Monterey Americana Festival

Billed this year as the "First Annual" Monterey Americana Festival, I hope that this is truly the first of many. But attendance was sparse. I'm hoping that organizers will keep up the good fight, improve publicity, and do what it takes to hold these fests in the future. I was lucky enough to score some free tickets for the Sunday performances, and I caught Midas Whale, Joe Ely & his band, and headliner Todd Snider (performing with a great young violinist/singer, Amanda Shires, as well as drummer Duane Trucks (of the well-known Trucks musical family). They had five bands per day for the weekend--ambitious, but theoretically manageable. The small crowd allowed for ample elbow room, short lines at the concession stands, and a very mellow atmosphere on this cloudy Sunday. (I didn't make it to the Saturday sessions). The quality of the food concessions I encountered was very good. A decent selection of alcoholic beverages (wine, beer, spirits) included ice cold Shock Top (damn--is that too brewed by Anheuser-Busch--oh well). I sampled a tasty falafel sandwich from local institution Mr. Falafel, and had an amazing Guiseppe's pistachio ice cream cone. Other vendors featured chocolate-covered just-about-anything, kettle corn, there were a couple of hat sellers, a Caesar salad place that looked like it had been suddenly abandoned (I guess the coffee stand gave up after Saturday, but my astute gf found an alternative source), and I don't recall what all else,

Generating a buzz (not the chemical-induced kind) seemed a bit difficult prior to and during the festival, so I don't know whether to blame the economy, the folks trying so hard to run the festival, or the anemic residents of the Monterey area for the lack of attendance/support (the gloomy weather probably didn't help), but I'll go to another Americana Fest--if there is one. And the ample space was a nice reprieve from the crowded, over-commercialized jazz festival and other events at the Fairgrounds that try to squeeze in as many people as possible.