On Friday June 6th MadFolk, in coordination with the staff at Governor Nelson State Park, had scheduled what was to have been the first of a summer’s worth of Folk concerts at the Beach Pavillion. The first act presented was to have been Andina and Rich. As you may know, due to the weather, the first show was canceled. Fourteen people showed up anyway. This is an open letter to the fourteen. As the back half of Andina and Rich I feel that you are owed an explaination. At a little after 9:00am on the morning of June 6th I went on line to take a look at the radar to see what, if any, storms might be coming towards us. The Weather Channel had, on Thursday night, been predicting that the storm which ultimately got no farther north than Racine would be hitting Madison late Friday afternoon. As of 9:00am Friday morning the on line radar confirmed that. I called the park and talked to the park manager, Rene Lee. When she looked at her radar link she developed the same concerns – that being safety. Not just safety for people at the park, But for people traveling to and from the park. On Thursday night the Weather Channel had been saying that, amongst other things, there was a good deal of hail in that storm. Renee left it as my call. I decided, in the interest of safety, to cancel. I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering why I started the ball rolling that early in the day. Why didn’t I just wait to see what else happened? The problem was that, while I live in Madison, my partner, Sandy Andina, lives in Chicago. I wanted to be able to head her off before she started driving up here for a concert that might not happen. About 2:00 that afternoon Renee called me back with what she felt was good news. The wind had shifted and the storm system was no longer heading toward Madison. It had shifted south of us. The bad news was that the storm had just arrived in Chicago. Sandy didn’t dare try to leave Chicago in the middle of it. Even if she had made it out of that city, she would have hit the worst of it in either Belevedere or Racine (depending on which route she chose). Besides, at that point Madison was still getting 30mph wind gusts. I had had pictures in my head of the wind blowing over our mic stands ans speaker towers. I stood by the cancelation decision. By the time it was safe for Sandy to leave Chicago it was too late for her to get here on time. Weeeellllll, have you ever made a decision that seemed like a really good idea at the time only to have the circumstances change and make a fool of you later? That’s what happened to me on this one. During the time that the concert was to have taken place (7-9pm) the weather here was absolutely GORGEOUS! I could almost hear the celestial giggling. The worst part of it is that fourtenn people actually showed up to hear some music. I must, most humbley, apologize to you for that. Note that this was MY decision. I take full responsibility for it. Please, do not blame MadFolk or Darlene Buhler. Neither MadFolk nor Darlene had anything to do with it. Darlene didn’t find out about it until after the decision had been made. If you are one of the fourteen, both Sandy and I feel that we owe you an evening of music. As it happens, we will be playing at Wild Hog In The Woods Coffeehouse this coming Friday, June 13th. If you are one of the people who was disappointed at Governor Nelson State Park last Friday, Sandy and I will pay your cover charge for the Wild Hog show this coming Friday. It’s the only way we can think of to make it up to you. Wild Hog In The Woods is at the Wil-Mar Center 953 Jenifer St. in Madison. Showtime is 8:00pm. Just mention last Friday and you’ll be good to go. With apologies, Stephen Lee Rich