Hailing from the incinerating state. Wondering how others are holding up. Learn any new tunes? Find any new artists? Take up any new hobbies or careers?
We have a hint of blue in the skies here in Sonoma County after a month of fires. Where there is life, there is hope.
Hang in there Festivoids!
Glad to hear there’s at least a hint of blue skies! Hopefully, the worst if behind you.
Took a walk up Bear Creek yesterday and started out in the campground as I normally do. The underbrush and some of the first wave of trees are starting to turn. I couldn’t help but think about bluegrass & it was an eery feeling for sure.
Not looking to be a downer, but the dots seemed to really connect for me this past week about music into the foreseeable future. I kind of knew it all along, but just really didn’t think about it too hard until hearing Dr. Fauci talk about 70-75% effectiveness of a vaccine and that it likely wouldn’t be widely available until the summer of 2021.
It’s been over a year since I’ve seen my last big concert (Phish at Dicks) , and have only seen two at the Opera House since. For the past 10 years I’ve seen at least 50-80 shows per year … so it’s been quite the change to say the least.
Unfortunately, I’ve come to terms with that even if we’re all on best behavior (which I kinda doubt) and a vaccine is at least partially distributed, large scale music events in the summer of 2021 would still likely be a long shot. Perhaps we might find a viable pathway for something to come to fruition, and I’m eternally optimistic about it, but I’m not ready to bet on it just yet.
Still alive in Oklahoma. We saw our second live music event (which we didn’t host) last night. Brian Haas from Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey, backed by Jordan Hehl and Nicolas Foster of Knipple. It was amazing and so nice to see music performed in the flesh! These shows have been backyard productions, limited to a 30 person audience.
We had a music campout party for solstice with about 100 people camping at our land for 2-3 nights. That was fun.
Doing another party for our good friends 40th birthday in October, which is going to have twice the bands, and probably twice the attendance, though we aim to keep it at or under 200. Which still gives lots of room to spread out on the lawn.
Live music seems to be evolving through these strange times. Drive in shows, streams, low capacity shows, and musicians taking into their own doing backyard gigs, deck gigs etc…
I just can’t see live music not happening next year. Many people may never feel confident returning to any normality. I foresee any future music ticket sales to be low, as there’s still too many who will not attend any kind of live event. But, at the same time there’s loads of folks ready to see shows at a regular indoor venue (I am not ready for that, though I want to badly).
If come next spring it is looking like no festivals or big music events are happening, then we plan to ramp up our “musical weekends” by booking larger touring acts, and having regular monthly music campouts with limited attendance.
If you are in the region and interested in seeing live music in later October and camping PM me and I’ll keep you in the loop. :cheers
We are alive in Ohio and can’t wait to get this election over with. Maybe after that the attention can be turned back to the pandemic. Seems our great leaders have priorities and things ass-backwards.
I hope there will be a fest in 2021. Maybe it will be a slimmed down fest for attendance, who knows. If not, then we can wait for 2022. We have to hope that PB somehow stays solvent during these trying times.
The Kent Stage theater here in Ohio is optimistic. They have rescheduled a bunch of shows for 2021.Their schedule is here:
Rescheduled
Dirty Dozen Brass Band and Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas - February 23rd
Wishbone Ash - March 12th
Robert Cray Band - March 21st (19th Anniversary Week)
Brubeck Quintet (100 Years of Dave Brubeck) - March 23rd
Tab Benoit - March 24th
Shawn Colvin - April 9th
Music of Cream - April 14th
The English Beat - May 2nd
Sam Bush - May 5th
Justin Hayward - May 17th
Marc Cohn - May 18th
John Hammond - May 19th
John Waite - May 20th
Patty Griffin - May 29th
Steve Earle & The Dukes - June 3rd
Del McCoury Band - June 4th
Denny Laine’s Moody Wing Tour - June 26th
Ana Popovic - July 15th
Paul Thorn - September 12th
New Power Generation - October 9th
Both Sam and Del are on the schedule, so they hope to be out playing next year. Most of us old folks just hope to be still alive by next June.
Don’t think that any one of us will ever take this festival for granted ever again. :cheers
We just threw our second “mini festival”. Miss Bonnie Mae Paine blessed our land with three sets, and tons of campfire jams over the weekend. Monica and I played our first set where we mixed cello, uke, and guitar w/ our buddy Joe Mack on some Mando for our first ever Dylan cover Senior.
Last week we also were treated to a Vince Herman appearance in Tulsa at the Brewery right down the road. He played with a local band the Red Dirt Rangers and we got our only FEEEEEESSSSSSTTTTIIIIVVVVAAAALLLLLL Vince call of the year, well worth it.
And we had our dose of Crunchy Frog this weekend too. Wasn’t the same though. But thanks sooo much Hooch!
Yesterday I got the new Sierra Hull album 25 Trips, its very good. I also finally found a vinyl copy of Billy Strings Turmoil and Tinfoil, and the new Gillian Welch and David Rawlings record came in the mail it’s damn good! I highly recommend these albums to all of you bluegrass lovers.
Not sure I’m all that old at 51, but have been feeling like it these days and also hoping to still be alive by next June! Actually going in for an angiogram today … so we’ll see how it goes. But yeah, can’t help but think about all the musicians who are are also advancing in years or have had health issues in recent times. Sam comes to mind, as well as Rowns. Hope everyone stays safe and healthy!
Glad you’re able to make lemonade out of the lemons Todd! I saw Salmon briefly on a webcast last week or so from Buena Vista. It looked really cold out there, but people looked to be having a good time.
How Ticketmaster Plans to Check Your Vaccine Status for Concerts
[i]"Here’s how it would work, if approved: After purchasing a ticket for a concert, fans would need to verify that they have already been vaccinated (which would provide approximately one year of COVID-19 protection) or test negative for coronavirus approximately 24 to 72 hours prior to the concert. The length of coverage a test would provide would be governed by regional health authorities – if attendees of a Friday night concert had to be tested 48 hours in advance, most could start the testing process the day before the event. If it was a 24-hour window, most people would likely be tested the same day of the event at a lab or a health clinic.
Once the test was complete, the fan would instruct the lab to deliver the results to their health pass company, like CLEAR or IBM. If the tests were negative, or the fan was vaccinated, the health pass company would verify the attendee’s COVID-19 status to Ticketmaster, which would then issue the fan the credentials needed to access the event. If a fan tested positive or didn’t take a test to verify their status, they would not be granted access to the event. There are still many details to work out, but the goal of the program is for fans to take care of vaccines and testing prior to the concert and not show up hoping to be tested onsite."[/i]
I didn’t know ticketmaster had a vaccine!
Also pretty sure Ticketmaster will tack on a $20 service fee for this “service”.
But let’s move this discussion in a different direction. We have the possibility of a vaccine by next spring, so that definitely improves the chances of having a festival in 2021. But it is possible that the vaccine may not reach everyone by then. I would not be surprised if certain bans or limitations on large gatherings could still be in force by next June.
What if the town gave the Festival permission to go ahead, but say at only 50% capacity?
Obviously this would have a major impact on things like the town businesses, lodgings, vendors, etc…But we need to make sure that PB can still remain viable. Or we will not even have a 50% festival. PB still needs revenue for the artists and for staff. I have no idea how many people who bought tickets last year carried them over to 2021. My guess is 99.9% of those in Town Park did, but I have no idea for general admission sales. And I am sure by now PB has used most of that money to stay afloat.
If we do have to have a smaller festival, I would not be opposed to paying PB an extra surcharge, if this meant keeping them afloat and paying the artists properly. Plus, the idea of a smaller festival, at least for one year, may be appealing and may be a good compromise for everyone.
Feel free to tell me I’m full of it now. :cheers
Let’s hope for the best, but you may be onto something here. I’m assuming once vaccines are available there will be some form of vaccination ID to prove you’ve had the vaccine, but that could get weird.
I’ve been following this thread the last few weeks, hoping for an update from someone with insider knowledge from PB. We rolled our tickets over…but I am hoping/praying we won’t have to roll them to 2022. I think the news about vaccines is good but I agree that the likelihood of mass distribution by June is not that likely. I am hoping that there will be some scaled-back festival, with proof of either vaccination or negative COVID test as part of entry requirement of course.
I will quarantine myself in Town Park for 14 days prior to the festival, or even the 14 days prior to that alone on Dallas Divide, just to be able to attend Bluegrass in 2021. :lol
I fear if we don’t adapt and support the adaptations the live music industry is making we won’t have one.
I’d donate a toe to science and prove I was covid free to attend TBF 2021.
Hey Dude how do we know that it’s your toe not one bought on the black market?
we can get on a three way CB with PB and verify through my antarctic toe print records via my hypothermia studies back in the 80’s. The fungal record alone should prove it’s mine.
I’m going to try to be positive but sadly I think the chances of TBGF next year are slim. Telluride is one of the mo st health literate places in US. The chance of them wanting to host large scale mass events until there is sufficient coverage of population would be low. Give the case ratio in US, I think there will still be need for restrictions in travel and public events for a lot of the year. By June it will be unlikely that there will be anywhere near universal vaccine coverage esp in US. Priority for vaccines particularly in early days will need to be most vulnerable and front line workers as it should be.
As for folks like us, we are not even allowed to leave the country ( in fact our state borders only open tomorrow for a lot of Australia). We just finished 120 days of remaining at home, only allowed I hour of exercise a day, no travel more than 5 kms from home. It has worked in our state - we are down from 725 cases a day to our 30th day Covid free. The only real defence is not mixing at all so the virus can’t transmit. We have to get the levels down as much as possible esp while the vaccine roll out progresses.
Bottom line? I’m desperately missing everyone but the most important thing is I that I want to see everyone alive and healthy. It’s so hard to be this far apart.
Sorry to be such a downer 
Thank god for live streamed concerts ( Greensky saved my sanity during winter) and self medicating.
Stay safe everyone, much love from Australia, don’t any of you dare do anything reckless! We will be together again in the canyon and the reunion will be wonderful.
Ps I too am very heartened by the thoughts of a vaccine and I am fervently hoping that it is successfully distributed. I want this pandemic to be over but mostly I want my community to be safe. Let’s dance again
I so wish our country would take those kinds of drastic measures to get this virus under control here but sadly that will never happen, nothing even close. We will just have to rely on the vaccine/herd immunity/time because most Americans don’t tolerate inconvenience and restriction (this likely does not apply to most festivarians who I’m sure would jump through any hoops in order to be back in T-ride this summer!). Nor do I want to start a debate about social distancing and politics on this forum…so I digress.
In any case, I tend to agree with you Australian fan. As sad as I am about it, I just do not see how PB will be able to host an event of even half that size in Telluride by June. I just don’t see it happening, even though I so wish there was a way. Even if the vaccine is widely available to many Americans by late spring, I don’t know how they would be able to plan for a situation in which it isn’t. But I’m happy to be proven wrong!!
I will say that I have hope that some live music and festivals might be a possibility by summer in a much more scaled back way than TBF. I could see Red Rocks becoming a possibility with vaccine availability in combination with restricted capacity. My hope is on a modified Greensky at Red Rocks weekend in September.
I am terribly sad about Telluride though. We had planned to take our kids in 2020 and now they will be older and closer to bratty teenagers by the time we can take them :lol 
I will be an optimist here. Prefer to wait until Craig makes it official. Not sure what may happen 6 months from now. :cheers