David over at The Chiz is proposing “A one-day, 2 stage, 12 hour extravaganza of independent music”. He’s started a list of his suggestions and encouraged readers to comment… in the comments(?).

Although there seems to be a bit of a debate as to what indie is quite a nice list has started to evolve.

Could this be the start of a real independent festival - organised by the people, for the people? I could actually see something like this work.

Music, of (almost) any sort, usually has a firm base of fanatics that are eager enough to add their voices to the cause. A few would go a step further and actually roll their sleeves up and get their hands dirty - these guys would form the “steering committee” or “conversation implementation committee” and would be reimbursed for their efforts.
Points that need decisions could be placed on some kind of wiki where the public can add their input and possibly vote. This sort of model can be seen in action on the 27dinner wiki.

Bands would have the opportunity to market themselves using all sorts of current social or consumer media tools, www.myvideo.co.za could broadcast all the acts, a compilation album could be released on a creative commons license.

I’m sure there would be a few companies that would be interested in sponsoring such an event. It’s definitely going to be an objective in the future for companies to align themselves with such events being all “part of the conversation blah blah blah”.

Anyway, feel free to comment if you have any ideas and don’t forget to add your band list to the chiz and maybe someone will pick up the challenge and do it.

(pic source)