Friday
Apr132007
How does one get to be invited to Germany as a guest at Filkcontinental?
Posted on 
Friday, April 13, 2007 at 9:20PM
Friday, April 13, 2007 at 9:20PM
Question: "I've heard so many great things about Filkcontinental. How does one get to be invited as a Guest?" I asked concom member Katy Dröege-Macdonald, and this was her reply about how they choose their guests:
"1) We try to introduce new music to German filkdom but also try to judge what would most fit our current crowd's taste. And of course the concom's own preferences play a factor. :-)
2) We look for someone who enjoys being part of a big international community and likes to mingle, meet new people, be in circles, be *present.* We're not looking for "the big star on stage" who just gives a concert and then offers nothing more to the folk attending the con. We prefer those who happily self-identify as "filkers" because they appreciate the community. (That doesn't rule out the possibility of inviting "BNFs" but maybe helps explain why we have had those as GoHs who wouldn't have thought they had a "chance" ...)
3) Money has to be an issue, as well. We can't invite a group from overseas every year, but tend to balance that out every other year or so by inviting those who are geographically closer to us. We are in the lucky position that there are many many wonderfully talented folk from Britain to choose from as well, and they are cheaper to bring over to Filkcontinental. This works great for our budgeting.
And then, the closeness to the British con is also an aside factor for our guest choices. We won't invite someone who has just been in Britain last year or even the same year but try to have a few years in between respectively invite someone who has not been in Britain yet."
"1) We try to introduce new music to German filkdom but also try to judge what would most fit our current crowd's taste. And of course the concom's own preferences play a factor. :-)
2) We look for someone who enjoys being part of a big international community and likes to mingle, meet new people, be in circles, be *present.* We're not looking for "the big star on stage" who just gives a concert and then offers nothing more to the folk attending the con. We prefer those who happily self-identify as "filkers" because they appreciate the community. (That doesn't rule out the possibility of inviting "BNFs" but maybe helps explain why we have had those as GoHs who wouldn't have thought they had a "chance" ...)
3) Money has to be an issue, as well. We can't invite a group from overseas every year, but tend to balance that out every other year or so by inviting those who are geographically closer to us. We are in the lucky position that there are many many wonderfully talented folk from Britain to choose from as well, and they are cheaper to bring over to Filkcontinental. This works great for our budgeting.
And then, the closeness to the British con is also an aside factor for our guest choices. We won't invite someone who has just been in Britain last year or even the same year but try to have a few years in between respectively invite someone who has not been in Britain yet."
Reader Comments