[FM] Re: Winterhawk & Falcon Ridge

[FalcRidge@aol.com]

This is Anne at Falcon Ridge and now also Winterhawk 2000. Ginger Kane was 
asking for some info on the two fests.

<<I hear that the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival bought the rights to the 
Winterhawk festival and it will be held at the FR site.  Does anyone know 
anything about this? Is this true? When is it?  Are the folks who usually put 
on the event (host band, Dry Branch Fire Squad and Mary Dodd) involved with 
the festival at the new location?  What's up?  I love both Winterhawk and 
FR!>>

Not exactly but sort of, kind of. My partner Howard Randall is the originator 
of both Falcon Ridge and Winterhawk, (he has a thing for raptors you may have 
noticed) and was a partner in the former Winterhawk BG Fest with Mary Doub 
and Ron Thomason of Dry Branch until October of this year when the 
partnership, unfortunately was dissolved by court order. 

It has been a difficult time. Kind of like a divorce and not a very nice one 
at that but all parties really are trying to move ahead and coexist at this 
point. Howard always held all rights to the names and trademarks of both 
fests so the Wintwerhawk name simply reverted back to him when the 
partnership which had leased the name since 1987 was dissolved. Howard 
founded Whk BG in 1983. I don't want to go into all the rigamarole of how 
this all came to be, it's not important anyway. The general press release 
we've been sending out on this is the following:

Winterhawk 2000- Bluegrass & Beyond is well into the booking stage. 
Winterhawk was formerly a strictly bluegrass fest run by a 3 person 
partnership. The partnership was recently dissolved by a Maryland judge 
following a law suit brought against the general partner by one of the 
limited partners. That would be my partner and the owner of Falcon Ridge, 
Howard Randall
 
Howard now solely owns and controls both Falcon Ridge and Winterhawk and we 
will host this event in 2000 with a much expanded lineup i.e. not strictly 
bluegrass but more of a roots/americana event. Anne Saunders is the the 
artistic director for both events. All the necessary state and local permits 
have been filed as of early December and a barebones website is up at 
www.winterhawk2000.com. Winterhawk 2000 will be held on the same site as 
Falcon Ridge, the Long Hill Farm in Hillsdale New York on July 28, 29, 30, 
one week after the Falcon Ridge Folk Festival.
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I must also point out a second new event which has risen out of the ashes of 
the fomer Winterhawk BG Fest, the Grey Fox Bluegrass festival. Sort of like 
having a successful public stock split 2 for one is the deal here and we 
certainly hope both will go on to establish new niches from the one vacated. 
Grey Fox will be held on the Rothvoss Farm, site of the former Winterhawk BG 
Fest, it's one week before FRFF on July 13-16. I'm sorry, I don't know the 
URL but it should be easy to search. 

Best news of all in all of this is that Columbia County in NY state is now 
home to 4 music fests on 4 consecutive weekends in July. This is a huge boon 
to the growing summertime tourist trade. Columbia county is at the foot of 
the Berkshires and borders Stockbridge MA of Tanglewood fame. A  hughely 
successful summertime tourist trade centered in the arts exists just over the 
border in MA, mostly classical and summer stock theatre. 

In Columbia County the focus of July tourist commerce will be folk and 
bluegrass music. NO KIDDING. Just let me repeat that in case you are not 
comprehending which would be understandable.

IN COLUMBIA COUNTY, NEW YORK, THE FOCUS OF JULY  TOURISM WILL BE FOLK AND 
BLUEGRASS MUSIC.   

It's true. It will happen all month long in 2000. Really something to jump 
for joy about and Columbia County is JUST DELIGHTED about it. 

July will see Grey Fox, Falcon Ridge, Winterhawk 2000 and Clermont Blues Fest 
in that order. This is a pretty exciting time for us to be involved in this 
end of the music biz for plenty of reasons. But the economy of this area is a 
pretty big one. Columbia is very rural and picturesque with some of the last 
flourishing family and small dairy farms in New York State. The balance and 
the tenuous hold of both of these aspects is delicate and worthy of 
preservation. These fests will bring some much needed rejuve to the overall 
economic picture and will actually help preserve family farms and other 
sensitive land areas in CC in various ways.

Anyway, to conclude, Winterhawk 2000 got off to a late start. I hope to have 
a lot more confirmed artists after FA. I have a bunch of unfirmed up stuff 
pending and it looks to be a wonderful event and VERY DIFFERENT than GF, FRFF 
and Clermont. I can give you only the teeniest preview of actual confirmed 
artists right now, we will have bluegrass, both trad and contemporary, texas 
swing, cajun, zydeco, roots, blues, TX style/sers, other s/sers, old-time 
string band, everything Americana you can think of. Confirmed artists include 
Northern Lights with Vassar Clements, Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys, 
Stacey Earle, The McKrells, Big Table, Rotary Pancake Day (featuring Bruce 
Molsky, Judy Hyman, Richie Stearns, Jeff Claus and June Drucker), Mark Erelli 
Band, Jeff Lang, Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer. I'm working on the rest right 
now and will post more asap. We are advertising Winterhawk 2000- Bluegrass 
and Beyond as:

Three Days of American Musical Roots and Branches
Hear the Tradition
Celebrate the Reinvention.

Hope to see many of you at FA,

Anne
Falcon Ridge Folk Festival
July 21, 22, 23, 2000
Long Hill Farm, Hillsdale, NY
www.FalconRidgeFolk.com
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Winterhawk 2000 - Bluegrass and Beyond
July 28, 29, 30, 2000
Long Hill Farm, Hillsdale, NY
www.Winterhawk2000.com