[Harp-L] Re: harmonica festivals ( Vol 86, Issue 15) and the 38th GSHC Festival

[VALERIE REDLER <gshcsunshine@xxxxxxx>]

Instead of painting a room tocalm down, as so aptly suggested by Joe, I'd like to paint a picture of whatyou can expect at our 38th GSHC Festival! There's an old saying: 'The way to aman's heart is through his stomach".  Why not say: "The way to aharp- playerâs harp is through his or her stomach".  Hereis the menu for our gourmet Saturday night dinner in a new buffet approach thatwe are using for the first time. By the way, the food is absolutely delicious,as Phil and I have dined at The Holiday Inn on several occasions, including abuffet dinner and have tried a large variety of what will be available. At 4:00 therewill be a Cocktail Party (cash bar) with hors d'oeuvre's including vegetable cruditÃs,an antipasto platter and assorted cheeses and crackers. Dinner will follow at5:00 starting with a salad of assorted greens followed with four main dishes:Baked Salmon Dijon, Chicken Marsala, Sliced Sirloin of Beef with Red Wine AuJus and Penne with Vodka Sauce. This will be complimented with sliced roastedpotatoes and mixed vegetables and also includes pitchers of soda and freshbaked rolls and butter.  Instead of the"duet" dinner of Chicken and Steak Marsala that was served last year,the buffet offers us more food with a greater variety and is an innovativechange that we haven't tried before. A delicious anniversary vanilla buttercream cake with a chocolate mousse filling will then be served after dinnerwith coffee and tea. This will take place in the American Heritage Room,usually where the Comedy Club has their shows. Because of our larger thananticipated turnout last year, we moved to this room for Sat.night, that can accommodate250 people. Please sign up in advance as tables are filling up and there willbe a cut-off. We cannot guarantee last minute dinner arrangements, unless it'spaid for in advance...

Saturday is an exciting day for the festival as it is the culmination of daysof attending exciting seminars and workshops, hanging out in the halls withlots of different people such as Marv Monroe, our harmonica ambassador playingguitar and harp usually leading one group; Phil Caltabellotta doing a jazz jamwith his Bose daily as he just did at SPAH and some smaller circle groupsplaying blues. Throughout the festival there will be evening jazz jams andblues jams (to 3:00 in the morning). Lots of Open Mic is there for you and manyopportunities to meet and mingle with your friends and performers. Some saythat this is the best part!  Last year Enrico Granafei was there at 2:00in the morning with his guitar accompanying several players, includingElizabeth, Phil, Sue, Warren and more taking advantage of this special moment!These are just some unscripted moments that just add to the intimate feeling ofour festival. Phil and I have made quite a few changes, simply because the 2008Festival failed with not enough people registering and not enough promotingtaking place. To overcome that the GSHC now has a facebook page, a YouTubepresence, the addition of promo videos for the festival,  a web designerfor our website at www.gardenstateharmonicaclub.org, a new editor for our monthlynewsletter "The Reed"  and twice the amount of press releasesthat I send out monthly to generate interest in our club and its events. Wehave also sponsored a series of harmonica events with our âsisterâ club,Trumpets Jazz Club owned by Enrico Granafei that has helped in letting thepublic learn more about the GSHC and our Festival. The 37th Festival was a hugesuccess having 250 people there over 3 days. This was amazing considering thatwe had to start from scratch due to the failure of the year before.  As Warren had mentioned, Howard Levy surprisedus with a visit during our Sat. afternoon matinee and of course, he was able toregale us with his fantastic act. Unknown to me, this was pre-arranged by RogerTrobridge and Rob Paparozzi. 

The success of a festival doesn't happen without the hard work of people fromour club. We would also appreciate more volunteers to help us out at thisyear's festival to make it even more successful! Contact Warren Bee, thisyear's assistant director to volunteer.  Thanks also go out to VenkyRamakrishna for stepping in last year and helping with the printing of ourfestival schedule and lots more. This year's schedule is about 99% complete,but is still a living, breathing document, subject to change. Our FestivalCommittee has been meeting 2 to 3x a month, as we get closer to the date. Manythanks go out to them and to Elizabeth who also attends our monthly meeting andhas to drive 2 1/2 to 3 hours to get there.  Her ideas are especiallyhelpful and she has been a most welcome and cheerful presence at our club meetings,always willing to help out, encouraging other players and showing tremendousgrowth in playing in front of our members, even with a mic! Thatâs what I calldedication.
 
 I will post the seminar and performersschedule very soon on harp-l, even if it is not yet on our website. We did putit on our website last year several weeks in advance, as it certainly isbeneficial to allow attendees to choose the day they might want to be there,even if they can't attend the entire festival. In an ideal world this would beposted earlier, but due to performers possible last minute commitments, thereis no point is putting it out with constant changes. The performers have beenlisted on The International Gig list of harp-l where I just sent even morechanges over to Danny Wilson, who has been most accommodating with my requests...For example, as Steve Guyger will be leaving for Europe on Saturday, Nov.20 andwill be unable to perform, he was removed from the performers list but still mightget there earlier in the week to hang out.
 
One last thought comes to mind andimpressed me so much, that I had previously included it in my Presidentâsmessage for The Reed, the GSHCâs monthly newsletter. Here is a quote from JamesAntaki, PhD of Turbo Harp: 
 
âWhata wonderful world it would be if every citizen of Planet Earth would stop arguingfor just five minutes and play the harmonicaâ. Just think about it!
 
 
Val Redler
President, GSHC
Co-Chair, 38th Festival