Not that it’s not good now; just different. I went to the inaugural Asheville show 2 years ago and unfortunately will not be able to make it this year.
But back when it was held in New York, every single musician on the single stage had a personal connection with Bob’s original instruments (and in many cases, Bob Moog himself) and renowned careers. The ‘new’ Moogfest certainly tips it’s hat to the legacy, with a yearly dedication of some sort (I saw Devo; last year was Brian Eno, this year Thomas Dolby) and of course I missed Tangerine Dream, but it’s a new music scene primarily and promoted and organized by AC Entertainment so it’s unlikely that Wakeman will show up and play the entire Six Wives album : )
Anyway, ton’s of great music in this 2.5 hr. video on YouTube (I have the DVD but haven’t watched it in a while). I had my yearly bass lesson last week in Oakland with Kai Eckhardt who used to play with John Mclaughlin (trio) in the late 80s/early 90s who, of course, founded Mahavishnu Orchestra which lead me back here.
I think just like everything else that gets corporatized, it startes to suck a bit. They started booking acts that didn’t use Moog synths. It seemed the original Moogfests catered to real enthusiast musicians here like the VPO’s for example. I can say though that it brings a lot of awareness to Moog and to Asheville. I never would have gone to Asheville if the Moog factory wasn’t there. I’m bound to go again when they open up the Museum.
At least there is still some Moog love going on and the BMF is doing cool things. I think their circuit bending challenge is very nice and gives back to people who are tinkering with irons.
All in all I think it’s cool and Im likely to go at some point, but more interested in the clinics than anything else.
And I saw the Moogfest DVD on netflix, I think it was the same one you referenced. I enjoyed that!
Only going to be there on Saturday due to family commitments but really pumped up. My flight leaves at something like 6am, connecting through Charlotte land around 11am. City bus into Asheville just in time for first seminar!
Oh and by the way, the purpose of my first post was simply to tip my hat to the old Moogfest and include the post to the video; wasn’t necessarily saying the new one isn’t good. The Music biz is very different than it was even 5 years ago and Moog is adapting as needed and kicking out some incredible products. If the headliners this year were Wakeman, Emerson, and Tangerine Dream (though they did play last year and I missed them), you wouldn’t see too much in the way of the college crowd filling the place (but then again, maybe there would be alot more Foogers, Old Foogers… {get it!!})