Re: [Harp-L] SPAH Demographics?

[Winslow Yerxa <winslowyerxa@xxxxxxxxx>]

This morning I had a conversation with A Hohner Germany employee who was at the Kuala Lumpur festival and has also been to several festivals in Europe and the UK. 

His take was that the APHF is unique.

Harmonica festivals are reflection of the culture in the regions where they take place. Asian harmonica festivals reflect that they have highly organized groups, lots of young players, flashy stagecraft, and so on. Wonderful to behold, but people in North American aren't doing the things that Asian players are doing, and that shows in their harmonica get-togethers (which are not disimlar to festivals in Europe).

Winslow
 
Winslow Yerxa
President-elect, SPAH, the Society for the Preservation and Advancement of the Harmonica
Author, Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-0-470-33729-5
            Harmonica Basics For Dummies, ASIN B005KIYPFS
            Blues Harmonica For Dummies, ISBN 978-1-1182-5269-7
Resident Harmonica Expert, bluesharmonica.com
Instructor, Jazzschool for Music Study and Performance


________________________________
 From: Tony Eyers <tony@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: harp-l@xxxxxxxxxx 
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2012 11:16 PM
Subject: [Harp-L] SPAH Demographics?
 
I've just returned from the Asia Pacific Harmonica Festival in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Around 2000 attendees, mostly under 25, roughly an equal male/female split.

My memories from SPAH 2005: around 500 attendees, mostly male, mostly over 40.

Could someone at SPAH this year cast an eye over the group, and give a rough idea of the demographics? I'm assuming that they haven't changed since 2005, but I may be wrong.

Tony Eyers
Australia
www.HarmonicaAcademy.com
...everyone plays