Sha-Na-Na, Bret Michaels, Lonestar headline Celebrate Erie.
For fuck sake.
Please see my blog post from last year, in which I tear apart Erie’s choice of musicians.
This isn’t going to change as long as Sinnott is Mayor of Erie. This exactly reflects his management style—conservative, unimaginative, and safe. Of course he’s going to continue to pander to his motorcycle buddies—the Roar on the Shore seems to be the only time he shows any enthusiasm.
Since the good people running the show seem to be young- and hip- averse, I would suggest harnessing the power of social media to cause a ruckus. Of course, since I’m neither young nor hip I wouldn’t know anything about that stuff…
Photo from the chalk art festival in Buffalo. #Sabres
This reminds me…Celebrate Erie and the Chalk Walk is coming this week.
I mean, seriously, Erie, you bitch and moan about brain drain, then give the kids another concert filled with performers who were popular a quarter-century before they were even born. You pay lip service to supporting your arts community, then turn around and hire out-of-town acts who don’t pay rent in Erie, don’t buy groceries in Erie, and don’t have any sort of stake in this community whatsoever. You wish and hope and pray for tourism to supplant the once vibrant manufacturing sector of our city’s economy, then you completely ignore the opportunity to procure a relevant, popular headliner with regional or national appeal, thus shunning tourism dollars in the process. Next year, do us all a favor, Erie; if you can’t book a mind-blowing, coffer-filling headliner, then let me run the festival – I’ll hire every local band in this town at treble their normal rate and let them play instead.
Cory Vaillancourt, Upfront: Crap Rock Revisited
