Asheville is a hub of bluegrass music, and musical events around here are frequent and often free. We have enjoyed many performances, both on the streets, in restaurants, and at the Pack Square Park downtown, which has a large stage, a dance floor, and lawn seating. Many different events are produced there, one of which is Shindig on the Green. This is a monthly gathering of local musicians and dancers performing folk, bluegrass, and country songs. We went at the end of July, and it was a great evening. Just walking towards the park we noticed many groups of musicians sitting in circles under the trees, jamming out. I learned that theevent is almost like an open mic, with slots available for any group that might form during the informal jams around the park. It made me want to seek out other musicians to play with.
In fact, I made three personal growth resolutions for moving to Asheville, and finding a group of musicians to play music with was one of them. Another was to get into some sort of martial arts group, preferably ju jitsu. The third was to take part in a local theater production.
But that would all come in time. We had just arrived in Asheville and were still in the phase of taking it all in. Shindig on the Green is one of many really cool things about Asheville that made us glad to have arrived here. The musicians were all very talented, and they played wonderful old time American music. Appalachia in song. Fiddles, mandolins, banjos, and guitars.
I didn’t bring my nice camera, so my pictures of the night were only phone quality. I was more absorbed in the music anyway, as were we all. The girls made some friends and were running around the dance floor with all the other kids, half dancing, half playing. We stayed for a couple of hours, glad to see the girls using up so much energy. They got to doing some good dancing, and we all got a chance to dance when they put on a massive square dance of sorts, done in two concentric circles. It was a little confusing at times, the crowd being large and unorganized, but it was really fun, and it changed Eva and Gaia’s idea about square dancing. We had mentioned it to them before, and they didn’t seem interested, but after doing the big circle square dance that night, they both liked it and wanted to go again.
Many more adventures to come, I’m sure, as we settle into our new community.