Music Festival reflections

Finally rested a bit, and now I can write some about the festival.
There were some obstacles, as I guess you have heard. Faulty generators blew up some amps. Remedy Drive didn't want to hook back up and you couldn't blame them for not wanting to risk their equipment and their safety.
We were something like two hours late getting started, maybe more.
There was a mad rush to find an electrician - no easy task on a Saturday afternoon.
The guy from Graham's electric came through and got us rolling. The generators were rented from a place in ponca city. One was putting out twice as much power as it was supposed to, and that caused the problems.

Rex Riggs brought us a good generator. It was one he uses for welding.
We got it hooked up but didn't hook up the whole package. There was a long discussion about what to do. I considered trying to move it to a church. No one liked that idea.

Remedy Drive has a nice light show, but we didn't even try that.
We finally got rolling around 5:30.
Cut the acts down some. The musicians got 30 minutes instead of an hour, and we carried on.
We lost a lot of people when we were sitting around in the sun waiting.
I think the crowd would have been better if we had started on time, because a lot of people did leave.
There were people arriving around 6.
I was surprised that we did not have more people. It was on a saturday, and i thought i actually promoted it more this year than i did last year. We even spent more on radio advertising this year.
But there were lots of other things going on the same day, and that probably hurt some.

We did have a decent crowd. Id say there were 300 people there in the evening. Lots of kids really liked Remedy Drive. I liked them too. It was good rock and roll.
Not sure they will be back. Last year before they left, they told me they had a great time and wanted to come back. This year they said they had a good time, and didnt mention coming back.
Can hardly blame them after they lost two amps and had damage to a piano. Probably worth several thousand dollars.
Also a local church, Calvary Chapel, lost some equipment because of the generators.
Not sure how that will shake out.
But we probably wont use generators anymore. Maybe we can get electricity put in.
It shouldnt be as hard as it is to get electricity put in. There are just people who are stumbling blocks that keep it from getting done.
Its a long story. Everyone says do it, even the people who could make it happen, but then they dont do whatever it is they need to do.
The electric companies position is that if it is only used once a year, they wouldnt make anything off it, so they dont want to do it.
I believe that if we had electricity there, and a few events, other people would want to have events too.
KACY tried to have an event there.

Anyhoo. We had some good music.
As I wrote in the other post, someone called the cops on us.
I didnt believe the people who told me that there was a cop waiting at the highway.
But there was. He was nice. Just asked us to tone it down.
The generators started making a buzzing sound, and there was a minor power surge. That freaked the band out so they shut the sound down.
So we did quieten down, but not because of the complaint.

What happened next was very cool though.
Remedy Drive guys broke out their acoustic guitars and sat around the stage and played. People gathered at the stage and listened.
They showed what kind of musicians they are. They played hard and sang loud so everyone could hear even without amplification.
It was a very nice ending to a long day that had been full or trials.

There are lots of questions now. Im too tired to think about many of them
What direction will we go in from here?
Location is a concern. We could just do indoor shows. Would be a lot easier, but not as much fun.
We could do several shows through the year instead of one big one.
We could get more into local talent.
I like the idea of bringing in a band, but ... no matter how good they are, if no one has heard of them, they wont come.
Remedy Drive is a band that is taking off. Their cd is on the charts. They have tours booked across the nation. They are going to be touring with the Newsboys - which is one of the biggest christian rock bands there are anywhere.
So we were lucky to have them.
But would people rather come and see local bands.
Im sure if we put together something like .. .Revival, Butler Brothers, and Julie Sutton, we could get a decent crowd.

AND what is our goal? In one sense, my goal is to promote the levee and develop that area. But maybe the music should be the top priority. I think there are people who share my music vision. Thats an interesting choice that Ill have to think about.

There are many people who worked hard. I appreciate all their efforts. Several people also contributed money, about $5,000. Im pretty sure we will break even, unless we get sued to replace damaged equipment.

I suppose it was not the success it was a year ago, but several people have been encouraging me to press on.
I do want to press on. I just want to re-evaluate the direction.
We need to learn from the experience.
Lesson No. 1 is that small generators are probably not a good idea. I still dont understand why they worked so well last year and not this year. They were the same type of generators.

A bigger one might work.
Getting electricity would be a better option.
Moving is also a possibility. Carla Pike, who is one of the biggest supporters, wants to move it to Curry Field and develop that area.
Im not so sure. There are houses around there now.
Lots to think about.