[Dixielandjazz] Great CA Festival - Kudos

Tue Aug 11 16:26:15 PDT 2009

Good for you, Judie - 
That festival is the toughest of all to get through to about 
anything. Perseverance paid off! 
The festival was wonderful. The music was just great. 
I've already signed up for next year. I hope they have my 
favorite bands back again. 
Thanks for sending this... 
-- Rae Ann 

http://www.sfraeann.com 
http://www.youtube.com/sfraeann 
http://www.craigventresco.com 

----- Original Message ----- 
From: JBruno868 at aol.com 
To: rahberry at comcast.net 
Cc: ocarina-man at juno.com, "Dixieland Jazz Mailing List" <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com> 
Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2009 3:47:51 PM GMT -08:00 US/Canada Pacific 
Subject: [Dixielandjazz] Great CA Festival - Kudos 

I also attending the festival this last weekend and had a great time. The 
lineup was really good but I realized while there that have I have been 
remiss in giving them Kudos' for changing their wheelchair seating from 4 
years ago when they where forcing all those in wheelchairs and their companions 
too sit in the back of the room. After our head butting of four years ago, 
the directors did start following ADA Federal Regulations to a point. The 
ADA says that all venues over 600 must have dispersed seating for 
wheelchairs and their companions. That usually means a sections for just wheelchairs 
in all areas and price ranges. The Directors of this Festival have gotten 
around that by posting that anyone in a wheelchair can remove a seat and 
sit where they wish. When you are in a wheelchair, removing a seat is not 
always that easy but it's a good way for this festival to handle the situation 
under the circumstances and I do give them credit for making the changes 
they did. 

My battle with the Directors at this festival 4 years ago came to a head 
resulting from three problems. First, one of the directors actually yelled 
at me "you can't be here" when I was talking to my mom in front of a venue. 
Had I not at that instance been leaving anyway, I would have really taken 
him to task on that as I am, under ADA Regulations, allowed to be anywhere 
in my chair it will fit and yelling at a supporter of their festival is at 
least, very rude but then when I talked to the Directors about the problem 
of seating all those in wheelchairs in the very back of the room, I was 
actually lied too, twice. I was told, as was everyone else, that it was "Fire 
Code" that all those in wheelchairs must sit in the back of any venue, which 
of course was not true and I called them on that point. I don't know if 
they had just been misinformed or just decided to use that as a reason to 
make things easier for them but they told the wrong person, me, as I have been 
in a wheelchair now for over 14 years and believe me I do know all the ADA 
Regulations regarding my situation as all those in wheelchairs should. Then 
they told me that they were only following the seating as done at the San 
Diego Jazz Festival. Again telling the wrong person as I worked with those 
directors in San Diego regarding their wheelchair seating, some on this 
list, but I just hate it when someone does not tell me the truth. 

The Mississippi Rag at that time published a great article informing 
everyone the laws that they must follow at any jazz concert or festival 
according to Federal ADA Regulations. Sadly the editor of American Rag refused to 
do so at the time because of their allegiance to the Directors of the Costa 
Mesa Festival. I'm still waiting for them to be the informative Jazz 
publication they profess to be and get this information out to other directors of 
any jazz concert and/or festival. It is so very important now as more and 
more Jazz fans find themselves having to use wheelchairs and walkers and 
they should have seating that allows them the best possible enjoyment of OKOM 
and not be discriminated against in anyway. 

The San Diego festival still gets an "excellent" rating from me of all the 
festivals I attend for providing the best wheelchair accessible seating 
for their festival but I will, now, give the Costa Mesa Fest a "good" rating 
for following the Law even though they had to be dragged kicking and 
screaming to do so. 

Jazz Hugs 

Judie 

In a message dated 8/11/2009 1:51:43 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, 
GeneLynch5 at aol.com writes: 

We spent last weekend at the Orange County (CA) Classic Jazz Festival, 
and 
had a wonderful time. Attendance was good, which shows that if you build 
a good festival, and run it well, they will come. We especially enjoyed 
the St. Louis Stompers and the Yerba Buena Stompers and Le Jazz Hot, the 
Django outfit from San Francisco, but there were many other very good 
bands. 
To see the schedule: 

_http://oc-classicjazz.org/schedule2009.php_ 
(http://oc-classicjazz.org/schedule2009.php) 

There weren't many young folks and a lot of white hair, but I don't think 
playing to a few youngsters is going to save OKOM. I believe the 
audience 
will never be large, but when today's youngsters get to middle age 
(fifties, sixties) some of them will hear it, like it and go to festivals 
and join 
clubs, and their hair will become white. When we were young (thirties, 
forties) Swing was king, and we didn't know there was traditional, 
dixieland 
or whatever you'd like to call it but after we grew older, and the kids 
left 
the nest, we were free to do as we chose, we found this music, and now 
we're devotees. 

For our benevolent dictator: We don't like cardboard CD cases, We have 
bought a few because we liked the performers, but not the package. Jewel 
boxes are great. 

Gene & Betty Lynch 
Harbor City, CA 

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