Another folk festival founder has waded into the discussion on Maplepost. These comments are from Tim Harrison, himself a folksinger, the founder and former artistic director of the Owen Sound Summerfolk Festival.

Tim's comments:

Here I go again, weighing in on an issue which will do me no good as a performer at the corporate folk fest level...but I just can't help myself, and I just can't sleep knowing the compromises made, which do not need to be made, to keep folk music alive and well.

Firstly, corporate sponsorship was a slippery slope that many festivals latched onto, and along with the "big name" theory, was bought into by many boards of directors wringing their hands about festival economies which didn't have back up funds for rainy days, the bottom line always the concern,...and the folk "biz" was born...not out of need, but out of paranoia. Yes some festivals lost money, but winter concerts, draws, even smaller style community events would often make up the difference.

The truth of what happened in many instances was that the "rainy day" fund at several festivals got blown by paying too much money to recycled pop acts who demanded huge fees, which they could no longer get for their performances in other venues.   SO it was incumbent upon boards to find extra cash, and since they were drawing fairly large audiences to their events, the natural place to turn was corporations. Also, at least here in Ontario, the funding sources from government ENCOURAGED corporative sponsorship because they themselves were withdrawing funds for such events, even though they KNEW that corporate sponsorship was thin in Canada, and certainly there IS a shortage of foundations which support the arts here in comparison to say, the U.S.

And so festivals, who used to have autonomy as to who they booked, were led closer and closer to the "star" theory which Estelle Klein and others eschewed. Now it is accepted practice to book "pop" stars (albeit mostly re-treads), thinking that these folks are the drawing card for the event.

But surveys show, quite conclusively , that this is not the case. In the eighties, surveys in Owen Sound, showed barely three percent even mentioned an artist's name when asked why they came.   The same is true now. People go for the sense of community at the event, not specific artists, and frankly, they could care less about corporate sponsorship, and many, looking for a true community event, are surprised and abhorred by the idea, having already paid a hefty price for the ticket.

SO, it's up to the folks putting on the event to ensure it's integrity, which does not include censorship of artist's comments or songs to appease corporate suits who could give a damn anyway. Corporations kick in bucks because they know people are there, and that's their interest, as always, the bottom line comes first in every corporation, that's their reason for existence.

But the bottom line was never the goal of folk festivals, yes it was more comfortable to know it was it met, but the ultimate thing is to create community, share the truer human experience, share music that MEANS something to people...so the Utah Phillip's, and the Willie P. Bennett's, and the Tom Paxton's, and the Stan Roger's, and the Willie Dunn's, and the Nancy White's, and the Dave Van Ronk's, and the Winston Wuttenee's, and Bob Bossin's, and the Valdy's, and David Bradstreet's, and the Tony Bird's, and the Christine Lavin's, and the Friend's of Fiddler's Green, and the Stewart Cameron's, and Saul Brody's, and the Steve Goodman's, and the John Allan Cameron's, and the Eve Goldberg's, and the Maria Dunn's, and the Bruce Cockburn's, and the David Wiffen's, and Tom Jackson's, and the Cape Breton Symphony's and Marcel Messervier's, and the Eritage's, and the Odetta's, and the Ramblin Jack's, and the Tom Rush's, and the Silly Wizard's, and the Martin Carthy's, and the Waterson's, and the Ola Belle Reid's, and Rosalie Sorrels, and the Tahuantinsuyo's, the Bai Conte's, and the (plug in umpteen real performers of your choice) were the folks that kept people coming back and back and back, and were the real draw because they made COMMUNITY.

If you have to stifle a performer's comments at a folk festival, you ain't got a folk festival....you may have something else, a corporate field day, a compromised commercial event, but you ain't got a folk festival. At least not like the one's I knew, and I know that none of the principles of the festivals I knew are not out of date now, they just have become overrun by beauracracy and have forgotten where they come from, and the absolute importance to remember when, and to remember now, and take lessons learned into the future.

Tim
www.timharrison.ca