So I went to Oktoberfest this weekend. Friday evening for awhile and yesterday for a quick stroll through while I was at Crown Center getting a little work done. And I was struck by the differences in our two events. They were myriad, but the most obvious of these being of course attendance numbers. And that got me thinking about why we draw so many more people every year. They had beautiful weather. They're in the same great location with the same great amenities. Hell, we even share a beer sponsor and a food vendor. So why do we draw more than three times as many people?
As much as I'd like to place all the credit with our efficient and brilliant organization, I think ultimately it's the music. Yesterday afternoon, I'm not kidding, I heard The Chicken Dance twice in an hour and a half in my office from the main Oktoberfest stage. I heard plenty of Oom and lots of Pah and more polkas than you could shake a stein at, but that was about it. Now they did have Brave Combo Friday night, and since I was gone by then they may have drawn a big crowd for all I know. But they're not really even a German band anyway. So it got me thinking: Why has Irish music blessedly evolved and grown into the kind of worldwide popularity it enjoys, and that allows events like The Kansas City Irish Fest to grow and prosper, while German music so obviously hasn't? For that matter, the Festa Italiana used to be held at Crown Center. I volunteered there a couple times. They had two Frank Sinatra impersonators and a Dean Martin sound-alike. As headliners. The Mexican fiestas I've attended fare a little better with some truly great bands like Ozomatli and Flaco Jimenez. But Irish music, in the ethnic festival biz anyway, is in a class by itself.
So why is that? I know a lot of our readers here are musicians, and all of you are fest-heads. What do you think? I don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth here, but I am curious. Where's the German Gaelic Storm? The Italian Elders? Is it just the luck of the Irish? The language barrier? A triumph of savvy marketing? Something more? Your thoughts, please.
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9 comments:
Tis simply because Irish people are cooler than anyone else. ;)
All you Paddys are missing it all together. The Germans have all the really cool things that people love. Pig races, that is more fun than eating bacon. Old fat guys wearing leather shorts and knee socks, that is something I would pay to see. Beers served in a plastic boot with a rope on it to wear around your neck. What is more fun than the chicken dance. The only thing better would be Thin Lizzy playing the beer barrel polk, The Pogues playing the Chicken Dance. I see the Oktobe Fest becoming a big rival to Irish fest as soon as people hear what they missed.
I'm thinking, the reason for performers like Gaelic Storm and the Elders is because of the guys like Eddie Delahunt.
And I'm wondering if the relative lack of classical music makes for a relative strength of folk music.
If one wants to go hear good German music, one goes to the symphony, not a festival.
I went to the Wilber Czech Fest one year. The music was accordian orchestras. I'd rather hear a symphony play Dvorak.
Another thought... the setting of the KC Rennaisance Festival is England, but there's quite a bit of Irish music.
As a proud German and a huge Irish Fest fan, I have to question the "Them Vs. Us" mentality altogether, as well as the competitive zingers lurking throughout your post.
I don't disagree that Irish music affords its listeners with more variety and more depth, which undoubtedly is why the music attracts so many people. But comparing Oktoberfest to Irish Fest is like comparing apples to oranges (or schnitzel to shillelaghs, perhaps). The two festivals are great for different reasons and should be evaluated as unique events, rather than direct competitors. True, Irish Fest has phenomenal music and amazing organization many other fine attributes, but Oktoberfest has leather pants and bratwurst and strings of twinkle lights. And isn't there some wild, fascinating appeal in all of these things, no matter what the festival?
I, for one, say "ja."
I think maybe it has to do with the Irish diaspora, in part. There are people around the globe who can and do claim some sort of Irsh descent. In a world which is increasingly impersonal, I believe that we are all seeking a connection to one another, and music is the universal language, after all. Irish music in particular is easy to tap your foot to, even if you have no Irish heritage.
As far as the big American Irish festivals go, I think maybe since between 55to 65% of Americans claim Irish ancestry(I'm not sure of my figures, Pete Maher could set me straight), we're maybe going to them to connect with our cousins. I've been to several of them where I got to talking to folks between performances where I discovered that we were, in fact, probably distantly related. Maybe I gravitate toward that aspect because I'm a Southerner, but I find that the Irishmen that I've met find that fascinating as well.
I only meant "Them Vs. Us" as a comparison. Clearly, we're not competitors, our events taking place three weeks apart. And of course it's apples and oranges. That's my point. My question was why is one apples and the oranges when on the surface they have so much in common. As for lurking zingers, I had and always have fun at Oktoberfest. I love ethnic festivals of all stripes. It's a huge job putting one of these things on and my hat's off to the Oktoberfest organizers for a job well done.
Diaspora- "any group migration or flight from a country or region; dispersion."
Had to Google cuz I's not smart.
Have to get in on this discussion for at least one post. I'll leave the jokes to people better at it than I am and just try to throw a little history into the game.
There is no doubt that since the 1960's and on up till now there has been a 'revival' of Irish/Celtic music on this side of the pond, and hence, worldwide... because ( ever since the first LP records were made in New York ) as the American recording industry goes... so goes the world.
Even the musicians in Ireland didn't know there were so many different 'styles' of Irish music on their own island until New York Record companies went after the American-Irish consumers and started to record Irish musicians in New York and Boston and only then the records floated BACK to
Ireland itself. 'Irish' music became a two-way street with bus-stops on both side of the Atlantic from that day on. The American-invented recording industry itself became the driving force for another country's musical heritage. It's pretty much the same today.
There WAS a time, however, when an Irish festival in this country would have gotten LESS attendance than other ethnic festivals, such as the GERMAN ones.
Ethnic/National music has, in fact, 'taken turns' in this country as far as reach and popularity goes.
Here's a good example...
The (manufactured) demonizing of the Irish Catholic immigrants from the 1840's disappeared during and after the Civil War when the Irish permanently earned the respect of this nation because of the way they fought ( and died ) to keep this country united. There was even no less respect for the many Irish who fought for the Confederacy. The combined service on both sides of the fence simply caused all the 'monkey cartoons' to go away once and for all.
It was General Lee himself, years after the war, who, when asked why the Union Army defeated the Confederacy, simply replied... "They had more Irish than we did."
However!... the MUSIC still hadn't hit yet. The MUSIC was pretty much openly despised for as long as the Irish Catholic immigrants were, if not longer. The existing Irish Ulster Protestants who were here in this country BEFORE the 'famine immigration' of the 1840's distanced themselves from their own countrymen ( and the music as well ) every chance they got for all those years of the 'monkey cartoons'.
...and even though the Civil War brought an end to the 'monkey cartoons'... respect for the music didn't turn around as fast.
In the years after the war you were MUCH more likely to find what were called 'Coronet Bands' playing dances at local gazebos than any other kind of 'band'. Coronet bands are BRASS BANDS and they tended to play more German based marches and tunes and waltzes ( the dances of the day ) than anything else.
Matter of fact... the image people have today of post-Civil-War STEAMBOATS floating up and down American Rivers with lots of Fiddlers and Banjo players is a modern myth. These STEAMBOATS all had their own "Coronet Bands".
On the White River in Arkansas, deep in the heart of the Ozarks, you wouldn't hear fiddle music floating across the water from the on-board bands... It was a BRASS BAND and lot of 'oom-pah'.
Same in the cities. You weren't considered 'civilized' as a town unless you had a fully-uniformed CORONET band to play at your local dances. Even the uniforms looked 'German'.
There's actually a book that sells down here in Arkansas which shows photographs of all the famous Ozark White River steamboats on up until the 1920's and right there in the photographs you see all the TUBAS and the CORONETS and CLARINETS and TRUMPETS and other BRASS instrument bands smiling proudly in their ( sic: German ) 'uniforms' and holding their instruments while standing on the deck of the steamboat(s). Not a fiddle or a banjo or a flute in sight ( Much less any Uilleann or Other/Bag Pipes ).
So what happened around the turn of the century to change things?
A lot of things, really, but if we are talking about ETHNIC music and why it might fall out of popularity then you cannot deny that the first of TWO ( Horrible ) WORLD WARS that would come within 30 years of each other and started by the SAME COUNTRY ( Germany ) had no small part in it. By 1916 we were actually fighting and killing Germans wholesale on their own turf... and they us, and German submarines were sinking our ships and killing Americans right off our own shorleines. Put a bit of a damper on the American 'German' festival circuit, I would say.
For almost 40 years, from the time World War I started, on through the Great Depression, and then right smack into another, even more terrible, World War against the SAME NATION as the FIRST one... it wasn't easy being German in USA or feeling free to express your Germanic pride.
There probably was a time, in the late 1930's and then throughout World War II, when anyone who DID try to throw an 'Oktoberfest' or othewise publicly display Germanic pride was being closely watched by the FBI or Army Intelligence.
Of course, then there's that thing with the 6 million (innocent) people who disappeared in their camps the SECOND time we had to kick their butts within the same half-century. That certainly didn't help restore anyone's 'Germanic pride' as all the details of that kept coming out for YEARS after the war.
Oh... and don't forget... The Italians were right there shooting at us as well as we slogged our way up Italy. There were almost as many American casualties in Italy as there were later on as we invaded France and Germany. In the American press, at that time, the "monkey cartoons" came back again and the Italians almost got even more demonizing here at home than the Germans did.
By the time we had been fighting 'Germans' ( and Italians ) and losing American born sons and daughters to the conflicts caused by Germany for more than a half-century... I think it's safe to say that the Mel-Bay German Folk music books weren't exactly "flying off the shelves" here in America.
Whatever respected place German folk music had in this country's musical canvas in the decades/centuries before all that 20th century nastiness was pretty much GONE at that point... and still is.
I'm not sure the German-American community has recovered YET from all that 20th century crap that went on regarding their home nation. I think it's going to take a LOOONG time for that to happen.
The poor Italians seemed to have gotten the short-stick as well since before anyone could forgive them for their part in World War II here came all the 'Mafia/Mob' movies trying to demonize THEM.
Gonna take a LOONG time for us all to get past that, as well, I'm afraid.
Will we one day see as many CORONET/BRASS BANDS playing 'oom-pah' waltzes in the local town Gazebos on a Saturday night as was once true in this country?
Maybe... but just like it happened in the 1960's and 1970's for Irish/Celtic music with groups like Planxty and Bothy Band and the Chieftains... there's going to have to be a 're-discovery' and some kick-ass CORONET band(s) emerge in order to put that music back on the (American) map again.
It could happen.
There are some people whose heart-strings STILL go a-twitter when all the BRASS kicks in just as there are people transfixed by the flutes and fiddles and pipes that are the signature of Celtic music.
The only constant is change.
We shall see.
Don't touch that dial.
Who knows.
If we ever go to war with Ireland I'll bet you a dollar to a donut that it will be a SHORT war... but the effect it will have on attendance at your average Irish festival will last much longer than the conflict itself.
Interesting and nicely put, Kevin.
Cami
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