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2nd DRAFT
Folk Monsters in Vibescape
May, '04- i was bikescouting into Mexico, on a new route, from Austin. Folk musician bike nomads, Thistle and Doug, told me to check out the Kerrville Folk Festival (KFF) in the Texas Hill Country, as it was on the way (they also cycled in, two weeks after me). What a surprise; KFF is a cryptorevolution; spontaneous, hardly calculated; its radical character hides under a thin film of convention. How droll; avant guarde fusion culture by Hillhippies (or Hipbillies).
Plato utopia banned poets. KFF is his worst nightmare, a real Bardic Republic! And yet it works well, Plato was a facist. Every time discord surfaces at KFF, folks mind their muses and calm down lovingly. In fact its a few nongriots that weaken the festival with a petty politics of territorial seniority over merit. The true powers are the Folk Monsters, of two kinds- there are Stars, famous songsters, untouchable in success, aloof from the mundane details of management, and there are the true monsters, a generation of obscure singer-songwriters homegrown within the festival, a subculture of hyperexpressionism too deep for mass commoditization.
The new party economy can now be imagined as a sustainable festive ecology, an emergent lifestyle based on seasonal migration, microconsumption in a return-to-nature camping format. Some problems remain- how to mitigate the impact of the flashurb on festival grounds; how to improve nomadic thermodynamic efficiency; how to maximise bioregional food consumption, i.e.. The festal cycle is experienced, on site, as an annual pulse, with well defined pre and post phases. The rest of the year the grounds are a ghost town of mothballed infrastructure. On the road the festal cycle is ridden as a wave, north in summer, south in winter. Counter examples exist- i.e. winter skifests.
Socioplasm is the direct person to person community in its village camps and paths. Mass media and automobility atomize socioplasm, killing it. At KFF folks circulate on foot, shopping for consciousness among the campfire music circles. Live "acoustic" music circles are human scaled and at KFF aggregate into a vast Vibescape- a walkable sprawl of music circles. Flash Urbanism/Flashurb- sudden populations, with adaptive support services, as in refugee, squatter, migrant, or festival camps. Post Flash salvage. Social Superfluidity is created by the deprogramming or brainwashing effects of tearing the individual from hum-drum normal life, subjecting her to irregular binging and sleep deprivation, plus food, alcohol, and other drugs in a crowded social crucible, creating a receptive psyche for the festive agenda of a songwriter-centric SongVerse. KFF is so long (3 weeks, plus prep and clean up) its almost sure to rain, a trigger for saturnalial climax where wet masses run riot. Heat, sun, bugs, etc. also break down (sub)urban consciousness.
Over the years the event has gradually repelled the musical redneck of overt racism and right wing sympathy in favor of the folk hippy. Vestiges of Snopsism- ban on drums, dogs (why not a volunteer dog park and kennel?), bamboo (noninvasive in hard scrabble), and "cactus"(spineless edible). There is a strong antiauthoritarian spirit, police infiltrators are sorely resented and, after past excesses, only bust underage drinkers and spy on everyone else. Yet this is one of the gentlest places on earth. KFF is an economic hybrid where (required) capitalistic fees subsidize the (voluntary) communistic staff of some 700. A new generation is plotting to make KFF a radical showcase for permaculture. Biosquatters drool at the chance to scale up their technés. This will be a monumental biosocial laboratory.
As Nietzsche's brain imploded, he foresaw a world of endless holiday. It hasn't happened yet, but for several weeks a year KFF. As "the danger" (Hiedegger) grew in the following century, "the saving power" (ibid.) manifested in a modern festive reality, and the situationist paradise is truly begun. One can now envision an instant progression from refugee camp to festival, given the right tools such as Partytecture.
The most awkward novice is secure in this incubator/nursery. Hundreds of misfits find sanctuary here for one month of the year. i am studying music again, after 30 yrs. neglect. KFF as landing zone for bike migration and world record soaring attempts along the dry line.
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