered all over the place, someone gets their feelings hurt before the day is through. Well, in my perfect world my grandkids would grow up with all the magic and fantasy I wish I could have given my kids for more of their childhood. In a surprising twist of things, it turns out that all the girls could hardly wait to come back to hear this band and here's proof that sometimes life just can't get any better - my grandbaby dancing to the magic. Well, actually, she's standing in the front of the stage in this photo, gauging when no one was watching so she could steal some more fruit from the altar. But she was dancing just before that.


Another favorite band that we discovered last year, Kan'Nal. The PERFECT dancing music. Unfortunately this year my feet were completely danced out by the time they performed so I only managed a few songs before I had to drop out of the crowd. Fortunately, they are also an awesome band to watch, with all sorts of stage theatre.


Because they were everyone's favorite band for dancing I had to shoot above the crowd to get photos of their performance.


Aren't these wings stunning. Here they are at twilight - the faery hour.....


And here's the stage at night. All the night performances had a backdrop of video images on the screen. Some had Froud's beautiful art as a light show, others brought their own amazing photography and art.


Kelly and Emilio from the band Woodland. Also two of the founders of the festival. They are wonderful performers and even more wonderful people who make this magical event possible and show everyone such joy and kindness. I didn't get much of a chance to really listen to their music last year, but this year I really enjoyed them and I've been listening to their CD a lot since I've been home.

Here are those great wings in the dark.

They had a number of performers from across the globe. This ethereal woman is Priscilla Hernandez and she traveled all the way from Barcelona, Spain. I had checked out her music online before and it was pretty but didn't grab me. In person, it was haunting and wondrous. It just drew one in. She was my Hubby's favorite performer. In between songs she was bubbly and charming, chatting with the audience in her not-quite-perfect English. (which isn't a criticism. Having been forced to butcher a number of foreign languages in order to communicate with someone who didn't speak English, I'm so impressed with people who jump right in and go for it. And English has to be one of the hardest languages, because so much of what we do with it doesn't really follow the rules we say it does.)


One evening Kelly and Priscilla sang together and it was a not-to-be-missed experience, the dark haired raven and the white haired will-o-the-wisp complemented each other perfectly.


The stage drama was wonderful. Here a dark winged creature engulfs her from behind. Sadly, life imitated art in this instance. After Priscilla and her partner arrived back home to Spain, they were attacked at gunpoint and all their sound and camera equipment, the money they made from selling their CD's, their passports, and keys to their home and vehicle, all stolen. Fortunately and most importantly, they were not injured in the attack, but that doesn't diminish the horror or the experience. A page has been set up to help them by donations. Or, this would be a good time to donate towards bringing out her new CD. Or buy the CD she has out already and experience her music for yourself.

The beautiful altar just grew and grew throughout the festival.

Since our blanket and gathering spot was near the main stage, we had to make an effort to get over to the smaller stage for performances. I caught most of this great pirate band that I believe was called Man Overboard. ARGHHHHHH!!!!! They were fun.

Another great performance on the small stage was done by a theatre troupe called Mythmaker. We were bummed to miss their main performance, but they also wandered about the festival in their costumes.

And even better than that, some of them joined us back at the campground for late night story telling on Saturday night and on the last night they came to our group's campfire and treated us to fire dancing and drumming late into the night!

I challenge you to come up with a more magical weekend of music than this one! For more links to these bands and the many I didn't mention at all (although I certainly enjoyed them as well) you can go to Faerieworlds and choose "The Bands" or "The Performers" in the sidebar.