Dublin Soul Picnic mistake

  Last weekend I rambled in to the Dublin soul picnic at the Merrion Square. The Event has been growing nicely and the weather was perfect for this years festival. We got there around 2pm and it would be safe to say the festival site was getting full. The festival is a fundraiser for the Musical Youth Foundation www.myf.ie
The Musical Youth Foundation does some great work, by providing access to musical education to children and most of all for free! This is something that is close to my heart. I always found music at young age teaches you not only to play, but to focus on something and see the benefits of  "keeping at it". I think in a society and  times we live in our attention span has hugely reduced. And if we are bad at it, how can we expect the next generation to do any better? Through music and learning an instrument I found something in my confused teenage years to concentrate on. It thought me that if I would go after something with determination, I could do it. Some people find the same thing in Sports. So never underestimate the power of music!

  But back to the Soul picnic. We did not stay too long due to two things, lack of beer tent :-D, which I can fully understand... The second was lack of program. And I mean here a lack of printed program to see if there was something we'd like to check out. I asked some of the organizers in the Musical Youth Foundation  tent why there was none. I was told that they wanted to keep it as a surprise... I was speechless. A festival that has no program... This is a serious set back for the up and coming artists on the "secret" bill. Sure they got to play in front of a full park, but after a long day of bands who will remember the name of the band that they kind of liked early on the afternoon... So dear festival organizers, take a note that the artist is there not only to play music, but to promote them selves as well. You know what I call concerts where you can't promote your self? Corporate shows! And believe you me I would expect to get paid a hansom fee for them. Rant over ;-)
 
  J.P.