And there came a storm at DelFest…

Aftermath of the DelFest thunderstorms - photo by Echo at bluegrasscountry.orgJerad Walker with WAMU’s Bluegrass Country shared a few details – and some video – of the apocalyptic thunderstorms that rolled through DelFest this past weekend in Maryland.

On several occasions during the festival, the proceedings came to a halt for sideways rain and hail. Jerad gives a taste of what he experienced on Sunday afternoon in a blog posting at bluegrasscountry.org.

“The deluge lasted for well over an hour and included lightning, thunder, hurricane-force winds, and a 25 minute hail storm. We took shelter with Fred Bartenstein in the Artist Tent, but were later evacuated to the Multi-Purpose Building when the structural integrity of the tents began to fail and ankle-deep water started to pool around our feet. When the rain subsided, all that was left of the once peaceful infield were hundreds of empty lawn chairs and mangled tents, including the one housing the DC Bluegrass Union and WAMU’s Bluegrass Country.”

Here’s a bird’s eye view from the festival site…

There are a few more stormy DelFest clips on YouTube.Whew… Glad to see that no on was seriously injured.

UPDATE 5/27 – In the “should have known department”…

Katy Daley just passed along that one of her Bluegrass Country listeners referred to the storms as The Del-uge.

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About the Author

John Lawless

John had served as primary author and editor for The Bluegrass Blog from its launch in 2006 until being folded into Bluegrass Today in September of 2011. He continues in that capacity here, managing a strong team of columnists and correspondents.