Stage 7 Winfield

As you all know, each year after the festival is finished we like to take a little trip to give us some time to relax. Last year we went to Vegas, stayed at a casino and made some money. We had a fantastic time but this year we want to do something different. A nice island retreat sounds good to us, maybe the Mauritius or Fiji. We’re open to suggestions so if you know of anywhere warm and tropical we’d like to hear from you. While it’s likely that there won’t be a casino on the island we intend to take our laptop and play games at our favourite casino online, Casino Action. Lately we’ve been having some massive wins so we’d hate to interrupt our lucky streak while on holiday. As you probably already know, Casino Action offers one of the best casino bonuses online so most of the time we play for free! Anyway, let us know your thoughts about our holiday destination.

Well, it’s almost that time of year again. As the weather heats up we can all feel the festival spirit in the air. Our committee has been madly organising everything we need for the festival this year including bands, food stalls and online casino games. Yes, you read that right! This year we’re going to have a marquee dedicated to playing several of the most popular online games including the new Lord of the Rings slot machine! We believe this will be a great new addition to the Stage 7 Winfield Festival. It gives our patrons an area to chill out and hopefully make some money. We considered having actual roulette and blackjack tables in the marquee but we have to keep within budget this year so we were forced to provide access to casino sites online via Wi-Fi. Make sure you purchase your tickets for the festival soon – you don’t want to miss out!

holy cow, the 10th anniversary of stage7 is off to quite a start. check the forum for more info, photos, and updates on all the shenanigans.

the stage is setup at Winfield City Lake, south si-eede and the above forum posts will tell you how to get to this glorious new land claimed for GKSA (and Spain). — curtain

A whole goddamn rant!

by KSP

{09.08.08}

A new rant has been requested, so here….have a whole goddam rant! Happy A-net?

Anywhooooo….

THIS IS STAGE 7′s 10TH YEAR!!!! Let me start off by saying that I never would have believed that we’d make this anniversary back in 1999. I never would have believed that the stage would grow as much and as beautiful as it has. It does take a great amount of effort each year, but it feels almost seemless how Stage 7 has integrated itself into the consciousness of the Pecan Grove. People are actually requesting to be married at our campsite, on the stage. It seems weird, but logical since we have a grand open area for gatherings. People email us months before the festival to find out how to play the stage. Sometimes I almost feel like we’re getting to big for our breeches. But all that aside….we’re gonna have a freakin party this year at Winfield!!!

It would be great to have all the original GKSA’ers from 1999 to attend this year’s festivites, but alas, life and other events make this an almost impossible task. So we shall celebrate our achievement with a 10th Anniversary Celebration on Stage 7, Saturday Sept 20th, 2008 immediately following the Tribute to KC Haywood. It will be filled with our favorite performers from the past 10 years, stories, fun facts, raffles, prizes and we’ll finally allow Poppa Pete an entire set to do whatever the %^&* he wants to do All this in the name of thanking the peeps that show up year after year to watch and listen to the one true ACOUSTIC stage at the Walnut Valley Festival: Stage mutha-hunkin Seven!!

We will be having another memorial/tribute on stage again this year. Our friend and ally in Pecan Grove crime, KC Haywood passed away this past June. He played the stage the past 5 years and was a big part in helping out behind the scenes and at our camp in ways other than just performing. We love him and will miss him dearly. At 3:00pm on Saturday, Sept 20th we will celebrate the life and music of another great Pecan Grove original – one year to the day that we celebrated his idol’s life, Mr. Kirk Rundstrom. May they both play on Stage 7 in Heaven every night until we all join them.

Poppa Pete will be, once again, claiming our spot on Landrush day, Sept 11th. If you plan to camp with us this year, bring some cash for stakes and land-saving AND be ready to party, cause we’re gonna blow the doors clean off this joint!!

we shall all be reunited

– KonzaswamPete

Bev!

by KSP

{07.29.08}

Steve Schmidt called me early this morning to let me know that Jay rushed Bev to the Hospital in Galvanston TX. Apparently her kidneys and liver have shut down and she is unconscious.

Steve asks for your thoughts and prayers. He said he will update us when he finds anything out.

KC Haywood 1978-2008

by KSP

{07.02.08}

It pains me to have curtain post this. But I love going to a safe online casino I just love the thrill of punting up a storm at my regular roulette wheel. - Our good friend and Stage 7 performer, KC Haywood, had a bad accident on June 14th leaving him with two shattered ankles and a skull fracture. He was in a medically induced coma for about two weeks until he had complications on June 26th. He was taken off life support on June 28th at 5:34am. His loving girlfriend, Sarah, and his parents, Gail and Greg Tucker and a few other close friends were at his side.

There will be a memorial service this Friday here in Chicago. At this time there are no definite plans for a service in Wichita, but I am sure there will be.

I cannot describe the feeling of losing another Stage 7 performer, musician, friend and confidant. There will definitely be a tribute to KC on Stage 7 this year. More details on that to come as they unfold.

We shall all be reunited

Pecan Grove community artifacts

by Goodie

{06.26.08}

The Mighty Goodie, along with his field notes in the forums under the titles Jeff and Vida (early all-ages patio show) June 22 and GKSA WyCo 6/20-6/22 Field Reports Addendum, has collected some original documents, scanned here for your academic study, with actual handwriting samples. Now for the first time, you can view these items

-curtain

A new 20-oh-8 rant is here

by KSP – leader extraordinary and plenipotentiary of Stage7

{01.18.08}

Ciao-dee Computer Campers,

Long time since last I rant. What hath transpired in that time? A new year, a new GKSA member (go Ruby Roc-bah!) and a warming in the belly that signifies the coming of a milestone. 10 Years! T-E-N. Count them 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007…..and soon, 2008! Ten years of Stage 7 in the pecan grove. Who woulda thunk it? A fledgling that has grown into a mainstay. How lucky we all are to have partaken in such a delicacy!

Back to that in a moment. February marks another milestone. The one year anniversary of the passing of Stage 7 great, Kirk Rundstrom. That is why we have dedicated February as the month of Kirk. If you go to www.myspace.com/stage7inthepecangrove right now you will find 3 songs from last September’s Kirk Rundstrom Tribute on stage 7. Over the next month we will be uploading songs from the forthcoming 2-CD set ‘a Kirk Rundstrom tribute’ onto our myspace site. The 2-CD set will most likely be available first at String Break this May. I’m sure once it is ready, it will be available at Sisters of Sound in Manhappiness as well. We also will be selling it thru paypal. More details on that as it comes closer to a palpable reality. All proceeds from the tribute CD set go to the Kirk Rundstrom Cancer Fund and ultimately, Lisa, Ellie & Molly Rundstrom.

All right GKSA members. The time is nigh for the 10th anniversary Stage 7 tattoo. It can be done a couple different ways. We can all agree on a design and all (that want to) get the same tattoo before Winfield ’08 or we can get separate tattoos of our own design. But, for sake of health and sanitary issues, the tattoos should be “on” by September. Unless you feel it necessary to have a tattoo done AT Winfield, but be forewarned that all I will do is point and laugh at you when you have to endure the pain and oooozing while also trying to stumble thru the streets of the pecan….uh…non-sober. Good Luck with that one. I have a pretty good idea for a ta ttoo that shouldn’t be too intricate (i.e. painful), but will also serve the purpose of symbolizing our 10 year battle to take over the world. I will post the tattoo design I have in mind on this website (with Curtain’s help) or the forum so we can all discuss.

I have almost finished the Kirk Tribute CD work (mentioned above) and as soon as that is done, work begins on the GKSA annual, “Live on Stage 7” discs highlighting 2007 and the wonderment that it was.

That’s about it for now in the winter hell that is known only as “Nowhere close to Winfield!” Stay warm, my fellow campers.

We shall all be reunited.

-ksp