Well, Festivarians, another ORMF  festival has come and gone leaving us feeling a little bitter sweet. It was a perfect festival but, alas, now we have to wait until next July for another one. For those of you who were unable to make it to this year's fest, it was off the charts. The huge new stage was part of the reason, as it added a much-needed professional touch for the bands, allowing them the extra space to bring up guests and sometimes fans. For our always magnificent sound crew from Performance Audio, Heath and Eric, it gives the room to do the kind of job they need to do to make the sound for the weekend truely incredible.

We started out on Friday noon with a smoking wake up big bang show from Victor Barnes. Following Ken Minkes and the crew was our favorite blues rock group, BlueRoot. Last year hailing from SLC, BlueRoot dropped from a quintet to a quartet and are now working out of Tennessee. The boys had such a good time they hung out and partied all weekend. Then Mike Mangione and the Band returned to blow the crowd away with his Soulful Americana sound. Mike and the gang came in Thursday night and hung out and played pool with the locals at Grumpies. Blue Turtle Seduction then took the stage by storm becoming one of the most talked about bands of the day. Hailing from South Lake Tahoe, they arrived in their big vegetable oil-powered super bus and amazed the crowd with their bluegrass and reggae blend. Town Mountain brought the dancers out when they took the stage at 8pm. ORMF has its roots in traditional Bluegrass so this Ashville, NC, five-piece brought that spirit to the show and the crowd to its feet. Friday night closed with Pete Francis of Dispatch fame and the band Barefoot Truth. We brought up the drum kit to the front of the stage and, believe me, the Triangle Park was rocking. Even as the music stopped around midnight the party continued on through the night. All the artists were seen in and around the triangle partying with fans into the wee hours.

Saturday turned into one of the best days ever at the fest for talent, for numbers of festivarians, for crowd energy, for food, and for dancing and fun. A cowboy showed up on horse back in the park. Turns out he's a guy named Baden who's traveling across the US by horse back and made a point of riding to our fest. We had bootleg fireworks suddenly illuminate the night sky. We had this happen last year also. Some ORMF fan who's good with gunpowder. Looks like a tradition is developing, until they catch him.

Sweet Sunny South did a great thing for all our little festivarians in training and performed as their kid-friendly, alter ego Duck Duck Gray Duck. Quite a few of the older kids, the ones with grey hair, enjoyed the set as well. The almost Famous Bandscramble was better that ever with five bands competing and the two little gals who stole that show came back to perform with a trio of under 12ers during the Junior Jammer set.

The line up started for real at 2pm with Mike Mangione and the Band followed by Sweet Sunny South who brought some serious old timey to the stage much to the delight of the swing dancers. Town Mountain returned to have the whole park dancing to some great single mike bluegrass.

As the sun sank and the shadows got long across the park, and the nearly full moon hung in the southern sky, the fest entered its ORMF "After Dark" phase where the amps get turned up and the energy sizzles. Seven Nations were a runaway hit with a blend of pounding celtic rhythms and extreme almost supernatural fiddle runs. They left the stage with thousands shouting for more, but the drummer had trashed his snare during the last song. In true ORMF fashion the drummer for the next band, Royal Bliss, volunteered his snare for the encore. When Royal Bliss took the stage, things really went insane. The park was wall-to-wall with Bliss fans who had come up in a caravan from the Salt Lake Valley. Royal Bliss fans helped fuel the largest crowd ever seen at the festival. The sound guys turned the amps up a half a notch and Neil Middleton leaped up on a bass tower and broke into song. The crowd went ballistic and stayed that way for the whole two hour set. This hard driving heavy rock and roll band took ORMF to places we had never been. The energy was incredible, but cool ,as Neil kept reminding the crowd to take care of each other. The whole scene went down as the most memorable night in ORMFs 15 years. And the party continued long after the music faded. All the free camping areas reported spontanous outbreaks of music and fun in the wee hours.

Sunday was a beautiful ,warm ,very mellow day where people were just layed back in the lawn chairs and blankets sampling a brew or two. Also included were food and ice cream runs to the small village of vendors ringing the park. The Wyoming State Flatpick and Fingerpick contests were held in the morning, and Sweet Sunny South took the stage at 1pm. Tyler Stenson, a gifted singer songwriter and former frontman for the band Lander, took us home with some beautifully crafted accoustic ballads. A wonderful finish to a fabulous festival. Everyone went home a little tired but happy and satisfied and wondering how long until the next fest.

If you missed this year then this synopsis is our gift to you, now, GO and Sin No More!!!!