Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Entertainment/2020 February 10

= February 10 =

First music festival
What was the fist modern music festival?--5.169.151.191 (talk) 10:36, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * That article is in desperate need of improvement and expansion...  This blog post suggests that - depending on your interpretation of "modern" - the first may have been the National Jazz and Blues Festival, first held at Richmond in England in 1961.   But that's clearly not true, as that festival took its inspiration from the Newport Jazz Festival, first held in 1954.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 10:49, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * In Britain, there was also the Sidmouth Folk Festival, which started in 1955, and the Beaulieu Jazz Festival, first held in 1956. More information in this source.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 11:12, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * ... and this source refers to, among others, the Cheltenham International Festival (started 1945), the Edinburgh Festival (started 1947), the Nice Jazz Festival (started 1948), and others. Before any of those, there was the National Eisteddfod of Wales. Ghmyrtle (talk) 12:37, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * The Edinburgh Festival article leads one to Glyndebourne Festival Opera which started in 1934, and more searching leads to the Göttingen International Handel Festival which started in 1919. Whether that counts as "modern" (when you say "modern music festival" it is unclear whether one means a modern festival of music or a festival of modern music).  If you mean the first option (a modern festival of music) then what is the cut-off we're using for "modern".  If we mean the second, it depends on what sorts of music we count as "modern" (is it strictly by modern genres of music (jazz, blues, rock, hip hop, etc.) or do we also include older genres of music written in modern times (classical, baroque, etc.)   Definitions matter here.  -- Jayron 32 14:07, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * If we're going classical, then the Three Choirs Festival was first recorded in 1719, but I suspect that depends on your definition of "modern" - see early modern period for example. Alansplodge (talk) 17:12, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Yeah the Bayreuth Festival is from the 1800s but is probably not what you meant by modern. 73.93.153.2 (talk) 17:45, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * acording to me the modern music to start whit blues and not includes modern and contemporaly classical music.--5.169.117.187 (talk) 17:50, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * This article goes with 1954 Newport Jazz Festival linked above, and has the June 1967 Monterey Pop Festival as the first for rock and pop. However, the Wikipedia article for that event cites the Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival which was one week earlier, but less well promoted and attended. Alansplodge (talk) 18:00, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * ... and the August 1965 National Jazz and Blues Festival at Richmond featured the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, and Manfred Mann. "As the official handout explained: ‘Something unheard of is happening at Richmond … for the first time … the pure jazz-men are outnumbered by beat and rhythm-and-blues groups who are no stranger to the hit parade’." The NJBF the following year, 1966, featured Eric Clapton, the Spencer Davis Group, and the Small Faces.   There is probably no definitive answer to the question, however "modern" is defined - music festivals developed incrementally and gradually on both sides of the Atlantic, with each event learning from previous ones.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:06, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * We have an article on rock festival... which may be helpful.  Ghmyrtle (talk) 21:24, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * I suspect that what the OP means by a 'modern music festival' might be a greenfield festival, i.e. a few days of temporary stages and structures and a campsite that are dismantled and leave an empty field in their wake. Archetypically you might think of something like the original Woodstock festival or Glastonbury.  In any event I'd guess that the first of these would be in the early 60's as the early years of something like Newport Jazz was centred around a hotel.Blakk  and ekka 11:54, 11 February 2020 (UTC)
 * No, it would still be the Newport Jazz Festival. While it occurred on the property of the Newport Casino the first year (1954), it was an outdoor event on the lawn outside of the building.  In 1955 it was moved to a local football stadium (now on Salve Regina University's campus) also outdoors.  So if we're looking for the sort of "Sit in a grass field and listen to a bunch of musicians play outdoors" kind of festival, Newport Jazz is it.  -- Jayron 32 17:43, 12 February 2020 (UTC)

Canadian (possibly martimes) children show from late 1970's to mid or late 1980's
I'm not certain, but I think it was called Tree House. The intro theme was "Com with me. We're going to the tree house. Everybody's coming, come along with me". The host had white hair, dressed in white, with a white guitar. He had two puppets, who when mail arrived, would sing "Letters, we get letters. We get lots & lots of letters". Anybody know of this show & remember it? GoodDay (talk) 20:28, 10 February 2020 (UTC)

I believe I found it. It aired on CKCO-TV. -- GoodDay (talk) 21:16, 10 February 2020 (UTC)


 * (edit conflict, posting anyway, since you made me go through this) I couldn't find a lot, but it looks like there was a show called Tree House broadcast by CKCO with "Danny Caughlin. Left to right...Pat Ludwig, Ted Rooney, Betty Thompson, Danny, Ken and Terry Thomas. Ken and Terry did the puppets.". Also mentioned here, where he's called 'Danny Coughlin'. And here's a clip ---Sluzzelin talk  21:22, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Yep, that's definitely the program. Caughlin's 12-stringer was always out of tune & the original puppets were named Ralphie & Leroy. GoodDay (talk) 21:48, 10 February 2020 (UTC)
 * Note that in the opening credits of the YouTube clip the chap's name is given as "Danny Coughlan". Deor (talk) 16:22, 12 February 2020 (UTC)