I posted this to the wrong list ;-( here it is again.
---------- Forwarded message ---------- I didn't go to the festival last year, I didn't get to stay for monday night in 2006. In 2006 I really felt a little sad about the state of the festival. My primary sadness is that I bust my ass to get there early in the day and no one was there. I miss it being a free festival, because the people of Detroit are to a large extent now shut out of the festival. But I'm sad about a lot of things that aren't what they used to be. That happens if you live long enough. In 2000 and 2001 there was a sense of limitless optimism about Dance Culture and Detroit techno in particular. That is pretty much gone now, and unless you live in a large city in the US, there's really no dance culture left. The distributors and labels have been going out of business left and right. Magazines are folding, or turning into irrelevant Publicists' tools. But there's no reason to slit your wrists. Memorial Day Weekend in Detroit is a pretty great time. There will be great sets at the festival, there will be great afterparties, and the grits at the Clique will still be ... gritty? And curiously, on the rare occasions that we have decent dance events in Iowa, they're well attended by enthusiastic people. And there's a resurgence of DJ culture of a completely different sort -- rock nights, hip hop nights, mash up nights. The ultimate though was last Friday at the Picador, when there were two guys from local death metal bands quite earnestly DJing old metal records. It isn't what it used to be but when it is it ever?
