NJ Folk Festival 2012

 We had another busy weekend that started Saturday morning at the NJ Folk Arts Festival. This is the kids' 4th year at the festival. The first year Haley played there, she was 5 years old. The Next Gen group of young Irish musicians play there every year then the ones who stay join the Irish Music Session and this year they had another performance later in the afternoon.

A couple brothers who Dylan had met at the session we went to a couple weeks ago came from PA to play with Dylan. One of the brothers is a talented flute player (among other instruments...Irish and not so Irish). The other is learning tunes on button accordion and when he doesn't know a tune on that, he plays along on bodhran. The guys found a tent where they could sit and jam together. Haley joined them here and there when she felt like it. The sounded really good together.

This is a photo of the final Next Gen performance. They had a good number of kids stay around to play.

Dylan went home from the festival with Daddy while Haley and I drove the extra hour to NY. We spent the night at her teacher's home....practicing violin and watching a movie. Sunday morning, Haley had a fiddle lesson then she practiced a bit. We then drove into the Bronx for her teacher's concert...mostly O'Carolan tunes at a pub. Haley joined him for a couple tunes and played a solo set.

Afterward, we went to the park with her friend from CT then went back to the pub for their Irish music session. The musicians there did not seem the most welcoming except for one accordion player...I think it was more a performance of musicians who know each other rather than an open Irish session. The girls played a bit then we went home.