The Christchurch musician has been at the Whare Flat Folk Festival since Monday and within minutes of setting up his tent and sleeping bag, he was sitting under his gazebo playing his banjo — some bluegrass music to be precise.
Moments later, other campers who had brought their instruments started coming out of the canvas-work and joined him for a jam session.
"You could call it ‘organically grown bluegrass music’."
Despite not actually being on the concert programme for the festival, they still drew small crowds.
Asked if he knew any of the people he was playing with, Mr Stern said, "I do now".
"It’s a great way to relax. If I was at home, I would usually just play music by myself, so to have other people to play with, it’s much more fun," Mr Stern said.
"You have a yarn in between tunes and you learn a lot from each other by watching what they do."
The small group of newly acquainted musicians were among about 400-500 folk music enthusiasts who went to a range of festival workshops and also watched the headline musicians from the programme perform on the various stages.
They included Oscar LaDell (of Melbourne), Ebony Lamb and Gram Antler, Nigel Wearne, Gumboot Tango, the Krissy Jackson Duo, Helen Capes, the Ebeling Brothers, Neil Finlay and Crissi Blair, Mike Harding, Dave Murphy and Janet Muggeridge, Rhythm and Kin, and Westward.
Festival organiser Stephen Stedman said people had come from as far away as Australia and across New Zealand.
"There’s some distinct age groups. There’s lots of really young families and some people in that retirement age group where they’ve got that freedom to move around a little bit.
"There’s a huge cross-section of the community.
"They all come to hear the music.
"Folk is a big umbrella — there’s a lot of pop in folk music, a lot of blues, more traditional Celtic-infused music, Americana, country music, European klezmer music — it’s a big melting pot of music."
He said the weather had played ball so far, and was pleased with the audience turnout this year.
The event finishes tomorrow.
