Festivals - Why do you go?

Subject: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 06:46 AM

As so many festivals seem to book the same old performers most of the time, why do YOU go?
Is it that like me you enjoy meeting the folks, and going to the sessions, more than sitting on your arse ego watching?
Not that all performers suffer from the ego thing, but there does seem to be more "Personality cults" in these days of resurgent folk music. It's even got to the schoolyard proportions of 'My performer's better than your performer' in some cases!
Anyway the question is 'Performers or Mates?'

Giok

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 06:50 AM

Mostly to see if I can find any good sessions. While I may decide to listen to one or two acts, thier main purpose as far as I'm concerned is to get a number of people together for the fringe events.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Emma B
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 06:51 AM

Well, performers can be "mates" too :)

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Rasener
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 06:56 AM

I go to Moor & Coast becuase they tend not to go with the same old performers and provide a great variety of performers.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: The Shambles
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 07:14 AM

I have come to the conclusion that many go to festivals in order to be able to write and complain about them afterwards.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: muppitz
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 07:25 AM

I used to go because my Mum went, when I got old enough to make my own decisions I still enjoyed it.
I enjoy seeing the people I consider my friends, discovering bands/artists who are new to me and getting away.
I still enjoy all of the above, but I now work for Moor & Coast, when I'm not an artist, so if I miss someone I want to see at one festival, I'll be sure to catch them at another.

muppitz x

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Mooh
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 07:27 AM

Exposure to new acts, artists, styles, interpretations.

Exposure to familiar acts, old friends.

Volunteerism.

It's cool and it makes me feel good.

If you're seeing the same old acts, take in other festivals. One doesn't have to go far afield in southern Ontario to see a celtic, world, folk, bluegrass, fiddle, blues, guitar, and rock festival at least once a year. Won't be much different in many other places, though the travel might be longer.

To answer the question, I go to see performers first, mates are a secondary reason.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 07:34 AM

"Mates", for me comes somewhere between "sessions/fringe" and "artists", although a "mate" could also be either or both session participant or artist.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Beer
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 07:37 AM

For a few reasons.
1) Totally enjoy them.
2) Recruit for the festival I'm involved with.
and 3) To connect and make friends.
Beer

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Rasener
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 07:47 AM

You haven't forgotten this Friday have you Muppitz X ?

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: treewind
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 07:53 AM

If you like sessions - obviously a good place to meet lots of other session addicts who you wouldn't meet any other time and swap tunes and songs with them.

If you like listening to the booked artists (somebody does, or the festivals wouldn't book them) it's a great opportunity to see/hear lots of them in a short space of time. It's often argued that for the cost of a festival ticket you can see far more performers than you would if you had to pay the same money in concert tickets for each of them separately.

Club organisers with any clue go to hear new performers that they might book for their clubs. Performing artists go for the same reason.

And as the folk scene is a community where lots of people from all over the country know each other, festivals are great just for making new friends and bumping into old ones, catching up on gossip and finding out what's going on outside your own neck of the woods.

A no-brainer, really.

Anahata

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Don(Wyziwyg)T
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 07:54 AM

To catch up with distant friends like you, Giok.

To perform where there's a chance I'll get bookings from club organisers.

To hear new professional acts, and to meet again some pros that I booked when they were starting out.

Covers just about everything, No?

Don T.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Rasener
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 08:16 AM

As Treewind says
>>Club organisers with any clue go to hear new performers that they might book for their clubs<<

Thats one of the main reasons for me as well as enjoying each of the performers.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: LesB
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 08:43 AM

I go to see favorite artists, new artists, ones I havn't seen before.
Go to workshops. To see dance displays and occasionally a music session (if I can find one that isn't all diddly diddly).
The good thing about seeing an artist at a festival is that you don't see too much of them, ie: 20 - 30 min spots. So if you like them you can go back for more & if you don't it's not too long to endure. This 'sample' you can then apply at your folk club when you get home if you're not sure whether to go & see such & such a body.
I've been into a couple of singing sessions at festivals, but these are not for me. Talk about "sitting on your arse ego watching" (see the first post). I found them very cliquey. (That will upset a lot of mudcatters).
Incidently in the last couple of weeks iv'e been to Cleethorpes Fest and two dance weekends & I never heard the F word once. A refreshing change to be amongst people without a limited vocabulary. Unfortunately at another festival I had a friend who was threatened with violence "if you ever come to another session i'm running i'll break every bone in your f-ing body"! Nice eh?
Cheers
Les

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Cats at Work
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 08:48 AM

Meet old and new friends, go to sessions, hear new stories and songs, get inspired, have my faith in the human race restored. I tend not to go to concerts but like to check out what's new and who's new, see some dancing, have a good time in general.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Essex Girl
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 08:50 AM

I go to meet friends old and new, and to listen to and sing the music I've always loved whether in a singaround or a concert. I love the whole atmosphere of festivals and the chance to completely relax without having to drive anywhere or go to work the next day!!.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 08:58 AM

for the last 7 years my annual holiday has been the National Folk Festival at Easter. I also go to 1 or 2 smaller festivals.

I go for my holiday!, to meet friends, to see acts I know, to see acts I don't know, to miss acts I really MUST see cos I met friends, to buy lots of CDs & other interesting stuff, to check out artists for my club, to join in singing sessions, to meet other Mudcatters, to take lotsa pictures & have fun.

sandra

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 09:05 AM

at my age the reunion aspect plays an important role
hear good music
play good music
some of the festivals I attend have food that's good enough to anticipate
get out of the house
get out of town

Russ (perennial GUEST)

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Mrs.Duck
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 09:28 AM

Very definitely for the sessions and singarounds, late night singing, meeting friends old and new and very occasionaly to go see an artist or two. One reason I like festivals like Warwick so much is that with everything on one site you can wander from place to place and get a bit of everything.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: AggieD
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 11:47 AM

LesB, that comment about your friend in a session really shocked me with the tone of it, but I have to say in the long run I'm not really very surprised & totally agree about sessions & egos. I avoid them like the plague as I consider a lot of them have people going along who have far bigger egos than many of those acts which are booked, but far less talent.

I pick & chose where I go, very often because there are acts which I don't necessarily know & want to listen to without being commited to sitting through a long evening & paying comparatively far more.

I also love learning new things at workshops, seeing friends old & new & watching the displays.

I also love having a good laugh with newbies in the ceilidhs at the beginning of the evening, encouraging them to keep dancing & by the end of the evening, whadyaknow they've almost cracked it & they've found out just why I love folk music & dancing.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Barry Finn
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 01:25 PM

I love to get knocked out be an act that I haven't heard before & don't know, that's smashing, though I don't go for the concerts & workshops alone, I do love to see & hear some of the class acts too.

I also love to go to the sings & hear some great singers with stuff I haven't heard & the stuff that's great to sing along with & I do love to sing too.

I don't sleep much at festivals & normally will get up early, to catch up with meeting old & new friends, have a nice community breakfast & hear the scuttlebutt & maybe get to hear a wake up song or two.

Supper's for eating, chatting & rummaging through different songs with other folks that have their own take & different slant on different songs & different versions. Shop talk I guess.

But the best part for me is finding late night sessions. That's where I love to hear the hidden talent that's often better than some of the booked acts (at least in my part of the US) and where I get to hear songs that I wouldn't normally get to hear because a lot of performers will do things that are abit more familar to their listeners.

Lastly, the comraderie & community, it's unbeatable.

Barry

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Charmion
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 02:25 PM

I go to hear songs and tunes that would otherwise pass me by 'cause I don't keep company with a wide variety of musicians. I go to natter with friends and strike up conversations with total strangers. I go to "change my ideas" as we say in French -- there's nowhere farther away from National Defence Headquarters than any folk festival.

Do I need any other reasons?

I get tired early, so I tend not to do the late-night singarounds any more. Edmund loves them, though, and consequently a festival with good singarounds is worthwhile even if there isn't a single main-stage act that appeals to me.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Herga Kitty
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 05:02 PM

Performers and mates....

At the festivals where I'm booked to run singarounds I try to make them not cliquey, so anyone can turn up and sing (or play, or tell a story or even step dance while someone else sings).

Even if I've got a ticket to see performers, I will probably spend most of my time on the fringe. Sometimes just because the concert venues are very uncomfortable to sit in! (if you can get a seat, that is)

Kitty

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Franz S.
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 05:06 PM

There are only a couple of festivals I go to, because they're close. The San Francisco Free Folk Festival, which I just got home from, is one. In two days I spent several hours in volunteer work, which is an unbeatable way to generate instant cameraderie among strangers. I spent several hours in song circles with people like Faith Petric, chanteyranger, and radriano, singing old songs and learning new ones, and there did not seem to be any distinction among performers, wannabes, and passersby in those sessions. I spent some time jamming in the parking lot with friends and strangers. The plain old garden variety happiness I get from doing these things is right up there with getting a phone call from one of my distant daughters.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Genie
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 05:34 PM

The only one I've gone to in decades is the Pacific Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle (every Memorial Day weekend).

Originally, I was part of the folkdance community and my main interest in the festival was the participatory dancing, with a fringe benefit being the chance to catch some good stage performances.

As I got involved in volunteering to help, I was also introduced to the participants' areas where lots of people hung out and got into jamming. That became a highlight, both as a jam participant and as a listener.

Over the years, I've become more involved in the music performing and jamming aspects, ranging from being onstage myself to leading songs in song cirlces to joining the jammers on Bluegrass Hill to participating in John Ross's band scrambles.

And of course, seeing old friends and meeting new ones is a great draw too.
NW Folklife is one of the few festivals that's free -- or theoretically can be. Donations are solicited, and you can spend a lot at the food and crafts booths and the CD and instruments areas, but you could take in everything but the food without paying a dime.
Many or most of the acts on stage are the level that you'd pay good $$ to see elsewhere.

While the on-stage performers - from unknowns to big names like Pete Seeger, Ritchie Havens, Utah Phillips, etc. -- are an important part of the festival for me, I doubt I'd travel 360 miles round trip just for that, if the "mates" and jamming and dancing weren't part of the mix. Portland (OR) has all sorts of great free or cheap music you can hear most any week in the summer.   But it's probably the comprehensive experience -- including "letting the festival happen" without overplanning -- that makes this festival an every-year event for me.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Susan A-R
Date: 26 Jun 06 - 09:25 PM

To play and sing with other musicians who come from different musical communities,
To hear performers I love and possibly learn about new ones
To dance my feet off if given the chance,
To get away from home and have someone else cook (no camp cooking for me)
To be around a generally happy, civil bunch of people and have a good time.
Sort of what everyone else said, but do I really have to choose the most important aspect? (whine whine)

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: The Barden of England
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 02:33 AM

Each festival I go to gives me something different. Sidmouth for the Bedford sessions where I meet friends (and great musicians) from all over the UK and Europe and for the odd concert now and then; Fareham for the excellent line up, sound and the late night sessions; Ely for being all on one site and a great mix of talent that's booked (and a superb beer tent), and Fylde for the sheer diversity of artists and venues, friendliness of the people and once again to meet friends from further afield in the sessions in the Marine Bar, and of course to hear Alan Bell sing his wonderful songs. Each very different in their own way.
John Barden

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 03:36 AM

Mates, chance to sing very loudly with lots of other people, chance to improvise harmonies (Bach and Mozart are very set in their ways), chance to amble around at my own speed, chance to help people as a steward, chance to drink beer and not worry about driving home and a chance to get away from the family for a weekend.... unfortunately, this year, they're coming with me!

LTS

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: bbc
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 06:06 AM

I think I go to find the home that I don't have where I live. I wander around the festival grounds w/ vocal & instrumental music drifting around me. I see comfortable people whose main purpose in being there is to enjoy music & dance with others. I'm not a performer. I'm not really even a singer or instrumentalist, but my love of music & folkies does make me part of the folk community. My purpose in going to festivals is, probably in equal parts, to reconnect with the music & the folks. In the past several years, Mudcat has become the heart of my experience of folk music; it's the main place I get information & meet people. One of the major delights for me at festivals is to see & catch up with the Mudcatters I know &, perhaps, meet others. Max, thanks for giving me a home.

bbc

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: JohnB
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 10:05 AM

I go to get the Folk fix which I don't get every week. This encompasses ALL of the above to more or less degrees.
It also includes Morris Dancing which I don't think was mentioned.
The pecentage of time doing the different activities varies, some times I miss the Main Act I was trying to see because of all the people I meet on the way from one stage to another. Some of these people I only see once a year at that particular festival (hi Charmion and Edmund) I have a good friend now, who I got to know through about five years of one Festival, then one year he turned up on May morning, playing for one of the other Morris teams.
I volunteer and MC a stage at one Festival, I used to stage manage at another festival but that was a while back. I have also done the Craft thing and done a Blacksmithing demonstration at what was THE best Festival I have been to the unforunately defunct "Songs of Sail" in Penetanguishene. We even perform at some festivals coming to think of it.
The late night sing arounds are admittedly one of the highlights of any festival. I was also quite impressed with the Beer Tent at the only English Festival I have been to, since moving to Canada in 1977.
So like I said ALL of the above.
JohnB

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 02:22 PM

Occasionally, it's a chance to showcase a song I might have written, or collaborated on.... but not very often because I like singing so many other songs!

LTS

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 08:31 PM

"... and I ask myself the same question"!!!

Eric Bogle

{And the singers respond to the call}

:-)

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: open mike
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 11:19 PM

i often spend more time away from the main stage
when i am at a festival...at smaller venues and
side stages for more intimate and cozy performances
and workshops. And jamming with friends.

Lately i have been one of the worker bees so have
been putting in hours on the job helping make the
events happen. And jamming with (old and new) friends.

I like to hear new music and meet the performers to
find out what is avaialbe for my radio show.
And I like to jam with Old and New Friends.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Sorcha
Date: 27 Jun 06 - 11:35 PM

To have fun! Play music! Listen to music! Drink beer!

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Catherine Jayne
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 03:03 AM

To meet up with old friends and make new friends. To sing and to play and to dance. To have a good time. There's so many reasons why we go to festivals. Don't really go to many concerts.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: GUEST,Kat Blanche
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 03:09 AM

I don't go - they all all run by accountants
nowthe balance sheet is more important than the music.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Scrump
Date: 28 Jun 06 - 04:16 AM

>From: Sorcha - PM
>To have fun! Play music! Listen to music! Drink beer!

That just about sums it up for me too, and I would guess the majority of people who go. I don't think there's any mystery about it!

Don't forget the cider though! ;-)

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: fiddler
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 04:03 AM

It's damm good craic!

I rarely get to concerts, sometimes the odd session.

Thats why I organise and do what I do - I know many performers and non performers and sometimes just site and drink the night away gently enjoying the atmosphere and the people.

Andy

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: GUEST
Date: 29 Jun 06 - 05:46 PM

Good question. Because they are there. And more or less the same as what other folk have said, to sing, listen to tunes, catch up with friends, see how their kids and now their grandkids have grown..boy thats a shocker!

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Richard Brandenburg
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 02:12 PM

I read the poem below on the message board at the California Bluegrass Association this morning, and thought of this thread.
The bluegrass festivals are as much about picking around camp as they are about the stage acts, and the Father's Day festival at Grass Valley is one of the best.

This poem captures one bittersweet aspect of the festivals, and reminds me why we pay for the tickets with next month's rent to get there.

(The CAPS are Cliff's choice.)


OLD FRIENDS

AND ERNIE HUNT, HE PULLED OUT HIS DOBRO
AND TURNED UP HIS HEARING AID
AND STARTED TO SING
AND I PLAYED QUIET BECAUSE THESE
ARE MOMENTS TO SAVOR
AND THREE SONGS IN, BOB JAMES JUST
SOMEHOW KNEW ERNIE WAS PLAYING
BECAUSE THEY'VE BEEN CONNECTED AT THE HIP
FOR SO LONG THAT THEY CAN JUST FEEL EACH OTHERS SOUL
AND BOB STARTED TO SING AND ERNIE HIT THE TENOR
AND IT WAS ONE VOICE
LIKE AN ANGEL OR FERLIN HUSKY
AND PEOPLE STARTED FLOWING OVER TO THE R.V.
AND FALLING LIKE AUTUMN LEAVES
INTO THE METAL FOLDING CHAIRS
AND I PLAYED PASS ME NOT OH GENTLE SAVIOR
AND THEY SANG THE HARMONY
AND I REMEMBERED HOW
THEY BROUGHT ME UP ON THE STAGE AT WILD IRIS
AND WE SANG THAT GOSPEL MUSIC
AND I HAD TO LEAVE AFTER THREE HOURS TODAY
AND IT WAS LIKE PULLING TEETH BECAUSE
I DON'T KNOW IF I'LL EVER HEAR THEM TOGETHER AGAIN
BECAUSE THEY'RE OLDER THAN DIRT
AND BOB MOVED BACK TO ARKANSAS
AND IT'S TOO FAR TO DRIVE
WHEN YOU'RE SEVENTY PLUS
AND YOU CAN'T GET YOUR FULL HOUSE CAMPSITE
INTO YOUR OLD CAR
BECAUSE YOU MIGHT HAVE TO LEAVE YOUR WIFES BASS
AND THAT WOULD BE WRONG
AND SO I SAID GOODBYE IN MY HEART
AND HOPED I'D SOMEDAY GO TO MOUNTAIN VIEW
AND SEE HIM ON THE STREET CORNER
PICKING WITH SOME OLD TWO TOOTHED BANJO PICKER
THAT COULD PLAY FASTER THAN A GREASED WEASEL
AND SPIT THIRTY FEET AND NEVER MISS A NOTE
BUT YOU NEVER KNOW

AND ERNIE, HE AIN'T GETTING YOUNGER
AND THOSE GUYS SHOWED ME THE ROPES
AND WELCOMED ME JUST LIKE I WAS A HUMAN BEING
AND I DON'T LIKE THIS ONE BIT
HOW WE GET OLD
AND I'M THINKING ABOUT WILD BILL WILHELM
WHO DIDN'T LOOK WILD THIS YEAR
SLEEPING A BIT MORE THAN USUAL,
THERE IN HIS SILVER AIRSTREAM
AND I REMEMBER HOW DAPPER HE LOOKED
IN HIS BLACK COWBOY HAT WITH THE SILVER BUCKLE
AND HE SANG WITH AUTHORITY
THOSE OLD COUNTRY SONGS
AND I PLAYED REAL SOFT SO I COULD HEAR HIM
BECAUSE I WANT TO REMEMBER
BECAUSE THESE ARE MEMORIES WORTH REMEMBERING

AND LLOYD BUTLER SAID THIS MAY BE HIS LAST YEAR HERE
IT'S TOO HARD TO PACK THAT TRAILER
AND DRAG IT DOWN THE MOUNTAIN
AND HE IS OLD
SO OLD HE WAS TALKING ABOUT GOING TO CHURCH
BECAUSE MAYBE IT MIGHT BE GOD THAT HE'S GOING TO SEE
INSTEAD OF THOSE US GATHERED AROUND THIS CAMPSITE
AND THIS CAN'T BE BECAUSE
I SAW HIM MESSING AROUND WITH KYLE
WHO'S FIFTY- OUGHT YEARS YOUNGER THAN HIM
AND I COULDN'T TELL WHO WAS THE KID
BUT TIME DON'T LIE
EVEN IF IT DOES DISGUISE THE TRUTH A LITTLE
AND I WISH I HAD A TAPE RECORDER
SO I COULD GET HIM TO PLAY SITTING ON TOP OF THE WORLD
ABOUT TEN TIMES SO I'D ALWAYS BE ABLE TO HEAR HIM
AFTER HE PLAYED IT FOR THE LAST TIME

AND I SEE THE SUN AS IT DIPS IN THE WEST
AND HEAR OLD SONGS THAT I ALWAYS WANT TO HEAR
FROM VOICES THAT I NEVER WANT TO HAVE FADE AWAY
AND I'M HOME
AND I'M THINKING ABOUT THEM NOW
AND HOPING THAT THEY ALL LIVE FOREVER
AND MY FINGERS ARE ITCHING
AND I WANT TO PICK
AND I WANT TO PICK REAL BAD
PICK WITH MY OLD FRIENDS
PICK WHILE I STILL CAN

CLIFF COMPTON JUNE 2006

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Little Hawk
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 06:35 PM

I feel that the most pressing reason for going to a folk festival is to keep up on the latest fashion trends. That's why I go. Isn't that true of most people?

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Bill D
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 06:54 PM

well...if the festivals are like this one, there is always something new..plus a hefty dose of the old and popular. This one is free...we run 6-7 stages, plus dance. Been doing it since 1977.

A good festival asks good performers who have a wide variety of material and always have stuff you may not have heard.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: GUEST
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 07:58 PM

to hear good music without A. shelling out big bucks to hear just one group in concert, or B. having to use toothpicks to stay awake til the wee hours to hear groups in pubs.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 08:13 PM

know what you mean Giok.

fact is, you do hear some decent music. however there must be a more comfortable way of doing it.
great big rotten field, chemical lavs, dodgy food sold from caravans, top of the bills that could bore the arse off a buffalo and you sit there wondering how much cheaper your ticket could have been without HIM, people who look at you with that 'I know your chakras are blocked, cos you aren't one us' sort of stare.......

bloody right mate, we all ought to give it a miss.....its like the British car industry, we're subsiding crap. or at least a pretty crappy experience.

Fylde was good - it wasn't in a field. And saltburn.

hope your hips going well.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Lin in Kansas
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 08:47 PM

Richard Brandenburg--

Thank you for sharing Cliff Compton's poem. He said everything about why John and I go to the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, KS, every year. Beautiful words, and hey, we know those guys (by other names, of course). Has he written anything else? It would be a shame to stop with just one poem like that!

Lin

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: GUEST,Michelle Mabelle
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 10:13 PM

Oh, I remember you all right, weelittledrummer! I was sitting just over to your right. I could soooo tell right away that your chakras were seriously blocked, and I mean all of them. We're talking MAJOR blocked chakra syndrome here. I just stared and stared. Sorry about that! I was the girl in the emerald green dress with the little unicorns and stars and stuff. I couldn't help it. Staring I mean, not the dress! It's not often that I see someone soooo in need of energetic healing as you plainly are, but I could tell right away that you were...well, unreachable. I know it sounds harsh, but that's my take on it. Some people just have to be left to themselves because they are terminally soooo uncool and out of touch that there's really nothing anyone can do about it. I averted my eyes as soon as that became crystal clear to me, and I have to say that coping with your auric field was more than I could take, so after awhile I moved to another spot. Still, I hope you enjoyed the show at least half as much as I did. I would have payed double to see HIM!

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: open mike
Date: 30 Jun 06 - 11:10 PM

So, richard, do you ever go to the world music fest in grass valley?
It is happening in a couple of weeks at the same fair ground/campground.
Do you ever come to the fiddlers contest in Oroville, a couple of hours
north of there? Lots and lots of picking there, too! I like festivals that have open mike stages or band scrambles where you get to inter act with the others there and make music and have fun, not just sit and watch!

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 07:09 AM

why michelle, I believe you are mocking my psychic dyslaexia.....however I will treasure your acerbic bon mots long after my corn dollies have wilted.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Rasener
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 01:18 PM

Well dear me WLD you haven't upset somebody have you. Did you give her a Brazil LOL :-)

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 02:14 PM

Big Al Whittle, you and I must meet sometime.
Giok

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 03:35 PM

the term you are searching for Les is a Brazilian. A Brazil is a nut. And it takes one to know one.....

I'm glad you found one of my songs memorable.

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Rasener
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 03:43 PM

Well Al did you give her a Brazilian LOL

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Tootler
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 04:00 PM

Brazil sounds right to me - as a peace offering :-)

Enlighten me. What are chakras? They sound dodgy to me :-)

Geoff

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: Don Firth
Date: 01 Jul 06 - 05:24 PM

The first folk festivals I ever went to were the Berkeley Folk Festivals in 1960, '61, and '64. Those were outrageous experiences. During the day there were workshops on a whole variety of folk music related subjects. In these workshops I heard people like Charles Seeger, Frank Warner, Archie Green, and Sandy Paton discussing collecting folk music, Almeda Riddle, Jean Redpath, and Joan Baez talking about singing ballads, Mississippi John Hurt, Mance Lipscomb, and Lightnin' Hopkins talking about singing and playing blues, Doc Watson talking about and demonstrating various aspects of playing the guitar, Bess Lomax Hawes talking about teaching folk guitar in classes (which I was just starting to do at the time), and informal sessions with Peggy Seeger, Ewan MacColl, Marais and Miranda, Sam Hinton, Merritt Herring, and a host of other performers. Then in the evenings, these same people would be singing in concert. Along with this, there were a lot of unofficial late-night parties, and you never knew who might come walking in. I had a long chat with Peggy Seeger and Ewan MacColl at one of these. And at the 1964 festival, they had made provision for some of the 'visiting firemen" such as me and a few other people from Seattle to do a little performing in some of the peripheral venues during the festival.

I attended and performed at a number of the Northwest Folklife Festivals in the late Seventies and early Eighties, including, on one occasion, sharing a stage with Elizabeth Cotton. Talk about a tough act to follow!! There were also workshops at the NFF, but where the Berkeley Festivals, had maybe eight or ten featured performers such as those mentioned above, the Northwest Folklife Festivals are wide-ranging and often have a couple of thousand performers. Events include everything from Australian sheep-shearing contests to Balinese gamelan orchestras to Taiko drummers to Irish step-dancing to Martian tentacle-clapping. Sea chanteys are usually sung off the Seattle Center grounds down at the south end of Lake Union and sometimes you can actually find someone singing ballads up in one of the meeting rooms around the Northwest Court. The late Merritt Herring, Stewart, Paddy Graber, others. Some of the best events at the NFF are not listed in the program. They happen spontaneously, occurring when a small gathering of singers find a nice echoey stairwell. Or when several people get together, defect, and go to someone's house for a song fest.

The last time I sang at the Northwest Folklife Festival was at the Coffeehouse Reunion (Geezer's) Concert at the 2003 festival, where about a dozen or so of us wrinklies got together and regaled the assembled multitudes with sounds from the distant past. Lotsa fun! Ran into people I haven't seen or heard for decades.

The problem with the Northwest Folklife Festivals within recent years is that they are such a freakin' mob scene. I like to go to them, but bucking the milling crowds can be a real hassle. Personally, I like smaller, more dedicated folk festivals, like the Moss Bay Sail and Chantey Festival in the late Seventies or the Berkeley festivals I attended early on.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Festivals..... WHY do you go?
From: GUEST,arrogant fiddler
Date: 02 Jul 06 - 02:50 PM

to see who's with who, or as the years advance, to see if anyone's with anyone at all.