Anderton Posted June 11, 2001 Share Posted June 11, 2001 This Memorial Day, over a million people participated in the Detroit Electronic Music Festival. As we all know, thousands of people died, the entire city was looted, and Ecstasy was being given away on the streets to pre-schoolers...NOT!! While other cities clamp down on the late-night club scene and ban raves, Detroit is starting to create our very own, homegrown "love parade," like they have in Europe every year. I believe the economic impact to Detroit has been very favorable, and it seems certain this tradition will continue on next year. So Boston, Toronto, Orlando -- and all you other cities that have worked so hard to kill this scene -- maybe you should study Detroit's example. Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Klopmeyer Posted June 11, 2001 Share Posted June 11, 2001 Craig, I'd love to say that the human race had taken a step forward in evolution and you were right about this. However... There were NOT over a million people at the DEMF. Based on first-hand accounts from our staff and magazine representatives that attended (included some from the Music Player Network), we received estimates in the range of 30,000 to 100,000 people. The "million person" figure is, apparently, a vastly over-inflated number that's purely for hyping the festival for next year's sponsors. BTW, they stated over 1.5 million last year, which was also crap (though I'd heard it could have been as high as 200,000). Ah well. Let's just see if my hometown erupts into riot when our basketball team repeats their championship in a few more days. http://www.musicplayer.com/ubb/frown.gif - Jeff Marketing Communications for MI/Pro Audio My solo music and stuff They Stole My Crayon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hippie Posted June 11, 2001 Share Posted June 11, 2001 That is great to hear, being from the Detroit area. I've always said there is a great silent majority of music lovers here in Detroit. I see they're not so quiet anymore! We also have the world famous "Woodward dream cruise", where everyone pulls out their hot rods, classic cars and parties their asses off for a weekend. We all know, hot rods & rock-n-roll music go together soooo well! Hey, maybe there is hope for this town after all. -Hippie In two days, it won't matter. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alphajerk Posted June 11, 2001 Share Posted June 11, 2001 due to a typo in the drug laws in DC, exstacy was LEGAL until a couple years ago, 2 maybe. anyways, this news team got a hold of it and "busted" the big club in town and found out policemen were working there moonlighting and not arresting people for exstacy. however, the police were merely doing their job as it was legal, they didnt bother with arresting "offenders". in all the interviews with them as the news reporter was flabberghasted that they wouldnt bother with arresting drug users, the police explained that they NEVER had problems there, everone was always behaved, and there was really no reason for them to do anything. they stated that it was the most civilized gathering of people they knew of. fucking news reporters spoiling people having some fun. the laws were "fixed" and the club was shut down for a while. WTF! alphajerk FATcompilation "if god is truly just, i tremble for the fate of my country" -thomas jefferson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted June 12, 2001 Author Share Posted June 12, 2001 <> Okay, I stand corrected...but 30K - 100K ain't too shabby, either. Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mr. rob Posted June 12, 2001 Share Posted June 12, 2001 Its funny how neglected the scene is. Really it disturbs me that there's tremendous talent, and the machinations of whatever tastemakers fancy, or market data just doesnt show a place for good techno, and other electronic music. There are guys like Ritchie Hawtin or Carl Craig that should be household names, but instead we have guys sampling police songs and dancing with pay by the hour models. How many people even know who Juan Atkins is? Maybe it will be like punk rock, it got big in the uk, and it took the us about 10 years to finally catch on, but when it blew up it blew up big. I mean, a lot of electronic dance music, a good portion has roots in chicago, detroit...the midwest in general. Its in the water or something, at least in the local scene's. Theres a recession looming too, things will get "interesting"(re: hardcore) in the next six months, maybe people will get sick of the level of shallowness on the airwaves and there ill be a break through(moby doesnt count). My only worry is if the music that broke through was some really bad trance, or some not spectacular garage and it spiralled out of control with nothing but really poor quality garage and trance clone bands from the hit making machine, that would be hell. Face it, they killed alternative rock already, maybe they'll slice and dice some as they call it "electronica", that would be too bad because there are incredibly talented people in whatever genre you pick. In the end who cares. If the musics good and verybody is having a good time its cool, but the guys who originated the music are not living the high life, theyre not cach money millionaires. This message has been edited by mr. rob on 06-12-2001 at 02:08 AM Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Curve Dominant Posted June 12, 2001 Share Posted June 12, 2001 Craig, Very cool. I wish I knew about this, but I've locked myself in my studio of late. Perhaps we could entice you to come and consult us in organizing our up-coming Illadelphia Global Soul Phestival. curvedominant Eric Vincent (ASCAP) www.curvedominant.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anderton Posted June 12, 2001 Author Share Posted June 12, 2001 <> Sounds tempting... Craig Anderton Educational site: http://www.craiganderton.org Music: http://www.youtube.com/thecraiganderton Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/craig_anderton Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hiraga Posted June 12, 2001 Share Posted June 12, 2001 Mr. rob, come to Euroland! The scene have been big, ever expanding and evolving for +20 years here. Too bad it seems that only the commercial crap reaches the US shores.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeff Klopmeyer Posted June 12, 2001 Share Posted June 12, 2001 Originally posted by Anderton: Okay, I stand corrected...but 30K - 100K ain't too shabby, either. Absolutely. Even with my generally cynical bent in regard to the ability of people to act civilized under even normal cicumstances, I happen to hold a perhaps romantic hope that the power of creativity as expressed through music should always be something that draws people together. Notice how the news will almost never cover items that didn't happen? If you're at Woodstock and women get raped and cars get turned over and campgrounds get set afire, you're sure to get the top slot on the news at 11:00. Have a peaceful gathering where no one gets hurt, and there's nothing to report, apparently. I don't watch TV news anymore...just for this reason. - Jeff Marketing Communications for MI/Pro Audio My solo music and stuff They Stole My Crayon Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffk Posted June 12, 2001 Share Posted June 12, 2001 It went on for 3 days...I bet there was 30-100k people there each day. The day I went was quite crowded and folks were all having a great time...until it got shut down by the weather! they had politicians recognizing the contributions of Atkins, May etc and said that the event brought a lot of money to the city in the form of hotel reservations etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Felix_dup1 Posted June 12, 2001 Share Posted June 12, 2001 Way to go, Detroit! Hopefully, the success (and exposure) from DEMF will encourage other events like this and new fans everywhere. Unfortunately, MTV's coverage of the event during last week's AMP (on MTV2) wasn't anything to write home about. But it was better than no coverage at all! Nice to see coverage of an electronic music event that's not focused solely on drugs. That's not what the scene is about! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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