steinar
From:
Finneidfjord, Norway
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Posted 17 Apr 2003 10:44 am |
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To my great delight this topic has surfaced, and the response from so many in Scandinavia and even in Finland is nice, indeed.
As Dag Wolf mentioned, there does exist a Steelguitar Scandinavia Association based in Hattfjelldal, Norway. They have been hosting yearly steel guitar weekends for the past 10 years with visiting instructors like Jeff Newman, Tom Brumley, Janne Lindgren, Dag Wolf, Paul Franklin, Egil Skjelnes, Arild Kvenseth, Scotty DeWitt and Jay Dee Maness. Right now, the event is on hold pending a change of ownership of the local hotel, - site of the venue.
Hattfjelldal is about in the middle of Norway, right across the border from Wilhelmina in Sweden. It certainly is not an easy location to reach, and from this perspective, Oslo, Copenhagen or even Dalarna might be more accessible from most parts of Scandinavia.
However, and there is a very big however here, Hattfjelldal as a local community - from the mayor to the local church council - all actively support and back our steel event. They organize dance events and raffles throughout the year to raise money for our steel weekend, and they do all kinds of unpaid volunteer work to make it happen.
As you may have thought of, the costs of bringing an overseas guest over, will easily exceed N.kr. 50.000,-. Add to that the costs of backing bands, other players, food, accommodation, marketing and other incidentals, and you will easily reach a budget of about N.kr. 125.000,-.
Obviously you can´t earn this from a seminar fee of about N.kr. 500,- pr. participant, and obviously you can´t earn this from other arrangements during the steel event. Hence, you are dependent on other sources of income.
And this is where Hattfjelldal shines.
They take a long term kind of community approach to the problem and led by untiring people like Steinar Mikkeljord and Wiggo Iversen, find out when and where to organize fund raising events, dances, raffles and even cow bingo! (raised 5000,-kr!).
Personally I welcome any initiative to further the cause of the steel guitar, and if anybody would like to stage an event in Oslo or any other part of Scandinavia, they will have my full support. The only thing that worries me, is that potential organizers underestimate what goes into an event like this, personell-wise and financially.
Enthusiasm is fine, but in order to prevent personal bankruptcies, a healthy dose of realism is needed.
Like Tom Bradshaw once said:"Let´s all organize steel conventions and all go broke!"
Wise words, indeed. If some other more centrally located place in Scandinavia can come up with the same kind of untiring volunteers like Hattfjelldal has, with the same kind of organizers who are willing to cover substantial losses out of their own pockets and with the same kind of long term community backing that Hattfjelldal gives, then go for it!
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