[Dixielandjazz] Festival memories

[Judy Eames]

Rebecca wrote:

> Would you mind explaining the "visa system"?

Wish I could:-)  It's a Catch 22.  The festival solicitor applies for visas
on behalf of all the damn furriners and cannot do so before a certain date,
but the time between the first possible application date and the actual
travel date isn't sufficiently long to deal with all the red tape!  English
people don't normally need visas to travel to the USA so, when it was clear
that our visas weren't going to arrive on time we just came anyway.  This is
a very concise version of a series of emails to Judy Borcher, phone calls to
the embassy (where the story kept changing, fedexes of copies of permissions
to apply for permission; and I'm not kidding.

The band from Guatemala didn't get all their visas on time and they were
short of at least one member at the start of their gig series.

Now we're told the USA plan to  fingerprint  tourists who don't have visas .
I have a feeling this'll be
a disincentive for many, musicians included, to make the trip.

Judy Eames
Kaminsky Connection
Aston, Oxfordshire
UK
www.judyeames.co.uk>
>