The writing on the wall
Am I the only one who has picked up on the fact that this year will probably be the last Abbey Road on the River?
Last year, in emailing back and forth with (promoter) Gary Jacob, he made several comments that lead me to believe last year might be the end, including saying something along the lines of "IF we have one next year...." and a couple other things that made it clear he doubted there would be one. Then, when months and months went by with no update to the AROTR site (in previous years the following year's dates and info had been put up within a week of the festival ending) I thought, for sure, it was D.O.A. So I was pleasantly surprised and thrilled when I found it was going on this year, after all.
However, I've just been reading the guest book at the AROTR site and I have seen another not-so-veiled comment from Gary that makes it fairly clear (to me, anyway) that 2008 will be the final year for AROTR. What's strange is, conversation on the guest book has continued as though nobody has grasped the significance of Gary's response.
This is part of the initial comment, left by an AROTR attendee:
Here is something to ponder. What if it didn't come back? For instance what if next year there wasn't an AROTR in Louisvlle? As John Lennon said..."you don't know what you got until you lose it."
And here is Gary's editorial note, placed just below:
Editor: pretty intuitive post...I would enjoy the event this year, too.
Now, is it just me, or is is pretty bloody obvious he's sounding the death knell for the festival? I wonder if people really didn't catch the meaning behind it, or whether they are just in denial.
At any rate, it's very sad. It will be very much missed. I will have to find a new annual "me trip" and nothing is going to quite capture the flavor of AROTR.