Kim---

You missed Joy? I thought she was there, along with the other
Johnson girls...

But seriously--- can you articulate what you would have liked to
have seen more of?

I can't blame the staff for being tense--- it was a BIG transition
and having been intimately involved with the logistics of the event
in the past, it is a logistical nightmare that can defy even the most
meticulous of preparation. There certainly was an effort and expectation of better pre-planning and organization; but no amount of
that can keep little crises from happening--- dumb things like 'who's going to get the headliner from the airport/train station' can put a two hour crimp in an organizer's whole day.

That's when they have to depend on someone who maybe doesn't have a
pre-assigned task to 'just do anything that needs doing.'

There's usually a nightmarish period on Friday afternoon, when there
are a million things to do and no volunteers have really arrived, and
when the shanty staff is on the hook BOTH for Festival prep AND their
normal duties (i.e., Music of the Sea and Shore, Dog Watch, and
throw in the school shanty competition for good measure if they
hold it). At the same time, stuff has to be moved to the YTB,
two or three incoming artists will have little crises, some
housing host will have an illness and have to back out, another
group of three shows up with 9 extra guests hoping to be fed and
sheltered, and another artists calls up that she's at the New
London train station and needs a lift while another is totally
disoriented and really needs a host to get him her or them
fed and back to Lighthouse point to go on at 7PM. All the while
other welcome and lower-maintenance friends are showing up in the
office and demanding hugs while the poor SOB trying to run the
thing seems to be speaking two sentences at once and every other
word. Meanwhile, you forgot to send the weekend pass packages down
to the Visitor Reception Center, and have probably really needed
to take a dump for last two hours...