Dear Bluegrass friends,

The 7th EWOB is behind us. It was a nice festival and band contest with a perfect EWOB athmosphere. The organisation had put a lot of effort in promoting the event, there were nicely printed posters and the official program guides were spread all over the region and could be found at the entrance of many restaurants and pensions/ bed & breakfasts etc. The interest of radio and TV was considerable.
On the Friday evening there was the opening concert in a beautiful auditorium, the Kulturhaus in Vöhringen in southwestern Germany in the state of Bavaria. The weather was good and when we arrived, a couple of bands were already playing and jamming on the parking lot.
During the friday night opening concert, the following bands played:
Bluegrass Stuff (I) www.bluegrass.it presenting their latest CD. The band was followed by a musical duo California Fog. The 3rd prize winner of the EWOB 2003 - The Musselwhite Family - performed a nice set. It was great to see the mother and her musical kids perform again. The Russian band Pecked Chicken took the stage in stead of Album and they evoked quite a reaction from the audience and everybody reacted to their rhythms. Closing the evening was yet another CD presentation, when Spruce Pine performed a string of songs from the new Hank Williams tribute CD. The show was closed shortly before midnight and many made their way to the schoolhouse building, where almost all musicians had their - free - accomodation. The organiser - German EWOB perpresentative - Herbert Schildhammer, had lots of good sandwiches prepared for the musicians and there was an abundance of free softdrinks and beer for everybody. Here as well as in some other places in town, people were jamming until the early morning hours.
During lunchtime "Klingendes Vöhringen" meant that a number of bands and groupings of individuals musicians were making live Bluegrass in the streets in the centre of Vöhringen
The actual European Bluegrass band of the Year contest took place on Saturday in the cosy "Mehrzweckhalle" in Illerberg, the neighbouring village to Vöhringen. Herbert Schildhammers staff were responsible for the catering and there was quite a good choice in hot and cold meals and drinks. The mayor of Vöhringen, Mr Janson, made an opeing speech and welcomed the EWOB and the European very much and remembered the recent accession of the European Union with the 10 new Members States. He presented the organisation with a financial cheque and attended most of the festival.
A professional jury - led by the German Bluegrass Pioneer Eberhard Finke, editor of the Bluegrass Bühne magazine - carefully monitored all bands and rated them to a number of criteria. The entire show was recorded and a EWOB 2004 CD will be produced.All participating bands, including the ones that just got started, were of good to excellent quality.
The audience reacted enthousiastic to the bands, their music and their instrumental breaks. Raflle tickets were sold to sponsor the event. Many bands presented their latest CD´s and BeauCoustics s.r.o. of the Czech republic offered a Bluegrass mandolin for the raffle.