For Sale: Charlottetown City Streets

I was thinking, Instead of a Silverorange Frisbee Golf Tournament for charity,. Why not get a downtown street and have a giant “2005 Mudwrestling Festival”

Two words:

Tourism Boost

God I hope this is over by the time I arrive.

But how much did we get? Surely it can’t be a Bad Thing until we know that right?

Are you concerned about aesthetics (a large inflatable beer can being somewhat gaudy), the particular sponsor (a brewery sponsoring a cultural event), or about sponsorship in general (an event held on city streets having a corporate sponsor)? While I can see where you might have legitimate concerns about all of the above, I’m wondering if there are *any* events held in Charlottetown that you don’t have some kind of problem with? How do you ever have any fun?

An interesting way to increase tourism… cut off one of the main streets to create a large bar?? But then again the city probably needed the festival to generate money for the purchase of a “Noise Meter”!

I’m also curious why Sarah Fraser of the CBC billed the ‘festival’ as Charlottetown’s first “Jazz & Blues Festival”?

I seem to remember Sarah and other CBC ‘reporters’ sitting at the same table as my wife and I when Diana Krall played at the Charlottetown Jazz & Blues Festival a number of years ago… ???

feasgar math
Cuidhil-meaban

I can’t remember what Sara called it, but other publicity I saw billed it as the first “outdoor” Jazz and Blues festival. I’m not sure, though, how being in a tent constitutes being outdoors!

As for putting a large blow up beer can beside a place that sells beer, I really don’t think anyone would pay it much mind, as it is dwarfed next to the large blue and white behemoth of a tent!

I noticed today that they cut the one-day prices from $35 to $20 for each of Fri. and Sat. nights, and $15 for Sunday afternoon, so I guess they will have to make up the admission shortfall by selling more beer, hence the need for a large inflatable beer can sign.

Tasteless can! Artlessly displayed! What does the minuscule sign text say?

Let me start by saying that my husband is involved in the festival as a musician and my brother as a musician and an organizer so I may be a little biased. While the beer can is ugly and I can certainly sympathize with what downtown residents live through with events like the Festival of Lights, it seems to me that this is a little different scale and rather than being negative about silly things we should all take a look at the good things that have happened and if all goes well, will continue to happen next year. The people spearheading this event made several good decisions early on that I think improved the chances of this festival being successful. Firstly they asked local musicians and music educators to sit on the committee. They also decided to have a mixture of local and off island talent as part of the entertainment and finally they have included an educational component for student musicians to attend master classes. Are there things that they could do differently next year? Certainly. I think they should look at the pricing structure and come up with a few more options. I also think they should have a couple of larger scale free events. ie. Salsa Celtica who performed last night in the tent could maybe have done a 20 minute free set in the afternoon - it might have enticed a few more to their 2 hour set last night. I spent the last 2 nights in the tent with approximately 1000 people ranging in age from 2- 85. Most of the crowd seemed to be locals - I even spotted Catherine Hennessey cheering wildly for Doug Riley and Molly Johnson on Thurs. night. The bartenders were not kept that busy - most people didn’t appear to be drinking or had maybe 1. The event was very well organized from the audience perspective - the sound was great, they had lots of security and even had volunteers picking up empty cups in the audience. The music was wonderful and people enjoyed jazz music that we rarely get to hear live on PEI. By 10 pm the tent was shut down and people either went quietly home or moved on to one of the 3 smaller venues. I even went to Fishbones last night - I can’t remember the last time I was in a downtown bar -we enjoyed the quartet ( a mixture of professional and student musicians) and by midnight the chatter at our table had turned to how late it was and how early the kids would be up in the morning! Not exactly a rowdy crowd. I’d also like to address a few of the specific comments - no this is not the first attempt at a jazz and blues festival - I think there were 2 attempts in the not too distant past and if I recall correctly one of them left some very bad feelings among musicians when they weren’t paid. Musicians have very long memories about things like that. So no this is not the 1st, but it is the first on this scale. If I recall correctly Diana Krall was not part of a festival, it was a single concert that happened to be on the same night as a Ch’town Jazz Ensemble concert at the Ch’town hotel-needless to say , in hindsight many of us who missed Diana Krall wish the Jazz ensemble had switched nights. Who knew? And finally Clark as a former local musician I would have thought this would have been a good opportunity for you to get caught up former bandmates and teachers who still live here and everyday try to make opportunities for themselves, fellow musicians and people (like last nights audience) who like to listen to high quality music. Tomorrow afternoon the Jive Kings (a blatant plug) will be performing in the tent. A local group of high school students ( the Nick Howard Band) starts at 2pm followed by the Jive kings at 2:45. I plan to be there with my kids and many of my friends are planning a family outing. In my experience there are not that many events (musical or otherwise ) that are as inclusive as this event will be. Other than the occasional wedding dance, where can you see Mom and Dad dancing with their kids, couples showing everyone how to “really” dance and teenagers in the same room as their parents, all enjoying the same music? I think I have rambled on enough - I hope some of the naysayers will give this festival a chance and Peter, I think Oliver would enjoy the show tomorrow afternoon (pre-schoolers are free) so I hope to see you there. Sue Williams

Bastards…enticing us with images of a dripping, ice-cold container of refreshing brew, then denying us the ability to legally purchase one. Until finally made legal on PEI, all cans of beer (and images of same)should be banned!

FALSE ADVERTISING!
It shoulde have small print saying cans are really not available only plastic cups.
Or just sell cans in the Alpine Cold Can Zone. They need a temporary can exemption from the gov of PEI. Or a trial ‘events with cans’ for a summer. And truck them (light cans, heavy bottles) back Confed Bridge to can land.
Or Northa America it’s called.