We caught a bit of the African Global Summit workshop by mistake, actually, thinking it was the stage for the upcoming Oh Susana show. I bought an Afrodizz CD since I happen to like world music. We moved over to see one of the buzz bands of the festival, Crooked Still, a young bluegrass band from the US. They quickly sold out of their CDs. Finally, we caught some amazing Celtic music at the It Is Easy Being Green workshop. When we arrived, there was truly sublime flute playing going on, and this turned out to be the Irish band Flook. They took turns playing songs with this duo from Denmark, Haugaard & Hoirup (one of three Danish groups at the festival) and the teenagers from Nova Scotia, The Cottars. I was quite taken by Flook and it was no fluke that I bought one of their CDs. I totally missed the Son Volt show that was taking place at the same time, but I ended up buying one of the concert DVDs with footage from '05 and '06.
Solomon Burke
We bought some chicken roti and chowed down before sitting down for the mainstage shows. We were mostly talking then, so Zar from Denmark came and went without me noticing them much. Canadian rapper K'Naan was up next and was quite loud. So much so that we moved way to the back. The Holmes Brothers with their gospel blues music were all right but nothing that made me want to buy their cds. Around 9 pm, we decided to head to the campgroup to meet up with one of our co-workers and to call it a night.
I totally skipped Sunday, due to needing a break from early mornings and late nights. I had my heart set on seeing the workshops with Richard Thompson and Bruce Cockburn, two legends, but that wasn't to be. I blew my annual CD budget on about 30 CDs and DVDs, so I have a lot of music to listen to between now and next year.
Paid attendance was up to 45,190, a new record, up 325 from 2005. The festival grows every year that there isn't rain.
Festival attendance from 2000 to 2006:
- 2000 - 33,604
- 2001 - 39,169
- 2002 - 37,832 (they had some rain)
- 2003 - 40,899
- 2004 - 42,111
- 2005 - 44,865
- 2006 - 45,190
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