Town Votes To Ban Joni Mitchell Music After Weekend Disturbance by Edmund Bearden, The Catskills Gazette
(Oliverea, NY) During an emergency meeting of the Oliverea Town Council last night, residents expressed shock, despair and outrage over last weekend's so-called JoniFest at Full Moon. By meeting's end, council members voted 5 to 0 to ban any future performances of Joni Mitchell's music within the town's boarders. "Enough is enough," local potter Sunshine "Sunny" Seagull declared. "It was a disgrace. I consider myself a flower child, an aging hippie or whatever, and I've been to my share of love-ins, but this was way over the top. Those people just plain scared me." "I agree," organic farmer T. Leary Freedman added. "JoniFest was so huggy-kissy, it made the original Woodstock festival look like a Ku Klux Klan rally. And the music! Heck, how many deet-deet-dee-dee-dees can one tiny hamlet take?" Council President Barbara Littlefeather was pleased with the vote. "I think we need to send a message loud and clear to Full Moon," she asserted. "One more commotion like this, and we'll turn that place into a parking lot. "We're just a little village, really. We can't be expected to handle this kind of influx of obsessed Joni Mitchell freaks flocking here from the far-flung corners of the world. Even that poor white duck over at the Full Moon pond has been swearing like a New Jersey sailor since this thing ended. For goodness sakes," Littlefeather asked, "how much darned stardust can one little village's road crews be expected to sweep up?" "I think we all feel very good and extremely empowered by this decision," tie-dye artist Om Fletcher stated. "In fact, you can be sure the whole town will be here at next week's meeting when we take up the subject of Ethel Merman." All JoniFest participants have left the area and were unavailable for comment. (8/30/02)
