The theme of Moosefest 2008 was "Rising From the Ashes." Back in 2004, the Moosefest committee saw interest waning and numbers of attendees declining and decided Moosefest 2005 would be the last formal one.

Then the email and Yahoo group posts came in droves. So after taking a couple of years of "informal moosefests," the committee planned 2008.

And sold out for the first time ever in March! People came from Italy, Israel, Canada, and all over the United States.

Also appearing for the first time in Cicely, Mr. Moosechick and newly arrived Baby Moosechick (born in April). After 11 years of Moosefests, it was great handing camera duties off to someone else seeing it for the first time (and an actual photographer, not a drunk monkey like me).

We arrived in Roslyn on Thursday at our home base, the Huckleberry House B&B and met up with the estrogen crowd (named by the hubbie as he was the only male there). If you're even in town outside Moosefest, I completely recommend the Huckleberry (but it is booked indefinitely for Moosefests!)

The weekend activies included Dan Dusek's Filming Sites bus tour; a walking tour of filming sites in town; phone interviews with cast and crew members John Cullum (Holling), Moultie Patten (Walt), Janine Turner (Maggie), Grant Goodeve (Rick), Adam Arkin (Adam), and Cynthia Geary (Shelly); a formal dinner with special guests Diane Delano (Sgt. Barbara Semanki), Rosetta Pintado (Mrs. Noanuk and as a Native Elder in several epsiodes), Harry Pringle (Henry MorningStar and as a Native Elder in several episodes) and Bill White (Dave the Cook); trivia contests; and Moosefest Olympics (a fun bunch of games including a sunflower seed spitting contest, a cow-flinging contest and more).

All and all it was a fun weekend with lots of new folks and lots of old friends.

The weather was perfect (and the moon was almost full). It was another wonderful trip to Cicely.

2009 (July 24-26) is an informal fest (meaning people will meet up and have fun, but no formal events are planned). The next formal fest is July 23-25, 2010. So mark your calendars. You also can see more information about the fests as they are posted on the official Moosefest web site: http://www.moosefest.org

There are ton more photos to peruse from Moosefest 2008:

Mr. Moosechick's photos (on Snapfish)

Eddie's photos (Flickr)

Felice's (from Italy!) photos (Flickr)

Moosefest 2008 T-shirts and More

The whole Moosefest gang and guests