The 3 Dons weave their way through the crowd of bluegrass music lovers on the first day of the Appalachian String Band Music Festival at Camp Washington-Carver in Clifftop. Instruments in hand, they hold purposeful stares on the stage ahead.
The festival is on its 27th year, but the trio of Dons is not sure which year it was that they first met at the campground and started jamming together. Don Borchelt, aka Boston Don, seems to remember meeting Ontario Don, that being Don Couchie, first. Then came Don Lecky, aka Alberta Don, a few years later.
"They're both from Canada," explained Boston Don on how the other two got their names. The Dons attend other bluegrass festivals closer to their namesake homes, but this is the one they mark on their calendars.
Each year, for the past 27, Fayette County's Camp Washington-Carver has opened its doors to more than 3,000 musicians and music lovers for five days and nights of fiddle playing, flatfoot dancing, banjo picking, campfire cooking, dog chasing, Frisbee throwing and hymn singing.