Ruminations - June 13, 2001
by Stephanie Sollow



Let's Get Festive


Well, it's been a long while since I wrote anything for the editorial section. And I'm afraid I don't have a strong opinion piece to contribute here, so I thought I'd just use the space to comment upon something that has crossed my mind often of late.

It sure seems like there are a lot of festivals, all of them with good line-ups. Perhaps there have always been this many and I'm only realizing it maintaining the festivals page, but with NEARfest in a few weeks in Pennsylvania, Bang Your Head in Germany end the end of June, Guimaraes Artrock in Portugal [actually, I'd meant Gouviera -SS Sep 2011[, Burg Herzberg Open-Air 2001 in Germany, and Rock Machina in Spain all in July aloneā€¦and then 4 more in August, another in September (ProgDay), another in October (ProgPower) and November (Progpower USA 2.0)... whew! Not to mention all the dark/heavy metal festivals that take place. I think as prog fans -- whether your flavour of prog is rock, metal, jazz, etc. -- we owe it to ourselves and to our fellow fans to attend at least one of the festivals. Any show of support is a show of support. Personally seeing the results of Glenn Harveston's and Rob La Duca's hard work getting balanced line-ups really make me appreciate the effort they are making. It's a tough thing to pull off when you don't have, necessarily, big corporate backing. I don't think either of these festivals will see the likes of Budweiser or Pepsi or Coca-Cola lending their financial support. And maybe that's a good thing. Other than one can drink it while listening, none of these have much to do with music. I mean, getting the guitar manufacturers, or drum manufacturers, or the labels to help finance makes sense. Especially if it's their band the festival is showcasing, or their product the band is playing, their vested interest isn't just in selling product (necessarily), they have a vested interest in the band that is up there.

But I see people whine about the line-ups for these and other festivals. "Oh, why so and so and not so and so." Sure, I understand if there is only one band you're interested in on the bill and you only look at it that way, tickets, airfare and lodgings may seem like too big an expense for one band. But if you think "One band I know, 9 others I don't know yet," it's an opportunity to hear new music in an honest setting. If a band doesn't have it live, then it doesn't have it.

As far as NEARfest goes, since it's only a week or so away now: I personally am not familiar with Deux Ex Machina, California Guitar Trio, and Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, though the names aren't unfamiliar to me. Actually that's not entirely true, as Deux Ex Machina played Progfest 1995 and I have the cassette that was made up for that festival. I'm lucky, I guess, in that I'm dying to see After Crying, Porcupine Tree, Djam Karet, White Willow and Under The Sun. It was Djam Karet that sealed it for me, as I was the most familiar with them. But, I'm not complaining about any band in the line up, as I'm hoping to come away from NEARfest a fan of the three I don't know, and bigger fans of the bands I do know.

I think festivals of this nature are still an anomaly here in the US, and so perhaps that's why I'm writing to rally support. Maybe it's because I want there to be a ProgDay, a NEARfest, a Powermad, a Wacken, a whatever festival every year from now until the end of time.

Speaking of end of time, the clock tells me that if I want to get this week's issue uploaded while it's still this week, I best cut this short.

We'll publish our last issue for June next week, targeting June 19th. Our next issue after that won't be until July 3, where I hope to publish my report on NEARfest. Of course, look for my latest column in the soon-to-be-out issue of Progression, and I'm sure Bobo will have some stuff there, too, besides the Wakeman interview he mentioned a week or two ago.

The NEARFest 2001 report is here


Well, as I commented on in the editorial that preceeds this (January 20, 2001)... how interesting that the same arguments exist 10 years later (that is, that I make in my September 13, 2011 editorial)... which means the more things change, the more they stay the same... For this reason, I gave this editorial a title to link it to the latter editorial... we'll have to revisit this topic in 2021 -SS Sep 14, 2011








Copyright © by ProgressiveWorld.net All Right Reserved.

Published on: 2001-06-13 (1918 reads)

[ Go Back ]
Content ©