I've been playing the Sacramento festival since the late 1970s, off and on, in various bands, traditional and not. The experience has been generally very good - audiences, staff, other bands, the shops and restaurants of Old Sac, all great. Whatever can be done to keep it going is worth the effort! By the way, The Beatles actually DID begin as a washboard band - the Liverpool skiffle group called The Quarrymen started out with John Lennon on banjo, Pete Shotton on washboard, and eventually Paul McCartney and George Harrison joined the group. More detailed history at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Quarrymen