Just sent my sister ( a non-whistler ) a link to the Mexican whistle thread that I started a coupla days ago. She said " Wow, those people are SO funny!! Isn’t there a convention or something where you could meet them all?"
I told her that there were a lot of Irish music festivals but nothing specifically whistle oriented.
But why not??? It would be a major blast! Guest artists. Maybe make a try for a Guiness Book record for most simultaneous whistles played at one time. A chance to try out all those nifty whistles you’ve been hearing about. Tons of possibilities. Most importantly, a chance to meet all of our C&F friends face to face.
Anyone experienced in organizing such events? Any interest? Next summer?
I think it should be held in London, UK. Lots of whistlers here!
Well, I think there’s 3 of us, NickT, Phil Doleman & myself.
On 2002-07-16 07:34, Martin Milner wrote:
I think it should be held in London, UK. Lots of whistlers here!Well, I think there’s 3 of us, NickT, Phil Doleman & myself.
Great! Can you pencil us in for a date at Wembly?
A whistle convention sounds like a great idea. I don’t have any experience organizing one, but I’ve had lots of fun spending time at other get togethers (informal or formal) with people with the same interests, most notably with boomerangers (and you think whistle people are odd).
Such an event has been discussed before, in fact a couple of years ago I polled the message board about this, set a potential month and location, contacted several of the top whistle makers to gauge their interest in attending, and got a tentative commitment from L.E. McCullough to be a guest instructor.
However, these events are time consuming to organize, (I’ve done similar things before), and at the time I was working 60 hours a week at my regular job. More importantly, while there was interest from people on the message board, my experience with these things is that only about a 1/3 - 1/4 of the people who say they’ll attend will actually put their money where their mouth is when time comes, and I couldn’t afford to take a chance on reserving a location and securing commitments from well known guest instructors, without significantly more interest and commitment than there was at the time.
There are ways to make this happen, but as I said, it’s a bit complicated, expensive, and very time consuming. I think it’s a very worthwhile project, however I seem to either have the time, or the resources, but not enough of both at the same time to pull it off.
It’s funny you should bring this up Paul, Dale and I just swapped a brief e-mail about this subject a couple of days ago.
Loren
[ This Message was edited by: Loren on 2002-07-16 09:17 ]
i think that is a great idea. if anyone organizes it, take my email down and let me know if i can help out.
cheers
I’m sure Dale would LOVE to have us all come over for a BBQ in his back yard.
Isn’t Sarah in China? I call dibs on her room, Dale. The rest of you can camp in the back yard. 
I think that would be a fun Idea to host a C and F convention!!!
I mean, there’s Trekkie conventions (Star Trek), there’s Fan Club conventions of every kind, there’s a Handlebar Mustache Convention (heard about it on Curious World…), there’s Cooking conventions, Computer Conventions, Business Conventions, ect.
So why not a C&F convention!?!
Wouldn’t a convention be great! Depending on where it was held, if it was next summer sometime my family and I might actually be able to go (since my husband will AT LAST be done with school, and also have three weeks of vacation)…
On 2002-07-16 11:08, The Whistling Elf wrote:
So why not a C&F convention!?!
HELLOOOOO, McFLY!!!
I could swear someone just explained why not…
On 2002-07-16 11:28, Loren wrote:
On 2002-07-16 11:08, The Whistling Elf wrote:
So why not a C&F convention!?!HELLOOOOO, McFLY!!!
I could swear someone just explained why not…
Hey, Loren, go back to practicing your Olwell! 
Good advice Bloomfield, the Olwell clearly has better recall. 
Loren
[ This Message was edited by: Loren on 2002-07-16 12:13 ]
On 2002-07-16 11:08, The Whistling Elf wrote:
I think that would be a fun Idea to host a C and F convention!!!
Well, you all heard it! The Elf volunteered to host us. Elf, is this coming Saturday good for you? I’ll be bringing a busload of my buddies, about forty of us. Say, 10 am?
Ah! … Ah!
I did not volunteer to host one…!
I just said it would be a neat thing if someone did host one…
One good way (and maybe an easier way) to organize a C&F convention would be to hold it at a celtic festival or highland games somewhere. If nothing else, we could just have a C&F booth where we sell whistles and C&F merchandise and have lessons and jam sessions.
Ummm… I have taught whistle lessons to beginners and let me tell you, having 10 beginning whistlers all screaching away on their whistles is about as close to my personal hell as I think I’ll ever come. I dread the idea of 100s of beginning whistlers screaching away. No convention for me.
Chris, the grump
Dale has suggested this on several occasions (booth at an existing festival etc.), and it’s a great idea. I don’t really view it as the same sort of thing as stand alone whistle event - I mean in terms of the level of excitement and turnout you’d get, but hey, it would be a start.
I don’t think people will buy plane tickets and schedule their vacations around that sort of thing though - you’re mostly going to get people within easy driving distance I suspect.
Great idea though.
Loren
[ This Message was edited by: Loren on 2002-07-16 14:03 ]
I thought the convention was at Brian Lee’s house this weekend!
Seriously, though, I think Loren’s right (whoa, did I really say that? ). I’ve noticed that several people seem to have little mini-conventions now and again close to where they live. Our Rocky Mountain Sessions which seem to happen about twice a year, the next one being, yes, this weekend at Brian’s in SLC. It would be a lot of fun to get everyone together, but it doesn’t seem too likely to happen.
Perhaps this is good. Based on some of the discussions on this board, it is hard to tell what would happen if we weren’t sepparated by geography.
Chris: Amen.
Tom
Like I always say"
“Everybody wants to come to the party but nobody wants to buy the beer.”
I guess we could do a Burning Man or something. or meet in Santa Cruz and drive the rats away…then we could work on the rodents.
But people do meet at camping parks that have family/group sites. That 's what the bluegrassers do. Whistles and coin-op showers…ah,.. the sounds of summer.
I know, we’ll meet at various geographic locations then upload via satellite and do “we whistle the world.” I think MJ is unemployed and could write the lyrics, but we need Joe Cocker to really lose control.
Oh yeah and somebody get the skinny chick for Dazed and Bloomfield..