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09/06/2008 by arje en etty |
| we also had a lovely weekend and agree to all compliments you got from all and we want to add ours as well! see u next year.
two comments: we suggest that u solve the "chair" problem in front of the main stage as not many people followed menachems's request to put chairs at the side. we suggest to cordon off the middel section in front of the stage and only allow to put chairs in the wings. ofcourse you will need some guys at the spot to folllow up.
secondly in our opinion the "sound" company was last year more efficient while also the quality was better. |
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03/06/2008 by Brian Blum |
| You are invited to Brian's website to read his article on the May 2008 festival:
http://www.thisnormallife.com/blog/_archives/2008/5/30/3718624.html |
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01/06/2008 by Sandy Cash |
| I'm still on cloud nine and three-quarters after this year's Jacob's Ladder Festival. I want to publicly express my appreciation to everyone who makes this wonderful event possible... but of course, the biggest thanks go to Menachem and Yehudit. You created an incredible experience, as you always do, and the memories of this particular festival will carry me through for quite a while.
A few personal "high points":
The addition of Thursday was brilliant... it made the festival feel like a relaxed weekend away, rather than something that's over in a flash.
Pete Morton. I've heard him many times (and even shared concerts with him), but the man has never been better. Fascinating, funny and touching songs... but most importantly, the man connects with his audience like no one I've ever seen. An inspiration.
The Abrams Brothers (who I missed last year): WOW! Great musicians and high-energy, joyful and thoroughly professional performers.
Art Lindholm's fiddle workshop. I'm not a fiddler, but watching that crowd of players - from the professional-level violinists from the Irish bands to kids just starting out - was fascinating. Art took Old Timey music apart, and laid in out in a way that was easy to understand and learn.
Country Roads: Shay, Moni, Adam and Lilach... I've heard most of this repertoire year after year, but there's something about the make-up of this particular band. OUTSTANDING show on Friday night. How do you keep getting better?
Again, to all the organizers, volunteers, stage managers, audience members and friends... thank you all so much. Let's do it again next year. Starting Thursday... hmm? Please?
- Sandy
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| Extra day and side venues |
26/05/2008 by Steve Silberman |
| The longer festival was great. I had a much more relaxed, vacation-like feeling because I didn't feel pressure to run from one venue to another.
About the venues: the variety and quality off the main stage was great, and included a lot of extraordinary music that might not make it on the main stage. I particularly enjoyed Womens' Mountain, Tzalol, Avital Raz (went back for her second set) and Pete Morton. For the first time, I spent almost no time at the main stage, and there was still plenty, but plenty, to hear. In the 20-something years I've been coming to JL, "what grabs me" has changed, and JL is still doing it for me with the side venues. |
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| Rio Abierto Delight |
25/05/2008 by Udi Ben Dror |
| Being a Jacob Ladder lover for many good reasons, this Spring you gave me another good reason to attend. To the dancing workshop menu was added a Rio Abierto session. For me it was the first time to meet it and it was simply GRAND!!! Did you know that the dancing workshops held hundreds of happy folks. For me who has come firstly for the love of music the dancing has given a great added value. Please try to keep those Rio Abierto workshop going each spring Thanks and see ya next time. |
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| Funny bug |
24/05/2008 by Shoshi Klein |
| Just reflecting back on a wonderful weekend. We sure enjoyed those Abrams brothers, which is nice because we missed last year's festival. It was particularly nice to see the groups that join old and young - Shay Tochner and friends, TRiAD, and of course the various Irish groups, yet another aspect unique to Jacob's Ladder. Kol hakavod to Yehudit and Menachem!
p.s. When adding a comment to the website, the window says: New Massage. Is this part of the Jacob's Ladder "tipulim" tent? |
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| Spring Festival-2008 |
23/05/2008 by Marsha Michael |
| Again Yehudit and Menachim,
You can rest easy for a bit knowing that you organized a GREATweekend. Thanks for the music, the groups, the hotel, the weather. We just need to raise the level of the Kinneret.
Suggestion- is there any way to either have performers/dancing staggered both Fri. and Sat. so it is possible to see everything?? I know that that is a difficult request, but I hate going in to a performance and then leaving 1/2 through tocatch someone equally as good.
Another suggestion- along with T shirts, maybe car stickers with the logo but no specific date.
Come visit in Kfar Vradim,Marsha |
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| 3 days delight |
23/05/2008 by Nadav Edry |
| It keeps getting better every year - I believe that the early may date this year was a good choise - the weather was great!
The additional day was also great and I think it should be this way in the future.
I also would like to point out that after last year's festival we wrote here that we missed the great groove of CJ and the Hammer and. I think that many would agree with me that Sagi and Dov gave one of the best preformances ever!!
So thank you for listening and bring 'em back next year aswell!
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| GRANDPA |
22/05/2008 by Yoav Peck |
| THE GOSPEL FROM JACOB’S LADDER
I belong to the Church of Ladder Day Saints. Every Spring, for the past 32 years, Israelis of English, American, Irish, Scottish, Australian descent gather in the north of Israel for the two-day Jacob’s Ladder festival of country, bluegrass, Irish, Scottish, folk and rock music. Lately, increasing numbers of native sabras join on, and though many of them are offspring of the balding hard-core Anglo-devotees, it seems that word of J.L. has spread to the older natives as well.
“So what’s the big deal?” you might query.
Well, the point is that this is not just a music festival. It is an event, a moment of significance. A veteran of at least twenty of these annual Anglo-fests, what dawned on me, this past weekend at Ginosar, is that Jacob’s Ladder is indeed aptly named. Each year, guided by festival originators and producers Yehudit and Menachem Vinegrad, together we create a ladder linking the earth of our Israeli reality with the heavenly Israel of our dreams.
Where else in Israel can you pitch your tent, crowded up against hundreds of other tents, and hear no shouting, no arguing, no nastiness. “When I’m not here, please feel free to use our beach chairs,” says one tent-owner to his neighbor, a stranger. When Menachem asks people to clear their chairs out of the area facing center-stage, people get up and move their chairs, and no one murmurs, “Lama mi ata? Ani lo friar shel af echad.” (Who says? I’m nobody’s sucker)
We believe the Canadian bluegrass band leader, back for the second year running, when he proclaims, “We play in lots of places, but Jacob’s Ladder is our favorite place to play.”
Everyone is so grateful to be here, in this sane little island of decency, fun, ease, and togetherness. While we know we’ll be back at work in heartland Israel on Sunday, we charge our batteries in these fleeting moments of joy.
It is all so much fun! Friday evening kabbalat Shabbat, Reform-folk style with the Epstein family singers. The exciting Friday night performance from the main stage. After the show, we aging ex-hippies turn in, but at 3 AM the young musicians are still jamming in the hotel lobby. The Shabbat workshops and concerts in smaller halls in the hotel, spiritual dancing where you don’t mind making a fool of yourself because everyone else is as well, a break for a quick dip in the Kinneret and back to the lawn where spontaneous crowds of fiddlers, banjo—pickers, and flutists are wailing to the applause of the crowd.
You have to admire Yehudit and Menachem for their steadfast commitment. Who does anything for thirty-two years? They keep learning and improving, and each year there is a new feature.
The kids wander, free and secure, the beer flows, the sound system works so you can hear well even from the back rows, the big shades strung between the trees offer comfort. Damn it, the festival just plain works!!!
Shabbat late afternoon arrives, we crowd together for a last set of the great Canadian band, and we reluctantly face the drive home. Yet we are satisfied, having gathered from this wonderful festival the energy and heart to face the challenge of life in Israel. We make sure to put next year’s Jacob’s Ladder in our date-books, and we may even come up for the winter J.L., a recent innovation.
If Mimouna offers Moroccans a post-Pesach bridge back to their daily reality, then Jacob’s Ladder offers us Anglos a respite, a glorious and refreshing glimpse of the way things could be, as we head back into the daily fray. Yoav Peck, Jerusalem
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22/05/2008 by Bess |
| My husband and I enjoyed our frist JL festival tremendously. Although he is not an English-speaker, he connected to almost all the music he heard and was amazed at how well-organized the festival was and how well-behaved the crowd was. We will be coming back. Thank you. The suggestion about a shuttle to and from surrounding communities is a good one. |
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22/05/2008 by Susan l |
| Thank you for everything! We had a wonderful time. The music and the dancing were great.
It would be perfect if people would not smoke in the seating areas during the perfomances. |
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