The festival my wife and I attended last weekend was the "South State 48" a 48 hour jamming bluegrass festival at a historical hotel in Carlsbad California... While there were a few performances it was as described, jamming around the clock from Friday through Sunday and even a little on Monday morning. There's another similar hotel-based festival, "The Great 48" in Bakersfield California in January which we won't be able to attend. But these hotel based jamming festivals are great fun.
I've been reviewing in my mind my own DB experience there and also my impressions of other DB players there. And there were lots of double basses there...
First, the good stuff -- of course mine was the only Alcoa there and it always attracts lots of attention. I do spend a fair amount of time explaining what it is to people, and folks want to touch it, look inside through the access panel, knock on it and hear what it sounds like, and hear it played. A fair amount of people like to take pictures of it too.
Since there were lots of double basses there, and since from a practicality standpoint there's only one bass for a jam, opportunities for a DB player to play are somewhat limited. I felt lucky to play DB for the one 3-hour jam over the whole weekend. For me, I also play banjo and mandolin, so I got to jam enough, but only for that one jam with the DB -- but that jam was a very fun jam and I finally had to stop because I was getting a blister, so it worked out fine for me (and the blister is already healed
).
All of the jams we attended were outside. I think there were a few jams in a meeting room, and some in individual hotel rooms, but the bulk of the jamming was outside. We could have had small jams in our room but it didn't turn out to be necessary. Weather was beautiful during the days, although at night the temps got pretty low so it limited the folks who could jam. My wife and I turned in before 10pm most nights because of the cold.
So, there was one not-so-good issue, not the fault of the sponsoring bluegrass associations, more the fault of the hotel and the way things worked out... This old hotel is basically a number of multi-room 2-story complexes clumped around a few very pleasant grassy courtyards. There are 146 rooms total and they were all booked up with some people having to book rooms elsewhere and then come into the hotel campus to jam. Access to the 2nd story is only by stairs, there are no elevators. I am mobility challenged so early on in the reservation period we had arranged a downstairs room. But, due to a number of these old rooms being down for repairs, even though we checked from home by phone early in the week of the festival, our downstairs room became an upstairs room. I was pretty furious and we almost left to go back home; finally we decided to stay, and honestly I'm glad we did. But it did change our expectations a lot. We jammed much less. And especially with my double bass, I really only took it downstairs once, after having someone reserve my DB spot in a jam.
Double bass is an interesting instrument for someone who is mobility challenged. I'm lucky enough to be able to walk; with up-hill or uneven ground or stairs, or long walks, I use a cane. For moving the DB around I use a Bass Buggy and it helps tremendously, I can actually lean into the double bass and use it almost as a walker
. But with the DB stairs are a huge challenge, not so much going down-stairs, but especially going up-stairs. Plus just moving smaller instruments and suit-cases into an upstairs room is difficult. My most difficult DB experience, about 5 years ago, was on a cruise ship, going up-stairs on a circular staircase, something I probably wouldn't try again now. At this festival hotel though, I did work out a good way to have someone assist me taking the DB upstairs, so if necessary I can do that again.
All and all, we did have a really great time and I'd do this festival again -- probably even if our room is upstairs.
