Sure, there are a lot of hard hitters and big time players that perform at festivals, and it's always fun to go see all the big players in one place at one time.
For a lot of people, though, the real fun of festival is getting the opportunity to jam with players from all over the country. Wintergrass may take place in a hotel, but that doesn't stop its attendees from jamming the night (and weekend) away.
It seems like everywhere you look in the Tacoma Sheraton, there are groups forming to improvise through their favorite old standards together. This was one of the most centrally located jam groups on night one of Wintergrass. It started out as this small group around 6:30 PM.