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Originally Posted by JimNasium
I know most of you will really not care about this issue but it’s something that I hold near and dear to my heart so I feel compelled to share it with you. I’m a passionate blues fan. This form of music speaks to my soul and I love to learn about the music, listen to it, collect albums and travel to festivals.
One of the festivals that I’ve discovered over the years is the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena Arkansas. Helena is a river port city and was a very prosperous city in the 1920s, 30s and 40s. It served as an agricultural hub for the region and a local company began sponsoring the “King Biscuit Time” radio show and showcased local blues talents including a Helena talent named Sonny Boy Williamson.
Twenty years ago a group of blues enthusiasts decided that this music needed to be preserved and began holding a yearly festival during the first week of October. This festival is very unique from anything I’ve ever participated in. First of all it’s free. No one is excluded based on the means test. The rich, poor and middle-class are allowed to intermingle and enjoy music. Secondly, it is entirely volunteer run. The resultant organized chaos is possibly one of the most endearing qualities. Finally most of the attendees camp on the site and I’ve never felt such a sense of community as I do during those three days in October.
The name “King Biscuit” now belongs to a New York interest and they have decided to pull the name from the festival because it is not profitable enough for them. I’m angry about this move for many reasons. First, we have grown used to referring to our destination as “the Biscuit”. I’m not going to warm up to calling it the “Arkansas Blues and Heritage Festival” anytime soon. Secondly, I feel that to a certain extent a corporate entity (a New York corporate entity at that) is stealing the cultural identity of a town and region that doesn’t have much going for it in the first place.
I’m not one to get all fired up about the evil corporate machine but this is personal to me. It’s like someone has hurt a friend of mine. Does anyone have any ideas on what can be done to put some pressure on KBE? Thanks for reading this and letting me get it off of my chest. Below is the news release announcing this decision.
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Why the hell is'nt LJ starting
