Me and my friends had so much fun, and I love how there was a strong sense of community as well and noone was beefing with anyone else. And people should invest in 1 hitters, that way you can still smoke your joint! HA! But yeah, I think with trial and error and more prior advertising and planning, this festival will become more awesome in future years.

 

right on! im glad it went well. sorry i couldnt make it out but i def had a crew of people there for support.

 

I agree with the suggestion of more rigid maps/information for the stages and bands playing (what stage and time).


It was beyond confusing, frustrating, and tiring, but if this is going to be annual, I'm sure the bugs will be fixed.

 

1.
Everyone agrees planning needs to start 6 months prior to the show!

I doubt this would matter.


2. Having it in May or September would be a lot more comfortable so bands arent playing in boiling heat, etc.


The point was to celebrate the 1st day of summer.


3. 12-6pm! Starting at 11am makes no sense, no one wants to play or go that early. Why it ended at 5 makes no sense to me when the sun doesn't set until after 7 (i.e. no lampposts on the island.
)

That's the park's hours (and pretty much any park's hours, the city or state or feds (i'm not sure whos budget this comes under) aleady budgeted for extra security etc and did an excellent job.


4. Portopotties and trash cans by each stage area.


I think gov's island is someplace most people don't even know is visitable. I agree tho.


5. Massive amounts of flyers posting which bands are on which stage numbers with a more detailed map on the back, that people can keep with them.
Many people simply couldn't find the stage areas or bands they wanted to!

Since the bands were all doing whatever they felt and not caring what other bands they stole time from, this may or may not be a good idea, how about no doucebag bands complaining that more people will see them here "we're too important to play on stage 8" until they find out I'm the only person who brought a PA.


6. Three stage areas is enough for the fans to juggle.


I think I'd rather see the Revolutionary War band. It was more fun playing on the street last year than giving people from Staten Island a reason to crawl under a rock and convince mom to take care of their bastard children.

 

It was a great time, we were very flattered and humbled to see so many people sporting our shirts. Hope to play next year. Definitley agree a bit more organization as far as PA's go and better maps for sure, but that can all be settled with more time to plan. Hopefully permits will be issued sooner too. Also, maybe NO main stage next time, the idea seems to put lesser importance on other bands and that didnt seem to be what the day was about (of course, no offense whatsoever to those who actually played on this year's main stage).

-seth a.

 

FROM: PUNK ISLAND


Problems that came up, and ideas of how to fix them.

So I think that overall we had a pretty good day, and people seemed to be having a good time. But things were definitely not perfect, and sometimes a little chaotic. On my end, there was a lot of miscommunication between me and the Governors Island people about that military band, and there was a lot of miscommunication between myself and some of the other bands and people involved.

For one thing, I have to apologize for what happened on the main stage. The first two bands were kind enough to provide the backline for the main stage, as one member works with Sam Ash. He also was the one able to give us the Sam Ash sponsorship for all of the other equipment there. I know they may not have been to your liking, but the whole event might not have pulled together without their help. So we do really need to thank them.

As for the military band, I was told all throughout this that they only needed half an hour to play 2 songs and leave. But obviously, it was more like 2 hours. As many of the better bands scheduled to play - the Ghouls, Copyright Chaos, the Choke, Reagan Youth -- did not appear until 1:30, and the military band needed to start at 1:45, we had to wait to put them on until after the military band - taking up 2 fucking hours!

I apologize for this scheduling conflict, and next year it must be made more clear about any other odd disturbances that might arise, because as a result, Reagan Youth got totally screwed, and I know they were pretty pissed off, and probably won't do this again. And it makes me and the other people involved look like idiots. It was pretty much out of all of our hands, and an issue with Governors Island not giving us the correct information until that day. I want to deeply apologize to Reagan Youth for what happened, and thank you for coming and making this event something noteworthy. I only wish we could have given you the proper set time and more accurate information earlier on in the game. I hope next year we will be more careful about planning for a large-scale event like this one. I know that I will.

I think the main stage was the biggest problem/disappointment of the day. But I also know there was some problems with people being told not to bring the right equipment by someone, which created issues with PA availability, etc. Again, this was a miscommunication issue between me and whoever told them this. I'm so sorry for anyone who is pissed about what happened with this, it was out of my hands by the time I heard you were told not to bring PAs, and all we could do was move you to another stage. Next year we have to make sure we're set a couple of weeks in advance, not the morning of or the night before.

I know that some of you have given me specific concerns that I do agree with but are things that we just cannot resolve on our end. Some of you complained about the show having to end at 5, and I know this sucks, but that is Govs Island's rule, not ours. They cannot extend ferry hours because they do not employ the people working on the ferry; these guys are unionized and work for the city I believe, and their shifts cannot be extended easily.

Also, there were some questions about the map and printing a better one. And if anyone here can do that for us, we welcome it. But again, NO ONE gets paid at Make Music New York. We have NO MONEY to make fancy, cool flyers. And we have NO TIME this year to do that - I was the only person working on this, and I only had a month and a half. My boss basically paid out of his pocket for all of those maps and waivers to be printed, and I did it at a Kinkos at 9 PM the night before. We would have loved to have a better one, but come on, you get what you pay for, or what you don't.

I think a lot of people are complaining about how we can't provide everything and we aren't dictating a schedule to musicians. That's not the point of Make Music New York. It is a NON PROFIT org, and the whole point is to let musicians DO IT THEMSELVES out of pure love for music. We also had no time - only a month and a half. We aren't some corporation like the people who run the fucking Warped Tour or something and pay musicians and give them schedules, etc. A company like that would also have a huge staff, and keep in mind, I was the only person doing this. Unpaid, and working 15 hour days 7 days a week because I basically had to do everything. Also, keep in mind that we put this together in a month and a half - that's when Govs Island told us we could do this - IN MAY! I relied on any help people would give, and relying .. and having no money to work with usually doesn't yeild very good results. So, I had to work with what I had, which wasn't much.

Basically, of course I wish it could have been perfect. But when none of you guys has to pay to get in, and we don't get any money ourselves, you can't ask for much. So I think that considering the lack of money all around, and because no visitor paid anything, no one can really complain. We just have to be conscious of things we CAN fix, like miscommunication issues. Also, we will find out very soon if we are doing it again next year, which will give us a LOT more time - 9 months is much better than a month and a half.

But overall, I've heard that people had a good time. Thanks so much to all of you who were involved with this crazy, chaotic project. I've been listening to all of your concerns and will bring them up at a follow-up meeting with Governors Island and Make Music New York happening this week. I hope that we can make this a tradition every year, and I believe that Govs Island wants to as well. And I know that next year if it happens it is bound to run much smoother. You just have to learn from your mistakes. That's what I'm doing.

Thanks to everyone!!

Chloe
 

Grah, stupid myspace didn't load the page.


The booker for the event should be careful about what bands they book.


There was at least one band that has nazis/nazi sympathizers as their members, which only attracted more people of the sort -- that didn't make many punks happy.

 

Well said!!!!
it was one day i actually appreciated the order kept from so many officers. No one got hurt or anything, making it a much more enjoyable experience.

Ill bet that the residents there made a LOT of $ off of their drink stands!!!
 

we would deffinetly like to play next time it was a really cool festival it was like a mini warped tour for punx copyright chaos's set was fucking incredible and hate and war was very good
 

I personally thought it sucked dick, glad you enjoyed it tho