It's that time...
...of year again - Farm Fest festivities start a week from today. I'm getting pretty excited now.
This marks our ninth "official" get together out at the old family farm, although the original gathering was over the Fourth of July holiday in 2002. We started calling it Farm Fest the following year and the year after that, some seven summers ago, we added live music to the mix with our little family band and started selling t-shirts as a souvenir of the weekend.
I really like this year's t-shirt design, although my original plan for this year's shirt was going to look like this:
Yep, good ol' Alan-A-Dale from the original animated Robin Hood. We came up with the rooster as the Farm Fest mascot years ago and Alan-A-Dale seemed a good fit for this year's shirt until I found stumbled upon the rooster "continent" pattern which is what the final design ended up to be. Come up with a cool motto, add my own little graphics to it, and voila! Here's your t-shirt:
That's how I truly feel about the old farm. I feel a sense of peace when I go out there like no place on earth. It is a very special place to me. It's where I grew up, where my parents lived, where my mom died. It will always be "home" no matter where I actually live.
For the live music this year, we have added several new songs to our set and it is going to be a lot of fun. When we rehearsed in Erskine back in June, everything fell in place surprisingly quick. It's added a new excitement to playing and it is always fun to sort of fly by the seat of your pants in front of an audience.
I think everyone knows that we pull off every Farm Fest "show" with a maximum of two full rehearsals - and one of them is the day before the actual performance. I suppose you can only really fully appreciate that if you have played in a live band before. It isn't an easy thing to do and we certainly aren't polished professionals, but it is fun.
Unfortunately, we are not going to have a big Thursday night "kick-off" theme party this year, but instead will just have an old fashioned sit-around-the-fire-and-shoot-the-breeze evening. Something tells me we will enjoy each other's company no matter what we do. You see, Farm Fest has taught me two important things over the years:
So, I hope I see you there.
And if I do, keep 'em cold and keep 'em coming.
This marks our ninth "official" get together out at the old family farm, although the original gathering was over the Fourth of July holiday in 2002. We started calling it Farm Fest the following year and the year after that, some seven summers ago, we added live music to the mix with our little family band and started selling t-shirts as a souvenir of the weekend.
I really like this year's t-shirt design, although my original plan for this year's shirt was going to look like this:
For the live music this year, we have added several new songs to our set and it is going to be a lot of fun. When we rehearsed in Erskine back in June, everything fell in place surprisingly quick. It's added a new excitement to playing and it is always fun to sort of fly by the seat of your pants in front of an audience.
I think everyone knows that we pull off every Farm Fest "show" with a maximum of two full rehearsals - and one of them is the day before the actual performance. I suppose you can only really fully appreciate that if you have played in a live band before. It isn't an easy thing to do and we certainly aren't polished professionals, but it is fun.
Unfortunately, we are not going to have a big Thursday night "kick-off" theme party this year, but instead will just have an old fashioned sit-around-the-fire-and-shoot-the-breeze evening. Something tells me we will enjoy each other's company no matter what we do. You see, Farm Fest has taught me two important things over the years:
- Never take next year for granted.
- Enjoy the company of the people you love.
So, I hope I see you there.
And if I do, keep 'em cold and keep 'em coming.
