Massive Music Fest> Are you cool with it?
What does everyone think?
Mumford & Sons are very pleased to announce the first details and line-ups for their 2015 Gentlemen of the Road Stopovers, which includes a stop in Salida, CO on August 21st & 22nd! Joining Mumford & Sons at the Waverly Stopover is The Flaming Lips, Dawes, Jenny Lewis, The Vaccines, Tune-Yards, James Vincent McMorrow, JEFF The Brotherhood, Blake Mills + more artists to be announced! Tickets go on-sale THIS Friday at 10am at www.GentlemenOfTheRoad.com.
Comments
ridiculous
Might be cooler if they had bands I'd actually heard of, but alas, it's one more thing being shoved down the throats of the populace by the government, all made OK buy the dangling carrot of profit for all, at any cost..
What really gets my goat is the fact it's not just local government that's behind this, Hickenstupid has his hands in it as well, the next thing we'll have the house and senate representatives issuing press releases supporting this "event" as being the best thing ever for Salida..
At least it's going to be short, I and most I know are already making plans to be out of the area.
Okay, so Marshall, it appears you are not cool with it then? Joking. I understand you are opposed.
This is such a great aspect of our community, because not having heard of Mumford and Sons or The Flaming Lips is akin to never having heard of Led Zeppelin in the mid seventies. I know that's a hard pill for some of us who are older to appreciate. But it's true. These are major acts. It's fun to see the level of opposition and to imagine there was likely a very similar opposition to Woodstock. My sense is that in this day and age of massive music festivals, they've got it figured out. These guys can't afford too much bad publicity.
I put out a question about Mumford and Sons on my personal FB page, and one of the responses was this:
"I went to see them in Taos 2 years ago. I liked the songs I had heard, catchy melodies, but I wasn't what I would call a huge fan, didn't have their albums, didn't know the words. I was aware before going to the concert that the Mumfords had a lot of detractors; bluegrass-lite, too sweet, too mainstream, definitely not hip, as one can read from the above the comments. I was steeped in authentic bluegrass/folk, didn't think much of the whole drums with the banjo deal, was a bit cynical, but heck, it was Taos, I was with my daughter and friends for the weekend...Well, there is a reason they are one of the top concert draws in the world. They put on a really fantastic show, very uplifting, transformational even, for some. I can see why some people are snarky about them, their records do have a tinge of the same kind of poppy, generic sounding music that you hear in some contemporary Christian churches. But they are excellent when live on stage. I felt more of a Irish pub sing along vibe than anything else. Yes, there is a whole lot of positive energy, light, no darkness or irony, nothing too deep, but I believe this is a band that uses their power for good, their music touches a lot of people, and hearing them live it connected with me for some reason, and I absolutely get it. Also, son Scott, who introduces me to new great music has rave reviews about Blake Mills and Tune-Yard, and all my crew loves Jenny Lewis. Really looking forward to this! And I heard the concert promoter say today that there will be no ticket needed to get into the music in the downtown bars and Riverside Park, where concert performers will be playing all day/night Thursday, during the day Friday and Saturday before and after the concert."
For me this is not about the music, but about what Salida is becoming or wants to become.
35,000 people is about twice the population of our county. It is about half the capacity of the Broncos stadium which resides in a population center of millions.
The Telluride Bluegrass festival, likely their biggest, is capped at 12,000 people.
Granted Telluride is smaller than Salida, but has a huge bed capacity comparatively. A fixer upper in Telluride on a 25' lot costs over a million dollars.
Is this where Salida wants to go. Currently service people here make around $8 to $25 hour.
The housing market in Salida is already priced out of that income level. Salida is growing in it's quantity of vacation rentals/ second homes. Nathrop, Poncha Springs and even Villa Grove are already becoming bedroom communities for Salida.
I guess my question is not how great a festival this will be, but will it make the quality of life better for Salida?
Hey Bill,
No, not vehemently opposed to it, I COULD live with anything for 2 days, perhaps RandyC put my concerns a little more succinctly though. Yes, I have heard after speaking with others that Mumford and Sons is a rather popular band these days, I suppose the fact I haven't heard of them is due in part to my reliance on internet streams, XMRadio and my own music collection, but I digress.
In the bigger scheme of things, I think back to many of the "events" Salida has put on in the not too distant past, which were supposed to bring millions and millions of dollars to the City, County and business owners. The "Pro Challenge", Ride the Rockies etc. We (collectively) ponied up 120K$ for the "Challenge" and got scarcely little back for it, other than the statement that the publicity was priceless. The citizens of the area however were met with the "If you don't like it, go away until it's over" attitude.
I find that attitude distasteful. While I understand that change is inevitable (except from vending machines) and Salida pretty much runs on the "T-Shirt shop" economic model, bring tourists, they will spend money, we'll sell enough of whatever we're selling to turn a profit, I ask myself, at what cost to the quality of life we are all here for?
I am reminded of a tourist that told me a few years ago, that if Salida would only do this, that and the other, it'd be just like that guys home town. My answer was that IF we did all these things, and it was just like his home town, what would his motivation to come here be ? I was met with the deer in the headlights stare as a response. He hadn't considered the law of unintended consequences.
I don't believe the City, or the County for that matter has considered that very pertinent law in any of it's decisions in the recent past, to include this festival. Unlike my tourist friend that wanted to change everything to his liking, I moved to this area for a reason. The quality of life, which in my mind didn't include things like mega concerts predicted to draw about 5 times the local population, a bicycle race that brings very little to the area in terms of money, balanced by the inconvenience to the populace.
All these things have been deemed "good for us" by the respective permitting agencies, which seem to have the mindsets that businesses are the sole stakeholder in these decisions, and the rest of the folks can just "suck it up" for the good of the business owners, ala the Over the River fiasco. Rainbows and Butterflies for all, we'll all be rich.
It hasn't played out in the past, and is unlikely that it'll play out in this scenario. All hotel rooms are already booked, the restaurants will do more business, and perhaps the starving artists will sell a few pieces, but I fail to see where asking the populace as a whole if they want something like this, or not, would be a bad thing. That's never happened to my recollection, and that's where I have a problem.
Finally, comparing this to Woodstock is not a valid comparison, simply due to the location, and sizes of the respective venues. A relatively isolated farm in upstate NY is not a small parcel on the outskirts of a small city. But then, that's not really germaine to my argument.
What DO we want Salida to become. Another Summit County, where the quality of life is close to non existent for the folks that life there ? Sleepy towns turned into mega hospitality centers for visitors, residents working 3 jobs to afford the rent ? Would we like to have a voice in what happens, and how it happens ? Or is it all about businesses making money, quality of life be damned.
I'd like to think that we can strike a happy medium here, appropriate events for the area, businesses making money, residents needs considered, the towns and county make, and stick to a unified vision for the area, approved by the folks that bear the brunt of the negative side of the deal.
That wasn't the case with this event, Over the River, or any of the past events I've seen, it's just been handed down from the powers that be that these things are happening, if you don't like it, leave.. I for one, don't want to leave.
I find that distasteful.