Summer must be approaching. The "Are There Too Many Festivals" articles are out

[markwoll]

Time for navel gazing.
It seems like these stories have come out every year for the last several.
I suppose it can be a boom and bust cycle, especially as target demographics age and tastes change.
The big music festivals never really were part of my thing.
WOMAD once in 94 and the few Prog fests I have attended in the last 5 years.
Big Ears is the only bigger multiday festival I have attended, and it is decidedly not overtly corporate. AB/In-bev has a presence, but it is cloaked in 'craft brew'.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/poste...sic-festivals/

[battema]

I think (hope?) that Big Ear's endorsement from the city itself (which manifests through some performances by local orchestras and student groups) helps offset the need for big corporate sponsorship.

[markwoll]

True, Knoxville has embraced the event.
The variety of acts can be accommodated there in ways that the mainstream festival would not.
Plus, more people come there for music. Not the Be Seen crowd that might be at Coachella.

[NogbadTheBad]

Well they have the Budweiser Goose Island sponsorship. I don't think this article is really talking about the 200-300 crowd type of festival I usually attend. Michel gets local government support for RIO in France. None of the other fests are likely to attract corporate sponsor, unless it's Bangay, Depends or Aleve.

[hippypants]

Thanks Mark.

That Big Ears festival seems right down my alley, I might have to try and make it next year.
Here's another guys take on it when he got back. He lives around the Nashville area:

[mogrooves]

it is decidedly not overtly corporate.

Apparently many festivals are owned by two right-wing billionaires from Colorado:

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/20...hind-coachella

[HolyNeo]

That is exactly true.