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Permalink Reply by juniper berri on April 23, 2009 at 12:12pm

Jason-this was originally posted onto 'Performances at GO!'. Seems fitting as well here for you.
Thanks for all your dedication and love of arts to help create this great event! ~jb


Just my 2 cents as a long time Duke city resident and supporter of the arts, textile and performance...

I attended the first 3 GO! Festivals as a volunteer for artist friends/booth support. Long hot days.

The first 2 were a little rough, granted the idea was art- and not perfomance based. It showed, and was heard. (wince) It was loud and jagged and literally irratating. But an effort was being made and we support that.

The 3rd- well, it just exploded with a fusion of art and sound and movement. It was incredible and
I know we all loved it all weekend, so did the booths around us and for that matter everyone we talked to.Opening night was so electric and fun.All weekend we were treated to guitartist, folk music, marachi, cuban drummers/dancers, break dancers, Flamenco dancers, and the duke cities colorful talent pool of belly dancers. Plus MORE!

And I must say it is dissapointing to hear that such a artist eccentric event would be dismissive on an aspect that added so much needed dimension.Good belly dancing is an ancient form of expression that is unique to the individuel doing it, and unfortunatly gets an underserved bad rap. IBut that is just as ignorant as saying all artists are flaky.Good artists cringe at this biased, generalized assumption..Your entertainment coordinator knows (knew?) the difference of good and bad-and had a real zest for staging/timing/layering with all the performances- it was performance art on a sizable level and created for us the vision fo the GO! Festival; a multi faceted arts event to showcase the myriad of Albuquerque artistic talent!
So spicy and colorful and intense and...Albuquerque.

We are still attending. The festival is ever evolving--- but that was a unique year
and the performance aspect has just not been the same.

This is my humble 2 cents ~ Viva la GO!