Suggestions for future festivals

[64Guitars]

I thought I'd create this new topic so we can keep all of the festival suggestions together in one place. If you have any new ideas for a future festival or you want to suggest a sequel to a previous festival, suggest it in this topic. We reserve the right for the admin team to veto any suggestions that we decide are not in the best interests of the site, but I think that's not likely to happen very often, if ever. So, practically all of the suggestions posted here will be added to my ongoing list from which we select our 8 poll choices every two months. Whether they actually win the vote or not is another matter. That depends on Songcrafters' members.

I think the best suggestions are sometimes the ones that challenge us to try something we wouldn't normally do. For example, maybe an artist whose songs we've never really cared for. It's an interesting challenge to do our own version of one of those songs and make it into something we like. Or maybe it's a genre or era that we wouldn't normally be interested in. Most of us here play and listen to rock, pop, and blues. So how about a BallroomFest where we'd do tangos, cha-cha-chas, sambas, foxtrots, etc.? Or maybe a RoaringTwentiesFest where we'd cover songs from the 1920s? They might not seem very appealing at first but I think they'd make an interesting challenge and we'd have a lot of fun doing them (and listening to the results from other members).

Of course, it's also good to do more popular genres or cover more popular artists (our most successful festival ever was BeatlesFest). So feel free to suggest your favourite artist, genre, era, etc.

One other thing to keep in mind is that the scope of a festival should be neither too broad nor too narrow. For example, our GurlFest was a reasonable choice because female artists are somewhat of a minority. But a GuyFest would be a bad choice because it's far too broad. Covers of songs by something like 95% of all artists would qualify for a GuyFest. What would be the point of that? The scope's too broad. There's no challenge. On the other side of the coin, a SitarFest would probably be a bad choice for a festival because very few (if any) of our members have a sitar. The scope's much too narrow. Most of our members would not be able to participate. Sure, we could say that you could use a sitar patch on a keyboard or a sitar effect in a BR-800, etc. but I think the scope would still be too narrow. Perhaps a better idea would be AsianFest, where we could use any Asian instruments or simulations of them, or just record songs (originals or covers) in an Asian style. It wouldn't be my favourite idea for a festival but I hope it illustrates what I mean about getting the scope right. We need to make sure that any of our members can take part in any festival. But, in doing so, we don't want to make the scope so broad that there's no challenge.

[Flash Harry]

Home Made Fest - All instruments have to be constructed from things lying around the home. Professional manufacturing where it relates to a musical instrument is not permitted.

Permitted - Pots and pans and bottle top shakers, tea chest basses, wine glasses with water in for tuning, home made stringed instruments. Obviously vocals, home made pipes (permitted are brass instrument mouth pieces just coz I value my lips). All instruments have to be described and justified.

[Burtog]

Home Made Fest - All instruments have to be described and justified.

I think photo evidence is a must for this idea, that would be half the fun??

[Flash Harry]

Home Made Fest - All instruments have to be described and justified.

I think photo evidence is a must for this idea, that would be half the fun??

Might lead into a video, Andy R wouldn't like that at all!

[kenny mac]

Zz top fest,,,,all writers perform a song in the style of zz top either write a song in that style or do another artists song in that style. Ie frank Sinatra zz top style

[beleg]

how about:

-  1SongFest where we all do our interpretation of the same song. I think it would be an interesting challenge to try and come up with 100 different and creative ways to cover the same song. No idea what song to choose though.

- FosterFest only covers of Stephen Foster songs (Oh! Susanna, Camptown Races, Hard Times come again no more)

- I like the idea of doing a 1920’s fest, but how about a public Domain fest where we can only cover songs that are in the public domain (i.e. recorded prior to 1922, in the USA)

- SeedFest where we all start with the same drum beat, or bass progression  and have to write a new original using that seed.

- SellOutFest where we all pick a product (fictional or real) and try to write a jingle. All jingles need to be 30sec or less. 

[Geir]

how about:

- ForeignFest .... we all have to sing in a language that's not our native tongue
sorry 'bout that ... only serious suggestions ... I remember it now ....

well .....
- voiceFest ..... only the human voice allowed for making sounds.

and I do like the "Home Made Fest" idea too !!

[64Guitars]

Great suggestions, everyone. Keep 'em coming.

- I like the idea of doing a 1920's fest, but how about a public Domain fest where we can only cover songs that are in the public domain (i.e. recorded prior to 1922, in the USA)

Good idea! PDFest has a better scope than RoaringTwentiesFest.


A couple of the proposed ideas are already on the list under a different name:

- SellOutFest where we all pick a product (fictional or real) and try to write a jingle. All jingles need to be 30sec or less.

We already have JingleFest on the list. In fact, it's already been voted on quite a few times but never wins. I wish it would. I think it would be a fun festival.

- voiceFest ..... only the human voice allowed for making sounds.

We already have "a cappella". Although, I guess your suggestion is a bit different in that the voice could be used to mimic instruments or invent any sound, whereas a cappella suggests more traditional vocals. Maybe what I should do is replace the a cappella suggestion with VoiceFest since VoiceFest could include a cappella.

[kenny mac]

I like the idea of seed fest

[beleg]

SeegerFest - the songs of Pete Seeger

KidFest - Kid songs

OneBigSongFest - we pick a key and a tempo and a chord. everyone writes a 30 second clip of a song in a particular key and tempo. All clips must end on a particular chord. At the end we string all the clips together into one song.

ResponseFest - We all write new original songs that are a reply/response to an existing song. For example I was listing to Help Me Rhonda by the beach boys (i.e. "help me Rhonda, help me get her out of my heart"). A response would be a song from Rhonda's perspective replying to a guy who is basically asking her to be a rebound.