Meeting the "king of Kerrville"

In the campground, I had an interesting chat with Javier, the self-styled tee-pee dwelling "king of Kerrville." Kerrville of course is the long-running folk music/singer songwriter festival that runs 19 days every June in a town not too far from here. A non-stop story-teller, Javier has been dispensing wisdom as well as barbeque to the Kerrville faithful every year since the beginning, but he feels that the community spirit at the festival has begun to deteriorate, largely because of a division among RV campers and tent campers at the festival.

The full story is covered in his wife's book about Kerrville, "Hot Jams and Cold Showers," which has to be the best-ever music festival book title. The problem, said Javier, is that the management began to cater exclusively to the desires of the trailer set, while at the same time making a variety of mistakes involving the site's drainage and physical improvements.

Despite the problems, Javier still thinks Kerrville is the best festival going, though he thought there was a lot to admire in the campground setup at Old Settler's Camp Ben McCullough.