![]() ![]() Since the host hotel makes its money from guest room sales, the ballroom and other festival facilities are free to the promoter. The three-day weekend would allow a full schedule of Sunday performances.Īlso, the costs and logistical complications of running an indoor event are greatly reduced over outdoor festivals, Katz said. On President's Day weekend, it would face little competition, provide a outlet for pent-up demand for entertainment, and would not be subject to uncertainties of weather. It turned out that there were multiple advantages to moving indoors. ![]() "I said, 'You have to be crazy,' but it turned out to be the perfect decision," Zdonik recalled. He suggested moving it indoors during the winter season and expanding it to a full weekend event. Then, after attending an IBMA conference and meeting one of the producers of the Wintergrass festival, Katz surprised Zdonik with a new idea. For the next several years, it continued to be run as a summer outdoor one-day festival, but now it was a paid event. Katz brought a new sense of professionalism to the production. ![]() The BBU ran a bluegrass concert series in Cambridge, Mass., and it seemed like a natural fit for the association to take on the fledgling festival. ![]() Val passed away two days later.įor the next few years, organizers repeated the event as a free event on a small scale, but then Katz and the BBU came into the picture. In the end, 23 bands performed from more than 1000 attendees, and $12,000 was raised for Joe Val's family. By the next night, he was getting calls from people asking to get involved-bluegrass artists like Tony Rice but also folk singer Tom Rush and rocker Peter Wolf of J. After securing a venue at a local high school, Zdonik made a handful of calls to musicians to see who could perform. The festival got its start in 1985 as an impromtu benefit and tribute to Boston bluegrass legend Joe Val when he was terminally ill. "When it works, we walk away feeling we have established a friendship between the artist and audience." "We are in a position to create a safe haven for artists to present their craft at the highest possible level," Katz added. "Nobody makes a dime off of it, we're only in it for the love," he said. Zdonik credits part of the success of the festival, which is structured as a non-profit educational charity, to the passion of the organizers and volunteers that make it happen. Walkup tickets are priced at $80 for a weekend pass, with various early-bird, member, and single-day options available. The festival hotel is already sold out but two nearby overflow hotels have rooms available. Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, Laurie Lewis & The Right Hands, Chris Thile & The How to Grow a Band, Dan Paisley & Southern Grass, and The Infamous Stringdusters head up the bill. The lineup presents a potent mix of traditional and contemporary bluegrass stars with a dash of jazzgrass sprinkled in. This year's festival runs Presidents' Day weekend, February 16-18, at the Sheraton Hotel in Framingham MA, a western suburb of Boston. I had a chance to sit down with Joe Val's two producers, Gerry Katz and Stan Zdonik of the Boston Bluegrass Union, for a discussion of how a small event that began as a benefit fundraiser grew to become a world-class festival. When the 22nd annual Joe Val Bluegrass Festival kicks off the 2007 northeastern roots music festival calendar outside Boston in mid-February, it will be the event's first running since gaining recognition last fall as the "festival of the year" by the International Bluegrass Music Association (IBMA). ![]()
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