Festivals

Falcon Ridge has become the central festival for Fruheads. There are so man others though. Which others have you been to or are you planning on going to?

Clearwater...usually held on Father's Day Weekend, but this year, it's the week after...June 21-22. Lots of good music...Pete Seeger, Dar Williams usually makes an appearance, The Mammals, and DVN was there last year.  There's even some nifty dancing going on at 2 dance tents!  Oh, and Clearwater 2000 was also the FIRST time I saw Fruvous! Fun for everyone!  It's located in Croton Point Park, in Croton-on-Hudson, NY.

Edmonton Folk Music Festival, Edmonton Jazz City International.

I love Clearwater. I go almost every year.

Summerfolk in Owen Sound. Mid-August.

Festival d'�t� de Qu�bec... early July (two first weeks, maybe?)

International Jazz Festival in Montreal... similar dates as previous festival.. not sure though :)

Winter Carnival, QC (2 weeks in February)

...

Ugh - my only trip to Summerfolk in 2001 was *not* an enjoyable festival experience.

I do however *highly* recommend the Mariposa Folk Festival. :)

Oooh...another festival that I had been to is The Finger Lakes Grassroots Festival of Dance and Music.  It's held in Trumansburg, NY...about a 30 minute drive from Ithaca, NY.  Various types of music, ranging from roots, rock, blues, bluegrass, jazz, african, and other world music.  Featured artists that I remember were Donna the Buffalo, Samite of Uganda, Plastic Nebraska, and The Second Hand Dance Company (which was more of a acrobatic dance troupe than a music band).

huh! I've never heard of it, but I certainly know Trumansburg.... home of The Rongovian Embassy to the USA. Very cool bar/music spot. :)

Most of my family was in Ithaca... so I know the area well.

Vancouver International Jazz Festival - 2 weeks. Yum.

Vancouver Folk Festival - last year's lineup rocked beyond rockage.

Mission Folk Festival

Maple Ridge Jazz and Blues and the Whistler Jazz Fest. - we're hoping the band will get booked for these

I'm such a loser, I've never been to any sort of festival.

I've been three times. Each time it was amazing in a different way.

The Nassau Communnity College Folk festival is a small free one twenty minutes from my house. Fruvous played there a few times and I never knew about it. This year includes

4/8 Dan Bern
4/9 The Nields
4/10 Da Vinci's Notebook

there are so many good ones. on the east coast, there's clearwater, appel farm, smaf, takoma park...here in chicago there's the chicago folk and roots festival, which i'll be attending and probably volunteering at for the first time this year.

Well, I will keep that in mind, since I'm going to be living near there soon.

New Jersey also has a Folk Festival (Aptly titled New Jersey Folk Festival), but I assume no one of note plays there because no one has EVER mentioned it here.  It takes place at Rutgers, and is held on the same day as Ag Field Day, the biggest drunken party of the year at Rutgers. (Usually the last weekend of April).

Really? moving?

Has anyone here ever been to the Kerville Folk Festival? I've heard it's the very best.

Never heard of it. Where is?

Kerrville is in kerrville, TX. it's most noted (particularly among canadians) because it was the last (US?) appearance by stan rodgers. it's supposed to be QUITE an event. their "new folk songwriting competition" is among the most prestigious in the world. in the past few weeks, i've interviewed 2 finalists and 1 winner. :-D hehe. yeah radio dork. lol.

i've wanted to go to that for a long time.

They spelled "women" wrong...

;)

Every year for the past 4 or so years I've gone to the Philly Folk Fest.  I love it to pieces, but I'm not really experienced since it is the only one i've ever been to. :)

It's not as good as the Menses Fair. Stage nine rocks!

menses fair stage nine from outer space! word!

Why on earth do you say that? It's possibly the best festival I've been to out of all of them!

Well, when I was there I didn't think much of it really. I don't like the setup for the main stage, vendors were very few and limited, sound leakage from the other workshop stages was awful and I thought that the whole place was too small for the amount of people there.

OOO Who did you interview? The songwriter competition is the first context I heard about Kerville.

Hmm...the Menses Fair.  Hey, didn't Dar Williams play at that festival? :)

I have heard of the Rongo (and great things about it), though I never have been there to see a show.  During my time there, I did go to The Haunt several times for various shows and 80s dance parties and I caught a few bands at The Chariot along with more than my share of the yummy pizza coming down from the elevator.  Ahh...memories of Ithaca. I miss it well.

um, actually, yes, she did. you can hear her in the background of that scene in hedwig and the angry inch. :)

I know...ever since I've seen Hedwig, I'm always compelled at a Dar concert to yell..."Play 'Grey Clouds'!" which is the name of the song that she sang in that movie. :)  Hedwig just rocks on so many different levels!

You've just earned major Gordonpoints.

Did you see the play too?

oh, so you *are* a hedwig fan. excellent. there's a bunch of us around here, mainly thanks to gordon. :)

Woohoo! I scored Gordonpoints! :) Yes, I have seen the play, twice actually.  So good.

and our jazz fest and our blues fest and our acts at the Taste of Chicago.... and our thousands of little street fests during the summer.... WE RULE!!!!!

taste of chicago rocks. i want rainbow cones now.

I'm so jealous. ;) It's been a dream of mine since I was 16 to go one day...

The Big Day Out is easily one of the biggest things in New Zealand. It's not really a festival but it is the most fun you can ever have. To put it simply, the Big Day Out rocks! Every year I go, and I always find at least one band that I've never heard of before who quickly becomes a "favourite band" of mine. And it just doesn't get any better than that!

This year I was lucky enough to see PJ Harvey, Machine Gun Fellatio, Jane's Addiction, Foo Fighters, Tadpole, The Music, Wilco, and a bunch of other bands (and sadly had to miss out on Queens of the Stone Age, Deftones, The Datsuns, and Che Fu etc due to scheduling conflicts and/or sound problems).

Anyway, the Big Day Out is just one of those things that I get really hyper and enthusiastic about. I'm already looking forward to next year's.

Right now there is a unique festival going on in NYC; Wall to Wall Joni Mitchell. Every year Symphony space gives up there space for a day dedicated to a theme. The show is free and goes on for twelve hours. This year the theme is Joni Mitchell. Different artists are covering her work from 11 AM till 11 PM. The only problem is as it's free it's hard to get into. What you do is you wait outside till somebody leaves then go in and take their seat. It is simulcast and webcast on WFUV 90.7FM.

Some people that are performing today are:

• Lucy Kaplansky
• Christine Lavin
• Suzzy and Maggie Roche
• The Mingus Big Band
• Martha Wainwright
• Laurie Anderson

so i just got my FRFF volunteer 're-up' card in the mail today and promptly ree-turned it!

yay FRFF!! yay 15 yrs!!!!!

yay security!!!!   yay day-glo yellow vests with orange stripes!!!  yay giving performers i know a hard time!!!

yay getting a smaller t-shirt this year!!!!

and yay for RV soirees with martinis  during shrieky bands.   [| ;^ )>

 

oh...and theri....nice M-ike-on  ;)

 

 

Yup. I'll be living in (or near) Rome when I move for my new job.

So you'll have to do as the Romans do.
Si fueris Romae, Romano vivito more; si fueris alibi, vivito sicut ibi God I'm affected.

Seriously, you must be talking about a different festival. The main stage is set up in a natural amphitheatre, I've never heard any significant sound leakage; even when I was standing on a hill between two stages and able to see two workshops going on at once at two ends of the park, I didn't feel troubled by sound problems at all. And Summerfolk is the home of the legendary white fish on a bun! Also, they put a cap on the number of people they let in, as far as I know, and that cap hasn't changed. I'm sorry that you had a negative experience there, but I've been twice and both times it was the best festival experience by far I'd ever had.

I might be being oversensitive here, but I don't like leaving Summerfolk on a down note, because it is really a great festival and I don't want all the fruheads to go "Oh... someone said it sucked. I don't want to go there."

Well, the one year I was there must have been an off year then...all I know was that I wasn't too impressed the year I managed to make it up for it. But everyone has their own opinion. :)

aengus finnan (winner), ts baker (finalist), and i have stephanie corby (finalist) in a couple weeks. :-D

I thought you might like it. :)

I agree with Kath. Summerfolk rocks. It is like having falconridge with 1/20th of the people. The size is perfect, and the lack of vendors is perfect too. I don't need that many people hawking wares when there is music to listen to.

Festival of Friends in Hamilton is a fantastic weekend. Great music, lots of wonderful and interesting vendors, great food, good prices - and no admission charge! :) The workshops were just kickass last year and I can't wait to go again.

re-up card?

I would imagine that's a reapplication card for volunteering..

Wouldn't it, then, be "re-app"?