Cork Dulcimer Festival 2002 - Pre-Festival Report and Pictures - July 22, 23
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In January, 2002, I got an email from Cindy Ribet asking me if I had seen
postings from Christie Burns on the Hammered Dulcimer email list. I had not,
so she sent a couple of them to me. The postings spoke of a Hammered Dulcimer
Festival to be held in Cork, Ireland in July. I read over the emails, but
I had already planned what festivals I would attend this year, and what
workshops I would take at them. Besides, the plane tickets alone would cost
what the several festivals I would attend in the US would cost. I didn't think
too much more about it, except - I showed the email to Brandy. "What!?", she
said. "You'd be stupid not to go!" So, I reconsidered and we were on
our way to Cork City, County Cork, Republic of Ireland!!
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Around the first part of February, we had progressed from Brandy saying I
should go to her deciding to go also, and were on the way to getting plane tickets.
But one hitch in the plan was that I could not get a flight case for my
dulcimer that would be able to be checked as baggage by the airlines - I would
have to ship the dulcimer over to Cork and back, not something I was eager to
do. Brandy and I had discussed the summer before at Swannanoa that it would be nice
to have an additional dulcimer, a smaller, lighter one to take to festivals and
workshops. As I looked into the situation of going to Cork with a dulcimer
and asked some different people with my size dulcimer what they had done, it
became apparent that, for the money, it made sense to buy that new smaller,
lighter dulcimer to take to Cork. I emailed James Jones, and found out from
him what it would cost to get one of his Small Custom Chromatic models made of
the same woods as my larger one, and with a custom soft case and custom
flight case that would be small enough to go as checked baggage on the airlines.
Here is a picture of my new dulcimer. A picture the flight case is found on the
last page for July 29.
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As the time got closer, and as I began to read more about the festival and
understood more completely what it was all about, I became more and more
excited. And after reading Christie's thesis (download it in PDF format from:
www.corkdulcimerfest.org/Dulcimer_Thesis.pdf),
I got even more excited, as if that was possible!
However, it probably was not until we were at RDU International Airport
awaiting our first flight that we started to really believe we were going to
Ireland!
Boy, was I "wired"! On Sunday morning, before we left on Monday afternoon, I got up at 4:30AM - but it was 9:30AM Cork time! And again on Monday morning (7/23), I got up at 4:50AM - 9:50AM Cork time!! Our flights over were good. We made all our connections with no problem, but on the way over the Atlantic, even though I had been up since 4:50AM (EST), I could not sleep! So, by the time we boarded the Aer Lingus flight from Heathrow to Cork, I had been awake for right at 24 hours. When we got on the Aer Lingus plane Tuesday morning (7/24), I finally relaxed - it was the last leg of our trip to Cork. We had no more connections to make. When we landed, we would be at our destination. So, I finally went to sleep for a little while!!
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At the Cork airport, we made it through Immigration and Customs, changed our
Dollars into Euros, and hauled everything outside to get a taxi to the
apartments. It was now about 11:30AM in Cork. Getting all our baggage in a
taxi was an interesting proposition. We had 4 carry-ons, one suitcase, one golf
bag stuffed with my dulcimer stand and my clothes, and my dulcimer in
its flight case! The flight case, of course, was what was giving us the
problems - ah, the life of a traveling musician! Finally after several attempts
to solve the problem, one of the drivers was able to get the flight case and
golf bag in his trunk, so off we went into the city of Cork!! Unfortunately, when
we left the plane at Cork, we put the camera in the bag, and didn't get it out for the trip
into the city. But, the countryside was beautiful. The thing that surprised us
was that the driver had the radio on FM96!! It was the same 96FM patter and
songs as we get here in the States - just spoken with a different accent!
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So, we got to the apartments (the light sand/pink-colored building on the
left side of the picture), unloaded everything, rang the bell, and went to
the office where Josephine, of whom we have no pictures, got us our keys,
helped us get up to the apartment, showed us how things worked, and left us to
ourselves. We were in apartment 21 on the 3rd floor. The apartment had 4
bedrooms, a furnished kitchen, 2 bathrooms, and an "L"-shaped
livingroom/diningroom area. Six of us from the States ended up staying in this
apartment. Brandy and I were in one room, Emily and Cindy in one, Jim in one, and David
James in the other.
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After Josephine left, we unpacked, showered and changed clothes, and went out for lunch to An
Spailpin Fanac, a pub on Main Street in which the Friday night opening events would take
place. They had some good Murphy's and a basic pub lunch which was
definitely edible! Then, taking pictures along the way, we returned to the
apartment for a much-needed nap! To the left here you see a shot of Main Street.
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After our naps, we got ready and were headed out to eat and back to An Spailpin Fanac to hear the session that night. When we got downstairs, we found that Christie and her Dad, John, had set up a "comm board" where festival participants could leave messages for one another, and where Christie could post messages and any schedule changes. We saw a message to us from Christie timed at 8:30PM. It was then 8:20PM by my watch, and we had heard someone talking and leaving the building as we were coming down the stairs, so we rushed outside in time to see a couple of people walking down the street. We tried to catch up, not being sure it was Christie and John, but we saw them go into a restaurant, so we followed them in. I knew it was them by then. The restaurant was Curran's, and we caught up with them and ate supper together. After that we went to An Spailpin Fanac, got some Guinness and listened to the session. After a while, about 1:30AM, we headed back to the apartments for sleep, more sleep!
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[CDF 2002 Pix Pre-Fest - July 22, 23]
[CDF 2002 Pix Pre-Fest - July 24]
[CDF 2002 Pix Pre-Fest - July 25]
[CDF 2002 Pix July 26]
[CDF 2002 Pix July 27]
[CDF 2002 Pix July 28]