Country Blues > Saturday Night Fish Fry

Blues Passions?

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Stumblin:
I don't know if anyone else here has enjoyed this festival in the past, but it surely looks to me like the organisers have just given up on the Blues: http://www.bluespassions.com/
The Cranberries?
F*****g St*ng? For crying out loud. The mind positively shudders with a gruesome combination of pity, horror, revulsion and incomprehension. I know the Blues Passions people have a history of presenting some very questionable headline acts, considering it's supposedly a Blues festival, but this is just a slap in the face.
I was thinking of going again this year, but now I think I'll save the thousand pounds ticket, camping & travel costs for something more worthwhile and rewarding. Blues Passions needs to lose a lot of money this year, to bring them to their senses. Either that or they should have the decency to stop calling it a Blues festival. Shame, Cognac is a lovely little town and the campsite is great.
Does anyone have any comparable "Blues festival line-up contains no Blues artists" examples or experiences?

cheapfeet:
Oh yes . . . my cousin moved to Windsor, Ontario Canada for a time & called me one day to tell me who was headlining the local Blues festival . . . KISS! I guess some of their songs are I-IV-V  :-\

uncle bud:
Festivals have been going this way for a long time under the direction of corporate sponsors and organizers desperate for cash. The generally appalling taste of joe public doesn't help. The Montreal Jazz Festival has very little jazz on its outdoor stages aside from some college big bands, offering mostly worldbeat party music, Stevie Ray Vaughan impersonators and other shit that sells beer. Its big indoor headliners so far for the coming festival are James Taylor and Tangerine Dream (not performing together, although that would make for an interesting horror movie).

cheapfeet:
It's also the case that there are less & less Blues names who can draw huge crowds anymore. After BB, Guy, Clapton . . . we'll have John Mayer & that sort as the leading names in 'the Blues.' Why some of these festivals INSIST they be Blues festivals is confusing. It must strike a lot of people as a BBQ frame of mind or a music/culture conducive to drinking & 'relaxing?'

lindy:
It's not a blues festival, but I'll put in a word about the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival--Jazz Fest, y'all--and its approach. It has become a bloated monster, three days the first weekend and four days the second. It fits in with the American idea that if it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing. The saddest moment I ever experienced at Jazz Fest was when Dr. John got booed on the biggest stage by thousands of people who were only there to see Bon Jovi. Chew on that one, Dr. John dissed on stage in New Orleans!

But, at least they have the smarts to dedicate one large tent to contemporary jazz (and they do book the cream in that genre), equally large tents for gospel and blues, and a smaller tent for traditional New Orleans-style jazz. The result is kind of schizophrenic, but fans can completely avoid the big commercial acts and just soak in the local flavors if they so choose. Why other festivals don't try to follow a similar model surprises me.

L

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