The Boston Globe cites lack of "corporate sponsors" as a cause, but as one who has been close to the festival for the past seven years, as well as in tune with WUMB's format changes (from roots and folk to AAA), I suspect other factors are at work.
For the last few years the festival has been on the decline, shrinking from two days to one, creating an unfriendly "us and them" vibe by catering to "VIP's" with private concerts and providing high backed chairs down front, eliminating the dance stage two years ago and the workshop and busker stages last year), a scarcity of vendors, running the main stage as a workshop stage, and following the Duncan Donuts Festival's lead by headlining country and pop artists in place of folk artists.
News of the Boston Folk Festival's demise reached me via Google alert at 2:12am that "hit" this Boston Globe gossip column story.
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The loose alliance of midrange festivals that began taking shape more than a year ago put some meat on its bones with the announcement of a networked sponsorship sales program. The Music Festival Alliance includes seven independent festival brands from around the U.S. By aggregating their audience of more than 300,000 annual attendees, they hope to be better able to compete for national sponsors against big national festival companies like AEG, Live Nation, C3 and Festival Network.
The Alliance named music magazine publisher Zenbu Media as national sponsorship coordinator. Zenbu is the publisher of Relix Magazine, Jambands.com, and a variety of other print and online music media. it is also co-producer of its own festival, Green Apple Music Festival, which is not a part of the alliance.
Zenbu president Steve Bernstein explains the value proposition this way. "By consolidating sponsorship opportunities, it's a great way for brands to coordinate their marketing programs and physical presence while reaching hundreds of thousands of core music fans all summer long." Read more »
The self-proclaimed "Northeast's premier indoor festival" rolled out the main stage lineup for the 24th Joe Val Bluegrass Festival, set to run February 13-15, 2009, at the Sheraton Hotel in Framingham MA. Headed by breakout bluegrass stars Dailey and Vincent, the lineup is packed with blue-chip bluegrass acts, mostly from the genre's mainstream.
Other headline names include Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper, Steep Canyou Rangers, Claire Lynch Band, Josh Williams, Dry Branch Fire Squad and a new Kruger Brothers Bluegrass Project with featured members Adam Steffey and Bobby Hicks.
That's a lineup that should be appreciated by the tradition-leaning audience of the Boston Bluegrass Union, which has produced the festival since 1984 as a tribute to a pioneering bluegrass performer from the Boston area. Joe Val won the International Bluegrass Music Association award for Event of the Year in 2006. Read more »
The directors of the Boston Early Music Festival invite their audience to the rehearsal of "Venus and Adonis" and "Acteon."
Saturday in Lebanon, NH was cold and raw. The wind whipped through our clothes and our ears turned red as we walked across the street to the AVA gallery. Inside the gallery was warm and cozy as the afternoon’s workshops began. At 1:00 PM four workshops were attended by small, but interested groups. Steve Hennig reprised his successful banjo workshop of last year. Rich Heepe held a session called “A Bit of Festival” and Rich Hamilton attracted a couple of fiddlers to his “Fiddlin’” session. Ford Daley continued last year’s seminar trying to answer the unanswerable question, “What is Bluegrass About Anyway?” Read more »
The 2nd Annual Upper Valley Bluegrass Festival opened at the Lebanon Opera House on Friday night with performances by Rhonda Vincent & The Rage and The Jerry Douglas Band. The bitter cold did nothing to keep the near sell-out crowd of about 800 people from filling the large, yet intimate, auditorium. Lebanon Opera House is located in City Hall on the pleasant and picturesque town square of Lebanon, NH.
Nearing the end of a long season, Rhonda Vincent & The Rage gave another one of their first rate performances, although seeming a little tired and dispirited, perhaps partly because of the looming exit of longtime mainstay Kenny Ingram and fairly recent addition Darrell Webb, who are leaving the band. According to Ingram, the changes signal new, and as yet unspecified, directions for the band. Aaron McDaris, formerly of the Grascals will be replacing Ingram. Webb will join Michael Cleveland & Flamekeeper in January and is being replaced by Ben Helson from Ricky Skaggs’ band Kentucky Thunder. Read more »
