To Whom It May Concern:
My name is John Baker. I am a member of Joon, an electronic band based in Lakeland, FL. We were selected to play the 2009 Florida Music Festival. This was our third year participating in the festival, although I fear it may be our last. Our experience this year was so frustratingly negative that I find it hard to believe we will ever choose to play at Florida Music Festival again.
Initially, however, we were quite excited to perform. Our showcase was scheduled for 10 p.m. on Saturday at the Backbooth, a prime spot as far as we were concerned. I have performed at the Backbooth a number of times (although not with Joon) and always enjoyed the experience, so my bandmate and I were looking forward to the festival.
On the Friday afternoon before our performance, we received a phone call from our stage manager informing us that our set time had been moved forward to 9 p.m. Although this may seem like a minor change, FMF’s showcase schedules are intensely precise (with 30 minutes for performance and 30 minutes for changeover) and so our audience was now at risk of missing us. FMF advertises itself as a festival filled with opportunities for networking and promotion, but how is a band supposed to promote itself when its set time is changed at the last minute? The schedule for Saturday at the Backbooth was now completely incorrect since the band before us also had their set moved forward. As soon as I learned of the change, I posted on the FMF website requesting an updated schedule. As of this writing, the website has not been altered.
During my conversation with our stage manager, I asked her about the reason for the change. She didn’t really know, but later mentioned that (1) a band had dropped out (there was an empty 8:00 spot on the FMF schedule) and (2) the Backbooth has a regularly scheduled event on Saturday nights at 11:30, so they were trying to finish up before it began. I assumed, then, that the band scheduled for 11:00 would simply go on at 10:00 and then the show would end. I was wrong. Upon arriving at the Backbooth, I noticed that two bands were scheduled after us, neither of which was on the original schedule. One, therefore, would play after us at 10:00 and another at 11:00, thereby rendering excuse number 2 basically false. As far as I can tell, our spot was simply given away to someone deemed more important and our schedule was changed at the last minute to accommodate them (and FMF). Needless to say, we felt completely disrespected as artists.
We became friendly with the band before us (Wheels Above) and made sure to catch their set. They experienced some substantial sound problems during their performance, which we hoped would be rectified by the time we began. Since our band is electronic (and does not have a drummer, only a drum machine) setup can sometimes be complicated. Luckily, we had a good 20 minutes of changeover time. Once we took the stage and began setting up, the sound tech asked us what we needed. He acquired the necessary direct boxes (for the drum machine) and was initially very helpful. Soon, however, it became apparent that he was intent on rushing us. He even said to me, “We’ve got two minutes.” To which I replied, “No, we don’t. It’s 8:45. We have fifteen minutes.” I pulled out my phone to prove it. The sound tech mumbled an excuse, but continued to press us to begin.
While checking the microphones, we noticed an obnoxious amount of feedback coming from the vocal mics. We informed the sound tech about the problem but he failed to do anything, obviously preoccupied with rushing us to begin our set. We soon began performing and the sound was, quite simply, awful. During the first song, my bandmate’s guitar was not in the monitors and possibly not in the house mix, even though he checked it successfully with the sound tech during setup. The vocal mics were still feeding back, filling the Backbooth with high-pitched squeals that rendered our set basically unlistenable to the audience and maddeningly frustrating to us, since we had to continue with our 30 minute performance despite the sound problems. Throughout the set, we requested that our vocal mics be turned down or eq’d differently in order to decrease the feedback. Unfortunately, the squawking continued. We finished our performance feeling dejected and completely disrespected by the festival. Not only had the schedule been changed, but our set had been ruined by audio problems that any experienced sound tech should have been able to fix.
Independent artists have a lot of reasons to avoid Florida Music Festival. Its corporate sponsorship, occasional crass commercialism and radio-friendly headliners engender mixed feelings in a lot of us who ideologically identify with minor labels and the various indie artists they employ. Despite these misgivings, many of us choose to play the festival out of a sense of pride in our state, which isn’t exactly known for its artistic merits. Disrespecting local artists, however, is a surefire way to destroy this sense of solidarity and give fuel to the many critics of the festival. I understand that the Orange You Glad festival has set itself up as a kind of anti-FMF, filled with indie artists who eschew the corporate environment that pervades the Florida Music Festival. Our negative experience at FMF 2009 certainly casts OYG in a good light and we will likely consider performing at the Orange You Glad festival in 2010. I seriously doubt that our opinion of Florida Music Festival can ever be reverted back to our initial positivity. However, I hope that this letter encourages FMF to substantially improve its festival in the coming years.
Sincerely,
John C. Baker
Joon
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This letter was originally emailed to FMF on May 17th. We have yet to receive a reply.