The next person with a lawnchair...

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nice one, you damn curmudgeon

you got me.

[bradm]

but hten we'd have to get up at 6:00am, scott. 6:00 AM!

Well, you'd have to be up at 6:00am. Whether that's a result of getting up at 6:00am or staying up until 6:00am is up to you.

Aloha,

Brad

[guigsy]

[Davey Boy 2.0]

that'd be a positive step toward diffusing the situation

[Ms Zimmy]

Haha reading that was awesome...

[phorbesie]

good one FBN!

[tstrs]

good job pholkesies

[color:#cccccc]i'm still kinda hoping for a riot

- OK, you've got your MILCs and your MFs. If the MILCs have their way, the MFs would stay at the back and not be a problem. But you guys, the MFs, don't want to stay at the back. You want to get up front and boogie, like the MFs do almost every where else except Ottawa.

- Well Davey Boy, I think you have the right idea with your muted riot. (Or were you hoping for a real one?) You've got to own bluesfest. What if hundreds of the MFs converge on the MILCs at the front and occupy every square inch of ground, and are moving and shaking and jumping to the music? What would the MILCs do? They can stay put, but it won't be fun. And everyone that moves out or stands will create more room for the MFs. Soon hundreds will grow to thousands.

- Once a trend is established, the MILCs can go back to being PILCs. They can sit at the back in nice orderly rows, drink their wine, and watch the big screens (or read their newspapers). They might even enjoy it more back there. And for those who have to have a seat up close, there's the empire grill lounge and gold circle area.

- So, who's going to organize the [color:gray]riot squad?

EDIT: I have to credit Peter Simpson of the citizen for PILCs, or people in lawn chairs, which I adapted to MILCs, or muthahfukahs in lawn chairs. MFs are the majority of fans.

Edited July 12, 2007 by Guest
acronyms explained

[YearsAlongTheSea]

For those of us not familiar with the acronyms MILC's, MF's and PILC's, would you please elaborate...

[Velvet]

I'm scratching my head.

[Freak By Night]

- OK, you've got your MILCs and your MFs. If the MILCs have their way, the MFs would stay at the back and not be a problem. But you guys, the MFs, don't want to stay at the back. You want to get up front and boogie, like the MFs do almost every where else except Ottawa.

- Well Davey Boy, I think you have the right idea with your muted riot. (Or were you hoping for a real one?) You've got to own bluesfest. What if hundreds of the MFs converge on the MILCs at the front and occupy every square inch of ground, and are moving and shaking and jumping to the music? What would the MILCs do? They can stay put, but it won't be fun. And everyone that moves out or stands will create more room for the MFs. Soon hundreds will grow to thousands.

- Once a trend is established, the MILCs can go back to being PILCs. They can sit at the back in nice orderly rows, drink their wine, and watch the big screens (or read their newspapers). They might even enjoy it more back there. And for those who have to have a seat up close, there's the empire grill lounge and gold circle area.

- So, who's going to organize the [color:gray]riot squad?

EDIT: I have to credit Peter Simpson of the citizen for PILCs, or people in lawn chairs, which I adapted to MILCs, or muthahfukahs in lawn chairs. MFs are the majority of fans.

[color:purple]Best first post ever.

Welcome to the board.

[Calamity Jane]

FBN....holy fuck! my pulse is still racing and my blood still boiling.....must..calm..down.

i was 'bout ready to start Armageddon tonight!

I need to calm down. A beer might help. I'll be buying you one tonight, too, y'ass (in the 'you're an ass, but in the funny way')

and phorbesie, for putting your passion into action..HUGE kudos (and a beer coming your way, too!!)

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for reference purposes:

The scourage of lawn chairs (written Friday July 6)

The Official Big Beat Position is that lawn chairs should be banned from Bluesfest. They are a menace. They’re boring for the performers, they take up too much room and too many lawn chair sitters have an inexplicable belief that they’re entitled to a clear view of the stage.

Here are two anecdotes from this year’s Bluesfest about lawn chairs, each of which came to me directly from the person involved. On Van Morrison night, a Friend of Big Beat (FOBB) and his wife were standing in a clear spot waiting for Morrison to take the stage. AFTER they found their spot to stand, two people in lawn chairs came and set up BEHIND my associate. The people in lawn chairs (PILCs) then proceeded to demand that FOBB and his party to sit down or get out of their way. FOBB turned around and pointed out that his party had been there first, and so they had no reason to move. But the PILCs were so rude and persistent that FOBB et al simply gave up and went so stand elsewhere.

On Bob Dylan night, another FOBB and his teenaged son were weaving through a crowd of PILCs to a clear spot in the distance, where they would in no way be blocking any PILCs. Regardless, a female PILC spilled water on FOBB’s son’s leg and said “oops,†then immediately did it again. The clear message was that paying customers, by walking through the lawn chairs, had committed an offence.

So, here’s the rule to all you vast legions of Bluesfest fans who do not impose your lawn chairs on everybody else: first, you are not allowed to stand between a PILC and the stage. Second, you are not allowed to cut through a group of lawn chairs, or, presumably, do anything else that might annoy a PILC. Got that?

What is it about a lawn chair that gives a PILC the notion that nobody is allowed to stand in front of them? Mrs. Big Beat is five feet tall, but she doesn’t believe that means that nobody’s allowed to stand in front of her and block her view of the stage. If they do – and when you’re five-feet-tall it happens all the time – she simply moves left or right or wherever to adjust her view. PILCs – not all of them, but enough of them to give them all a bad name – believe that putting down a chair is akin to Columbus planting the Spanish flag on the shores of the new land: this is claimed for the lawn chair crown, and none shall challenge its unimpeded view of the stage, regardless of how long the show is, how big the crowd is, or how many times the chair sits empty while its owner toodles off for a beer or a snack or a stretch of the legs.

I’m sure the organizers of Bluesfest just wish the lawn chair issue would go away, but it won’t. One day into the festival, we’re already getting letters to the editors about it. And anybody who says that the random blocks of lawn chairs in that huge crowd Wednesday night and the big crowd Thursday night were not a problem is in denial.

The festival is getting bigger all the time, and surely it’s now big enough that a lawn-chair ban could be sustained. If a few hundred people choose not to come because they can’t stand or sit on the ground, so be it. And perhaps there are ways to accommodate the small number of PILCs who are genuinely, medically unable to stand for long periods. There are tens of thousands of more people who are legion enough to make the festival a success without the sitting few.

Bluesfest main man Mark Monahan said Friday that the festival will as of Friday night impose a designated area for lawn chairs close to the stage. I hope it works, but the Official Big Beat Prediction is that only a ban will resolve the dispute, and until it’s resolved, don’t be surprised if the simmering tensions burst into fisticuffs. Given the unreasonable attitudes of many PILCs, and the limited tolerance of the majority of fans to be harassed and heckled while standing and trying to enjoy the music, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if a fight does break out.

Peter Simpson's blog can be found here. It's pretty good reading.

[phorbesie]

that's awesome! was that in the paper?

thanks CJ!

Edited July 12, 2007 by Guest

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no, it was sadly from a blog entry. :crazy:

[boiler]

I have to say that security at the festival was/is pretty good. Never got bothered once by them, other than the one gung ho dude that just attacks the bag you're carrying to search it without asking first. I dealt with him though.

[Davey Boy 2.0]

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lots of letters today in the citizen

Show a little R-E-S-P-E-C-T

The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Saturday, July 14, 2007

The Citizen's recent editorial about the Bluesfest debate hit the nail on the head. Concert etiquette is all about respect -- respecting people's values and individual needs.

I checked out the jambands.ca website that a group of Ottawa blues fans produce as a list of lawn-chair do's and don'ts. While I agree with some of the tips in the flyer handed out at Bluesfest, it is very one-sided, as was the Bluesfest organizers' decision to distribute them.

In fairness, any courtesy guidelines should also address the standers. What about respect for the environment? A cursory look at the post-concerts wasteland demonstrates that not all concert-goers are doing their part. And how about separate sections for yakkers versus non-yakkers?

Although I am jesting, it would be nice if people who are there to appreciate and show respect for the artists could actually hear the music, as opposed to conversations about such scintillating topics as where to buy the best pair of roller blades.

Carol Paschal, Ottawa

Get over it!

The Ottawa Citizen

Published: Saturday, July 14, 2007

Re: Taking a stand at Bluesfest, July 10.

"Lawn-chair letters" in the Citizen are as amusing as the festival-goers themselves. Letter-writer Alan Dobson (sic) refers to the lawn-chair section as "a mass of disinterested, unaffected and seemingly lifeless bodies" and then has the nerve to say thanks to those who are "already a courteous lawn-chair owner."

Another letter-writer says lawn chairs force bystanders into pathways. Another says he's "ashamed" of his city.

This is a blues festival, not one concert or a "one-night stand." We're creating our own whining bad publicity for our city. Serious blues lovers attend many nights of good music. You're crammed in like sardines with or without lawn chairs. With a lawn chair you're guaranteed a space; without you're a "toy soldier." Look around you! People bring sleeping bags. Are they common criminals, too? Remember the Rolling Stones concert? People stood on their chairs! The festival is for young, old, abled and those with disabilities. Stand up, sit down -- do cartwheels if you want. We're all there because of our love for the music on these magical nights in Ottawa.

Be tolerant, courteous and for the love of music, just get over it!

Barbara Kerr-Grant, Ottawa

More letters here

[boiler]

... though, i would love to see a totally lawnchaired and taking up the first few rows Team Skank photo. make it happen!

then just stand up.

Good idea, however I doubt to many skanks are willing to be there at 6 A.M.

[boiler]

Maybe they should set up a broadway stage for next year, or make all the performers play twice, once for standers and again for the broadway types.

[bouche]

This is a blues festival, not one concert or a "one-night stand." We're creating our own whining bad publicity for our city. Serious blues lovers attend many nights of good music.

This is hardly a blues festival. A blues festival does not attract them asses the masses. The organizers purposely grew this festival into a full out music festival to get more and more people out which is why it out grew the site at Festival plaza. Mind you, if there were no chairs, I'll bet that it would not have out grown festival plaza.

I'm glad it has become a world class music festival right in our back yard and I think the growing pains are being worked through. Last night during Built to Spill, we were very close and the Metric crowd started piling in.

It got PACKED. The organizers opened up that area that was previously forbidden to allow for more people comfortably and it was a wise choice. I didn't see 1 chair for any of these shows and everyone was very festival friendly.

After a piss break, it was obvious that we'd never make it back to the nice close location. I'm getting one of them pee bladder thingies

[SmoothedShredder]

I got to the "hot pocket" during Built to spill. Just me and about 10 other people in a space you could fit 200. Did I mention this space was right next to the stage.

The gap was really small... 20 ft or so from the stage to the first gate placed to protect the wiring to the sound board. So to get there, you had to go through the part right in front of the stage where everyone 'must' stand to get a good view. Of course these people wouldn't move into the open space to accomodate the others... and it wasn't even a lawn chair crowd... still we can't seem to manage to work together when the opportunity presents itself.

There were people 5 rows back where the fence began who couldn't even see the gap in the fence to get in, so they just gave up and stood there. 'Someone mentioned to them about the open space, and they forced their way up and then into the vast space which awaited them... everyone who tricked their way into the section had a big smile on their face to get 'out' of the crowd... still it amazed me how many people forgoed the big open space in order to jam even closer to the stage into spaces that no doubt were saturated deciminutes before by the hard core fans who arrived early and were in no way going to move from their prime location to see what was probably one of their favourite bands.... built to spill were the best band I saw this festival in terms of my own musical tastes... what a great show!

I mean if you're not standing behind people with a little room, it's hard to see dem butts a wiggling... and why would anyone want to miss out on that? Boggles my mind... oh well.