I’m sure that when organizers of Mile of Music in Appleton put together their event, their main concerns are juggling the schedules of so many artists and venues that make up the festival. You have to get acts to fill all of the time slots and to make sure the popularity of some artists match the size of the venue so that attendees aren’t getting shut out of all the shows they want to see. After the months of planning and scheduling are done, I doubt they look at their work and say “You know what, we’ve got too many white guys”.
At it’s heart, Mile of Music is what I call an “earnest, roots rock festival”. That means many of the performers are white guys with guitars that wear hats that went out of style in the 1960’s and vests–sort of like Art Carney’s look in the Honeymooners–but usually with scraggly beards and lots of tattoos. Sometimes the white guys have their buddies who play piano or drums sit in with them for mostly acoustic sets featuring songs about unrequited love and perhaps a political statement about how conservatives suck. There are a few white ladies who also play guitar and maybe a little piano while wearing a retro-style dress they bought at Ragstock in the Twin Cities (but the “real one” in Uptown–not the “fake one” at the Mall of America). And those that attend Mile of Music–usually in their “You’ve never heard of my favorite band” t-shirts–all praise the event for being “so authentic”.
Well this year some people started questioning if Mile of Music may want to change up the make up of its lineup. Their was criticism that there are few acts featuring people of color–and few openly LGBTQ artists. Founder Corey Chisel even took to Facebook promising to work on booking fewer guys like himself for next year. Of course, the festival was created in Chisel’s own image–as he promised to bring his “friends in the industry” to Appleton to play–and then they told their friends who told their friends–most of whom tended to be white guys with guitars, lame hats and vests.
Mile of Music isn’t the only festival to get hit with this “too white” criticism. For years, Summerfest in Milwaukee was taken to task for not booking hip hop acts. That criticism came after some high profile reports of violence after previous shows and comments from both Summerfest organizers and Milwaukee police that fans of those bands were solely responsible for the problems. Now, Summerfest usually books one high-profile hip hop act on a mid-week night when crowds are generally smaller just to make everyone happy.
So starting next year, the Mile of Music folks will be working with quotas for black, Latino and gay acts–whether they think the people of the Fox Cities will want to hear them or not. Maybe it will make for a better festival. However, it means less exposure for white guys playing acoustic guitars in porkpie hats and black vests.
