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 »

Roots festival favorites Uncle Earl, the all-female string band, announced that it won't be touring in 2009 so that members can focus on individual projects. Abigail Washburn's duties with the Sparrow Quartet have complicated the band's scheduling the last two years, but the reasons are probably deeper than that, especially because the email announcing the news suggests that she is also slowing down that band's appearances next year while she pursues more travel in China and a duo album with cellist Ben Sollee.

Each of the other members also has outside projects. Kristin Andreassen performs with Sometimes Why and as a solo performer. Rayna Gellert has a variety of things in the works, including work on a documentary soundtrack and collaborations with Toubab Krewe and Loudon Wainwright. KC Groves has a new solo album and is working with two other bands, The Moody Sisters and Dangerfields, where she'll be join by, among others, former G'Earl Sharon Gilchrist.  Read more »

I recently provided answers to some survey questions from a college student about the economics of the live music industry, which gave me a chance to write down some of my thoughts about the underlying appeal of festivals and the likely impacts of the economic downturn on the festival market. It struck me that some of those answers would be interesting to also post to the site. Comments are welcome.

What is it about festivals that intrigues you?

I believe that as our lives become more isolated and mediated by technology, we are seeking out immersive experiences that connect us with "live" communities and give us a sense of participation in a technicolor, multi-sensory world. Festivals are uniquely suited to providing this kind of experience in a contained weekend-long break from our otherwise humdrum, cubicled existence.  Read more »

The band said about the shows: "The election is too important to stay at home. We hope that you can come out, have a nice night out, dance, sing, get your freak on, and then wake up the next morning and get everybody you possibly can to get out and vote."