AT&T Blue Room has added a bunch of videos to its site that, like many of the others, cater to the folks that were unable to attend a given festival or that were able to attend and want to relive part of the experience. Only a handful of bands are featured on the site, but the selling point is that Blue Room offers a virtual front row seat, as well as backstage footage and interviews. These free webcasts have become immensely popular among consumers nationwide.
The site is best utilized during the actual festivals, when large portions of sets (sometimes full ones) are streamed live and on-demand. This past year, Blue Room has collaborated with SPIN to bring interviews and concert videos from events like Mile High, Lollapalooza, and Bonnaroo. Bits and pieces of Austin City Limits remain on the site, featuring artists like The Raconteurs and Jakob Dylan. Performances from SF's Outside Lands Festival by Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, as well as Cake, are posted on the site's What's New page. Read more »
The 2008 San Antonio Mariachi Festival will be wrapping up tonight, having introduced thousands of new young mariachi enthusiasts to the most famous group of their genre up close and personal over seven days, started on Sunday, the 30th of November.
The capstone to the festival will be a performance by that group, Mariachi Vargas, at San Antonio's Municipal Auditorium. Vargas is an outfit that dates back to 1897.
Full name Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlán, the group is made up of musicians who have joined from as early as 1960 to as late as 2000. The group is considered by many to be the greatest mariachi group in the world, having been used to represent the form in over 200 movies and performing at the 1934 inaugural of the first President of Mexico.
Earlier this week News 8 told you about the preparations underway for the World United Music Festival in San Marcos. But, when about a dozen vendors and a few ticket holders showed up, they found an empty field.
It was a sad and simple ending to what was promised to be the biggest music fest to ever hit San Marcos.
We exited my apartment in downtown Chicago last night and made our way toward the Barack Obama rally in Grant Park. As Hutchinson Field had long since reached its capacity, my friends and I went to the opposite end of the park, the better part of a mile from where Obama was to give his victory speech (the stage was set up where the main AT&T Stage was at Lollapalooza). After weaving our way through the rapidly expanding mass of Obama supporters (of which there were supposedly more than a million), we spent a few minutes joining the masses in cheering and jeering at the current poll numbers being broadcast on a Jumbotron. 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 »
Festival Preview does not have a custom description for this festival. The festival owner may contact FP to get access to submit their own festival data.