Festival Schedule, 2011

SCHEDULE with cutlines

Festival Web Site

We have a new web site for the Princeton Traditional Music Festival. Have a look – and please remember to bookmark it. The site also offers quick links to the forum and a list of this year’s performers. The festival is still a work in progress and we don’t have the final list yet, so please check the above links for updates.

Our New Forum

We now have a forum. It is called Princeton Traditional and you can find it here:

www.princetontraditional.org

This will allow us, and anyone interested in what we do, to easily find relevant information, post ideas, and communicate with each other. For the Princeton Traditional Music Festival, performers can post questions and discuss details more easily than on this blog. Things like ride sharing and accommodation can also be discussed, and this includes the interests of non-performers as well. People who simply like traditional music will find this a good place to participate. The hope is that the forum will nourish the community around the festival in particular, and traditional music in general.

The forum format has additional advantages. Performers can post pictures of their group, or announce their media offerings. Upcoming gigs or other events can also be advertised and I encourage you to take advantage of this. There is a section specifically for the Traditional Music Society which is suitable for posting research, songs, history, and relevant ideas. There is also an all inclusive, general music section, as well as a place for just plain socializing where anything goes. As time goes by, and the need arises, other sections can be added. Feel free to offer suggestions.

The Princeton Traditional forums are hosted and administered by me, Ole Juul, and I will do my best to facilitate people’s needs. Feel free to ask for help in posting pictures and links, or whatever problem you may encounter. I’m very friendly to tehcnophobes and “newbies”, so please don’t hesitate.

The software used is deliberately simple and low on features. This ensures speed and stability. My idea of a forum is that it should not be a technological fashion statement that someone with an old computer may not be able to access. Rather, it should focus on people and communication.

Anyone on the net can access the forum and read the postings. However, in order to post a message it is necessary to register. All it takes is to click the “register” button, put in your name, a valid e-mail address, and whatever password you want to use. When you are logged in you will also be able to send e-mail to other members while keeping the e-mail addresses private. This can be handy for allowing people to contact you without making your address public. Of course the traditional forum internal personal message system (called PM) can also be used among members.

The forum has just been put on-line so there are not many postings yet. Please take the time to share your comment, announcement, or observation, so we can get this valuable resource going.

Regards, Ole

Visit the Forum Index or register now.

What Is Traditional Music?

A common question, and here’s a good answer:

What is traditional music?

Welcome to the 2011 Festival!

The New Year is here, the snow is still here, but the Festival looms.  Our Festival Committee has held its first meeting, and 2011 will look similar to 2010, with a dance Friday night and two full days of concerts, workshops and jams. Please see here for Performer Application 2011.  We have no particular deadline, but we’ll note here when we’re full, so please apply sooner than later.

More later!

Jon Bartlett, Festival Coordinator

Time to catch up with things…

I’m just back from a trip to the Cardiac unit of Royal Columbian Hospital, where I was ROYALLY treated and sent home.  Five bypasses!  The doc said NO Australian Rules footy for at least two weeks, and no housework for five years.  I have to WALK to the bacon sandwich shop now, rather than driving.  I don’t like it, but what can you do?

Those of you at the 2011 Festival (19-21 August 2011: plan early) will thus see a slimmer, svelte Festival Coordinator.

You’ll see some new pics of last year’s festival elsewhere on this site.  My apologies to all who sent photos – apart from those by Suzanne Schmiddem, my hard drive computer ate them all and then died.  Please send again!

In a month or two I’ll get up the application form for 2011.  A word of warning: the Copper Mountain mine is in the process of re-opening, and there are very few spare beds in town, and it’s November, for God’s sake.  So please, book early.  There’s a list of hotels/motels/B & B’s on the town website at   http://town.princeton.bc.ca/accommodations_and_meals.php.

More next week!

Jon Bartlett

Schedules announced for 2010 Festival

2010 Performers
2010 Workshops
2010 Festival Photos

I’ve just uploaded this year’s final list of performers and the performance and workshop descriptions.  Some changes, because, alas, one or two cancellations, but some great additions!

Jon Bartlett, Coordinator

THIS YEAR’S LINE-UP (almost)

I’m pleased to say that we have an almost complete line-up for this summer’s 3^rd Annual Princeton Traditional Music Festival.  The following performers are confirmed and a few others not yet confirmed will join them:

Danielle Arcand, Eric & Betty Armstrong, Alex Atamanenko, Sue Averill, Mike Ballantyne, Banquo Folk Ensemble, Jon Bartlett & Rika Ruebsaat, Blackthorn, Flip & Zeke, Glen Esdale, Fraser Union, John Gothard, Great Big Sing!, Rosaleen Gregory, Tom Hawken, Stewart Hendrickson, The Irish Wakers, King’s Shilling, Barry Luft, The Malarkeys, Mike & Nakos Marker, Lyn Melnechenko, Morgan and Graves, Orkestar Slivovica, Kate Gibson Oswald, David Parkin, Ed Peekeekoot, Psycho Acoustic Ceili Band, Steve Quattrocchi & Simon Trevelyan, Quicksbottom Border Morris, The Rabbleberries, Tom Rawson, Doug Reid, Chris Roe, Larry Saidman & Elaine Rutherford, Skweez, Slack Key Slim, Soft Focus,  Steel Phoenix Rapper And Sword, Paddy Tutty, the Van Lidth De Jeude Family.

In addition to the much admired workshops held last year (Blues, French song, The Celtic Jam, the Shanty Session and Ballads), we plan to add workshops of mining and railway songs (Princeton was founded as a mining town and had for a time two railways passing through it), a Hawaiian workshop, a harp workshop (with four harps!) and a free reed workshop.

The Festival takes place as usual on two stages in the centre of Princeton, and begins, as last year, with a public street dance and an Irish ceili band.  Saturday and Sunday are given over, between the hours of 10 am to 6 pm, to a potpourri of concerts, workshops, panels and jams.

Music won’t just be found on the stages – mini-jams and guerilla dances are liable to happen anywhere in town culminating in a Saturday evening town-wide party.

The Festival is free, though it asks its audiences to help with donations.  It is supported by the Town, the local District and by a federal grant from Heritage Canada, and is an all-volunteer festival – all the performers, the organizers and the volunteers do it for the love of the music.

Princeton, with a population of some 2,600, is just to the east of the Cascade Mountains, some 300 km from Vancouver.  Its location (in the rainshadow of the mountains) means that it’s hot and dry from May to September.  Bring a hat or buy one of the Festival’s!  There is a daily bus from Vancouver and flights from Penticton some 75 minutes away. There are numerous motels in and around town (book soon!), and bed and breakfasts throughout the Similkameen valley.  There are also campgrounds close to town.

Jon Bartlett, Coordinator

Dates set for 2010

2010 is the 150th Anniversary of the Town.  We hope to have something special for you all to mark the occasion.   The dates for the festival are Friday 20 August to Sunday 22 August 2010.  More news as it breaks!

Quick weather update for Princeton: Friday sunny, high 27; Saturday sunny, high 24; Sunday sunny, high 24. Is this perfect, or what? Jon