I'm in the same boat, not on tribe much either just as a resource if I need to find out some info on something. Its good for about once a week or so... Don't think I'm rolling to DV either this time, it conflicts with power to the peaceful here in SF and I don't want to drive up for a short weekend. Some of my best gatherings have been the small ones, as people pull together and step up more than when there is a lot of heads present.

paul

hey Drew,

ya - it is a big one. most of the places i have been playing for the past few years are bigger circles. there is good an bad in it. my favorit size is about 3, 4 dunun players with 1-2 drums each, 5-6 djembe, with only a couple venturing off into lead parts, and enough shakere', bell, didg, clave, etc players to round it all out :) if it gets much bigger then the wall of sound thing happens OR facilitation has to take place in a somewhat overt way - and that has it's own issues.

and hey - a friend of mine makes dununs and djembes, not too far from philly (wycombe?) www.spiritinthewood.com/

i know probably 25 people in the greater DC area (maryland, wv, etc) who do that kind of circle (although the biggest one's i've done are at SpiritFire in NY (www.spiritfirefestival.org) and at Firedance in Santa Cruz (www.firedance.org).

lemme know if you want me to dig up more info on folks nearer to you - there is a lot going on in east coast, if you dont mind driving a few hours :)

cheers,
a

Heya, A-Dawg, good to see ya here. Maybe again at OCF?