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Twenty-five years ago, I had an idea about a festival where connecting through music wouldn’t be peripheral to the performances, but central to the experience. After a big bash like this summer - I won’t get all mushy on you here but, hey…wow.

I thought of this when I read a cycling article a few weeks ago. Describing Polish rider Kasia Niewiadoma-Phinney's win on the hardest mountain stage of this summer’s Tour de France Femme, journalist Joe Lindsey wrote:

‍Niewiadoma-Phinney's path to victory started with a camp done weeks prior, but one far different to the dour and dreary drudgery of most altitude camps. "I came with my friends, with my husband, and we rode the climb three times," she recounted. “We had fun. We sprinted. We did efforts, and it was just about this pure joy of riding, feeling like a kid.”

‍That speaks to a tenet of performance psychology, which is intrinsic motivation: the reward is not the win, but the work that leads to the win.

Every summer, for a week and a half, we experience the music evolving together, musicians and audience alike. It is about the concerts, but it isn’t only about the concerts. Those are a goal to work towards, but the real goal is the journey itself, and the joy in the process.  

We couldn’t have done this without the hard work of an army of volunteers, the people who hosted the artists, and our terrific NCMF board. Thank you!  

This August, through it all, beat photographer Matt Muise  was there to document the process. He took so many great photos, I’m breaking this into two parts.

‍David Yang, Artistic Director

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