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To thousands across the country who make the annual pilgrimage there, it's known as simply 'Winfield.'
Residents of that Kansas town tend to call it 'the bluegrass festival.'
And surely somewhere, somebody calls it by its name - The Walnut Valley Festival.
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What you'll need ::
· camp gear
· rain gear
· cooler
· radio
· snacks
· fiddle, etc.
· $ for food/camping
· beverages
note :: alcohol not permitted inside official festival
What's provided ::
· ice
· hot meals
· showers
· good times
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In its 31st year, it's one of Kansas' oldest music traditions. And it's one of the largest — more than 15,000 people buy tickets to the four day festival every year. Hundreds more set up camp just outside the official festival gates, content with the countless impromptu shows heard around the clock and around every turn of the fairgrounds' 135 acres.
The festival's four official stages showcase big name acts from sunup to well past sundown Sept. 19th through the 22nd.
For many, though, the Walnut Valley Festival is already beginning.
Vehicles are lining up for 'Land Rush' — the annual dash for the festival's best campsites. Those lush plots along the Walnut river or near a favorite stage, under a traditional tree, or perhaps as far as possible from the boisterous Pecan Grove grounds.
Aug. 28th was the first day festival-goers could gather on the rolling Cowley County Fairgrounds and several hundred vehicles had already arrived, said festival organizer Rex Flottman.
"It's pretty amazing to stand there and watch these things come through. It's like a big parade," Flottman said. When Land Rush starts on Sept. 12, some 1000 vehicles will pour through in just a few hours, he said.
"They go by you and one of 'em may be a $200,000 Trailways motor home and the next one will be a Volkswagon beetle that doesn't look like it could make it across town let alone from Montana or Alaska," he said. "It's a hugely diverse crowd."
"And it's the same way in the campgrounds when you're strolling through there and you drop in on a jam session. You may sit there and play a little music or listen to some music and not know who any of the people are, but they'll welcome you in, let you listen or play or whatever," Flottman said.
"Then the next day you'll be sitting in the grandstand at Stage 1 and one of them will turn out to be one of the … the headlining artists."
The Yonder Mountain String Band
Usually a headlining artist himself, Yonder Mountain String Band's banjo man Dave Johnston has always gone to Winfield as a spectator. An active spectator, that is.
"I've been a number of times both as a fan and to play," he wrote in an email. "I remember all the bands being great, but most of my time was spent in the campgrounds picking."
This year will be Yonder Mountain's first to bring its high energy, not-so traditional bluegrass music to the official stages.
"We've always wanted to play Winfield because it's such a good festival. It's a chance for us to stay in touch with our bluegrassiness," read an email from the band's tour through California.
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[above] A typical camp hosting whoever happens to stop by and [below]
Larry Krudwig, will broadcast his seventh year of Radio KWVF on the FM dial at 105.7 mHz, beginning Wednesday Sept. 11th until the final notes reach across the valley on Sunday Sept. 22nd. |
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"Winfield has a real down home and very relaxed type of vibe to it. It's a pretty big festival but doesn't have that big fest vibe. It feels like a small festival."
Yonder Mountain is scheduled to play four shows at Winfield - Thursday afternoon and night and twice Friday evening. [ full schedule here ]
What's not in your Festival Guide
But those shows are just the ones printed in the Festival guide.
But if you miss The Yonder Mountain Boys on stage - or for that matter, any of the festival's other 40 scheduled acts - you've hardly missed them.
Perhaps the most coveted shows at the Walnut Valley Festival are those that happen at all hours as assorted playing instruments pass each other on the road. Or those shows that go down at landmark campsites and are announced only by word of mouth or on the festival's radio station, 105.7fm.
"We're going to try and play everywhere," said Yonder Mountain's Johnston, "From Stage 5 to the campgrounds during our stay at the festival."
Stage 5 is easily the best known of the unofficial venues.
The stage is actually a 1954 Chevrolet one and a half ton flatbed grain truck with something like a shed built on it. At night, a black-lit banner on its roof can be seen through the trees from hundreds of yards away.
Since 1987, when it was first parked there on the edge of Pecan Grove along 14th street, Stage 5 has given an intimate spotlight to unpaid musicians — both amateur and better known acts like Split Lip Rayfield - as well as to main stages' headliners.
The Italian virtuoso guitarist Beppe Gambetta has headlined at the official stages for nearly a decade now. But, as he told Bluegrass Now magazine,
"When the main stage shows are finished, everyone who is really interested in music goes to this little place that has this incredible power," said Gambetta, who will be at Winfield again in 2002.
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"The first year I went to Winfield, and I played at Stage 5 with a thousand people in front of me, I had some of the maximum moments of intensity of my playing at this little stage. Because there people say, I don't care if you are professional or not, I would just like to visit with you and hear you play. That was just one of many great moments I have experienced with an American audience."
All night party
"Stage 5 isn't the only all night party," said Ryan Welch.
Already making plans for his fifth trip to Winfield, the 24-year-old from Lawrence said the allure of the festival is that it's so big, and so spontaneous that every year is inevitably a new experience.
"There are dirt roads that run throughout the camp sites where under the glow of dim street lights bluegrass musicians gather to jam the night away.
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An impromptu road jam at 4am during the 2001 Walnut Valley Festival
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I have seen folks lugging around giant stand-up bases or once I saw someone playing crushed tin cans. Basically whatever you bring or can find to jam on is fine as long as you can keep a beat," he said.
"It's hard to convey the feeling of being there. It is truly something you must experience to understand the attraction of so many people," said Welch.
"I think people keep coming back because its rare, in our society today, to see such a sense of community and its very comforting to actively be a part of it all."
Tickets info
Full festival schedule here
Flatpick guitar and other contests info here
Official Festival Site
More info on Cowley Co. Fairgrounds here
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