Blind Date

Subject: Blind Date & other festival innovations
From: fi_in_nz
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 01:18 AM

No, this is not the singles thread....

I'm wondering where the concept of the blind date at festivals came from. At most of the NZ festivals all who want to put their names in a hat when they arrive at the festival and a draw ascertains which group of 5 or 6 people you will be performing with at the end of the festival. You then spend a bit of time chasing around the campsite finding the other members of your group, 1/2 a day deciding what you are going to perform and 20 minutes practicing before you perform your number on the big stage. Does this happen elsewhere? Does anyone know who first thought of it?

Despite sounding like a trauma, it's actually a great way to get to know new people and new material, or to get creative. In some festivals we now theme it so each group also gets a theme (e.g. Style of Steeleye, Sea Shanties etc.)

I imagine it would only work at smaller festivals - our biggest is only a few thousand people.

Does anyone else have any good events they've run at festivals? Always interested to hear of new things to do.

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 04:17 AM

fi -

It's done at a couple of the "unofficial" stages at WVA on occasion. I've not heard it called a "blind date" there, but the concept's the same. It also seems to be a regular thing in a couple of the larger individual camps, along with things like "blues night," "comedy songs night," "composer's night," and a few other stranger things.

I think I recall one camp that had an evening devoted to random groups and "you each have to play an instrument you've never played before." Some of us could qualify with our normal instruments, I think.

There are some links to websites run by some of the camps in the "Winfield (WVA) Festival" thread that's been up. Some of them may have some descriptions of events they've staged if you click into Don Shorock's site and poke around. Not a small festival, with around 20,000+ people in a typical year, but many camps are "small self-contained communities" within the festival campground, and pretty much run their own programs.

John

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: Leadfingers
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 04:41 AM

We did the same thing at Maidenhead as a theme night - Only in duo mode though . Names were drawn from a list of people who whould be at the club on the given night , you then had a couple of weeks to sort out a two song set with someone you had never played with before .

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 06:17 AM

Gosh Leadfingers - a couple of weeks is long enough to fall in love, get married, and raise children together.

The usual at the ones I've seen are you find out who your group is at about 10:00 am and you have until 1:00 pm or so to work up the act.

I would suppose that your way would maybe give a more polished performance, but surprisingly the "instant groups" sometimes do pretty well at the ones I've seen. The trick with the "quicky" setup is figuring out - quickly - what talents the individual members may have, and working the arrangement to use what you got (and to avoid making someone try to do something that's beyond them).

John

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: JennyO
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 07:43 AM

One of the festivals I go to in Oz, Albion Park Folk Festival (formerly Kiama), always has one of these, only they call it a Band Mixup. It's done the same way you describe, fi_in_nz, and the Band Mixup Concert is a highlight of the final day. It's a hoot being in one. Strangely enough, none of the other festivals around here seem to do it.

Jenny

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: Leadfingers
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 08:17 AM

Our excuse for the lead time is that people are paying out 'good' money for the evening , and we all live fairly scattered , so it takes a little while just to find an evening to get together to find two suitable songs . And though some of us are competent 'head arrangement' oiks , some arent , and need a bit of time just to sort out a key that fits .

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 01:54 PM

The WVA festival has the whole "four days" - (from Aug 18 thru Sept 19 this year - see the thread) so there's lots of time for "on-site" mixing. With 20,000 people available, a third of whom may play passably, the couple dozen who may get into a given mixup seem to self-select to a fairly even level of skill. I don't know whether there's more variation in the smaller camp sessions, as I've only heard a few.

The two "unofficial stages" that occasionally have done the "blind date" format mostly do the "open mike" thing where you sign up your group to perform and they give you a time. Competition to get a group on is sufficient that you usually need to get in line at least a couple of days in advance.

The mixers may draw quite a few more volunteers than they have time to put on, so the draw is often to see whether you get into a group as well as to assign you to one.

John

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: open mike
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 02:19 PM

AT STRAWBERRY FESTIVAL this type of thing is called the Band Scramble.
it is hosted by Prairie Flower and Cactus Bob http://www.renwah.com/
who often play with http://www.sourdoughslim.com/
everyone who wants to participate goes to the amphitheatre at noon
and there are hats or bags to put your name in...labelled with instruments...guitar, banjo, etc. and one name from each hat is drawn
and they are given an hour or so to come up with a few songs or tunes,
a joke and a radio spot for the on-site broadcasting "Hog Ranch Radio"
then the bands are issued numbers and the numbers are pulled at random
to decide the order. Voting is done by an applause-o-meter. this is fun.
a theme is chosen, and announced at the beginning, so there is not a lot of time for pre-planning...

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: fi_in_nz
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 04:48 PM

Hi Open Mike - Strawberry Festival sounds fun - I like the idea of the radio spot. One of the interesting things about doing a random in the hat thing though is that you might get 5 banjo players - we once ended up with noone who played an instrument (except bodhran which we decided to ignore) and did a fab a capella number. Thanks for all the replies, I'm glad it happens elsewhere it's such fun.

F

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: s6k
Date: 16 Aug 04 - 08:38 PM

that cilla black woman hosted this programme.

she has an annoying voice and should retire by now

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 17 Aug 04 - 05:05 PM

sk6

I guess you're not old enough to remember Cilla's singing. Anyone who had a heart would. But unrehearsed, Blind Date wasn't.

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: PoppaGator
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 12:40 PM

To fi in nz:

No danger of picking 5 banjo players, as I understood the plan outlined in open mike's post. There's a hat or bag for each instrument, labelled as such, and the organizers then pick groups made up of assortments of instruments (one of each, or whatever).

Am I right, open mike?

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 02:52 PM

PoppaGator

That's the way they've done it at the ones I've seen.

The "glitch" is putting all the guitars in one hat. It makes a difference if you've got a lot of "backup" chordwhangers and only a few "pickers." If you have a lot of one instrument, you may need separate hats for "styles" for that instrument. You need to put a "lead" instrument with a backup guitar in preference to giving one group a good fingerpick lead guitar and a fiddle, if there's a shortage of an instrument. Fiddles are usually the ones that don't spread far enough for all the groups to get one in my area, although good banjo players are not as plentiful as might be tol'able here.

For impromptu groups like this, someone who knows (and can deliver) a few good jokes to "emcee" the act can be a real asset, but they don't usually have a hat for that.

One session I saw had an "auction" round right after the groups were assigned, where groups could offer to trade with other groups if they felt like the had a "misfit" or didn't get an "essential" instrument. They had a lot of fun with it, but I'd recommend having an "official referee" to block any real stacking of a group that would be unfair to the others. This probably only works if people know each other well enough to tell if the talent is being distributed fairly.

John

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: fi_in_nz
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 06:46 PM

Hi PoppaGator - Yeah, I understood how Mike's worked.... down here we do it differently - all names go in the same hat, so you could get 5 banjo players.   Each way has it's merits. Down here, we all have a good time and you never know what you're going to get - you could end up with a percusion ensemble! Everyone has fun making the most of what they get. I imagine with the instruments in a hat approach you might get a slightly more professional band set up, but each group would be similar.

It sounds like you're talking about a bluegrass scene where the instruments would be fairly standard. Our folk festivals down here have to accomodate pretty much all styles which might call themselves folk - so we get bones players, bodhran, bluegrass banjo, irish banjo, hammer dulcimer, Maori nose flute, vocalists, guitar (pickers/strummers), fiddle, uillean pipe players etc etc. I don't think we'd have enough hats!!!! ;-)

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: JennyO
Date: 18 Aug 04 - 10:31 PM

Yeah, same here. It's really interesting to see what happens when the mix is off balance - it's all done in fun anyway - and this makes it more fun. One time we had nearly all poets in one group, but they still came up with something brilliant!

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 08:24 PM

well I think it sounds like a rubbish idea.

Whats wrong with having some committment to your material, learning the words (with some thought as to what they mean - like an actor does), thinking about how to present it(perhaps a few words to make it accessible to people unfamiliar with your particular strain of genius) - working out an accompaniment that's in the right key for your voice and doesn't sound a tedious argument of insidious intent, and turning up with your guitar in tune.

being a performing artist isn't a neurotic alternative to being an ordinary human being - it implies a responsibility to the poor sods who've been daft enough to listen.

If its a jam session - fair enough - nobody expects too much. but most folk music is pretty subtle in its simplicity - it will take all the concentration you can give it, and then some, just to blend the instruments even.

anyway thats what I think.

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: JennyO
Date: 19 Aug 04 - 10:55 PM

Whats wrong with having some committment to your material, learning the words (with some thought as to what they mean - like an actor does), thinking about how to present it(perhaps a few words to make it accessible to people unfamiliar with your particular strain of genius) - working out an accompaniment that's in the right key for your voice and doesn't sound a tedious argument of insidious intent, and turning up with your guitar in tune.

Weelittledrummer, you're assuming they don't do that? Anyway, this is supposed to be a FUN event. In our parts, it only takes place once a year, at a festival. The participants AND the audience enjoy it immensely. It challenges people'e creativity, and it's surprising to see what can come out of these combinations - often something quite exciting and new. Sorry your life has to be so serious.

Jenny

Subject: RE: Blind Date
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 20 Aug 04 - 06:23 AM

yeh me too