COMING HOME — A WINFIELD CELEBRATION
Walnut Valley Festival, Winfield, Kansas
September 17—21, 2008
COMING HOME — A WINFIELD CELEBRATION
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Is there anybody on the list who would complain if next year's tickets or
camping fees or both were a a dollar per day higher if our extra 5-20 bucks
were to go to the Kevin and Kayla Redford Educational Endowment Fund? It's a suggestion I'd like to make. |
The general idea of doing something struck a very responsive chord with members of winfield-l. As befits a rather creative group of people, numerous fund-raising ideas were put forward. On November 24th, Linda Tilton wrote a message about fund-raising concerts and then quickly followed with another message:
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Ya know, I was thinkin'.
Frequently you see CD's that are a compliation of different performers music that to go some charity event. With all the wonderful talent that performs at the festival, I'm wondering if it may be possible to do a similar project of Winfield performers, then sell it at festival with all the profits going to the educational fund. With all that the Redfords have done for us performers, I'm sure many would be willing to donate a track for the project. Anyone with more business expertise have an idea if such a project would be doable? |
During the Thanksgiving period, the consensus of the list moved increasingly toward the idea of a CD. Many technical/legal problems were foreseen, but Linda was encouraged by the reaction. On December 2nd, Linda wrote (in part):
| I want this to be a collaborative effort of a lot of folks. I know a lot of contacts, and there are a lot of things I can do well, but don't know squat about the business itself. I've received several e-mails from folks offering different skills. I've started a Brian's CD file and compiling ideas, people's suggestions, etc. I am anticipating this to be a fairly complicated, and at times tedious, project. For this to happen, we all
need each other's brains and talents. Whatever talents you have be it art, typing, marketing, etc, let me know, and I'll add your name and talent to the file.
Been thinkin'...what performers would you like on the CD? If we do it, we need to represent the varieties of music performed there. |
By December 13th, Linda was up to her ears in studying for final exams at K.U., but was much deeper into the production of a CD. She wrote to the list:
| Now, I need a title for the album. Since I want it to be a celebration of the music that Brian brought to us, I DON'T want it to have his name in the
title. That would be too tombstone-ish. I'm not good at naming stuff. Any thoughts? |
The first reaction, less than an hour later, was from Deb Brandt:
Almost simultaneously (3 minutes later), Brian Baresch was writing
Another 3 minutes later, Paul Kislanko was making his suggestion:
Other good ideas were put forth, but two days after the question was posed, Michael Webb synthesized the two ideas that had clearly captured the feelings of the group. On December 15th, he proposed:
This title elicited a favorable response from many listmembers, including Don Shorock, who, on December 17th, asked:
| Do we have consensus? Recently we've had several votes for “Coming Home - A Winfield Celebration” including mine. Since then, I have seen no other suggestions nor any negative comments about this one. Has this diverse group reached unanimity so easily? |
A few other ideas then surfaced, but many listmembers continued to respond positively to the eventually used title. Leo Eilts commented, as only Leo can,
| Not only do we have a consensus and unanimity, but we seem to be agreeing, too. |
Meanwhile, Linda kept listening to the other suggestions:
| Nope. Obviously we haven't reached a consensus, and I doubt we will. Each person has his/her own spin on what the festival means to him/her, and for most of us, we each have a personal, strong emotional interpretation about what “Winfield” means. I speculate that there could be endless discussion on this topic. Personally, I'm leaning to the “Coming Home: a Winfield Celebration” at this time. It fits well with me, although I'm still open to suggestions. Won't be compiling the music until the middle of January anyway, so there's plenty of time! In the meantime, keep your creative hats on, and give me some more ideas. |
As time went on, Linda accepted increasing responsibility for the project, continuing to seek help from the list in choosing artists and seeking photographs of those chosen (for use in the booklet to accompany the CD.) While many of the expenses normally associated with the production of a CD were donated, startup capital was still needed, so listmembers and friends pooled $1950 as “investors”, thus providing start-up capital for the project.
The CD can thus be seen as:
at hq@wvfest.com for festival info| jump to the top of this page | Walnut Valley Festival Post Office Box 245, 918 Main Winfield, Kansas 67156 (620) 221-3250 |
WV office hours are: Monday — Friday 9 am — Noon; 1 — 5 pm Central time |