IBMA Nomination for Christopher Howard-Williams
Congratulations to Christopher Howard-Williams and everyone at La Roche, in recognition of their contribution to Bluegrass Music
In September 2018 the IBMA recognized the significant contributions that Christopher Howard-Williams has brought to international bluegrass music with the presentation of their Distinguished Achievement Award.
Howard-Williams has been active in bluegrass music circles for 30 years, firstly as a musician/band member. Then as a volunteer MC for the Country Rendez-Vous Festival at Dore l’Eglise, a village in central France, he officiated during what was to be Bill Monroe’s last trip overseas (July 1992).
Four years later he followed the initiative of French bluegrass music stalwart and banjo player, Jean-Marie Redon, and became a foundeing chairman of the France Bluegrass Music Association (FBMA). Later he took on the role of the organisation’s president (for eight years), and for four years the editor of its magazine.
For a brief period, Howard-Williams was Vice-Chair of the European Bluegrass Music Association (EBMA).
All of this was the proving ground for his leadership role in starting and developing the La Roche Bluegrass Festival, staged in the alpine commune of La Roche sur Foron, Haute-Savoie, at the crossroads with Annecy, Geneva, and the Arve Valley that leads to Chamonix and the Mont-Blanc.
Beginning in 2006 there were 24 bands and, according to Didier Philippe, the Director of the Tourist Office of La Roche and general co-ordinator of La Roche Bluegrass Festival – Howard-Williams’ closest working colleague in the management of the festival – “we were very happy and surprised to have 3,000 or 4,000 people” during what was then a two-day event. Ten years later, “we have around 15,000 people coming every year over the four days,” Philippe states with obvious pride.
He goes on to say, “Initially, there were 50 local volunteers catering for the visitors; now there are more than 220 people helping and working at the festival.”
All that said, Philippe stresses, “Nobody in La Roche knew about bluegrass music before Christopher brought it” to the compact, once medieval-stronghold. Now, “we can say that every year the people living in the region of the French Alps know more about bluegrass music because lots of them already came once in La Roche.”
Similarly of great importance as Philippe sees it, everything that Howard-Williams does for the La Roche Bluegrass Festival is for love, not for money, “Christopher is still president and artistic director since 2006 and of course he is still volunteer, which is very remarkable after 13 editions.”
The La Roche Bluegrass Festival has been nominated on three occasions, in 2012, 2015, and 2016, for the IBMA Event of The Year award, “and Christopher and his 200 volunteers are very proud of this,” Philippe insists.
Richard Thompson, bluegrasstoday.com
