leonardcohenforum.com

KimSolez wrote:Wendy that is not a conflict at all. This year that festival is October 10-18. https://www.facebook.com/celticcolours That is well after the dates we are proposing.

I know the dates of the festival thanks but my point was that it would not be feasible to make 2 trips to Canada in the same month or, indeed, to go direct from Edmonton to Halifax (where incidentally we would want to spend a few days before the start of the 2016 festival on Oct 7) since that would mean too long away from home.

W

Yes I am sorry if it does not work for you, Wendy, but for many people the possibility of synergies with the film festival would considerably enhance the Leonard Cohen event. An intriguing new feature!

Dear Friends,

Thanks for your active participation in this discussion here on the Forum, and thanks to so many of you who have sent comments and ideas by private emails. A lot of our active Event goers have shared their views about 2016, and about the alteration between Europe and North America.

Before any further analysis I have to remind that for any Event we need a group of activists who are willing and able to organize everything locally. This means that many cities mentioned in this thread (like Nashville, Los Angeles) are not realistic locations.

From those European members who have been active Event goers and have emailed me, I have learned that only a few would go to Edmonton, and only one to St John’s.

Many US members have told me that it would be too complicated and expensive to get to St. John’s. And only some of them want to fly to Europe.

I still find it important to keep on alternating between Europe and North America, in one way or another. This way we can offer something to most of our members.

With very limited number of members willing to fly over Atlantic, the only logical outcome for 2016 is that we need to split the Event into two: one in North America, and one in Europe.

This makes particular sense, given the cross-Atlantic participation challenges and trends. This would first be an one-time test.

This way we solve a few problems, and we will also see if this could be a model for future happenings. We might change our mind again after 2016 but for that year it could be the best thing to do, especially because we can’t know if there will be a farewell tour or not.

The American and European Events should not be simultaneous, so that a hard-core Event goer would be able to do both.

Kim has confirmed us that he and the local team will anyway organize a big LC Festival in Edmonton. In my opinion this should be our North American Event, too. We could keep St. John’s in reserve for the future. Kim has also promised to contact Vicky in St John’s, to find ways to work together.

Kim’s current plan is to have the dates of the Edmonton 2016 Event coincide with the International Edmonton Film Festival (late September or early October).

This would allow for a Summer Event in Europe that is separated in time from the North American Festival.

We would still have plenty of time to find the best way to do the European Event. There is no need to make the final decision before Fall 2015.

Henning has told us that he might do an Event in Hamburg (but only if there will be no tour). We have other options as well. We could do another bigger get-together on Hydra in summer 2016, or merge the Event with a Walking Weekend type happening somewhere in Europe (that would perhaps give us a new type of Event, with less organizing tasks for the local committee).

I don’t think these two happenings would be in competition either – they can support and promote each other, with participants simply attending what is easiest and least costly. Different types of events may also attract different people, too!

To summarize, what about doing two Events in 2016: one in Edmonton, and another one somewhere in Europe.

Waiting for your comments!!!

Jarkko

PS. Our next biennial, odd-year Hydra meetup will be in summer 2015 regardless of the 2016 plans. Let's keep the exact timing in summer 2015 open until we know if there will be something else worth seeing during the summer (this is NOT a hint, we simply do not know, nobody does).

My life just got more expensive .

Thanks for all that summarizing, Jarkko. No one can ever say we didn't start thinking about this ahead of time. Lots of good reasoning, as well as other ideas. Attendance and organizers are crucial. Your ideas for variety, as well, are too, i.e. an expanded Walking Weekend, Hydra en masse, etc. I like experiencing new areas of the world, and would love to return to Hydra.

Dear friends,

I live in St. John's, and for me, a trip to anywhere is a major expedition, so I usually only go where my heart is beckoned. I am both saddened ( for you) and gladdened (for me) that most of the Cohen-event people don't want to come here. I am sad for all the beauty and joy you'll miss, and glad for the time and energy I'll save. If Vicky really wants to do this, I'll help her in any way I can. And, if not, I will always welcome any of you who are drawn to come this far for beauty. However, I am not inclined to cajole and coerce the reluctant ones.

We Newfoundlanders have a robust heritage of fiery love for our island. And there is also a tradition of ambivalence about Mainlanders and other Come-From-Aways. We even sing about it.( A lot!)

This tiny selection of some of my favourite Newfoundland songs may be illuminating...

Hmm... what am I trying to say here...on the one hand: "In a world of romance, don't miss out on the chance to be dancin' the St. John's Waltz..."
...on the other hand: "Thank God we're surrounded by water"

or, simply,
Best wishes to one and all,
Anne

http://youtu.be/ObzPjKh4wS8
http://youtu.be/nloH_akwNWc
http://youtu.be/E-MP3gT1-kA
http://youtu.be/1mLY4XjuP-k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vUBYmSLidKE

Job search for part-time work on the horizon... period.

St. Johns sounds wonderful to me. Hope to go there one day for a visit, even if not an Event.

I was at Lincoln Uk 1998 dont think there has been one here since so how about Liverpool or Manchester UK ?

Anne,
I would love to visit Newfoundland, it's the only province that I have never visited but not for a lack of want. Newfoundlanders are well know known in Canada for their warmth, hospitality and kick ass kitchen parties. The land is beautiful and full of history.

I was surprised that the airfare from Europe to St. John's was so expensive, you can't get much closer to Europe.

Kim, that was quite the adventure you had on Signal Hill, I can imagine the shop girl's face as she watched the evening news that night.

Yes I feel for the Signal Hill shop girl in a way. She never intended to be sending two middle aged people to their deaths with her advice! Luckily we were saved and it all turned out well!

Best regards. - Kim

http://www.fortedmontonpark.ca/ar/ Very cool this augmented reality initiative of Fort Edmonton Park involving bus benches all around the city! We will be able to make fun use of this for the 2016 Edmonton International Leonard Cohen Event! http://www.slideshare.net/ksolez/leonar ... ed-in-2016 The possibilities are endless here!

liverpoolken wrote:
dublin is one of the most exciting and culturally sophisticated cities in the world a city steeped in history architecture poetry music theatre and literature with more galleries museums and theatres than you could shake a stick at.. and of course combined with all the former delights you have the opportunity to visit the city's world famous pubs …so if we are struggling to persuade forum members to come and join us in such a brilliantly endowed city I can't see a future for our biennial events on the same scale as we have been enjoying in the past

harald wrote: [...]Last, my personal attendance: In years with concerts of Mr. Cohen I´ll probably not attend any event, as all funds of time and money would go in concert trips. If there are no concerts I´d probably attend a European event and at least think about a Northamerican event.

In the end I think it comes down to = Leonard doing tours and lack of funds in difficult times.

We've never been to an Event or Hydra, but always want to go. When Dublin came up as the location, our small band of followers all agreed we would definitely try to go to that one. But the tour just kept going, and when looking at airfares just from LAX, adding up the hotel, etc-- it became obvious that we should save that large amount of money for the tour travel (if/when etc etc). Surely our circumstances and thoughts on this are common among Cohenites. Plus, a lot of the British and Europeans have seen each other several times over the last few years, so missing friends is not the big factor as it likely used to be.

I think until Leonard officially stops touring the Events etc will have just 'okay' attendance-- and that seems completely normal to me. Splitting it into NA /Euro events is a good idea, at least for the time being, as it affords both sides of that particular ocean a chance to attend with reduced costs.

As far as the Edmonton/ Saint Johns discussion goes, I feel for both places. It's hard not to get behind Kim and Edmonton, as the effort and determination come through even in this thread-- surely it will be a successful event if held there. And St Johns looks like a great place for an event-- but the travel would be off-putting for many-- and it seems best to save this location for later. Even out here in the Pacific we've discussed staging a future event. We're confident we could put on a good show and it is a great place to visit. But we realize that our location is simply impractical if Leonard is still touring. (Our train tracks are made by the same people who set up the St John's line )

I'd say go with Edmonton for this round and save St John's and any other difficult to reach location for when touring is definitely over. Any far away or difficult to reach location faces the likelihood of low attendance until touring is definitely over. Touring may already be over-- we just don't have official word. Once touring is over officially, be it now, 2016, or 2020, then Event participation will likely pick up dramatically, and going back to one location per Event Year will probably be practical again.

Edmonton is sounding good

Air Canada to start year-round St. John's-London service http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundl ... -1.2661616. I thought this might be interesting news, given some of the comments posted earlier in the thread.

http://www.leonardcohenfiles.com/2016plans.html

More info to follow in Fall 2015...

Thanks to Willy and Wijbe & Co for keeping the Big Event for Europe!
Really hope that some info will be revealed before Fall 2015...

We have a meeting about the next steps for the Edmonton event on next Tuesday morning the 19th of August. Further details will be announced by early September 2014 at the latest.

Best regards. - Kim