EWOB Festival 2009: dates

The Twelfth European World of Bluegrass Festival will take place on 21-22-23 May 2009 at 't Trefpunt, Voorthuizen, the Netherlands.

Remember: you read the dates here first on the EBMA's European Bluegrass Blog!

EBMA General Membership Assembly

The EBMA Board of Directors invites you to the Seventh EBMA General Membership Assembly. As an active member of the EBMA, you have the right to attend the assembly as well as the right to vote, elect, and be elected. As a supporting member, you are welcome to attend the assembly.

EBMA's 7th General Membership Assembly
Thursday 1 May 2008, 18:00–19:00
't Trefpunt, Voorthuizen, the Netherlands

Agenda

1. Welcome
2. Acceptance of last years’ AGM minutes
3. Reports of Activity by EBMA Board of Directors for 2007/2008
4. Acceptance of Financial Report 2007
5. Election of EBMA Board of Directors for 2008/2009
6. Election of Financial Auditors for 2008
7. Acceptance of Budget for 2009
8. Changes to Bylaws
a. Change in §1 'with headquarters in Pratteln, Switzerland' [old] to 'with headquarters at the treasurer's office' [new]
9. EBMA Goals for 2008/2009
10. How YOU can be an active part of EBMA!
11. Questions and Answers

Make sure to attend EBMA's European World of Bluegrass 2008 Festival in Voorthuizen, NL (1-3 May) and also the EBMA Open Meeting on Friday 2 May at 11:00. We look forward to meeting you there!

Sincerely,
Paolo Dettwiler
Chair, EBMA Board of Directors

European Bluegrass Directory 2008/2009

Paolo Dettwiler, chairman of the EBMA, reports:

The EBMA is currently working on the next issue of the well known and widely used European Bluegrass Directory, the seventh, heavily updated edition for 2008/2009.

For the second time we will be giving the European Bluegrass Directory away for free in order to reach a lot more people; much like a phone directory. It will be officially presented on 1-3 May 2008 at EBMA’s EWOB Festival 2008 in Voorthuizen, the Netherlands.

That is why we are looking for advertisements – an ad makes sure you will be in the mind of bluegrass people in Europe and around the world for the next two years. Our prices are reasonable (and haven’t changed for over ten years):

full page – €150
half-page – €80
quarter page – €50

Our deadline is 5 April 2008 – the earlier the better. Even if you can’t or don’t want to have an ad, perhaps you can help us with finding new advertisers. Many thanks!

Paolo Dettwiler (e-mail)

Bluegrass Europe #60

The next issue of Bluegrass Europe, the magazine of the European Bluegrass Music Association (EBMA), will be #60 (February-March 2008), marking ten years since the magazine was first published.

The editor, Paolo Dettwiler, who is also chair of the EBMA, wishes to remind everyone that the deadline for news items, concert dates, advertisements, and other material to appear in the next issue is Friday 18 January.

Bluegrass Europe
Paolo R. Dettwiler
Steinenweg 8
CH-4133 Pratteln
Switzerland
Phone: +41 61 821 83 63
Fax +41 61 821 83 64
e-mail

EBMA website upgraded

As part of the continuing improvement of EBMA services, Angelika Torrie, EBMA treasurer and webmaster, reports:

From this moment on, the EBMA's website is based on CMS (content management system - for the experts among you, it's Typo3). It's much easier to maintain and will also enable us to distribute maintenance of specific sections to specialised people. Please check out the new old look and if you spot something that doesn't work, please let me know by e-mail. Thank you for visiting EBMA.ORG!

2008/2009 EBMA European Bluegrass Directory

Thierry Schoysman has now officially started to collect information for the seventh, 2008/2009 edition of EBMA's European Bluegrass Directory. It will be published on the occasion of the 11th EWOB Festival on May 1, 2008. Advertisement enquiries (competitive prices) can be directed at Paolo Dettwiler.

And here is Thierry's invitation to send in your entry!

***
Every two years the EBMA edits a directory containing useful bluegrass contacts in Europe: bands, clubs, festivals, luthiers, promotors, radios, associations, publications, ...

It is now time to prepare the 2008 update. I'm looking for people in every European country who can help updating the data of his region. The idea is to start from the data of last issue. I have those in excel files in which you can update, ad and delete the data you know about.

All suggestions are welcome. Thanks in advance !

***
Chèr(e)s bluegrasseus,

Tous les 2 ans la EBMA édite un annuaire contenant des contacts utiles pour le monde bluegrass européen : groupes, clubs, festivals, luthiers, organisateurs, radios, associations, publications, ...

Il est maintenant temps de préparer la mise à jour 2008. Je recherche des personnes dans chaque pays européen qui peuvent aider à mettre à jour les données de leurs régions. L'idée est de démarrer avec les données de la dernière édition. J'ai des fichiers excel dans lesquels vous
pouvez rajouter, enlever et modifier les données que vous connaissez.

Toutes les suggestions sont les bienvenues. Merci d'avance !

EBMA board meets at Omagh

The EBMA Board met on 1 and 2 September at the 16th Annual Appalachian & Bluegrass Music Festival in Omagh, Northern Ireland to discuss the short- and long-range future of the organisation. The discussion led to new insights and a positive outlook on the future.

Prospective new board members present included Richard Hurst (Northern Ireland) and Dagfinn Pedersen (Norway). Martino Coppo (Italy) will also be proposed for membership of the EBMA board at the elections at next year's Annual General Membership Assembly (1 May 2008).

EBMA membership through PayPal

Angelika Torrie, EBMA treasurer, reports:

The EBMA has now installed PayPal as a secure partner to accept membership fees through the EBMA website. You can now become a member or renew your membership instantly by clicking the appropriate box, and pay with your credit card online. You don't have to own a PayPal account to do this. However, if you prefer to pay through a different channel, please contact us by e-mail.

Bluegrass Europe, Bluegrass Buehne, Strictly Country

On 17 July Rienk Janssen (editor of Strictly Country), Eberhard Finke (editor of Bluegrass Buehne), Friedrich Hog (a well known bluegrass journalist in Germany) and Paolo Dettwiler (editor of Bluegrass Europe) met in Ulm, Germany. The meeting took place in a very positive spirit, underlining the importance of the magazines and taking steps to assure their future.

Rienk Janssen plans to continue editing Strictly Country till 2011. Eberhard Finke will continue as overall editor of Bluegrass Buehne, with Michael Zumstein of the EBMA Board taking care of design and layout. Paolo Dettwiler is prepared to continue editing Bluegrass Europe till 2011, should the EBMA Board want him to do so. Friedrich Hog will take over the duty of editing the Concert Calendar in the middle part of the three magazines.

EBMA looks to the future

The EBMA Board with guests (left to right): Dagfinn Pedersen, Rienk Janssen, Angelika Torrie, Paolo Dettwiler, Lilly Drumeva, Petr Brandejs, Michael Zumstein, Richard Hawkins, Jon Weisberger, Richard Hurst. Photo by Nancy Cardwell.

At the sixth EBMA General Membership Assembly on Thursday 17 May at the EWOB Festival, Voorthuizen, the Netherlands, the EBMA Board was re-elected for the next legal year of the association (1 July 2007-30 June 2008). The present chairman, Paolo Dettwiler, will resign in June 2008 to concentrate on other bluegrass-related projects. Two further Board members will be proposed in 2008 for election by EBMA active members. The association now has 355 paying members and an annual budget of around €8,000. A small surplus in 2006 will be set aside for future projects.

At the EBMA Open Meeting on Friday 18 May, reports from members throughout Europe showed a general impression that bluegrass is clearly on the rise, with several new festivals and growing attendance numbers. The presence of Nancy Cardwell and Jon Weisberger as official IBMA representatives underlined the importance of the tenth EWOB.

Also on Friday 18 May, the Board met to review its current projects and goals for the next year, and welcomed as guests Nancy Cardwell (IBMA), Jon Weisberger (IBMA), Dagfinn Pedersen (Norwegian Bluegrass Music Association), and Richard Hurst (Ulster American Folk Park). The EBMA will maintain a presence at IBMA World of Bluegrass, and will also continue to host the International Suite there. A new edition of EBMA's European Bluegrass Directory will appear in 2008.

The board will meet at the 16th Annual Appalachian & Bluegrass Music Festival at the Ulster American Folk Park, Northern Ireland, with an agenda including the development of Bluegrass Europe magazine and an increase of EBMA's youth activities.

Read more in the current issue of Bluegrass Europe.