Tuesday, March 04, 2008

Great Southern steps up to replace cancelled Suwannee fest

Here's an excerpt from Ted Lehmann's latest on the winter bluegrass circuit. The full report is here:

It’s a sad event when a scheduled festival has to be postponed or cancelled. The Spirit of Suwannee Bluegrass Festival had been scheduled for the weekend of March 20 – 22, but it was cancelled. Promoter Don Miller tells me the cancellation was necessary because of inadequate pre-registrations and lack of sponsorship. My hunch says that Spirit of Suwannee Music Park was less than enthusiastic about this event, scheduling a large canoe festival for the same weekend and putting its emphasis onto Springfest coming the following one. Beer sales for Springfest are huge! Thus a fine festival with a varied lineup and a quality venue has gone down the tubes.

Fortunately, Miller’s co-promoter, North Florida’s Ernie Evans has stepped into the breach and arranged for a festival called “The Great Southern Bluegrass Festival” and held at Picker's Paradise Park in Ochlocknee, GA (near Thomasville) on March 21 – 22. The headliner will be Grasstowne, a band only a little over a year old, but creating a buzz across the nation at concerts and festivals as well as through its hit CD “The Road Headin’ Home.”

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Look at the line up from the cancelled festival at Suwanee and compare it to the "Brand New" festival at Thomasville, GA. Looks like a Bluegrass "Bait & Switch" to me. Where's Mountain Heart, Lonesome River Band or Cadillac Sky?