Elderhostel participants are big fans

By JENNIFER ROGERS
Staff Writer

Margaret Payne has a fair share of friends in Danville, even though she and husband Fonis, both 67, have lived in Columbus, Ind., for 22 years. But she also has friends all over the United States, some that send Christmas cards and stay in touch, even though she only sees them once a year -- when the Paynes make their yearly trip to see the Great American Brass Band Festival and visit friends they have made at the festival's elderhostel program.

The elderhostel, in its fourth year at the festival, is one of the reasons Margaret Payne keeps coming back.

"You make really good friends there that you keep through the year," Payne said. She heard about the elderhostel activities through a mailing list for the brass band festival, and decided to attend. She was met with a "well-organized" schedule of events and activities for the hostelers, which helped her solve the problem she encountered when she first visited the festival 11 years ago.

"Your first (festival) is just making up your mind what you want to do," she said. Through the years, she added, the festival has constantly improved its variety and quality of music, although there are some constants.

"What never changes is the friendliness of the people at Centre College," Payne said. She and other elderhostel guests paid $480 this year to stay in residence halls on Centre's campus and eat in the college's dining facilities.

Payne enjoys the atmosphere the festival offers, and says she is "almost an addict" when it comes to the music.

"There is not, to me, anything more moving than a brass band," she said.

Payne has even narrowed down her list of favorite bands to three, the first of which is the Olympia Brass Band. "They look like they're having such a wonderful time," she said.

Another of her favorites is the Band of the Air Force Reserve because their performances are "so perfect and so dedicated." The final band on Payne's list is the Advocate Brass Band, which she calls the "adhesive" holding the whole festival together.

Payne, who read about the festival in a magazine, has stayed as far away as Frankfort and Harrodsburg during the festival. One year, she brought friends from England who wanted "real American" experiences.

Payne extends her impression of the festival's atmosphere to the entire town, which says she has a friendly feel.

"We think the people in Danville are just what people should be," she said, adding that two years ago, she and Fonis almost moved to Danville. For now, though, she will settle for a once-a-year stay with the other elderhostel guests, some of whom have attended as many as 50 other elderhostels around the country.

Payne, however, has only been to this one.

"We think Danville's is so good, anything else would be secondary," she said. Payne says she sends in her reservations in December to secure one of the 50 spots the elderhostel offers.

"If you don't get in early, you don't get there," Payne said. All of this year's openings filled up at the beginning of March, according to Norton Center for the Arts Director of Programs and Public Relations Debbie Hoskins, who helps to organize the elderhostel.

Listings for the festival go into elderhostel's listings in December, Hoskins said, and she estimates that up to 20 percent of this year's hostelers are repeat guests. She said that many of the elderhostel participants have given the program good reviews.

"We always get wonderful remarks," Hoskins said. "The only complaint I've had is that we feed them too much!"

Hoskins said the biggest changes from year to year are the lectures on band history, which feature varying topics. Elderhostel guests arrive on Wednesday, and hear a full day of lectures Thursday before the festival starts. The lectures are arranged in part by Frank Cipolla, the elderhostel program educational coordinator.

Cipolla, a longtime participant in the festival's Friday Conference on American Band History, said the lectures are meant to be educational and appealing to everyone.

"But at the same time they have to do it in a not so formal, academic way," he added.

For instance, one of the lectures Cipolla has lined up features Hugh Henderson, a band leader in World War II, who will talk about his experiences. Cipolla said many of the elderhostel guests were alive during the war, and will find Henderson's topic interesting because they can identify with the time period.

"The main thing is to get the elderhostel people to realize what is going on with American bands," Cipolla said.