Blues festival

[JVO]

Any CoMo people planning on going to the Blues festival tomorrow and saturday? I am going to be volunteering all day tomorrow and part of Saturday so if you are roaming around keep an eye out. Not sure where I am going to be working yet. There is a reception with all of the bands tomorrow that I am going to so I will get a good chance of figuring out what bands I want to see (I think there are over 100 bands appearing). If any one else can take tomorrow off of work and is interested in volunteering, let me know. Along with volunteering you get a free pass to see any of the bands at any of the venues along with a bunch of free crap.

[Soul Queen]

Who is playing?

Sounds like that should be fun!

[JVO]

Here is the website:

http://www.rootsnbluesnbbq.com/

[Soul Queen]

Nice. I wouldn't mind seeing the Blind Boys of Alabama.

[Ag Au]

that's a really great line up. go como!
have fun!

[bubz_bluez]

i think ill be making a pubic apperance on saturday

bubs

[matty]

ooooooo! Taj Mahal!

[JVO]

Blues Fest was a huge success. They blocked off the entire downtown area from Flat Branch to East Side and from Broadway south to the University. They set up three stages and played music pretty much non stop for both days. I live West of Garth and even my parking lot was full of cars. I am not sure how many people attended, but it was far more than attend a football game. Seriously I wouldn't doubt it if over 100,000 people showed up over the two days. Saturday night there was a line wrapping all the way around the block just to get into Tropical Liquors. I have never seen anything like it in CoMo. The only problem was that there were SOOOO many people that you had to wait forever to try out any of the tasty bbq or see any of the crafts (which there weren't enough of). Anyway, I am hoping it was so successful that they will make an annual event out of it.

It was pretty cool getting drunk in a hugh Beer Garden on the Middle of Broadway!!!

[007]

Sounds sweet.

What tunes did you especially enjoy, JVO?

[JVO]

Well because of the festival type layout, I am not really sure who I saw and who I didn't. Friday we spent most of our time shopping at the little craft sites and eating the tasty bbq. I was definitely listening to the music in the background, but I didn't know who a majority of the bands were (or see the stages). Saturday, we just bounced from one beer garden to the next. It was so crowded on Saturday night that I didn't have the energy to do much but drink. I know I heard Chump Change and Taj Mahal, plus a couple of other bands who I didn't know. It was all very good though. Really I am ok with all Blues so it was more like a nice background music to my drinking. They laid the stages out in a brilliant way. You never seemed to hear more than one band at a time, but as you walked around you could hear several bands individually.

[Ag Au]

that sounds like lots of fun. do you know who organized the event, cause props to them! i am surprised that it was held downtown and not at a fairground. i think that is pretty cool.

[JVO]

that sounds like lots of fun. do you know who organized the event, cause props to them! i am surprised that it was held downtown and not at a fairground. i think that is pretty cool.

It was organized by Boone County National Bank in celebration of their 150 birthday. Apparently they are hoping that other local businesses will pick up on the idea and make it an annual event. I guess they said the final attendance (which is difficult to say since there was no paid admission) was about 75,000 people.

[Soul Queen]

Isn't that the population of Columbia?

[JVO]

Pretty close (we are 94,000 now). People from all over the midwest came. Just in my parking lot I counted license plates from a number of neighboring states. Like I said, there were probably 2 times as many people then what normally show up for an MU football game (which is probably around 40,000). If we keep doing this every year, we could give Austin a run for their money!!!

There was an ungodly amount of people. I can only imagine how many kegs they went through. I guess they had over 200 volunteers that stayed until 4:00am on Fri and sat nights just to clean up. Along with being a two day blues fest, it was also an officially sanctioned national BBQ competition (whatever in the hell that means) so it was drawing from a number of different crowds. Fortunately I live close enough that I could walk, but I am sure they made a ton of money just off of parking alone. Pretty much every business from Bus Loop to Stadium was selling off parking spots.

[duckplucker]

i saw the blind boys.

i also saw albert white and a band called mudcat that i didn't know.

the best was jerry douglas, master of the dobro (sp.)

if you like the bluegrass-steel guitar sound, check him out.
nerdy girl has this live recording he plays with allison krauss. he's amazing. one of the finest musicians i've ever seen.
he is in the same class as robert randolph and b.b. king (my favorite concerts)

[zero2056]

I saw the Blind Boys and some dude named Tad Benoit. Didn't see Jod or JVO around though!

Amazingly packed. Really, too many peeps for my taste, but whatcha gonna do.

BCNB has already confirmed they will not be hosting the festival next year. Looking for somebody else to run it.

[Soul Queen]

I'm sure planning and hosting a festival holding 75,000 people is an endeavor.

I hope they do it again. It sounds like it was a blast. How were the Blind Boys of Alabama?

[JVO]

Yeah, my boss's wife was one of the organizers on behalf of the bank and apparently they had a huge number of employees who basically had to put their real job on hold so that they could help out with the arrangements. There does seem to be some real hope that other vendors (or possibly the City of Columbia) will pick up the task for next year.

[matty]

If the City of Columbia is in charge of it, it will FAIL MISERABLY.

[JVO]

If the City of Columbia is in charge of it, it will FAIL MISERABLY.

That is true with all government ventures! :p:groucho::pokefun:

[matty]

It may be true of all govt ventures, but it's ESPECIALLY true for Columbia. I don't know who the fuck is in charge around here (well, I do, I guess), but they need some come-uppance!!

1. Smoking ban passes 4-3. Local businesses struggle.

2. Storefront signs brought under regulation to be a certain size, causing about half the downtown stores to replace their signs, costing them money. the city offers no help to deflect cost.

3. Awnings torn down on Broadway and Ninth streets. Businesses are forced to buy their own awnings. The city offers no help to deflect cost. Patrons are forced to run through the rain and snow, bunny-hopping miserably from narrow storefront alcoves, the will to spend money quickly dwindling in the will to avoid losing multiple fingers and toes to frostbite.

4. Renaming of "Downtown" to "The District." Say what? What the fuck is that? "Meet me at The District!" The what? Do you mean DOWNTOWN, you pretentious motherfuckers???

5. Big, old, wooden kiosks torn down, replaced by plastic, cheap-looking signholders. Tacky! Those big wooden pieces of shit had character, dammit!

6. Accompanying the greigious kiosk mistake are the little signs on light poles, telling people what attractions are where. Basically, they ALL say "University of Missouri" with an arrow, or they completely direct people OUT OF DOWNTOWN. (I mean The District.) The mall is this way! Wouldn't you rather be at the mall than downtown? How about the courthouse? No businesses, but hey! Look! A courthouse! Feel like going MyZou? We don't know what the fuck it is, but there's a sign for it!

It's like Lex Luthor is in charge of our city.

[matty]

The city would obviously rather try to bring in new, shitty businesses than nurture the already-established local businesses. They won't be happy until "The District" looks like one giant Applebees: manufactured and lacking personality.

[Soul Queen]

true that Matty.

I found out how tedious the beuracracy was while working at the library.
If the city does take it over, it may not happen until 2011. :D
It takes 2 years to figure how who will be in the napkin committee.

the only thing I can figure with Columbia is that it must have alot of bored unemployed housewives that have nothing to do but sit in committees, take money from Walmart and make decisions on cosmetic crap.

Its not only Columbia that has that going on. I'm sure its Nation Wide!

[Soul Queen]

Maybe the University can sponsor it.

Or a conglomerate of private businesses.