Spoleto Festival USA has just announced its 2009 festival schedule and tickets are now available for sale on the festival’s Web site. Due to the economic crunch, Spoleto has had to cut back on the number of performances it is offering in 2009. This season there are 120 performances, which is down by 22 from last year’s 142. The budget for this year’s festival is significantly less than 2008’s as well, going from $8.4 million to $6.2 million. Raking up $372,000 in debt, 2008's festival was the first in 13 years to be in the red.

The 2009 schedule features Gustave Charpentier’s Louise as the only opera performance of the season. Questions were raised about whether or not the Wachovia Jazz series would continue given that the bank had been purchased last year. It will in fact continue under the same name, bringing in five acts. The Westminster Choir also returns with Bach, Buxtehude, Josquin Desprez, Frank Martin, and Moses Hogan as just a few composers included in their program.
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The winter months are usually a somber time for the jam band community, seeing as festivals like High Sierra, 10K, and Wakarusa don't roll around until the summer. These next couple months, however, seem to hold a lot more jam rock-centered festivals than in previous winters. It's sometimes nice to vamp on the same chord progression for an extended period of time and let the music build over it. All music is repetition, but this aspect provides equilibrium for many people. Some folks, whether they be Deadheads or not, are still very much rooted in the improv-based 60's rock n' roll scene. Many feel a connection to this type of music for different reasons, be it the counterculture, the drugs, or the peace and love vibe (although this hasn't been present in some of today's concert events). People of all ages are drawn to events like these to both be entertained and to take part in a mutual exchange of musical energy between their favorite bands and thousands of other fans. A common misconception is that a festival of this caliber implies an attempted Woodstock recreation with masses of tye-died flower children, but nowadays, the term jam band encompasses far more than Wah-driven psychedelia. Plus, many aren't held on farms or in parks. If you couldn't make it to Warren Haynes' Christmas Jam or Caribbean Holidaze, here are some upcoming jam band festivals that might catch your fancy...  Read more »

Tickets for 2009's Langerado Music Festival will be available this Friday, December 12. A weekend pass for the festival, taking place March 6-8, are starting at $120, or you can buy individual day tickets for $75 a piece. Unlike most other concert tickets, there is no additional charge. Children under 8 get in free with an adult ticket buyer. Early-bird tickets are limited, though, and prices only go up from there. The tickets will be shipped out the third week in February.

Now in its seventh year, Langerado has moved from its old home at the Big Cypres Indian Reservation in Fort Lauderdale. It will now relocate to dowtown Miami's Bicentennial Park, just a couple weeks prior to the Ultra Music Festival, held in the same venue. With the attendance growing seemingly exponentially on a yearly basis, the venue change may prove to be a deal-breaker, seeing as how downtown Miami certainly isn't lacking in people.  Read more »

On March 27th and 28th, Miami will host the 11th installment of the Ultra Music Festival. Held once again in Bicentennial Park the festival is featured as part of the final two days of Miami's 5-day Winter Music Conference, which includes events extending far beyond entertainment. In past years, Ultra has been based almost entirely around electronic music such as trance, techno, house, and D&B. This year, however, the festival seems to be branching out into the new wave and alternative rock genres.  Read more »

Putting an emphasis on tight fiscal policy in the face of worsening economic conditions, Riviera Beach has decided to cancel the Riviera Beach Music Festival.

After providing funding for the festival during its last eight years, city councillors have decided that it was not willing to commit $75,000 that it had initially allocated to the festival's advisory committee as part of the municipal budget. The festival was seen as a financial risk in light of a changing venue and rough weather that has led to a net loss from every edition since the festival began.

After eight years, city taxpayers have lost almost $1.5 million to the production of the festival, but things turned downhill to a a noticeable extent only within the last three. In 2006, the city gave more than $750,000 and the program was hit with delay and storms, causing headliner Patti LaBelle to finish her set early. The year after, fierce winds actually blew the stage down, with the city's issuance of refunds adding even more pain to city coffers.  Read more »

The seven-year-old Savannah Music Festival has established a reputation for interesting programming crossing diverse musical boundaries, but their just-announced 2009 program may be the event's most interesting and most diverse yet. With top artists in various genres of jazz, roots, blues, world music, and classical, the upcoming festival, set for March 19 to April 5, 2009, puts a feather in the historic city's cultural cap.

The event's more than 100 performances are programmed in themes, series and special events. Some of the highlights are as follows:

In roots categories, Long Time Travelin' is a celebration of American folk song traditions featuring Rayna Gellert of Uncle Earl, gospel bluegrasser Doyle Lawson and hosted by Americana singer-songwriter Jim Lauderback, while Roots & Twang is a concert serieis featuring Neko Case and Crooked Fingers, Punch Brothers with Chris Thile, The Infamous Stringdusters, The Lovell Sisters and more.  Read more »

Just because it's winter, there's no reason that a rock festival can't take place. The third installment of Florida's Open Grass Festival is scheduled to take place on January 9-10, a bit earlier than it's been the past couple of years. In addition to the date change, the event has been moved south from Brant Park in Lake Worth to the Old School Square in Delray Beach. The reason for this change is that the new location is more accessible. It's easier for tourists to find and the Old School Square is located in dowtown Delray. The festival, therefore, will be in closer proximity to restaurants and the like, with much more locals and tourists passing through. Delray also seems to be a more culturally driven community, and the event will likely thrive better in a location where the music is more appreciated. This will hopefully surpass last year's attendance of 1,000 by a large margin.

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The International Caribbean Music Festival will go off as scheduled November 16 -- with one big change. In light of Barack Obama's presidential victory, the name of the festival has been changed to Obama Fest.

The festival will take place at Virginia Key Beach Park, bringing with it a veritable who's who of reggae and dancehall music. Yes, according to insiders, the musicians and visitors will be jamming' in the name of history.