I didn’t originally intend to take part in this debate, since it’s my core feeling that this forum is about sharing the love rather than the discontent. I hate arguments, and I wish we could all just get on, I mean, we all love bluegrass music right?!? We should be at peace with each other!
Anyway, I’ve decided to share my side of this experience, just because I don’t like someone being so fully put down for expressing and honest opinion.
For my part, I experienced the marshmallow fight during the Tim O’Brien set on the Sunday. I was lucky to be seated on a tarp right center, about one tarp row from the front, and was thoroughly looking forward to this set of one of my favorite musicians, accompanied by Bryan Sutton and Stuart Duncan no less, who I regard to be one of the most talented fiddle players around. I might add, for historical purposes, that I had seen Tim play previously in London, but I’d never seen Stuart Duncan, and when I discovered he was part of the Tim O’Brien band, well, it set my heart racing, because I’ve been listening to his music for probably 18 years of my life, and the thrill of seeing such a great musician live for my first Telluride and first bluegrass festival, it was almost too good to be true.
So there I am, sitting comfortably in prime position, ready to enjoy a particularly special set (I must have got there 20 min before to ensure I was as close as possible to the stage), and the music kicks off. Well, for the first 15 min or so, all was well, the music was good, the rest of the audience was at peace. And then, the marshmallows start to fly.
I’m not against fun, I don’t despise adults behaving like kids, I think everyone is entitled to amuse themselves as they see fit. In fact, I’m pretty sure, under other circumstances, I would find myself taking part in this kind of mock fight with soft missiles (pillow fight anyone?). But surely, during a set at the Telluride Bluegrass Festival, the fun is about enjoying the amazing music, right?!? I mean, what you want to do back at camp, or in the kids area, or anywhere else apart from in front of the main stage is none of my business, and by all means, a festival is about having fun and enjoying yourself.
All I want to say is that I came to that particular spot at that particular time to enjoy the music, and I expected the rest of the audience that showed up to be there for the same reasons as me, after all, I did part with a certain amount of money to be able to be there in the first place, and that’s not even mentioning the fact that I flew all the way from London, UK, to be at the festival. Also, just for the record, that I’ve been saving up for the past 2 years to be able to afford the trip, and finally, that making it to a bluegrass festival has been a dream of mine for perhaps 6 years now, and I’ve been a bluegrass fan all my life, just to give you a perspective.
So when the marshmallows start flying, I think, yeah, whatever, if they find it fun. But when fully grown men start standing up in front of me and taking part in the fight, throwing them across the audience, and finally end up standing there, with their back to the stage and the music, cheering on their opponents with jeers and shouting grunts of victory when they managed to get their target, I felt I had to say something. I mean, I was as close to the stage as I could practically get, and I couldn’t see and hardly hear the musicians. I didn’t feel it was my right to ignore the thousands of festivarians seated behind me and go and stand in front of the stage and block their view as mine was being blocked right now. When I expressed my feelings to the above mentioned guy in front of me, by simply voicing the fact that we were right in front of the stage, and if he didn’t care about the music, could he possibly continue his fun somewhere further back, he seemed hurt and put out, and muttered something about being aloud to have fun, before moving away. Sadly, that didn’t really solve the problem, as there were many others like him out there, in the front rows, still taking part in the fight. The fact that he was hurt by my comment I found pretty rich, and I wonder if he stopped to think how I felt, or how the rest of the crowd who weren’t taking part felt, or how the incredible musicians felt, playing to a crowd to busy to pay attention to their music because the audience are either too busy launching marshmallows or have out right turned their backs on them.
Now tell me honestly, if you were on stage, from the musicians point of view, how would you feel if you were playing to an audience like this. Are you sure you’d find it gratifying, would you take it as a compliment to your music that half the supposed audience is throwing things about with their backs to you? I personally would take it as a sign that the audience was bored and I’d obviously done something wrong. That’s why, on top of being pissed off that I was having to miss half the set by no fault of my own, I was feeling increasingly bad about the lack of respect such amazing artists were being shown, and I truly hoped that they weren’t taking it too personally. After all, it’s perhaps just me being paranoid, I didn’t ask Tim O’Brien when I saw him what he thought of the marshmallow fight, but did any of you bother to ask him?
And the bottom line is, I came from very far and waited a very long time to be in Telluride and see these amazing musicians play, and I was sad to experience this kind of thing at what I expected to be one of the best festivals for bluegrass lovers in the world, which it was, albeit this particular moment.
So if I had to vote, it would certainly be against this kind of practice at the main stage, as I honestly don’t feel like it adds anything positive to the experience.
