(picture courtesy of our very own virtualwashington.com)
05.21.02
THE CHERRY FESTIVAL, IN WASHINGTON, ILLINOIS, ON THE NIGHT OF WEDNESDAY, MAY 29TH, PROUDLY PRESENTS:
Tyler Smith (9:00-9:20)
Seven Star (9:30-10:10)
Angeltread (10:20-11:00)
It looks like it'll be a fun night of acoustic rocking to full band rocking to metal moshing. We're gonna freak out the squares.
04.09.02 Well kids, even though the beginnings of GND'02 were strongly anti-cherry fest, it looks like we are selling out and joining forces for this year's Cherry Festival Community Night at the end of May/beginning of June!!
After being emailed by the Washington Chamber of Commerce, we were asked to book bands that 'let the kids dance, hang out, or whatever'.
So after talking to a couple acoustic acts and two full bands about the possibility of providing the entertainment, things are looking good. Just keep checking back here for more happenings as they come, and be sure to tell your friends to come to the Cherry Fest on the last week of May.
On a side note, how would you like it if GND '02 was to be held on Kennel Lake? Just a thought that my brother had. . .let me know what you think. adios.
2.26.02 Thanks for checking out this page again! It looks like some interest in this cause is beginning to start up again. I have been in contact with our board members as of late, and some great ideas have been thrown around. Here's a quick rundown of some of them from IM conversation excerpts:
1. cavemouseSIU: hey I may have a play written and performing this summer, I was wondering if we could get stage time to perform it a GND. . .and it has like 15 20 characters
cavemouseSIU: and we do all of them with crazy costume changes and stuff
2. cavemouseSIU:we should have a disc golf to coincide with Good Neighborday like in the early morning before the day starts
3. fonz51: [we can] focus on support for stopping lukemia, suicide, drunk driving. . .like three issues that have hit our comminuty hard [and have lost friends from] in this past year
cavemouseSIU: seriously you should contact the yellow ribbon people. . .they give free speeches on suicide
fonz51: do you like that idea?. . .or is it too over dramatic?
cavemouseSIU: it might go over board I don't htink the fest should concentrate on the badness it should on the other hand represent fun and an escape from the norm
. . .so in the spirit of that last idea (#3), we have decided to attempt to schedule a week-long series of speakers to address these issues. Most likely it will take the form of a free series of speakers, most likely held on the evenings the town square during the preceeding week of the concert. By doing this, we can learn something useful that we, in our community, can relate to. These will be held up until the festival day, where, as Casey said, Good Neighbor Day 'will represent fun and an escape from the norm'. . which is what everyone wants anyway!
Well, give me your thoughts on this, and let me know if you want to help. . until next time
10.21.01
woah, it's been a long time, been a long time since i left you. because of the fact that i'm away at school in champaign, and it's nine months until good neighbor day '02, not much has happened.
the next thing lined up to do for the festival is to register the good neighbor day name with the state to be a legitimate not-for-profit organization that these businesses can donate to, so we can donate to other causes. also we've compiled a master list of pretty much all the businesses in the town that support other causes that hopefully may support ours.
brad and casey had an idea last year for a winter festival at the legion hall with some of the gnd artists, and it looks like something is happening with that, only at the old napa building! SATURDAY NOVEMBER 24TH OLD NAPA THANKSGIVING FESTIVAL is soon approaching, thanks to the guys in seven star. go to the local shows page for more info on that. it looks like it'll be alot of fun.
and last but not least, two new additions to the gnd '02 band line-up are here. . . the antics and mr. opporknockity.
their manager, don king, emailed me from the springfield area after hearing about our festival and sent a press kit with their cds in it. and i have to say i like what i heard. pure rock. these guys have been around awhile and have played with guys from styx and head east. cool huh?
so things are going nicely, just remember to sign up for the yahoo group if you haven't yet for a monthly email on events that are happening and ways you can help us. until then.
9/09/01
If you're new to this site, i have to apologize to you. I had updates from the middle of july until the beginning of september to show everyone what was in the works for next year's festival, but all of those updates were lost! so i'll try to update all of those past updates by memory as i remember what they were.
here's a rundown of the major gnd02 news stories for the newcomers.
in the first city council meeting of august, the city pledged their support to our cause, and said they would donate a couple hundred dollars to the advertising of our music festival. along with that, various washington, IL city businesses joined up with that idea, and i received verbal commitments to donations for next summer from the Washington State Bank, Heartland Bank, Holland's Mercantile, and myobiz.com. other businesses asked me to ask them closer to next summer but definitely said they would consider helping out.
next summer we want to make the july 20th music and arts festival bigger and better. this means 10 hours of music, talks, nintendo, art displays, free food, and a rootbeer keg! a number of area bands have contacted me wishing to play in our event. the newcomer bands are sicks84, the red hot valentines, waste of time, roscoe plush, some dude defauw found at SIU. go to the local bands section on this site to find out more about them.
we are also trying to recruit semi-major nationally known bands to bring more recognition to our festival. I have either received email or phone responses from a few of the bands back.
if anyone wants to help or be in charge of anything, let me know and i'd be happy to listen
i want this festival to be just a huge coming together of our community.
i want everyone to have their own ideas that we can bring together for this week of festivities. that way we all can come away from the experience having learned something positive and worthwhile and at the same time have alot of fun.
our very own annie white said she'll work on an art exhibit to showcase local talent, along with settting up a huge canvas for everyone in attendance to contribute to artistically. casey defauw wants to get a voter registration table set up and have someone speak about the importance of democracy and voting. i want to get a week of voluteer activities started for the preceeding week of gnd02. we can volunteer at the nursing home, clean up the main drag of town, help little old ladies cross the street. . .whatever. i want to get guest speakers to talk to the crowd. defauw is talking to our congressmen and our mayor to possibly get their speaking. i need to talk to w.h.i.p. and race for the cure and maybe get their involvement in this event. operation snowball and the washington leadership challenge said they may play a large role in the volunteering.
i am going to give my plea for a location for our festival to be held on the washington community high school grounds at the january school board meeting. i have talked to the superintendant about this idea, and he likes it but has reservations. talk to him or come to the board meeting with me to help convince them of the benefits of our festival. even so, mr. and mrs. grebner were gracious enough to invite us back for another year if our public location doesn't go through. thank you!
sorry for the overall rambling of this section, i'll organize it in the coming weeks.
just join the yahoo group i just set up, vote in the poll, and sign the guestbook if you can to let me know you guys are reading this stuff. and please think of ideas for how we can get this thing even better. thanks. later. -adam
