Frank Fairfield and band with Kyle Zantos ::: Polaroid courtesy of Dylan Priest

Amongst a field of indie kids and folk bands Doe Bay’s ground’s, Frank Fairfield was an old schoolhouse, full of knowledge and looking and sounding every bit the part of a by-gone era. Though Fairfield’s not a local, his on-stage educational talks on the fiddle to 2am busking station jam sessions made him just as much a vibrant contributor to the collaborative and musical mood of the festival as the veterans and locals.

Still not fully awake Friday morning as we wandered in search of a coffee cart we stumbled into Fairfield and band warming up next to the mainstage field where fellow banjo wiz Kyle Zantos had gravitated to the situation and managed to sneak in a lead here and there. This is how I always imagined a more free form folk festival might flow, people plopping down where-ever they may be or meet to jam and live the music. Little did we expect that moment would be reprised for our camera the next day on our sun-kissed forest location playfully named “the Hobbit Hill.”

Sound on the Sound wasn’t the only set of folks filming at the fourth edition of Doe Bay Fest. A group of documentarians wandered about catching the spirit of the festival for a presentation they are calling “Welcome to Doe Bay.” November 11th Frank Fairfield will headline Columbia City Theater for a party to help fund a Kickstarter goal set by the crew to finish this documentary with quality.