Right. I was at the press conference and this was discussed in some detail. It must be noted that there already is an existing management structure behind the festival who have credibility independent of it. Check Barbara Deyo who seems to have been running most of it, the Scottish woman (who's name I don't remember that handled the bookings) that has experience organising large festivals in the UK, the Detroit dude who is also on the Superbowl planning committee, etc. My impression from the press conference (given that there was some obvious spin in bits) was that there is a committed group of experienced people running things who are totally pressured between the tension we're feeling in these arguments - commercialism versus integrity. What I took from the discussion is that they actually *have* the people in place now, they just need the funds from Movement '04 to make things happen right in '05. Perhaps that's an overly optimistic simplification and the opinion formed based on a glimpse of info from someone 4000 miles away, but there you have it. The most salient thought in my mind is that the money has to come from somewhere other than the city. You remember that thread about federal cutbacks on school funding in Detroit the other week? Is Movement really more important? No. We either need to fund it out of our own pockets or there has to be more sponsorship. My recommendation (for what it's worth): charge $1 per entry. That way you incent people to support the vendors and can get at least an additional $500,000 of support, which also gives advertisers more of a feeling that they will get the attention they want. Just a thought. Also keep in mind that people are going to fight hard to make it happen in its current format, not f*cking with the integrity, perhaps experimenting with different means of funding it in order to retain the $75-80 million of revenue this means to the city every year.
Tristan ======= http://www.phonopsia.co.uk [EMAIL PROTECTED]
