Suggestions for future festivals

[AndyR]

Ah that's a bit of a shame, I quite liked Johnny's idea, it was "finally, a fest I can get behind or might even find time to contribute ".

I could've done three songs, I learnt them all the first weekend I had a guitar: King of the Road, Greystone Chapel, and Words. I just kept rotating around them until I could accompany myself all the way to the end on all three. (Apparently, according to my Mum years later, it REALLY p1ssed my Dad off, who'd spent a couple of years getting to that state - he'd only tossed his spare guitar at me to shut me up about something or other )

I didn't touch it again until 6-12 months later, when I realised that anyone could write songs if they wanted to, so I picked it up again to write a song.

er...

Smoke on the Water didn't come until a few years later!


That was only when I started inflicting school audiences with my songs (about heartbroken gnomes and elves and wotnot) ... after I did that, and because the girls seemed to like it (they didn't bluddy tell me, though, did they?), the various punks and rockers and "cool chaps" started congregating around me to share knowledge and resources... and to convert me to the dark side...

However, now that 64G's pointed it out, I realise that my introduction to the instrument (as a singer who couldn't get anyone to accompany him, who thought it was all about chords anyway, not single notes) ... is maybe not as common as I always imagine.

[ODH]

The recent threads about when we first started playing, and when we first started recording got me thinking...

Funnily enough, I had a similar idea about the same time.  my one was to do with first recordings - post your earliest known recording and do an up to date version of using all the skills, equipment and wherewithal you now can bring to it.

Would be subject to the same limitation that 64G pointed out though.

[64Guitars]

I've added a new "mini-fests" tab to the Festival Themes page so we can keep track of any suggestions that might work better as a mini-fest than a full 2-month regular festival. As I said earlier, our regular fests should allow anyone to post as many songs as they like over the 2-month duration of the festival. So any suggestions that would limit submissions to just one song or even a few songs would probably be better as a mini-fest.

We haven't had very many mini-fests so far but we'll try to have more in the future. The tricky bit is finding a good time for them. Whenever possible, I think we should avoid having a mini-fest in the first month of a 2-month festival period because it could detract from the main festivals. So maybe the first week or two of the second month is a good time for a mini-fest. Of course, there will be exceptions. For instance, when a major artists dies, we might want to have a tribute mini-fest for them right away, regardless of the regular festivals. And our annual mini-fests can sometimes occur at the start of a new festival period. For instance, PaddyFest runs from March 10 - March 17 which is in the first month of our March/April festivals. Fortunately, Valentines Day and Halloween both fall in the second month of the 2-month festival period.


Regarding suggestions for our regular festivals, I found a couple of pages that could help to find new ideas.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Songs_by_theme

http://www.songfacts.com/categories.php

Or try Googling list of song themes or songs by theme categories, for example.

If you see any themes you'd particularly like, suggest them here in this topic.

[Blooby]

How about a mixer fest where a Songcrafter mixes the dry audio stems of another Songcrafter? Creativity encouraged.

Just a  thought.

Blooby

[ODH]

I was thinking Should I Stay or Should I go fest.  Songs about staying or leaving, remaining or going.  Covers of songs that talk about those things. Covers only, no originals about Brexit or nothing.

Babe I'm Gonna Leave You
Baby Please don't Go
Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Don't Leave me this Way
Leave in Silence
If you Leave me Now
The Song Remains the Same

Fair enough it would have been more topical before the start of the last fest...

[Speed Demon]

Good idea, Blooby. I like doing mixing/editing work. Send me some tracks.

[Johnny Robbo]

How about a mixer fest where a Songcrafter mixes the dry audio stems of another Songcrafter? Creativity encouraged.

Just a  thought.

Blooby

That could be interesting!

[Jean Pierre]

Ps it possible to do a festival with the theme " mythic road" or "road song"

...because i would put a cover about "route 66, Nat king Cole, USA" versus "National 7, Charles Trenet, France"

but they are many many song with road: on the road again, long and widing road, hit the road Jack, hard road to travel, Road tripping, hard road to travel ...etc

[ODH]

End of the world fest?

[Geir]