nwcMUSIC is all about the DIY, which is why we have so many hands-on events and workshops.

For example, we have the overnight play opportunities known as Open Filk, starting each night at 11pm. Those can go on for hours and hours and hours, particularly if they’re going well. If late nights aren’t your thing, we have the daytime instructional circle at 1pm on Friday, for two hours.

We have the 2pm Saturday hands-on “Find Your Instrument” workshop – where you actually get shown instruments and a shot at playing with them, courtesy our musical pros. We have Cascadia’s Got Talent!, our terrible talent show, where you get up and strut your stuff in front of our panel of celebrity judges, some of whom may be sober! (You just never know!)

We have KidsFilk on Friday afternoon, at 5:30, for all the kids out there who want a shot at sing-along. And last year’s experimental workshop, Introduction to the Irish Session, returns on Sunday for extra time to round off the set. You can find a PDF of some popular Irish tunes – for advance practice, if you can read music – downloadable here (1.3MB .pdf).

Plus, we have panels! What the Frak is Filk? introduces you to the oldest extant form of geekmusic. Constrained Writing: Writing in Hard Mode is about creativity and simulating it through restriction. Making Art with Someone Else’s Art speaks to collaboration and derivative works of all kinds. And we have not one, but two panels on recording at home – and on a fannish budget: Home Recording I (Saturday) and II (Sunday).

Really, that only scratches the surface. To dig deeper, check out the official programming site, right here!