Grey Fox attendees react to rowdiness charge

Ted Lehmann's recent Grey Fox preview article provoked a considerable amount of response on the festival's email list. A number of posters took strong exception to his characterization of the audience as overly boisterous.

Bill Stempek, a festival volunteer and active poster on the list, called the article "biased and inflammatory" and took Festival Preview to task for publishing it without a balancing point of view.

"I for one am tired of those festival goers/reporters who expect the silence of St. Anne's Chapel at an outdoor summer festival. Festive is not a drunk, drug induced mode...it's excitement. Such a small minority get carried away that it barely merits mentioning," Stempek wrote.

He also corrected Lehmann's comment about volunteers getting prime camping spots, pointing out that volunteers are directed to camp in an area for non-paying attendees. (Lehmann since updated his article to correct the comment of volunteer camping.)

David Lawson pointed out that "It is a festival. People talking and wh00pin' it up goes hand in hand with any kind of live music, except maybe classical, and I have heard people screaming at the cannons going off during the 1812."

Lawson offered a simple suggestion for attendees like Lehmann who like a quieter experience. "Not trying to be condescending, [but] I might suggest learning to sleep with ear plugs," he wrote.

Glenn Soika questioned whether Lehmann was going to the right kind of festival. "No dancing at the main stage? He should stick to folk festivals," he wrote.

On the other hand, several posters backed up some of Lehmann's complaints.

"I have to say that out beyond the soundboard there are a lot of talkative rude drunk folks that talk the night away ," wrote Dave Falkner.

And Sue Rokos, chipped in to say that some of Lehmann's concerns were also "pet peeves" for her. "The program clearly states tall back chairs [are allowed only] behind the sound booth. We set up a tarp, and have a few of the lowest of low beach chairs, and my husband gets to hear me comment about all thetall chairs (my favorites are the ones correctly branded "Dick's" on the back)."

Rokos also listed smokers in the main stage area, large rain umbrellas that block sight lines and RV generators in the quiet camping area as other pet peeves.