We like music, all kinds of music, and recently, we attended the famous Parkfield Bluegrass Festival with members of the Greater Los Angeles Airstream Club. We camped at the V6 Ranch, listened to some great music, stepped on the San Andreas Fault and took a side trip to a nearby car and military museum.
For almost a week, which included Mother’s Day weekend, we were in Parkfield, Ca. for the annual Parkfield Bluegrass Festival. Parkfield (population 18) is located inside the V6 Ranch, which is about 20,000 pristine acres of ranchland, sitting right on top of the San Andres fault. This was a semi-organized Airstream event, at the Blue Oak Horse campground, which is normally reserved for horse related events. Horses and cows freely roamed through our campground so we had to be on the lookout for mushy land mines when hiking around.
The music was great! Performers were here from many parts of the USA and one band was from Canada. The music went from 9:30 am to about 11:00 pm except for the last day when things wrapped up at 5:30 pm. There were all kinds of Bluegrass related workshops (fiddle, guitar, mandolin, banjo, harmony and buck dancing A.K.A. flatfoot dancing) given by performers during breaks. Of course there were vendors that sold all kinds of the usual stuff including band CD’s and musical instruments. I know our daughter bought several CD’s bands were selling and my wife purchased the obligatory festival t-shirt.
Several members of one band, Phil Salazar and the Kin Folk, were staying in a cabin across from our trailer in the campground. They would sit out on the porch of the building playing and singing most evenings and mornings, so I got to hang out with them a bit. They were really good musicians/vocalists and played quite a wide range of music from rock ‘n’ roll, country and swing to bluegrass. They told some great stories too!
We took time out to enjoy a couple of side adventures also. One was a trip to an air/military/car museum in Paso Robles and one was a walk with a member of the USGS (U.S. Geological Survey) to the San Andreas Fault, about 1/4 mi. away from Parkfield, for a very interesting talk about faults and plate tectonics. Parkfield is known as the “earthquake capital of the world” and the USGS maintains a facility there to study the San Andreas Fault. Parkfield is a famous place in the geology world. The air museum had a nice collection of vintage military planes, various types of military memorabilia and a great car collection.
Oh yes, we like a good hamburger. Our two favorite hamburger establishments, until now, were In-N-Out and Pie ‘n Burger (near Caltech in Pasadena, Ca.). The new one on the list is the Parkfield Burger, served at the Parkfield Restaurant. The grass fed beef is raised on the V6 Ranch and the burgers are fantastic. If you are ever near Parkfield, we highly recommend the Parkfield Burger. Be aware though, if you aren’t a meat eater, you are in the wrong town.
We are sure we will go to this Blue Grass festival next year. The music is great, the locals are very nice, the food is wonderful and the scenery is gorgeous.
Dents and Filiform 
👍
LikeLike