Hail No! Del Yeah! Tell us your storm stories...

[DelFest]

Were you blown away by DelFest? Tell us your stories and how you survived the Del-uge of 2009

[Jerry Coleman]

Anyone else catch the streaker on the far ballfield about midway through the storm? We were trying to hold a canopy from blowing away, already soaked, amazed at how quickly life can change, and along comes this guy from over the right field fence. Much cheering and yelling, laughing, broke the tension for a few moments. But seems the cozmic powers weren't much impressed with him, as another round of LARGE hail quickly started up and pelted him mercilessly back to wherever he'd come from.

BTW, the teepee was not significantly damaged.

[Krista Morris]

That's funny! A few of us were talking and wondering if there would be such a character at this festival. Apparently there was and he must have been pretty brave to run in that hail!

[Luke Michaels]

Jerry! Whats goin on man. Glad to hear that there wasn't much damage to the teepee. U guys were great neighbors and had a good time hanging out with you. Lookin forward to next year.

Jimmy, I'm sure I met ya or hung out with you at some point cause everyone on our block were cool people. I was drunk the majority of the time, so names are hard to recall, but I'll never forget a face. Hope I offered you some of the chicken we were grilling all weekend long. I agree with ya, there really is no way for outsiders to understand what it was like, especially being on that field for the full hour of the storm. Unreal.

[Denny]

WOW...what a storm...fortunately everything was fine at our site near the ballfields..just a little water...my crazy retired Marine buddy and I held our ezup down while we laughed and drank beer...what else could we do?! After the storm we walked around trying to help anyone who wasn't as lucky as us...WHAT A CROWD...everyone was in unbelievably great spirits...after reading these stories I feel doubly lucky...my wife and buddies wife sat in our tent to keep it from moving and some other friends rode it out in their truck...filled a cooler with hail...sweet..haha...saw the crazy streaker, what a nut. Can't wait for next year...DEL YEAH!!

[Jon Close]

We have been doing the music festival thing for 20 years, and nothing can compare to the storm that prevailed on us. I seriously have been thinking, that it is time to retire the gear amassed for these festivals(I was right next to the day pass entrance, with the 3 canopies, and all the tapestries on the fence, so I have too much stuff!!), but everyone posting here, is bucking me back up. I'm so proud of my gal, & our friends, for helping me to hold down the fort for the full hour. I'm grateful that no one got hurt, as this was beyond a scary experience. My canopies stayed upright, but took some damage. However, I used Sunday, to take good parts off damaged canopies, and my canopies will be back to full strength before Appalachian Uprising. Much has been said about proper warnings that should have been issued, but this was a freak storm, that formed only under perfect conditions. All have encapsulated the spirit of the festival goers, and staff, so I won't add to it. However, I think we need to prevail on High Sierra promoters, to secure Leftover Salmon for a return performance. An hour show, plus Great American Taxi gets stormed out? Let's get on this, by first thanking the staff for all their hard work, then demanding Salmon back! One last thing; can we get clarification on bringing sealed water bottles into the music meadow? Both years of this fest have been hot, so water is the necessity. I'm all for supporting the sponsorship deals, but water has to be an exception. I guess this means we will be back for next year; I mean, how much worse could it ever get(only a rhetorical question!!!)? Peace

[Emily Knode]

My father and I vended the music shoppe, Appalachian Bluegrass and we were completely wiped out by the storm on Saturday!
The festival was great up till that point
Many instruments were destroyed due to water damage and the tent was unrepairable.
The music was great, and the crowd was awesome. We have vended both festivals so far and plan on coming back next year despite the losses this year. I hope to see everyone there!
If you have any video or pictures please send them to my email address: [e-mail]
Thank you for all of those who helped us un-bury the merchandise and See you next year!
Hail No Del Yeah!

[Pete Marcketta]

Pete Marcketta-Homegrownradio.org Why squirrel don't like me?

[Forrest Simpson]

I won't get too far into story telling....but we had just finished loading Great American Taxi onto the campground stage. Had about 15 mins to go...and the storm rolls through....I managed to get a bit of video of the moment....This is the video Tim Carbone is talking about in his blog....which is linked in a previous entry. The things to take notice are first that the Front of House soundboard is there at the beginning of the video....but quickly disappears. At the end of the video you can hear Tim asking me to grab his fiddles. I took the video...but it really wouldn't have been possible without Chad Staehly inviting me up for the festival...enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIu5iZJxbTI

[Uncle Dave]

the music and vibe was del-lightful but the storm was del-vestating. We lost our 12 X 12, and two of our chairs but the little pup tent survived as did we. i guess we got away luckier than some others. those ez-up canopies were sitting ducks for this storm. alot of scrape aluminum. We came together, we were lucky, we learned alot of what is really important. We became bonded in a common spirit to survive and support each other. we are delfest.

[KelmHaus]

We drove up Friday and pitched our tents in the Family Camp. Four adults and four kids, age 4, 4, 5 & 6. The kids were really getting into it...then the storm hit! This is the story our 6 yr old wrote to share with her class today.

The Camping Trip: Delfest 2009 by Jane Hudson (verbatim)

We went to see live music in Cumberland, Maryland. We went to see our favorite band. Old Crow Medicine Show played our favorite song, Wagon Wheel. We camped in the tents. We heard music. We were playing in the small river so then Mr. Brian said, "Do you want to go to the big river?", the Potomac river. It was fun because I got all wet!
The Storm!!!!!
The storm was very strong. It blew our dinner over and it was the grass' dinner instead. There was thunder and lightning and wind and hail! I was sleeping in the tent when lightning struck very close so Mama took me out to the shelter. It was scary. I was soaking wet and shivering we all huddled together. Our tents were destroyed and all our things were soaked but we were all safe! We packed everything except the tents and the shattered lantern but still got to see Old Crow Medicine Show. We drove home in the middle of the night. It was fun and scary but I'll still go again!

Thanks to OCMS for the show after the storm. It made the kids trip!

[Kelly]

I was born and raised in Cumberland but now live in San Francisco where hail and lightning are very rare. I don't recall storms with this amount of intensity ever hitting Cumberland.

About 9 family members and friends were relaxing under a LARGE 25 X 10 canopy in the campground listening to Sam Bush when the rain and light winds first hit. We weren't too far away from the gates to the main stage so two of us ran onto the field to retrieve our thermarest chairs that had been sitting in front of the sound booth -- they otherwise would have blown away and I doubt we would have found them. By the time we made it back to the front gates with chairs in hand, the hail was the size of gumballs and pelting the heck out of us (I still have welts on my leg).

I looked ahead and saw that our family and friends were desperately holding down the large canopy that moments earlier had been protecting us from the blistering heat. That same canopy was now an Albatross around our necks -- we couldn't let it go because it WOULD hurt someone or something. We spent the next 45 minutes hanging onto the canopy for dear life along with the help of some of our neighbors -- THANK YOU. At times the wind was so strong that some of us were lifted from the ground. Nervous laughter and brave souls got us through that hour.

After the third wave of the storm, I packed up my Mom, brother and sister (all locals) and made sure they could get back to Cumberland safely. The rest of us assessed the damage: one destroyed tent, one completely flooded tent, and one bent canopy pole. Miraculously, the third tent -- a small two person Sierra Designs tent -- made it through completely intact and with only minor floor leakage. We took the canvas top off the "Albatross" in case of any more storms and then spent the evening in a Frostburg laundromat drying sleeping bags and clothes and watching Andy Griffith on the TV -- too bad it wasn't an episode with The Darlins. We spent the night at a friend's house in Frostburg -- one of the many canopy clingers.

Five of us came back the next morning and finished up DelFest as if nothing happened -- we even put the canvas back on the canopy. Sunday's show more than made up for missing Old Crow -- Cornmeal kicked butt (both on the main stage and the late night show) and the DSO brought the house down with Cumberland Blues.

Already looking forward to DelFest 2010 and waiting for the "I Survived DelFest 2009" t-shirts.

[Edwin Hurwitz]

I was on the Campground Stage ready to start my set with Great American Taxi. Spent the whole storm under a tarp with my bass rig and in ear monitor rig trying desperately at first to keep them dry, then just to keep them from flying away. I was bummed not to play (and I think some of my less replaceable gear might be permanently damaged), but I still had a great time! It was pretty amazing that the music kept going inside and then the fact that the main stage was up and running for Salmon is a miracle. I really didn't want to leave at midnight, but we had to load in at Summer Camp in the mid afternoon on Sunday.