2008 Season Wrapped Up

Well, we made it through! It was great. The weather was beautiful and the crowd was the biggest ever. Thanks so much for supporting Dumplin Valley and for being such a good attentive audience. The bands commented about the great crowd and how they appreciated the support they got from the audience. These musicians love what they do and the feedback they get from you is very important to them (and to us).
We are grateful for the fact that you all left the farm pretty much the way you found it. And we'd like to thank you for all the compliments on the clean facilities.
And let's not forget the army of volunteers! If it weren't for them, there would be no festival. There are a lot of behind the scene jobs that have to be done and our volunteers came through with flying colors.
Your experience here begins with the gate and those people worked tirelessly to get you processed as quickly as possible.
I know a lot of you thought Bobby was Joe and that Joe was Bobby. That's okay! They both zip around and get a lot done. Maybe we should get them a shirt with their name on it! ha
Thanks to everyone who helped us have a successful festival............volunteers, sponsors, vendors, and last but not least............all you festivarians!
It was great to see all of our "old festivarians" as well as all the newbies. And it was great having several of our family members attending this year - including my 96 year old Aunt.
We would like to especially thank Don Clark for the beautiful bagpipe rendition of Amazing Grace up in the woods. Don, you will never know how much that meant to us.
The "Lady in Red" was a special addition to the show on Saturday night. And let's not forget the mosquito who started a chain of events that led to some hilarious unexpected shenanigans on stage! (you had to be there to understand!)
Yes, 2008 will go down as one of the most enjoyable shows ever. Thank You Thank You Thank You for coming. And if you weren't here..................we hope you'll come in 2009 to join us for some good wholesome entertainment.

Great Day!

Thursday started off with a dose of beautiful weather, well-behaved school kids on a bluegrass field trip, a great crowd and wonderful music. If the rest of the weekend is anything like yesterday, I can't wait!
The shows yesterday were phenomenal. There were a lot of festivarians as well as folks coming to a bluegrass event for the first time. And the "first timers" who took the time to run me down were very happy with their decision to try us out this year.
The food is great, too. We have some great vendors. Last night I was lucky enough to be out late when one vendor came back to put some more briskets in to smoke........ooooooooooooooooooweeeeeeeeeeee.........does that ever smell good!!!!?!
And I've already had breakfast from one of them this morning. And, let's not forget the chocolate smoothies, fried green tomatoes, best kettle corn you ever had and home made pork rinds!!! I bet somebody's mouth is watering.
I didn't do much picture taking yesterday but Roy did so I will post those later. I did a little video but not sure how to upload it yet. We'll try to get some photos on here tonight.
Come on out and join us.
M

Welcome to the 9th Annual Dumplin Valley Bluegrass Festival

Festival Time In Tennessee!

Well, it looks like we're ready for bluegrass!
We've got campers galore on the farm, had our potluck
supper tonight, been pickin' and grinnin' and even did
a little hair cuttin'. Yep, you can come to Dumplin
Valley and let your hair down OR you can come and
get your ears lowered..........your choice!
The weather is absolutely great. It actually feels
like Fall. We are anticipating a wonderful weekend
that began with a scrumptious meal tonight and will
continue in the morning with some guests from Northview
Middle School, Jones Cove Middle School and New Center
Middle School.
Excitement is in the air in Dumplin Valley! Come out and
see for yourself. If you live close by and have never
ventured out our way, now is the time to see for yourself
how great a bluegrass festival can be. With all the great
bands lined up and the beautiful weather, you are sure to
enjoy yourself. You might even make a few new friends....
this bluegrass crowd is full of friendly folks.
See you soon!
M

Countdown to Dumplin

As you can see, Joe is working hard to get the festival started. It was really hot with extra high humidity yesterday while he was working. So he used the resources on hand to make working conditions a bit more bearable.
Several festivarians are already on site. That usually means a lot of visiting, maybe a little card-playing, some jamming, lots of laughter, groups going out to eat and probably some homemade ice cream tonight.
Joe's favorite is my Butterfinger ice cream and since tomorrow is his birthday (kids, are you reading this.....don't forget Dad's b'day! ha) I guess I'll make a batch of it.
The weather forecast looks great for this week with temps cooling off some. Come on out and join us for some great music.
M

Camping

We still have primitive/dry camping available for next week. If you are interested in camping, please give us a call ASAP.
Got some much needed rain last night.....just enough to make the grass green up a little.
By the way, how do you like the look of our new dumplinvalleybluegrass.com website?

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Update

Hello to all the festivarians planning to attend the 9th Annual Dumplin Valley Bluegrass Festival. Although it is 2 weeks until "kickoff", we already have the company of a few of our campers. So, it looks like there's going to be some picking and jamming going on as well as a whole lot of preparation for a great show. Joe and I always enjoy visiting with the early birds who come to stay with us prior to the event. During the festival we don't have the time to visit the way we'd like to.
Don't forget about the Wednesday night potluck on the 17th. I know some of you are already planning what you will bring. That is always a fun night.
Here is a "post-festival" note............Paul Williams and the Victory Trio will be performing all the music for the service on Sunday morning, 9/21, at Kodak United Methodist Church (5 min. from here). That is our church and we want to invite everyone to attend that day for the 9am service. We have "bluegrass church" on the 3rd Sunday each month at the 9am service. Dress is casual so you don't have to worry about dressing up. And keep in mind that there is no set check-out time that day so you will have plenty of time to attend the service and then come back and pack up.
Also, the vendor who served breakfast in June will be back and will be there again on Sunday morning so you won't have to cook while you get your rv's ready to roll.
We are looking forward to this year's show and seeing all of our old friends as well as meeting new ones. See you soon!
M