An Early Weekend

This week, Thursday is Friday.

I am taking a three-day weekend in order to attend the Philadelphia Folk Festival on Friday and Saturday. An old family tradition revived.

I used to go to Fest every year, and it was the most fun I could have all summer. More fun than the beach or any amusement park out there, the young me looked forward to Folk Fest, near summer's end. For me, it was the last big party before school started.

I went for sixteen years straight to fest. According to my father, I was even there before I was born. I was pretty much destined to be a folkie. And then I went every year. Attended all the workshops and side concerts I could, ate so many caramel apples from the fire company stand that I could no longer look at them for a few years, and begged my parents to buy me as many expensive handmades as they could, only getting maybe two of them.

Then mom got sick and dad lost his job, and we didn't have the money to go. I was super upset the first year I was told we wouldn't be attending, and then worked to try and find a way to go on my own. My paycheck was never large enough to take care of fest costs unless I saved like a madwoman (which I still have a hard time doing), so it became a distant dream for me.

And then I got a job that allowed me to go WITHOUT saving much money. So I will be attending fest once again, after an eight year break. I am extremely excited and will hopefully come back with tons of pictures and fun stuff to show to everyone!