Campsite music rivals sounds of Walnut Valley Festival (VIDEO)

Before the festival comes the prefestival at the campsites.

Some folks will tell you that’s when the best music is heard at the Walnut Valley Festival. Bluegrass, Americana, Irish, western swing and a whole lot more acoustic-driven sounds.

Wednesday, the official festival opens its 43rd run. Headliners will play more than 200 hours on the four main stages – from 9 a.m. until 1 a.m. – before it shuts down Sunday.

Musicians will be crowned national champions for guitar, banjo and more.

But for hundreds the real festival started weeks ago on the sprawling Cowley County Fairgrounds when they set up their campsites and gathered together to see old friends, make new ones and sing and pick for the pure fun of it into the wee hours.

“Prefestival is Christmas Eve,” said Robin Macy, a headliner who will be singing with the Cherokee Maidens and Sycamore Swing.

Tuesday, she was thrilled to be jamming at campsites.

By mid-afternoon Tuesday, about 2,000 campsites on the nearly 150 acres had drawn close to 7,000 campers. Music, campfire smoke and laughter filled the air.

Many have been coming to the festival for years; some even camping at the same site for decades.

Two of the main campsites are Pecan Grove and Walnut Grove, separated by a couple hundred yards and – some would say – two different worlds.

Pecan has a Woodstock feel.

Until 20 years ago, the camp had no electricity and very little water. Plenty are still roughing it in tents, but RVs also are mixed with some funky old buses.

Still, said Russell Brace, a Pecan Grove camper from Goddard who was making his 33rd visit to the festival, “We’re way looser than Walnut Grove.”

He was busy Tuesday setting up Stage 5 at the Pecan site. He owns the unofficial stage that sits on his 1954 Chevy flatbed truck, where groups volunteer to perform.

“I think the folks in Walnut Grove are scared of us,” Brace said.

Walnut Grove is quieter, more orderly. Fancier, newer RVs and campers fill the area.

“Basically, Pecan Grove has a little more partying and whooping than we have here,” said Dave Firestine, the unofficial music director of Carp Camp in Walnut Grove.

After all, Walnut Grove is where Sedgwick County District Attorney Marc Bennett has been camping for years with his family and musician friends. He watched his dad and uncles make up the Bennett Brothers band.

His camper was set up Tuesday, although he was away doing his duty at the courthouse.

But clearly there’s a crossover. An old VW bus with colorful tie-dye shirts draped over the windshield sat in the Walnut site.

Well-used, stuffed chairs and couches filled Pecan and Walnut campsites. Campers raid garage sales and thrift stores to pick up soft seats to bring to their sites.

“Makes it like home,” said Bob McLemore, Colby’s fire chief, who was listening to bluegrass music at – what else? – Colby Camp in Walnut Grove.

A walk through the campsites is to hear music that sometimes comes from a blending of cultures.

At Carp Camp, musicians were playing tunes that were a mix of Irish and old mountain music, which came from the Irish settling in the Appalachian region in the 1800s.

In his non-Winfield days, Firestine commutes between Tucson and Colorado, building lightning detection systems. But before he shows up at Carp Camp, he has collected tunes to have the campers play.

“If it’s a fun tune to play,” he said, “we do it.”

The acoustic instruments vary. Alongside a banjo and fiddle, two band members at Carp Camp were playing hammered dulcimers.

“Kind of like what’s inside a piano,” Firestine said. “All instruments are welcome.”

Troubles are not.

“Just look at it,” Firestine said as he waved his hand. “Music is something that’s a very focused thing. It lets you get away from all the things that are bothering you.”

Names of camps – Malfunction Junction, Gospel Jam, Porch Swing Pickin – try to reflect their residents. And then there’s Walnut Grove’s Poncho Camp, which has campers from New Mexico to Canada.

“Because everyone has to have a poncho,” said Kathy Redd, a New Mexico resident making her 17th trip to the festival.

She is the band – sole member as a bass fiddler – in Mackie Redd and the Band. Mackie is her husband, and together they’ll be headliners for the official festival.

“The prefestival is starting to be more important than the festival,” she said after greeting an old friend who dropped by. “Some are bemoaning because the festival is starting.”

Prefestival time around the campsites allows musicians to trot out new songs and do a little tail-wagging over what they’ve learned.

“The level of music in the campgrounds is astounding,” Kathy Redd said.

And don’t think there’s one size that fits all. Doctors and lawyers play with cooks and bricklayers.

“Out here, we’re all the same,” Redd said. “It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor. We’re here because we love music.”

Sometimes camp tales go beyond music.

On the other side of the road, Winfield resident David Mennecke wore a T-shirt labeled “Anything Goes in Pecan Grove.”

He and his girlfriend, Amy Wells, daughter of Art Eskridge, one of the founders of an event that served as the precursor to the current festival, were at Pyro Camp.

The name was earned after the fire marshal had to pay two visits to their camp on the same night four years ago.

“We had this nice, small campfire when a guy named Steve comes by and asked if he could put some more wood on the fire,” Mennecke said. “Before you know it he had wood stacked 12 feet high and flames reaching 15 feet.

“Steve was a little bit tipsy. OK, more than tipsy.”

That brought the fire marshal. He returned 30 minutes later after a kerosene lantern went beyond glowing.

“That inducted us as Pyro Camp,” Mennecke said.

But in the end, it’s all about the music.

“When the time comes to pack up camp,” Mennecke said, “it’s the saddest day of the year.”

This story was originally published September 16, 2014 at 9:03 PM with the headline "Campsite music rivals sounds of Walnut Valley Festival (VIDEO)."