BLUES NEWS: October 2016 Columbia Blues Festival postponed

Some sad news, but with hope for the future if enough of us care to shoot some arrows at the fundraising targets - you might be surprised how many possible donors you know... looking for corporate and personal donors - no donation too small. :)

These fine folks have brought Columbia a great festival for decades - free to all - and we could all pitch in a little to help keep it going: Here's the nutshell, then you can read the entire piece:

"The organization’s leaders hope to partner with people, groups and companies who share WOMP’s dedication to providing music to the community, and help keep the festival a vibrant part South Carolina’s cultural heritage."

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Oct. 10, 2016

Columbia Blues Festival to be postponed

COLUMBIA, SC – The Columbia Blues Festival, a long-standing free concert presented by a group of community volunteers known as Word of Mouth Productions (WOMP) will be postponed, the group announced today.

“We are sorry to disappoint our music fans, but a number of circumstances have made it impossible to bring the festival to Columbia this Saturday, Oct. 15,” said Geoffrey Graves, one of WOMP’s founders. “Following last year’s thousand-year flood and Hurricane Matthew this week, we literally had a flood of events come together to make an October deadline impossible to meet.”

Graves said that arts funding was reduced because priorities needed to go to flood relief, which was expected. However, costs rose this year and our festival headliners committed to other dates outside the region.

“Outdoor events pose challenges that cannot always be overcome, so reluctantly, we must postpone Columbia’s 21st Blues Festival because we don’t want to cancel it entirely,” Graves said. “Grant monies are always appreciated but never assured, and we know that our normal funding channels had many demands placed on them in the past few years.

“WOMP wants to continue to offer a free concert to the community but to do so, we’ll need folks to help us,” Graves said. “I hope fans of the festival will help by connecting us to those people, community organizations and corporate entities that are able to contribute various levels of support as donors, sponsors and/or underwriters to keep this grass roots effort alive.”

Graves said that the organization’s leaders hope to partner with people, groups and companies who share WOMP’s dedication to providing music to the community, and help keep the festival a vibrant part South Carolina’s cultural heritage.

According to Graves, the organization will continue to offer concerts in smaller venues. Their next offering is planned for early December and will feature Alejandro Escovedo.

For more information, please visit their Web page at www.wordofmouthproductions.org or call 803-708-4500.

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Speaking of the wonderful music fans and supporters we have in the Carolinas, and particularly for Word of Mouth Productions and all they do to bring great music to the Midlands and beyond... check out this amazing quilt Bobbie Moore made for Anita and Geoffrey Graves from all the T-shirts commemorating the years of festivals. That is the sharing, caring spirit we have in this part of the world - and why I love my adopted home state so much! Much love to WOMP and Bobbie!