Thanks,  @ken-hulme!

 

Another Aussie to invite is Richard Dunn, in Gold Coast.  At 86 he's recently built a large box dulcimer.  He's a member here  

@john-dunn

 

I'll PM you here his email address.

 

@ken-hulme  You're on the right track! Anne and Richard are friends and we are excited that they are planning to be here for the first Australian Dulcimer Retreat.

Great Carla!  Be sure to contact Anne Bowman and Richard Troughear!

Would you travel to Australia for a dulcimer retreat?  

You might have noticed the Australian Dulcimer Retreat listed on this website's list of festivals. Adrian Kosky and I are hosting this dulcimer retreat at our place in Daylesford, Victoria, Australia. Our "day job" is to run our group accommodation business at  Tasma House and Gardens . We aren't normally involved with the groups who stay on the property....we just prepare it for them and clean up after them.....we appreciate the business, but we don't have much fun doing that. We live in a small cottage on the property and come-and-go separately from "the main house."  So, we have decided to create our own event and reserve the whole property for our own use: the first Australian Dulcimer Retreat! We have the wonderful Australian musician/dulcimer player,  Lucy Wise,  lined-up to be the main instructor for the event, August 28-30, 2020. (September 1st is the beginning of Springtime in Australia....it should be beautiful!)

I know a lot of people might want to and think they could never travel all the way to Australia. I'm just wondering if our hosting (in our home, basically), the focus on the dulcimer, and a reasonable cost for our event, would make the idea more doable. Adrian and I live half the year here in Australia and the other half in Clarksdale, Mississippi; we do the long travel a couple of times each year. It IS a long commute, but we are physically able (and thankful for that) to do it! 

We don't travel with our dulcimers, to protect them. We have quite a few dulcimers here at Tasma, and we would be happy for participants to borrow one for the Australian Dulcimer Retreat. Especially, if they're flying in from overseas! 

And...if you don't mind....I am going to be building an event page and/or website to provide details about our first Australian dulcimer retreat, and I would appreciate input as to what information you would like or need to know before booking your ticket(s). Questions about accommodation can be answered by looking at  Tasma House on Airbnb.com, disregarding the cost shown there, as there will be a minimal per-person accommodation charge for participants for this retreat. (Normally, we rent to one person who books the property for many guests, so the price might look odd.) The cost for the retreat will be shown on the website and/or Facebook event page that I create. Although it's not confirmed yet, I think the cost will be between $300-$400 and accommodation would be included on a first-come-first-serve basis, according to registrations.

It would be great to hear what your ideas are.

Here are a few photos to get you thinking....