Friends,
We would like to share a few thoughts with you all about
the Woodstockhausen 2007 Festival cancellation.
First, our deepest apologies
to all those who spent time, effort, and money to attend
or perform, only to be disappointed at the last minute.
We are at least as disappointed as you that the event
didn't occur as planned, and wanted to let you know
a bit about the difficult decision to pull it.
We had
indeed planned for some light rain. Historically, that's
all that ever happens in September in this area. We
planned for tents for the tech equipment, the staff
and performers, and a stage covering. When it got a
little drizzly Friday during site prep, we checked
the weather forecasts, checked with the site owner,
and checked with a long time local resident. Based
on that information, we decided to execute the plan
for the stage covering. The stage rigging was designed
with a sloped tarp support (about 2 feet higher in
the back) to drain the expected light drizzle. After
rigging and guying the stage truss and support system,
we continued with the lighting and setting the stage
and finally closed down around 1:00 AM to catch a little
sleep.
We hadn't prepared for a 2-inch
downpour in less than 12 hours.
Here is a picture
of what greeted us early Saturday morning:
About 1.5
inches of unseasonable and completely unexpected rain
in the Ben Lomond micro-climate collapsed the front
stage truss supports, and the water that had collected
on the tarp dumped all over the stage. The water soaked
the stage, the stage carpeting, the main speakers,
the monitors, the stage power box, and all the lighting
and controllers.
As if that wasn't enough, the
rain continued to pour down all morning, hampering
cleanup efforts and the attempts to dry out wet equipment.
By now we had gotten about 2 inches, the ground was
getting muddy, and the forecast was for the rain to
continue into the afternoon. The logistics of getting
equipment and a performance space back together were
looking pretty grim, and worse yet audience and artist
safety was getting questionable. Highway 9 was full
of accidents, one of which closed down the road entirely.
At that point we had an emergency
meeting of the staff and site owner and decided at
noon to pull the plug. Our event manger sent an email
to the staff and artists, and started frantically calling
the artists. We closed the front gate, posted notices
to the website and several email lists, and started
the sad proceeds of tear down. We recovered what equipment
we could, ear marked the damaged stuff for later repair
or replacement, and called it a day. (Fortunately the
electronics at the tech tent and the main PA amps were
well protected!)
Postscript
Since several of
our artists and staff had come from a considerable
distance (or were still en route), we approached the
site owner to see if we could use their lovely lodge
and catering kitchen as a gathering spot. They graciously
opened their 45 person indoor faculty to us, lit the
fire in the fireplace to warm us up and dry us out,
and since we were all hanging around anyway, we decided
to turn the disaster into a small-living-room-style
concert and party.
The weather finally cooperated
and stopped raining mid afternoon. The dedicated video
artists banned together and improvised a setup in the
courtyard, we hung a screen at the edge of the patio
and allocated one end of the lodge for audio performances.
A few hardy patrons decided to attend in spite of the
reduced scope, and about 40 of us all banded together
for some casual fun in the evening. The audio artists
were performing in the lodge, the visual guys were
doing magic in the courtyard, and the food and coffee
was plentiful.
You know the old saying: When
life hands you lemons, make lemonade". We made some decent
lemonade Saturday night, especially considering the bad
lemons we got handed. Financially, it was a complete
loss, but artistically it was still great fun and everyone
was renewing old acquaintanceships and making new ones.
Finally, we met Monday,
September 24th to scope out answers to those burning
questions of rescheduling for next year, so stay tuned!
-------------------
If you would like to graciously
donate to the Woodstockhausen team, so that we may
recover some of the losses from this year's rain out
and make next year's show possible,
please do so below:
The Woostockhausen team thanks
you for your kind support!
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