The main concerts this year were held indoors adjacent to the festival venue and even with the problems of poor lighting and a few power outages during Jan Michael Lookingwolfs set (amazing that he continued with a monologue in the dark!), the music was top notch.

Friday night opened with Ancient Sounds, which offers an eclectic group of music incorporates everything from the NAF, played by Gary Leathum, to African drums and everything in between. Always fun and interesting to hear them play.

The feature artist was Gary Stroutsos, who not only is an amazing flutist both in Jazz and Native American styles, played on any type of flute from most anywhere in the world, but his historical knowledge on the NAF is vast. Accompanying Gary was Bill Hoshal (how is it this guy not headlining?), also a fantastic musician who too can play most any flute as well as the clarinet, sax and percussion. Making it a trio was Larry Mahlis, one of the best local world percussionist from right here in Seattle. These three are easily the most technically skilled musicians here at Flutequest. Their ability to improvise and work together is amazing.

Saturday night featured Sayaru, the duo of Bill Hoshal and Vince Chafin. They too were accompanied by Larry Mahlis on percussion as well as Garth Brooks (no, not the one you are thinking of) on guitar. They laid down a great set with the NAF creating music from very traditional to Jazz improve. The headliner for this evening was Jan Michael Lookingwolf who is always a crowd pleaser here at Flutequest. My own feeling is Jan is one of the best NAF players anywhere. His technique is clean and vast, but what sets him apart is the feeling that comes through his music. The highlight, other then his monologue during the two blackouts of the evening, was when Jan invited all of the professional players up on stage for a major jam session. That alone was worth the price of admission.

All and all a great time again here at Flutequest.