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10 YEARS OF EWOB: "These musicians have done their homework and they clearly demonstrate a remarkable ability to understand & play the subtle fundamentals of a complex music born so many miles from their home."
- Bob Mitchell, 5-star review, Louisville Music News, Kentucky; Best of Bluegrass, Radio Bluegrass International

EWOB 2008 FESTIVAL: Feeling the Pulse

Though the constantly fine weather meant a lot of jamming outside, the pulse of energy inside ‘t Trefpunt never seemed to slow.

Forget about the stage and the concert hall (where, after shows began at 2.00 p.m. on 1 May, it was often hard to find a seat) - the real place to take the pulse of the 11th European World of Bluegrass Festival was the Information and Merchandise table inside the main doors of ‘t Trefpunt. To the front you see the sunlit forecourt, where people are catching the fresh air, a smoke, or yet another jam session. Through the outer doors, instrument-laden band members from all parts of Europe come to check in and get their bearings and instructions, and audience members come to buy tickets from the diligent volunteer crew; then everyone comes through the inner doors, showing their new wristbands a little self-consciously to the vigilant security ladies, and are confronted by the table, displaying its racks of EWOB tee-shirts, piles of EWOB CDs, and general wealth of information and charm.

Behind and on each side of the table is the wide space of the lobby on two levels. Most of it, for most of the time, is taken up with several vigorous, simultaneous, standing-or-sitting jam sessions - bluegrass, newgrass, old-time. Crammed in between the jamming groups, people are eating, drinking, chilling out, and chatting. Away to the left are the rest rooms, instrument check-in room, and more jamming behind doors; away to the right are the workshop hall, the occasional meeting of earnest EBMA administrators, and the serious eating and drinking in the dining room and the bar (where there is more jamming, bands are selling their CDs, and networking reaches perhaps its most intense level). In the bar there's also a mysterious door where bands disappear downstairs to the Green Room. They never reappear - at least, they are supposed to re-emerge after their set in another corridor on the far side of the concert hall, and have their photos taken. (Does it always happen the way it's supposed to? No.)

Far to the rear, and out of sight or hearing of the table, are the Trade Show hall, with its mouth-watering displays of first-class acoustic string instruments - predominantly by European luthiers - together with books and accessories; and the smaller (but no less potentially fatal to the bank account) record sales room, with rows and rows of CDs and DVDs ranging from budget to boxed sets, and a display of the original artwork for this year's EWOB t-shirt design and the front of the EWOB Guide. And - yes, there's the entrance to the concert hall, where the enjoyment goes a long way beyond the music. This year a prize for "Rectitude With Finesse" goes to the MC who firmly refused to use his position to publicize his band's name and their CD - which, of course, he had to mention in order to make it clear that he was refusing to do so. And out from the hall, after each day's concerts, comes everyone in the audience, through the bar and lobby, back to the information table where they first picked voting papers up, to drop the completed papers in the big box on the table.

This gives only the palest impression of the atmosphere at EBMA's EWOB Festival. What was special about this year? Perhaps the fact that though the constantly fine weather meant a lot of jamming outside, the pulse of energy inside ‘t Trefpunt never seemed to slow. In the simplest terms, it's a constant buzz of energy, people meeting people. Many of them are already old friends, many of them are going to be. This is the way the festival continues to create, maintain, and strengthen the bluegrass scene in Europe.

Contributed by Richard Hawkins, Bluegrass Ireland Blog

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