Barcelona Bluegrass Festival 2023

  1. bbcee
    bbcee
    Well, it's over for another year. This was the fist one I went to since before the pandemic. Format is I think typical for a one-day festival - the night before classes kick off, the professors perform a concert. The first part of the next day is spent with the "professor" of your instrument, and after lunch, we were then put in a combo to rehearse a song that's then played in the final part of the night.

    What made this one great were several things - BadExampleMan flew in from Tel Aviv, and we both got to do our "professor" class with ... John Reischman!! I kept thinking, "I'm sitting 5 feet from one of my heroes!". He was a great teacher, and patiently answered lots of questions as well as showing us stuff. Chris Luquette also came over from the States and is a monster guitar player & singer. Barcelona also boasts a small but dedicated bluegrass/old-time community. The banjo instructor, Lluis Gomez, has played with Tony Trishka and has his own method book out and was in the Chris/John backing band.

    Here's me & BEM at the end of the festival looking tired and happy, just after we both played in our combos. I played "Banjo PickinīGirl", and him "Red Prarie Dawn". It was a blast!

    https://photos.app.goo.gl/nuLC1iZa62sf1Gts6



    Since I seem to be too stupid to post a photo (the IMG link did absolutely nada), feel free to edit my post!
  2. NDO
    NDO
    That’s super cool Bruce! Wow, I had no idea our Newbies group was populated by world travelers… Barcelona, Tel Aviv! Sounds like you guys each had a blast.
  3. HonketyHank
    HonketyHank
    What a duo!

    Dos Nuebos.
  4. BadExampleMan
    BadExampleMan
    It was great to meet Bruce, I always enjoy meeting my imaginary friends f2f. Among many others we also met Bernardo, a very cool dude from Portugal, who encouraged me to come to the Trafaria festival in September. Which I hope to do.
  5. bbcee
    bbcee
    I forgot to add that Michael and I bonded over spicy Mexican food, which is a relatively new arrival in Barcelona, and had a great couple of days (well, hours really) together. His Kentucky is a good-sounding, good-playing instrument. I got to try his Red Bear picks, and I loaned him a Blue Chip to check out.
  6. Sue Rieter
    Sue Rieter
    Sounds and looks like you guys had a fantastic time. Imaginary friends, ha ha.
    Love the photo
  7. Mark Gunter
    Mark Gunter
    Awesome stuff!
  8. BadExampleMan
    BadExampleMan
    Ugh, I am SUCH a dumbass. I was restringing the mandolin today, which was already more annoying than it should be because my needlenose pliers got confiscated going through airport security on my way to Barcelona. But it was going fine and I was kind of in a zone and letting my hands work on their own...and I looked down to discover I had restrung the E course with the A strings. The f*ck!
  9. Southern Man
    Southern Man
    Lol, have done that one before...better if you haven't snipped it yet
  10. Stacey Morris
    Stacey Morris
    I'm glad you had a good time. Probably time to start getting ready for next time!
Results 1 to 10 of 10