Our friend Lluis Gomez, Spain’s most prominent banjo picker, shared this report about their second annual Barcelona Bluegrass Camp. He says that the enrollment was up over 50% from last year, a great sign for bluegrass in western Europe.
Saturday, March 4, was one full day of bluegrass with banjos (bluegrass and old time), fiddles, guitars (flat picking and fingerpicking – as our guitar teacher, Miguel Talavera, likes to remind us “Lester Flatt was a fingerpicking picker!”) – harmonica, mandolin, dobro and double bass.
This was our second edition with 110 people attending the course, completely sold out, with students from all parts of Spain and from Paris, France.
Our instructors were from Spain, along with this year’s special guest, dobro player Henrich Novak from Slovakia. He will be with us going forward as well.
During the morning, the teachers worked on common tunes, Angelina Baker and Ain’t No Grave, and after lunch, all the students worked in a ensemble group performing them together.
The day’s lessons ended with a concert in three parts: kids, a duet contest, and ensemble groups.
We’re really happy with the way it turned out, and we can say that is going to be a solid event from now on. In fact, we’re thinking of expanding to a 2 day workshop.
We’re all looking forward to the 2018 edition, always the first weekend of March.
Lluis also shared this pair of videos from the 2017 camp. Find out more about the Barcelona Bluegrass Camp online.
