“Within 48 hours, the first Four Corners Folk Festival will be in full swing. And who better to act as guide through a journey that will take us from the accomplished enthusiasm of the Pagosa Hot Strings to the tried-and-true talent of John McEuen and John Hartford than Pagosa’s own cowboy poet, Bob Huff?” — Aug. 29, 1996, The Pagosa Springs SUN.
Twenty years ago on Labor Day weekend, the grassy meadow on Reservoir Hill became known as “festival meadow.”
It was estimated that 2,000-plus music lovers enjoyed two days of “fine folk performances and approximately 100 musicians provided those performances.”
Sally Hameister was the director of the Chamber of Commerce at the time, and in the Sept. 5, 1996, “Chamber News” column, she wrote, “Congratulations Four Corners Folk Festival — To all those who shed blood, sweat and tears, went without sleep and sustenance for extended periods of time, lost touch with your families, friends and the real world, and lived and breathed only for the Four Corners Folk Festival, congratulations on a superb job. As a ‘ticket lady,’ I had the opportunity to talk to lots of people who raved about their Festival experience, and I have no doubt that they will spread the word and return time and time again.”
In the same newspaper issue, Judith Lawson reviewed the festival, proclaiming the weekend, “… a roaring success. … When a folk festival is in tune with its town, the results are simply ordinary magic. For music is the greatest of arts, and common folk making music and dancing together are making an art of ordinary life.”
Hameister gave props to event director Dan Appenzeller, “Job well done. And, Dan Appenzeller — some people live out their lives without a dream, let alone a dream realized.
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