A New Face for Our Flute Community

After the festival in 2010, the festival committee and other interested members of our flute community met to brainstorm overall goals and activities for the coming year. There were several main things we wanted to accomplish:

1) provide more opportunities to bring the community together instead of one intensive weekend

2) provide more opportunities to welcome potential new members to the community

3) take things we found worked during Festival and inject them into other, smaller events; workshops, concerts, vendor opportunities will be a part of these events instead of just during Festival

As a result, we will have several events during the year to help us build participation:

- Flute retreat weekends in the Fall 2010 and Spring 2011

- our regular monthly flute circles featuring occasional presentations and vendor visits

- a Winter concert (February 2011) featuring local performers and a drum circle

- The Potomac Flute Festival will return, but in June 2011 and in a more streamlined format, with an off-site "gathering" on Friday night and the Festival all day Saturday featuring vendors and jam sessions and culminating in a concert. Tentative dates are June 24-25, 2011 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Arlington.

Our Next Main Event

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The Potomac Flute Festival Committee is pleased to announce the return of the Flute Fall-In Retreat Weekend.

Many around the East Coast region remember these lovely, relaxing retreats with great fondness and have been asking whether they could be restarted. The answer is Yes!

What is the Flute Fall-In? - A four-day (Thursday evening through Sunday morning) retreat to Camp Bethel near Roanoke. The facility is located on 470 acres of hiking trails, ponds, streams, open meadows, forests, and rolling hills. All lodging, three prepared meals per day and large meeting rooms are included.

The event is free-format, and includes lots of leisure time to enjoy the grounds, meet other attendees, pair off for duets and flute learning sessions. In fact, apart from some impromptu workshops (which in the past included calligraphy, multi-chambered flutes, pewtersmithing, healing with the flute, and looking at Angel Cruz's flute collection!), the only structured events are the meals, and a visit to play in the cavern down the street. Each day members of the group decide to walk the extensive grounds and flute-in-nature at one of several great natural features including the massive Oak tree, the quarry, the pond, and/or the river. Each night, the group gathers in one of three meeting areas to do "open mic" and share one-another's company.

Leonard McGann has again agreed to facilitate the Fall-In as he did years ago. Several vendors will also be at the weekend to set up shop in the House of Towers.

Sleeping Facilities - Traditionally, we have rented the Heritage Lodge, a heated lodge that segregates males and females into four bunkhouse rooms, each with their own bathroom facilities. It is our plan to limit attendance to 30 persons - on a first-come, first-registered basis on the registration list. Eating Facilities - There is a large dining room and a professional cooking staff; food is served buffet style and special meals preferences are no problem. All meals include full services (cooked breakfasts, lunches and dinners with salad, main meal, and deserts; and full beverage service.)

Getting There and Getting Around - You can drive to each facility and park next to the bunkhouse. The facilities are located less than two minutes walk from each other. We will attempt to set up car pools from the DC area as much as we can.