This is Maggie.

We are sitting down to eat breakkie on Saturday. So what is breakfast? There is an excellent variety of pork products. Smoked pork, fried pork, sandwich pork, spiced pork, even pork with olives! There is also excellent fruit and fresh bread, several juices, coffee and tea. My favorite thing is several types of cheeses.

Mmmmm cheeeeeese.

This is Christie…
Friday’s adventure was brought to you in part by Christine Crow, Ian Smith, George Hoffman, Min Guo, and the letter Q. Thank you all for your support, especially you, letter Q!

And of course, John Wohlers without whom these frequent posts would not be possible! We are thrilled to have him and his talent with us!!!

Hey I uploaded a few pictures, check the gallery site!
Here are a couple dashed on the rocks shots.

We started off the day wandering the waterfront and making our way to a radio show featuring several of the groups performing at the festival. There are some amazing performer here including Banana Boat from Poland and les Pirates from France. The reception has been so gracious and positive; we are simply overwhelmed.

We just finished a break after our first street show. I’m feeling refreshed and am eager for our next two shows.

We’ve already been approached about doing several other festivals in Europe; I am so pleased about the new possibilities coming available.

Oh, we have some suitably silly photos, notably all of us squeezing into a phone booth!

I miss talking to Richelle very much; the phone is so expensive and for some reason my password is not working for my email. I love you, honey!

We had a very nice show just now, sort of in the corner next to a market. The audiences here do not usually sing or clap along, but are VERY appreciative. Everywhere we stop to sing, we gather a crowd. You should have heard the applause after NW Passage. Wow. These folks are here to listen to music, and no mistake.

We were on the radio this morning, a live broadcast that actually had excellent sound - we hope to get a link or recording or something. It was outside, such a beautiful day here, and there were people standing EVERYWHERE all over this square. We were the last group to go, and after the show ended they asked us to sing one more. Everyone in the crowd applauded that and cheered!!

I donät know how possible this will be, but we got a very flattering offer to sing at a festival in Poland - and shanties are huge there. The show would be in February, which is a slow time for Bounding Main … well the crew shall have to have many discussions of this, but we will see. Wow anyway!!

We are starting to learn phrases in German. Mine is : I am hungry and I want cake. Well, it turns out those words are quite challenging, at least for me personallz. Wohlers got some … interesting … footage of me trying to learn from some very patient German women.

°Maggie°

PS John Wohlers ROCKS!

Check the gallery for more photos added this morning.
Wohlers

The performances never stop. We only had one more show planned after the street show, but we were asked at the last minute to fill in for a group from Holland who couldn’t make it.

Another opportunity to perform? Must you even ask?

The fill-in show was in a big tent. Since the pressure was off, we just relaxed and had a great time. Two members of Banana Boat joined us for a rousing and slightly naughty “Essequibo River”. Note for the future, vet all guest performers prior to giving them a solo on stage. We thoroughly enjoyed the novelty of a smidge of baudiness.

The last show was one of the best attended so far. Throngs of people stuck it out all the way through, even facing straight into the sun. We ran out of “Going Overboard” copies for the first time in memory… I had to run the length of the festival to get a few more.

It’s really fun being rock stars.

UPDATE: I should have mentioned this at the outset, but there was a German fan named Juergen who mentioned that he was reading this blog. He is a delightful man with a basso profundo voice and he attended the Saturday evening show. Hopefully he’ll scroll down enough to see his name!

What a wonderful event! Something special happens when you gather some of the best maritme talent in the world and put them all together in two tents, give them food and drink, and let them go! Songs shared from group to group in all languages with everyone adding their voices to the song. We had a magical time and it will be one of the best memories we take home.

This spectacular day was sponsored by: Diane and Walter Teichen, Eric and Lisa Yondorf, Sharon Krivitzky, Glenn Moss, Steve Spitzer, and Gary Marconi. Thank you so much!

This is Maggie.

The miracle that is technology…here I sit listening to the amazing chords of Four n Aft (google them) and writing a blog post at the same time.

After all the revelry last night, we were sitting in David and Wohlers hotel chatting about the zany antics of Banana Boat (google). When suddenly we heard “DAAAYY-OOOO” across the courtyard. Well we recognized it as Na of the Banana Boat group.

So. We all seven rushed to the window and shouted “DAAAYY-OOOO”!

A few moments passed, then Na appeared at his window across the court, and we had an impromptu and rousing round of the “Banana Boat Song”.

Heaven on earth, this.

PS Na was in his skivvies. Which if you knew him, not shocking.

A beautiful day at our first show until Jon caused an International incident by attempting some German and actually swearing at the kinder (kids). Go ahead and ask him about it-it will make the rest of us happy! The audience was appreciative of the rest of our attempts to speak German.

The Bully signs made an appearance when Maggie dove into the audience and persuaded (forced) four kind gentlemen to present the signs to the audience. Maggie tapped the volunteers on the shoulders to raise their signs, while the rest of the crew remained onstage to lead the song. Jon decided to punish Maggie for stealing focus (from him) by speeding up the song until she was nothing but a blur of orange and green. See photo.

Our music was well received and the sound engineers at each show were amazing! We have packed a few of those guys in our carry-ons and are bringing them home with us. Thanks to everyone who is following the blog and keeping track of our antics.