May: International Bluegrass Music Month

International Bluegrass Music Month originated as an idea with Bob Wolff in the USA, was taken up by the IBMA in 1987, and was first celebrated in May 1988. The full story is given by Richard F. Thompson in a feature which appeared a year ago on the original Bluegrass Blog; he has just published a similar account in the spring 2009 issue of British Bluegrass News.

Read the full story here. As May is only three weeks away now, it's worth running through Richard's checklist of some of the things that can be done to promote bluegrass during the month:

* Get your friends and association members to put bumper stickers on their cars.
* Wear a bluegrass button during May. Remember: buttons and bumper stickers stimulate conversation.
* Get a shopping center to sponsor a performance (Pick-In) at the mall.
* Get a local agricultural product supplier, bank or other business to sponsor a Pick-In.
* Get your local radio station or music store to sponsor a Pick-In.
* Get your region’s bluegrass promoters to complete their festival and concert flyers early and arrange to have them set up attractively on a table at the Pick-In.
* Get volunteers to staff the flyer table, collect addresses, and meet and greet as bluegrass ambassadors.
* Get a local store or service establishment to provide some product or service you could give away at a free drawing during the Pick-In, thus giving people incentive to give their addresses.

Ten years after the first International Bluegrass Music Month, the concept took effect in Europe with the first 'European World of Bluegrass' (EWOB) - conceived as a network of events, focused on the EWOB Festival but capable of including every kind of bluegrass activity throughout Europe during May.

Your event (session, concert, broadcast, festival, product launch, or whatever) can be publicised as a part of the European World of Bluegrass 2009 in the annual EWOB Guide and on the EWOB Festival website. Contact Rienk Janssen, the EBMA's EWOB coordinator, by e-mail. See also the European Bluegrass Blog.