First published in  Lonely Goat Print Magazine Volume II - #5

Suwannee Springfest 1999
by Karen Pepe-Delage (May, 1999)

On a gray, drizzly Thursday in late March, I managed to talk some friends into the Spring fever fueled urge to initiate the festival season by driving down to Florida for Suwannee Springfest.

This was not my first trip to this wonderful event . It is put on by some friends of mine from Jacksonville,Randy and Beth Judy. I try to support their efforts whenever possible and always look forward to these festivals, never the less, with a sense of adventure.

Beneath a majestic forest of Live Oaks and Tall Pines, draped under a shroud of Spanish Moss, we arrived at Suwannee River Music Park, set up our camp quickly and prepared to party. We wandered over to the dance tent ready to boogie to the hypnotic rhythms of Donna the Buffalo. Afterwards, we skipped down to the Main Stage, a beautiful natural amphitheater with perfect acoustics and an intimate atmosphere. Jorma Kaukonen performed a mellow acoustic set of familiar tunes from Hot Tuna. Sweet. Even though the weather was unusually brisk for Florida, there were plenty of cozy campfires surrounded by friendly folks picking' guitars and singing along. The only controversy I encountered was a group of frustrated drummers who were shut down earlier than they had expected. They pleaded with festival officials to understand their plight and help them to find a remote area to continue, but to no avail.

The next day was gorgeous with a bright blue sky and cool breezes. We got our fix for Dead tunes provided by Jacksonville's best cover band, The Glass Camels. Afterward, we were treated to another pulsing round of favorites by Dave Roberts of Crawfish of Love and The Grateful Dead Hour's David Gans.

Later, we grabbed some grub from the tasty selections of vendor row and prepared for the evening. Blueground Undergrass charged us into a frenzy of high energy jigging, turning the dance tent into a crazy, wiggling mass of mad dancing. Whew! Then, to calm down a little we scrambled over to the Main Stage in time for the magic of Peter Rowan's sweet yodeling croon. Vassar Clements joined the stage and we were blown away by his punctuating violin riffs. Next, we were treated to Sam Bush Band with John Cowan (who I think has the voice of an angel) . Boy can he belt out a tune.

After this full evening, we collapsed into our sleeping bags to prepare for Sunday. We were not looking forward to the long drive home and tried to put it out of our minds as we caught a few more bands on Sunday afternoon, did a little shopping and said good bye to some new and old friends. As a final treat, we soaked in a special performance by Vassar Clements, Peter Rowan and Tony Rice, a perfect note to end our fun-filled weekend. Although the journey home was exhausting, we had our memories to get us through and look forward to the next festival to come our way.