The WCUF was a great experience for me again this year, in so many ways and on so many levels. And it was great meeting several fellow UUers (nice open mic performance, Eric).
I'd also like to say that the workshops I attended were excellent. My first session was Ken Middleton's Celtic Ukulele, one of Ken's specialties. Ken had written and arranged a piece specifically for the occasion, "Wine Country Reel", a fairly easy, yet lovely tune, and walked us through it, step by step. Next was James Hill's "Sad, Sad Songs". James has a way of dropping these little gems of knowledge that seem so obvious once somebody has verbalized them. And as an extra bonus, Anne Davison joined in on cello! My last session was Aaron Keim's "Fiddle tunes for ukulele". Aaron is a great instructor, keeping the entire class of about 30 people on track, and yet also taking the time to walk around to give personal attention. I thought he had some really great insights into how folk music was developed and transmitted through the generations before the advent of recording technology.
Anyway, I could go on and on, I really can't say enough nice things about these workshops, and the festival in general. I'll probably write some more about Aaron's workshop in another thread later, as I had sort of a musical epiphany later that evening with the clawhammer technique he introduced to us.