Re: [dcab-l] Challenge to Festivals: Weather and Capitalization: Essay

Hi,

 

This is a problem for me at age 50 as well.  There are solutions, and kerosene café heaters are one of them.  Tents to get warm in and limiting alcohol are others.  Moving indoors helps sometimes, but waiting in line, drying out, and taking hypothermia and heat stroke seriously are vital.  Attracting a younger audience does not mean less health issues.  Myself, and two of my friends have suffered severe exposure or heat stroke at festivals, all of us under 51.  Waiting in line continues to be the number one concern.  Number 2 seems to be the expectation of festival organizers that one can carry gear for heat and cold TO THE PERFORMANCES.  That is impossible due to security and health reasons.  It is the peripheral things, standing in line, getting wet, not being able to dry out before it gets cold, and (I hate to say it) the public not having tour buses to go to right after being very brave and sticking it out to finish seeing a band... those things that can be fixed.  Walker convertible wheel chairs are inexpensive.  They can be donated and rented.  I came home from Merlefest last year driven by a friend because I had severe exposure and heat stroke.  I was in early stage kidney failure.  I'm an experienced camper, I even lived as a guest on the search and rescue site in Tuolumne Meadows Yosemite once. There was nothing I could do about it except stay in my tent after a paramedic checked me over.  If I can't carry my gear from my camp site, can't get an electrical cord to the tent for my sleep apnea machine and can't carry a 70 lb battery instead, and can't get my car out to get food, fluids, or sunblock until after the festival.... I can't go. 65 degree temperature is enough over time to send one into hypothermia no matter how old one is.  Getting back to camp and finding no firewood... that can be fatal, and nobody seems to understand this.  I'm trying to help here, not rant.  Perhaps some of this will spark ideas.

 

Things to think about.

 

From: james hyler

Sent: Wednesday, March 12, 2014 6:40 PM

To: Ted Lehmann ; Bluegrasss-L ; ibma-members@googlegroups.com ; NEBG@bbu.org ; dcab-l@googlegroups.com

Subject: Re: [dcab-l] Challenge to Festivals: Weather and Capitalization: Essay

 

Ted; I tried to post a comment via google but had log in difficulties.

 

The issue u raise is long overdue for discussion.  The current bluegrass business model of outdoor bluegrass festivals is simply not going to continue to work for one simple reason that you -- perhaps politely -- didn't specifically identify:  the percentage of our audience that is older than 65 -- and unable to function in tough weather and terrain conditions -- is too large to continue this way.  We're going to have to move outside, unless we somehow attract a much larger group of younger fans that can cope with less-than-ideal conditions. 

 

I am amazed that I don't hear this issue discussed more often.  Outdoor festivals simply cannot survive much longer. 

 

Respectfully, James Hyler

On Wednesday, March 12, 2014 5:12 PM, Ted Lehmann <tlehmann@ne.rr.com> wrote:

I've posted an called "Challenges to Bluegrass: Weather and
Capitalization" on my blog. I look forward to the discussion. - Ted

http://tedlehmann.blogspot.com/2014/03/challenge-to-festivals-weather.html

--
Ted Lehmann
tlehmann@ne.rr.com
www.tedlehmann.blogspot.com

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