Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1436662 in Books
• Published on: 2004-02-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 462 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Freelance music writers Pruett and McGuirk have done a service to musicians and music aficionados alike in this wide-ranging guide to music festivals around the world. They give generous space to a variety of genres, from rock, indie and hip-hop to jazz, country and classical; considerations of the former groups are strongest, however, and make up the bulk of the book. (While such big classical events as the Brattleboro Music Festival in Vermont are omitted, the book does list the Boston Early Music Festival.) In this helpful guidebook, the authors highlight almost all the big festivals as well as the lesser-known ones, offering a brief intro to each and including specs on hotel and travel. For the Newport Beach Jazz Festival, for example, the authors note that the festival has "recently located to a new venue that’s more suited to loud music and able to accommodate thousands of visitors." And for the Canterbury Fayre in England, they point out that the festival "has been associated with musical innovation and experimentation."
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review
"Lots of practical information to help plan a trip to more than 600 festivals worldwide." -- Houston Chronicle. "A great resource for the music buff who loves to travel." -- Chicago Tribune. "A valuable resource in planning trips to music fests in faraway places." -- Hartford Courant. "There's helpful travel info here...for all manner of music fests." -- Detroit News. "For the fan, this book is a godsend." -- Newsday.

Chicago Tribune
“A great resource for the music buff who loves to travel.”

Customer Reviews

Resplendent!
Hark the the authors of gentlenaught! Quite a fanciful book indeed, but for where art thine Druid Folk Festival? Missing? Aye, missing indeed. Where lutes are lusty, women busty, and the bards do belt with drunk advance, you'll find me and mine singing and dancing with my boots outside my pants.

First entry I read got it wrong
I just got this book today and the first entry I went to was the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF).
Well, the authors got it wrong. First off - as of late 2002 this festival doesn't exist anymore.
It's now the Movement festival. I know there are delays involved in publishing but I would hope that there would be some amendment or last minute change because all of the contact info is already wrong/out of date. Chock it up to the accelerated development of electronic music (and the drama involved with the behind the scenes business of this festival).

So, I feel I should make the corrections here.
First off - as I stated before, it's not the Detroit Electronic Music Festival (DEMF) anymore.
It's called Movement.
Their website is here http://www.movementfestival.com/
The date listed, "Third week in May", is rather vague. It's Memorial Day Weekend every year - May 29 -31st.
The location is correct. Hart Plaza.
I have no idea why the authors gave the admission a three dollar sign price ($$$). The festival is FREE. Always has been (even when it was DEMF) and hopefully always will be. Maybe the authors were suckered by a quick witted Detroit resident "charging admission"? If the authors read this I'd really like to know why they assigned it three dollars. If you attended any of the past festivals (DEMF or Movement) you'd know it's free.
The contact info is also wrong. Pop Culture Media has nothing to do with the festival anymore (part of the drama I mentioned earlier). Check the Movement website for info.
One final quibble - the authors mention Frankie Bones as a "house legend". Frankie *Knuckles* is a house legend - Frankie Bones is arguably closer to techno.

Other than that the authors are correct then they say that Detroit "would know how to throw the best party."
What is the saying? "No one parties like a Detroit party cuz a Detroit party don't stop." Until the cops come that is.

Make sure you get there early in the week for the pre-festival parties, stay out during the weekend for the late night parties, and stick around after the weekend for some post-fest events. But leave the glowsticks at home.

I hope the rest of the book is more accurate for everyone's sake. I certainly don't want to find out the hard way that I was given incorrect info - standing there looking at an empty field.

Jam Bands
There has been much hype for The Music Festival Guide and its self defense benefits. I purchased this book with high hopes that it could provide some insight into the frightening realism of defense from an armed assailant. What I got, however, was short reviews of jam band festivals which give you less than a fifty fifty chance of survival from a dangerous encounter. Ground fighting is non existant, and the manner in which you defend yourself in several of these situations does not include controlling the weapon, a fundamental concept in street effective self defense. Overall, I would not reccomend this book for anything more than a reference to music festivals.