Wooo, what an ending!

[wubbahed]

Here's a sense of what it was like...
http://youtube.com/watch?v=QjGjqmQhiTk

[jaabarlow]

It was amazing. We were dancing to Tracy Grammer, thinking it would be quick and pass. She made an excellent decision to call her set, because seconds after, the deluge began. In the performance tent, we were packed in holding things together, singing Michael Row the Boat Ashore. Meanwhile hail was pummeling us through the tarps and some were smiling and others were paralyzed with fear. It lasted for much longer than a "normal" storm and was the third and worst in almost as many days. I would love to see some photos, because those not there could not imagine. I have empathy for our friends with RVs trying to remove them from the hill today. Thank God for people who hold their heads and all the amazing volunteers. I also feel for all the vendors who lost good and revenue. While for us, it was an exciting inconvenience, for others it is a chunk of their livelihood.
See you all next year.

[flowerchild]

I have never been so scared in my life! I hate lightning, so we left the main stage area as soon as I saw the sky getting dark and saw lightning. We were back at our popup camper when the storm (little hurricane) hit. The wind was howling, the sides of our camper were bowing in and out and the walls were swaying. I thought it was going to collapse on us. We have little dents in the roof of our camper, and the person next to us HAD a skylight/vent in their camper that was broken by the hail. We watched tents flying by, and I would have run for our van to hide in there during the storm had I not been too scared to step outside the camper.
Thankfully, I have not heard of any reports of injury and hope everyone made it home ok. A great time, in spite of the storm, and as always - we WILL be back next year.

[pollieland]

HOW MUCH FUN WAS THAT?!!!! I HAD A BLAST. STORM AND ALL. I HOPE NO ONE GOT INJURED, THAT'S FIRST, BUT OH MY GOD, I'VE NEVER SEEN ANYTHING LIKE IT! We were on the right side of the stage, along the tree line. We just got our pulled pork sandwich's. Sat down to eat when the wind started kickingup. We had a VERY STRONG UMBRELLA, thank goodness, and just tucked our belongings between us, opened our umbrella, got real close together, and held on. We managed to snag a couple of poncho's from the WFUV booth, and although we ate soggy pulled pork because the rain went sideways for a bit, we remained relatively dry. We stayed like that until after the hail, which is why I was glad to have that strong umbrella, and when the rapids coming down the hill reached our ankles, and the rain slowed for a moment we slid to our car. Apparently we left just in time, we didn't get stuck on 22. FUN FUN FUN, I loved every minute of it. I was there with my best friend of 31 years, for his 50th birthday. He always wanted to go to Falcon Ridge and this was the year!!! The music was great, the bathrooms were clean, the food was plentiful, and the staff and volunteers were amazing. GOOD JOB!!!!

[sparky10]

Definitely check out the youtube video...it is incredible....http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjGjqmQhiTk. This was our first year and it was absolutely the best experience ever. The storm was amazing. We were in the dance tent where we we able to stay dry and felt safe for a while. Incredibly enough, the band on stage and the dancers continued to play and dance even once the power went out due to a huge lightening bolt. The musicians unplugged and led the large crowd through a song, it was a surreal experience. Then the announcement came that other tents had collapsed and if this one started swaying they would ask us to evacuate. That was time we hightailed it out there. Ran through the mud and the muck all the way back to the quiet camping area (felt like 5 miles) where we found one tent collapsed and our canopy tossed about 20 ft from where we had staked in into the ground. We were lucky to have found a back way out of the festival and went the opposite direction on 22 into Hillsdale. We didn't run into any problems. I'm so psyched to have been at the 20th anniversary especially with this kind of ending. Had a BLAST! I'm crossing my fingers that there were no injuries. I can't help but think about all the potential for some serious injuries.

[provbruins47]

Phew! I am glad I left at 1230!

when i got home i was looking at the weather and turned to my friend who said "Hillsdale is getting it good right now"

i guess we had no idea it was anything like this

[aj]

We were in the Merch tent when the big storm hit and I have to send out a kudos to everyone who pitched in. It seemed like hundreds of people were involved trying to hold down the tent, push water off the roof and pick up the materials that were sent flying by the flapping sides. And in the midst of it all, in true Falcon Ridge fashion, everyone started singing! It was so chaotic - and a little funny - that I didn't have time to be scared.
All in all, I think the staff and volunteers did a great job over the course of a difficult weekend. It was clearly hard to figure out when to open and close the roads and where to direct people as the mud got deeper _ and many people were clearly NOT taking the matter in stride _ but given all the problems, the festival went pretty smoothly until the weather won out.
To all the volunteers who had to put up with angry, muddy people - thank you!

[betheddy]

Here's another video clip from you tube - must have been filmed from pretty close to where I was standing though I don't see myself.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNBujNY7uXY>

[Susan]

I echo everyone's hopes that there were no injuries.

That was really something! The people in our camp were all over the place; one group was up above the workshop stage under a tarp...until a tree fell behind them! I was in my tent way down the road to the showers, where i think we were not hit *quite* as hard as they were on the Midway. I considered really being scared silly but pretty much deciding that i wasn't going to do that until it got way, WAY worse. So i kinda stood there...hoping it didn't get any worse! That hail was amazing - i've never seen any that big! I left this morning and was impressed at how much clean-up had already been done.

You just have to know...if it's Falcon Ridge, there's gonna be weather!

[PaulC]

There most definitely needs to be some I survived FRFF 2008 T Shirts . I'd buy them!

[Susan]

LOL! Not much of a positive marketing plan, however...
;-)

[colola]

No Injuries

[amp]

I'm not sure who colola is, but under the title "Microblast ends FRFF early" this poster left the very verbose message "no injuries"

I'm for the t-shirt, but am wondering if we should be thinking "there but for the grace of God" - someone at Tanglewood was struck by lightening. I was checking local papers to see if anything was reported about FRFF and found this in the Berkshire Eagle - link is http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_10019258

I sat out the storm way up on the hill and noted a bunch of people running under trees for shelter (IN A THUNDERSTORM??). It scared me.

[amp]

OK, I'm trying again.

I'm not sure who colola is, but under the title "Microblast ends FRFF early" this poster left the very verbose message "no injuries"

I'm for the t-shirt, but am wondering if we should be thinking "there but for the grace of God" - someone at Tanglewood was struck by lightening. I was checking local papers to see if anything was reported about FRFF and found this in the Berkshire Eagle - link is http://www.berkshireeagle.com/ci_10019258

I sat out the storm way up on the hill and noted a bunch of people running under trees for shelter (IN A THUNDERSTORM??). It scared me.

[Deeberg]

I was with my friend, Terry Kitchen- we had just walked into the back of the staff tent where he was tuning his guitar and warming up to get ready for the 2:45 Workshop Stage performance when the whole tent flew off over our heads!

The midway side of the tent gave way, but the other side held, so the whole roof of the tent flipped over and landed on the back side. A number of volunteers were under it and people were shouting "Get out! Get out!" Thank goodness for the clear headed individuals who thought to find and shut down the propane tanks from the little kitchen back there.

We ran toward the instrument trailer- I got blown toward the back of it by the hail. I ended up huddled in front of the trailer with a group of about 8 other people during the worst of the hail.

The scariest part (after having the roof literally blown off over our heads at the staff tent) was watching the awning and poles from the instrument trailer fly up in the air like a scene from the Wizard of Oz. The awning and poles flew some yards and then landed in the road. I was afraid it would hit a car windshield or cause an accident as people were trying to leave the site when it blew down.

We were camped at 10 acre. Right on the treeline. Our tents held, but there were several from up the hill that blew over us and were caught in the trees. Our friend Dave who was across the road from us lost his tent completely and found it had traveled down the hill, taken a right turn, and blown halfway across Lower Ledge. (or maybe it went over the trees and ended up there?)

We stayed pretty late on Sunday- And here is a testament to the Falcon Ridge spirit- late Sunday afternoon there was an impromptu concert in the grass behind the Workshop stage. A whole bunch of the musicians who were still around just started jamming, and people were dancing and singing.

When we left, the word was that there were no serious injuries- just some bruised and knocked around people.