Hey gang, I'm back! As I stated before, I've been meaning to attend
this festival for the longest time and I'm so glad I finally went. It
was well worth the wait. There was lots of variety of subjects to
choose from even if you wern't an internal stylist per se such as
Filipino stickfighting and empty hands defense, Street/MMA type
selfdefense, Introductory Hung Ga Kungfu Tiger techinques and
Introductory Liondance. They even invited those who took the
Liondance course to dance in the Lion which led the Freindship parade
to the evening's demonstrations at the big Hall! That was my biggest
treat though I have my own liondance team, I never get to actually
dance myself since I'm the only drummer on my team and I have to
direct the entire performance. This was an excellant change of pace
for me and I still learned alot. I've only been doing Liondance for a
year so my my skills are now more enhanced. Dr. John Painter was very
impressive on his lectures on Internal arts and subjects such as the
errors of "Double weightedness". Another very interesting subject was
by Sifu Dale Dugas on "Combat" Iron Palm Training with DO's and
Don'ts of developing Iron Palm. Another group worth mentioning was
the "SpherePlayers" who wern't martial artists per se. They
entertained and delighted us the first night "Meet and Greet" with
skills of balancing orbs of different sizes on their fingertips,
letting the balls roll across their arms, across their chests and
over their shoudler blades etc. Their movement resembled an internal
martial art known as Bagua so I could see a connection to the
festival and they fit in nicely. The Sphereplayer also offered
workshops so you too can gain the skills to become a Sphereplayer!
The food was great and all you can eat *LOL* The nightly Wine and
Cheese party could get out of hand if you didn't put yourself in
check. I came back to my dorm room with a buzz on more than a few
times. On the minus column was the weather which couldn't be helped.
Tropical Storm Barry happend on the 2nd day and being in a
mountainous area known as the Pocanos, the parking lots that were
available happend to be downhill with poor drainage. Many of us found
our cars flooded out from flash floods. One poor guy who drove in a
Hybrid received significant water damage to his car. Lets say there
was a big run to the local WalMart for WetVacs. Another thing was, I
definately overpacked with dress clothes and shoes. I was expecting a
more formal affair for the Hall of Fame Award ceremony. I may have
mentioned in another thread that I suffered a serious shoulder injury
the weekend before at a martial arts competition. This injury
continued to plague me during my stay at the festival and limited my
enjoyment some but the nice thing was being an "Internal arts
festival" there were plenty of "Healers" on hand to draw on from
massage therapists, accu punturists to Reiki, they were going out of
their way to lend their skills to me. For which I was very greatful
and made my experience more comfortable and enjoyable. There was also
great shopping at the Vender's tables. I'm definately a Festival fan
and am already planning for next year's event!

Cheers!

Mel