Senior group with the Kid’s Academy at Grey Fox 2019 – photo © Tara Linhardt
As I walked around the campground early on Sunday morning at Grey Fox, I met Susan Byer, who is the present owner of Dancin’ Dave’s Festival Camping business. She was packing up many people’s campsites who were leaving or had already left. If you want to go to a festival, like Grey Fox or one of the other festivals that they serve, and don’t want to have to own, or bring their own camping equipment to set up their campsite, then you can hire Dancin’ Dave’s Festival Camping to do it all for you. No troubling with having to set up or take down the camp site at all. The business was started by Dancin’ Dave Versch in 1998. He had sold the company to Susan in 2014. Dancin’ Dave passed away in 2018, but his name and his business live on bringing happiness to many.
Sunday was a day when some people still relaxed at their campsites for a while, and many people started the process of packing up and heading home. But there was still the climax of the festival for many kids who had been working all weekend in the Kids Academy. They had been learning the songs that they would perform, and they took the main stage on Sunday right after the host band, Dry Branch Fire Squad, did their Sunday morning Gospel set. There was the senior group led by Tony Watt and Laura Orshaw, and then the main Kids Academy band headed up by Mark Panfil and a bunch of great teachers. The Kids Academies provide a great way for young people to try out playing bluegrass, and to make friends and learn to love and appreciate music, as well as honing skills on their instruments.
After the Kids leave the stage, the festival is officially over and the army of volunteers start their jobs of taking down and cleaning up and returning the Walsh Farm to its normal self. Thank you so much to all the staff and volunteers who work so hard to make Grey Fox such a wonderful festival every year, and one of the biggest bluegrass events in the Northeast. So many good friends are made, good music seen and heard, and good times had by festival attendees of all ages.
I will be looking forward to next year’s festival along with so many other people who have that as one of their must do events of the year.
