Cambridge, MA. (Top40 Charts/ MelodyTrip) - MelodyTrip (www.melodytrip.com) today announced the launch of The Festies, the US
Music Festival awards. Melodytrip.com is the destination for music festival fans nationwide, featuring the FestivalFinder , a searchable database of thousands of music festivals, live coverage, breaking news a network of festival bloggers, and many more festival related features and tools.
MelodyTrip decided to launch the Festies for several reasons. The growth and popularity of music festivals in the last several years has been nothing short of explosive. Music festivals are now the heart and soul of the US concert industry, and fans want to learn about them, talk about them with other fans and debate the merits of them. It has taken an incredible amount of energy, creativity, imagination, and hard work by tens of thousands of festival directors, producers, promoters, and staff to make this happen. Yet, even with an overload of music industry awards programs, up until now, there has been no dedicated forum to honor and thank the people who have enriched the US music landscape with hundreds of wonderful events.
The Festies will now fill the void, creating excitement and debate among fans and recognizing the festivals and the people who make them happen. Matt Casey, Founder of MelodyTrip, remarked, "While award programs such as the Grammys and MTV Music Awards do a great job recognizing the accomplishments of artists in studios and arenas, some of the most memorable musical experiences are happening on camp grounds and city parks, under blue skies and moonlight nationwide. That is why we have launched The Festies."
Artists nominated for best festival performance include Bruce Springsteen (New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Fest, Radiohead (Bonnaroo), the Flaming Lips (Austin City Limits) My Morning Jacket (Coachella) and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (Sasquatch).
Among the nominees for Best Festival are New Orleans Jazz & Heritage, South by Southwest (Austin), and CMA (Nashville). Bonnaroo (Manchester, TN) Coachella (Indio, CA) and Austin Limits are finalists in this category and among the favorites in the Best Rock Festival category.
For the most part, awards will be granted only to US festivals, but there is a category for Best International Festival which includes T in the Park (Scotland), Benicassim (Spain) Roskilde (Denmark), Big Day Out (Australia) and the Reading/Leeds Festival, which is held in the music festival world headquarters, at least for now! (England).
Awards will go out to the best festival in all major genres and other categories will include Festival Producer of the Year, Most Scenic Festival Site, Best Emerging Festival, and Best Festival Website and many others. Voters will automatically be entered into a random drawing for free airfare and tickets to any US music festival this summer. Fans can also nominate themselves as Festival Fan of the Year. Contestants will become eligible themselves by writing an essay of 500 words or less describing why they are that fan, and the winner will be recognized along side the other award winners and will also receive an all expenses paid trip to the US music festival of their choice this Summer!
Fans will be able to vote at https://melodytrip.com/MTFesties/Festies.aspx starting March 1. Fan voting will be representing 1/3 of the overall score. MelodyTrip will enlist 10 of the top music bloggers nationwide as our expert voting panel, and the final 1/3 of the score will be determined by the MelodyTrip staff, which has exhaustively tracked the festival scene throughout 2006, and is gearing up for another exciting season. Casey said, "We wanted to put the voting in the hands of the fans, but we also wanted to level the playing field somewhat since some festivals are much bigger than others in terms of attendees, and members of individual festival's websites, newsletters, fan clubs, etc." The winners will be announced March 19, so stay tuned!
