Current location:	home
Current mood:	annoyed
Current music:	Beoga
Entry tags:	celtic music, irish fest, kansas city

On Stage!
Check it out - it's itty bitty, but that's me on stage with The Fuchsia Band at the Kansas City Irish Fest (along with the rest of the Learn an Irish Tune class).  It was a blast!  (just checked this entry and to see the icon with the picture, you have to click on "leave a comment" - I really need to figure out how to post a picture here).

We enjoyed the Festival, but unless major changes are forthcoming on the sound front, our attendance is no longer a given.  We left a couple of concerts early, avoided two altogether, and suffered through the rest.  The sound was nothing short of horrific - unbalanced, overwhelmingly loud, reverb, feedback, squeals, distortions - you name it, it was a problem this weekend.  Rather hard to fully enjoy a music festival when the sound sucks.

I'm not an expert on sound; indeed, I'm not sure at all what goes into making it work, but I know what I hear - and how do you make Solas sound mushy and mediocre?

There were essentially four stages at the festival (I don't count the children's stage).  One was inside at the mall food court - I didn't attend any of the concerts at that venue, so I don't know what the sound was like there.

Then think of a rectangle that runs sideways.  The top right was the Terrace Stage, and the crowd spilled across the entire top of the rectangle.  The right side was the Heritage Stage, site of the workshops.  The bottom left was the Boulevard Stage, with the crowd spilling along half the bottom part of the rectangle.

The sound was so loud at the Terrace Stage that you could hear it over half the festival grounds -  I ventured near once with ear plugs, and it was still uncomfortably loud.  So we avoided concerts at that venue all together.

We attended several workshops at the Heritage Stage, and sometimes it was difficult to hear the presenter/teacher because the music from the Heritage Stage was so loud.  Several teachers also had problems because they would lose their train of thought or their rhythm because of the interference.

Most of what we wanted to hear was at the Boulevard Stage (the one on the bottom left), and that was non-stop sound problems.  I don't think any band soundchecked less than 45 minutes, when 30 minutes were what was scheduled.  Even then, musicians were constantly motioning for adjustments throughout their sets.  I think it was only sheer professionalism that kept some of them on stage. 

As I said earlier, I'm no expert in sound (and I'd love to know more), but the only band on the Boulevard Stage that sounded remotely like what we know they are capable of was Gaelic Storm, and even that deteriorated to the point that we left early.  In fact, as we walked through the enclosed bridge leading back to the hotel, we could hear the feedback and reverb!  Since they did start off better, I wonder if the sound guys were used to doing rock stuff and not traditional stuff - or does that even factor in?

We will certainly be on the alert for indications that KCIF has addressed the sound issues, and will try and see our favorites at other venues before deciding to head back to KCIF.