For those of you, like me, who looked at the venue list for the High Line Festival and wondered to yourself, “This is scattered across multiple venues? How exactly is this considered a festival associated with the High Line?” and were too lazy to look at the geography, David Bowie himself answered part of that question on a post to the Bowienet message board. He says what “holds this particular festival together is that all the venues are on or follow a geographic route in New York called the High Line (an old overhead railway). Hence, the High Line Festival.”
So there you have it. As disgruntled as I am about the conspicuous lack of a live performance by the man himself despite his initial announcement, he is sticking to the original geographic plan. From the original news item on Bowienet, “[t]he 10-day marathon event will take place at street level and at neighbouring venues alongside the High Line.”
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3 responses to “Justification for the Multiple Venues of the High Line Festival”
See, I’m even more lazy and as I knew nothing about the High Line I just assumed it was happening in one venue. So when I read it was over eleven days I was like, “oh, it must be like San Francisco’s Noise Pop.” Okay, now I get it. Such a cool piece of history — turning it into a greenway is a fabulous idea.
Do you know why David was chosen to curate the inaugural event? What’s his connection to the festival producers?
Yeah, it’s too bad that the greenway won’t be finished in time for the festival. It would be way cooler to have the festival actually on the greenway. As for why David was chosen, the founders gave a glossy explanation in the original press release. You can read it in the original Bowienet news item. I get the feeling that they are modeling the Highline Festival on the Meltdown Festival and are just Bowie Superfans. Cause if I was planning a festival with a celebrity curator at the helm, I would for damn sure pick my favorite David to curate. 😉
With the two major snags of 1) Bowie not being able to play at the festival and then 2) the Highline Park not being finished prior to the festival, I wish they would have postponed the whole event until next year when they can do it right. I’m sure the festival will still be great, but David Bowie’s Highline Festival without the David Bowie and without the Highline Park is kind of like going ahead with a strawberry rhubarb pie recipe without any strawberries or rhubarb. Not quite as tasty as expected.