8/24/02 Philadelphia Folk Festival,
Old Pool Farm, Schwenksville, PA

(Setlist unavailable)

Donna in the Morning
I'd just seen my first Donna show in June, and was excited to see them again as soon as possible. I checked the tour dates on the band's site, and the next time they'd be playing somewhere I would be able to see them was at the Philly Folk Fest in late Aug.

Donna would play twice at this Festival: Once on the main stage Friday night, and then again in a dance tent on Saturday morning (I think it was supposed to be an 11 a.m. start). I knew I wouldn't be able to make from work in time for the Friday night set so I ordered a ticket for Saturday and drove down that morning. Rain and traffic on the NJ Turnpike had me wondering why I was doing this.

I got down and picked up my ticket from Will Call, where I discovered the dance tent Donna was going to play in was actually located outside of the main gate. Guess the Folk Fest didn't really have too much incentive to advertise that little fact, or I could have saved the $35.

So I hung around the tent waiting for some dance act to end. Because it's not even 11 a.m. and because the tent's technically not inside the festival, there is no one around, but Raj is parked next to the tent. The band finally comes out of the bus, looking a little sleepy, sets up, and sound checks. By now there's a few people gathered, but really not that many at all.

Because I didn't know many of the songs at that point, and because according to donnabase.com there's no setlist, recording or even any indication that this performance officially took place, my review is short on specifics. Small crowd and no elevated stage meant I was dancing directly in front of the band, which felt a little weird. I remember a nice, long Voice In My Head. There weren't many of us there, but that didn't seem to matter to the band in the least. It was nice meeting Bobby and Ana at this show.

The set was extremely short--maybe less then 45 minutes--but fun nonetheless. I remembering thinking it would be a long time before I saw the band play in front of such a small crowd again, and so far I haven't. Afterword, Jeb hung out under the tent, signing autographs and talking to whoever wanted to talk to him. I went over and thanked him for the set. He thanked me for coming.