A Minstrel’s Journey: Memories of Weatherstock

The Fifth Annual Weatherstock event is coming up this weekend. It’s the biggest LOTRO player run event, attracting crowds in the hundreds each year. I think I may be the only person outside of the Lonely Mountain Band who has been involved in the event all 5 years so I thought it would be appropriate to spend some time reminiscing from that unique position.

2009 was the first year of Weatherstock, then a new and unique idea. Memories are hazy going that far back. My husband and I were in Gweth Valacirca at that time and when GV was invited to participate we jumped at the chance of being a part of the band. The event was organized and hosted by Galenswerd, Harperella and Bowlin of the Lonely Mountain Band and the first year around it was supposed to be about more than the bands. The advertisements promised pie, poetry and open mic sessions and invited kinships to use the event to recruit, merchants to sell their wares and players to RP. When the day finally arrived I imagine that everyone, including the Lonely Mountain Band, was a bit shocked by the turn out (if I recall correctly, well over 100 players that first year) and the lag. Members of our band had just trouble adjusting to the lag that we had to ask for our time slot to be pushed back. It turned out that you really couldn’t do much except sit down and listen to the music. But as a concert it was still grand. I don’t remember all the participants, but I recall a group of Dwarves (Baruk Khazad?) playing Paint it Black and the Blackheart Pirates dressed in their corsair outfits and I remember our own band playing Life’s a Long Song by Jethro Tull and No Quarter by Led Zeppelin. It was hard to enjoy the shows though because I’d never played before so large an audience and I was very nervous. That year there was only one prize and the Blackheart Pirates were the winners.

Galenswerd arrives at Weatherstock 2010

Weatherstock 2010 is easier to remember and much more well documented. By this time my husband and I had founded Mar Vanwa Tyalieva and Ingolemo (his character) had become a “personality”. We were practically jumping up and down in anticipation when the call went out for band signups. We were young yet in the LOTRO music community and eager to prove ourselves. The winners from last year were returning as well as server favorites The Hobbiton Philharmonic. So we pulled out all the stops. From the beginning we decided to transcribe all new music for our set and we wanted to have a group of songs that would flow together well and form a thematic whole. The MVT band didn’t play in uniforms but for Weatherstock we decided to suit up in a costume to compliment our music. Normally we just called ourselves MVT but we decided to use a “stage name” for a bit of added flavor: Ingolemo’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band. Which should give you a clue about what we chose to play. Ingolemo even wrote some lyrics for some of our songs. In the end, our efforts paid off because we won the prestigious Lonely Mountain Cup award, which is given to the band that the members of LMB vote on as their favorite. The other two awards (they started awarding three prizes that year) went to The Hobbiton Philharmonic.

Perhaps my favorite Weatherstock was 2011. 2009 was a surprise, 2010 was amazing, but 2011 was truly EPIC. 

This was the first year after the EU servers were merged so the band signups were opened up to people from all over the world. With an international program, Weatherstock’s time frame was pushed up to the middle of the day for those of us in the US. This made it more difficult for Ingolemo and I, with small children running rampant during the day in our house, but we weren’t dissuaded and signed up right away. With popular bands like The Shades and the Songburrow Strollers from Laurelin signing up as well as skilled Landroval musicians like GHMS taking part, it certainly looked like the competition was going to be tough this year. Once again we dedicated ourselves to creating all new music for our set and crafting a new theme to follow in our name, our dress and our music. Ultimately we decided to create a performance based on the inspiration for Weatherstock. We chose a set of songs that had all been played at the original Woodstock event, we dressed our band in what we called a “shabby hippy” look and called our band The Ingolemo Experience (a reference to Jimi Hendrix’s Woodstock appearance.)

This year the bands got some press on Casual Stroll to Mordor before the event. It was really beginning to feel like a big deal. And when the day finally came I think we were all blown away by the audience turn out. Well over 600 players were counted at one point. Our band was scheduled last and I had the opportunity to hear all the other bands before we played. It was impressive. Such a variety of musical styles and groups were represented from so many skilled players. The event had really grown and developed since the first year. I couldn’t help being nervous about our chances this time. But with the help of Ingolemo’s clever lyrics we put on the show of our lives and walked away, once again, with the Lonely Mountain Cup. It was a true honor.

By 2012 Weatherstock was more than an event, it was a phenomenon. New ideas added in 2011, such as the concert series before the big day, were perfected this year. Organization was top notch with Lonely Mountain Band members volunteering in droves to be part of assembled teams of workers doing various jobs such as vending, security or being a liaison between the LMB and the bands. The roster was filled with some old favorites as well as some new performers. This year I was a member of two bands: the MVT band, which was performing under the name The Traveling Ingolemos, and Andúnië, an all-Elven group and first time participant led by my friend Makalaure. Andúnië specialized in lore-appropriate music originally composed by its members, including an all drum piece. MVT went with a “travel” theme and created some wonderful new abcs of songs by Queen, Led Zeppelin, Cream, and other Classic Rock greats. It was, in my humble opinion, the best set we’d ever put together so far and Ingolemo’s lyrics were brilliant.

Is this lag or are the nervous performers imagining the audience in their underwear?

But 2012 was also the year that put a tarnish on the Weatherstock experience for Ingolemo and our band. During our set, the final set of the long concert, a player questing in the Lone Lands became annoyed by the lyrics that Ingolemo was posting to the regional channel while we played. Though all of the bands had been told to broadcast their lyrics in regional and though Turbine had sanctioned this, we ended up paying the price when the frustrated player reported Ingolemo and a GM gave him an official warning. A new participant, Don’t Tempt Me Frodo, claimed the Lonely Mountain Cup that year and MVT went home with nothing but a reprimand. Some days later a Turbine representative apologized to Ingolemo on the forums and cleared up the misunderstanding, but the damage had already been done. Add to that lag so severe that some of our band members couldn’t make it up the hill forcing us to scramble for replacements and both Ingolemo and I look back on Weatherstock 2012 as the year we enjoyed the least.

5 years of Weatherstock and I haven’t even gotten this awesome t shirt…. Seriously, I want this t shirt.

Ingolemo and I aren’t bringing our band back this year. Oh, we thought about it. We almost did. We even signed up initially. But Ingolemo’s heart isn’t in it anymore. That’s not anyone’s fault, especially not LMB’s. They have created something memorable and grand and amazingly fun. Weatherstock 5 has a great band line up. The concert series has been almost as fun as the big day itself. And I will be there again as a member of Andúnië once again. (I should mention that Andúnië was the winner of the Light in the Dark award in 2012. So I’ve been a member of an award winning band 3 years in a row. Go me!) Weatherstock is fun, I think it’s a great experience for every band to have at least once, but it can also be nerve wracking. I think that Weatherstock 5 will be my final year as a band member. But I will always be grateful of the memories of Weatherstock that I have and the excitement and fun it gave me over the years.

Three cheers for the Lonely Mountain Band and for Weatherstock!

Ingolemo and the Greenway Band will be remembering Weatherstock by playing all of the music that Ingolemo and his variously named bands have inflicted upon the audiences of Weatherstock over the past 4 years in concert this Friday evening at 9 pm edt. We’ll be playing at the Bree Stage. If you’ve never seen Ingolemo and the Greenway Band in concert or have missed our past Weatherstock performances or are just a fan of the original Bree Rocker, come enjoy the show. As Ingolemo says…

Be there or be somewhere else!