Comments on: City Stages 2007: Why I’m staying away

By: Wade on Birmingham » Blog Archive » Win Preserve Jazz passes!

Wade on Birmingham » Blog Archive » Win Preserve Jazz passes! — Tue, 13 May 2008 19:35:04 +0000

[...] hours=12 if (minutes Sphere: Related Content Also see:Contests and GiveawaysPreserve Jazz FestivalCity Stages 2007: Why I’m staying awayHeads and tales: Selling welljazz ain’t [...]

By: J. Matt

J. Matt — Sat, 16 Jun 2007 15:06:58 +0000

Wonderful commentary, Wade…the returned line-up from previous years (Ludacris, EWF, Kurt Carr) is proof that City Stages is another one of our country’s lazy music festivals that want to bear a title that falls short of expectations. They call it a “world class” festival but fail to provide representation of most of the world’s music genres. What happened to the incoporation of the Latino community and other music styles including reggae and classical?

By the way, thanks for the nod regarding my blog entry on the matter. Appreciate that.

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 20:19:30 +0000

Thanks for the comment on my blog. I agree. No one has any civic duty to go. If I wasn’t such a big Cockburn and Sam Bush fan no way I would buy a weekend pass. This is great article. I really think this will be the end I don’t think there will be anyine there. blogroll you.

Freat blog BTW I’lkl

By: Nicki

Nicki — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 13:08:04 +0000

Thanks for the link, and for posting about the Jazz festival. I’ll definitely want to go to next year’s!

By: Jarrod

Jarrod — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 02:20:47 +0000

I actually struggled with the same decision. Do I go and support the festival, out of the hope that it doesn’t go away? Or do I save the money I will spend, and not waste time watching “blah” acts. I chose the latter when I considered this: if this festival dies, something better will replace it. The Crawfish boil gets better every year. I have heard great things about the Jazz Festival you mentioned. Free The Hops had the first annual Magic City Brewfest two weeks ago and the response was EXPLOSIVE… they actually turned people away after while because they couldn’t handle more than the 5,000+ people that showed. Alabaster’s Cityfest gets bigger each year (and it’s FREE!!! They should put on lessons for the City Stages crew, who can’t survive on $50 tickets).

Yes, I want city stages to make it. In Pensacola (where I am from) we had a festival exactly like this called Springfest. At it’s peak, it was voted one of the best outdoor music festivals in the south. After that, poor mangement and “blah acts” lead to a slow decline and public apathy. The festival went from a yearly attendence of 100,0000 down to where they could barely fill a venue the size of the Alabama Theater. It died the next year. I hope City Stages gets its act together.