rant against folk festival sponsor

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 01:37 PM

Irrevelant, Winnipeg.

People who provide money and time for music deserve music.

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: Ruth Archer
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 01:38 PM

"While I was unable to attend the Festival this year, I was horrified to hear that VW was a sponsor of the festival. The mere mention of the name raises the spectre of events within living memory that should never be forgotten."

I hope everyone who has ever driven a VW van to a folk festival is hanging their heads in shame right now (she said facetiously).

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: Willie-O
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 01:39 PM

Again, its a cultural difference, Leeneia. And your example simply does not compare to the situation being discussed. Geoff wasn't being disrespectful to the performer, he WAS the performer--and he's not "traditional" as such, he's a sharply-opinionated, highly entertaining singer-songwriter, which was why he was there; the AD who booked him couldn't have been unaware of this.

Winnipeg is a huge fest which has always had the strength of not needing to specialize in any particular subgenre of acoustic music. There is plenty of trad but it is not specifically the focus. Last time I was there (1996 regrettably), there was a fantastic array of top-shelf performers of everything from Banghra to Celtic. Well worth the trip; a prairie festival will literally broaden anyone's horizons.

Regards
W-O

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: Willie-O
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 01:46 PM

"People who provide money and time for music deserve music."

Then again, it's not just G Berner. Perhaps Garnet Rogers could be prevented from telling so many stories about the old days with Stan, so the audience could get a higher songs-per-dollar ratio...yeah right.

Sheesh.
W-O

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: Ernest
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 01:55 PM

So did Mr. Berner take money from a festival which was sponsored by a company founded by the Nazis?

Regards
Ernest

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: Barry Finn
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 02:10 PM

It's not so much that he had his blat at VW. Hell, at a festival, any folk performer should be free to ake their blast at who ever they feel they feel to speark up for or against. Otherwise you'd be banning a whole genre of folks that the likes of Tom Paxton ("I'm Changing My Name To Cyrlster") or Phil Ockes (Please forgive the misspelling). If it turns out that the artist is not in sync or in step with their audience the audience has it's chance to respond. If the audience feels that the artist is just shooting off their mouth at a cause that's nothing but windmills turning they'll eventually let the promoters know to ignore them in the future or that they want them back again.

From what I've read here, it sounds as if the audience felt nervous & uncomfortable, something gave them cause to think, it also sounds as if they were caught unawares. Hopefully the festival at it's conclusion askes for feedback, there's where they can deciede if the artist is someone who deserves to be returned. If he's out of sync , he's gone, he's paid for his risk otherwise his risk paid off. When you speak up for or against "whatever" it's a risk, that's what some performers do, if they're assholes about it, they eventually fall from view. But if they need to write, sing or speak about it, that's "folk", and in this day & age where governments will take us to war for the fun of it & take us to hell for pleasure, IMHO there is a lack of artists that'll take the risk taken by those that I remember from the 60's.

Barry

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: olddude
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 07:51 PM

it is all nonsense
100 years ago coke cola had cocaine in it also but we buy it and drink it now... Nascar wouldn't exist with the Viagra sponsors ... by the way what doe that have to do with fast cars ... hmmmm

and I don't like Nascar either and if a VW is driven in one of their races ... well ok ... I never understood the appeal of watching people make endless left turns !

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: Willie-O
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 09:07 PM

Somehow olddude, I think if you are presenting Coca-Cola and NASCAR as respected paragons of corporate virtue, you are a bit late to the party or at the wrong one entirely. Talk about nonsense...

Regards
W-O

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: olddude
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 09:18 PM

I know and you are right, just messing with everyone
remember what some wise person once said about sweating the small stuff, cause it is all small stuff ...

and yes I was off the point .... in truth I despise the big corporate monsters no matter who they are ... just take a look at our gas prices ... those 40 billion dollar profits per quarter are reasonable at the expense of everyone right

but you see it is all nonsense because we cannot change it. I wish we could but we really can't
so we focus on things we really can change, like getting a real president in office.

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: Willie-O
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 09:24 PM

good man yerself old dude. Good luck with the president thing, up here we have enough trouble just finding a prime minister who can pass for human...our current occupant is a droid.

W-O

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: olddude
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 09:32 PM

you are a good man yourself Willy, maybe just maybe we both can get someone in office with half a brain ...

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: Greg B
Date: 17 Jul 08 - 10:00 PM

Ferdinand Porsche invented the VW... not Adolf Hitler.

I dunno. They might be evil.

VW may have been "cheap and reliable" years ago, the
simple folks (volks) car.

But their AUDI division began to sing its song to me more
than a decade ago, and now I have an S4 Avant (which is
really a Passat, with a 2.7L twin-turbo'd motor) and though
things rarely go wrong with it, when they do you expect to
part with about four times what it used to cost to rebuild
the whole engine on a micro-bus. It's an 'exotic' car wrapped
in a station-wagon body.

First (test) drive's free.

Then again, there was the guy who tried to out-run and out-corner
me on the two-lane off-ramp with his silly little Honda Civic.
'Sport coupe' drivers in America really HATE to get creamed by
a station-wagon.

Durn thing gets 25-36 MPG in quiet mode, and will hit 150MPH+
when angry, carry a 27-inch TV set in the back, or two kayaks or
a load of lumber on the roof racks, 'walk' a Corvette in the
damp (Quattro).

If it weren't for the low ground-clearance, it would kick the
FJ Cruiser's butt in the snow--- a complete idiot can make a
Quattro (with snow tires) work in snow and ice. See 'All Road'
for the solution to the ground-clearance. Too bad the Q8 is such
an unreliable piece of junk, as is the VW Toureg; they're fitted
with the best AWD system on earth.

Only things bad I'll say about it is the cost of fixing it (true
of VW's too) and the fact that it rides like a buck-board, requires
a deft touch to avoid discomforting the passengers on stopping
and starting, and generally acts like an 'S' anything.

My A4 was considerably tamer--- but not cheaper.

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: GUEST,JohnB
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 06:42 AM

Sorry this guy Berner is a jerk.
You don't say stuff like that, then wimp out and say it was just a joke. You mean it and stand by it, or you don't do it.
You can't shoot yourself in the foot and then change your mind.
JohnB

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: GUEST,Betsy at Work
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:12 AM

John B , he should have shot himself in the HEAD and then tried to change his mind.

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: GUEST,WRI
Date: 22 Jul 08 - 01:09 PM

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: GUEST,Betsy at Work
Date: 18 Jul 08 - 07:12 AM

John B , he should have shot himself in the HEAD and then tried to change his mind.

My, aren't you a nasty piece of work

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Jul 08 - 06:37 PM

Much better for festivals to be sponsored by breweries...

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 12:15 PM

I suspect you're right, McGrath. That way, when someone bites the hands that fed him, we'll know the likely cause.

Subject: RE: rant against folk festival sponsor
From: GUEST,cStu
Date: 23 Jul 08 - 01:39 PM

"I was horrified to hear that VW was a sponsor of the festival. The mere mention of the name raises the spectre of events within living memory that should never be forgotten."

Is this for or against mentioning the name?