Hookah Health and Harmony

[zenekar]

That is totally false. How many times do I need to say this? Live Nation is not profiting from nor are they influencing the Harmony Festival whatsoever. I have no idea what this website is about or how they got that false info. I've never heard of this website and we never submitted this info to them. There is no way I or anybody else can control everything that some obscure website on the Internet says, although we will obviously try to have that corrected. Perhaps this website came up with this based on something they read about the 2007 Harmony Festival, which I explained earlier. As a member of the Board of Directors of the Harmony Festival and as one of the part owners I can tell you that Live Nation has no ownership whatsoever, nor is profiting at all from the Harmony Festival, nor is any other corporation. No corporation has a seat on the Board. All Board members are individuals who are connected in some way with the Festival. The idea that Live Nation is somehow profiting from the Harmony Festival is totally absurd and almost comical to those of us who closely work with the Festival.

By the way, come down and check out the Harmony Festival office sometime at Sonoma Mountain Village and you can meet the staff who are the local folks who make all the decisions about the Festival. Believe me, there is no corporate ownership, profiting, or influencing whatsoever. I suppose you can just think that I am lying about this and maybe you will never be convinced otherwise. But I'm confident that people who know me in the community know I wouldn't lie about this. It's almost surreal to me that I am still having this conversation. Let me say it again: the Harmony Festival is 100% owned by individuals and is completely controlled by the Harmony Festival staff and Board of Directors with no corporate ownership, profiting, or influencing involved at all. How many more ways can I say this?

Scott

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Scott,

My apologies for jumping to conclusion about Live Nation’s involvement in the Festival. It wasn’t intended as a personal attack on you. When I read what appeared to be a press release stating that Live Nation is co-partner, I thought it confirmed that it is true. It's also at another site: https://www.local.com/events/event/E...-festival.aspx . I appreciate the personal email you sent to me elaborating on how the event is produced. But the H&H Festival, which originally was more about community, has become an exclusive pricey commercial event that appeals to privileged individuals rather than community spirit.

I’m also involved with producing events, though on a smaller scale. Booking many high priced touring acts hikes up the admission price, plus you have to find other means of getting money from attendees, like $30 parking fee and ridiculously priced beer, etc. I suggest scaling the event back to be an affordable, pleasant experience and not try to emulate corporate sponsored festivals that have become big business for the sake of business, not community.

Attila
...

[Barry]

By now it should be abundantly clear to everybody that Harmony is a 100% locally owned and produced festival. Thanks, Scott, for patiently going over and over this.

I for one appreciate it for what it is. It's a big festival and about as progressive as you can get and still be big and financially viable. The bigness also serves the purpose of drawing in more people to "our" set of values. I'm sure the comparison of "our" county fair (Harmony) vs the Sonoma County Fair is not lost on many people, who may be exposed to it for the first time. It also has the scale to bring in some headline acts that I wouldn't have the opportunity to see otherwise.

This year, more so than past years, it felt like two different festivals, or even 3, going on at the same time. The main stage dominated the main field and it indeed felt like your standard largish hippie-ish festival, but the western part of the fair grounds was another story with 2 speaker stages, and eco area (see video here) tea house, goddess grove, lots of community and green booths, seemed like a fabulous arrangement and offering to me. The steam punk garage/eco rally area was yet a whole other festival!

Yeah, it's pricey. There are lots of other wonderful low-cost and free community oriented fairs around, but they don't offer the richness that Harmony offers, IMO. It's not for everybody, but I think it's great!