That simply means bouncing from show to show at the annual Rogue Festival purely on whim. As I told someone this morning, “This provides much more adventure for your entertainment buck.” It is the one time of year in Fresno you can actually do that. You never know if you’ll be experiencing a stinker or something exquisite using this tactic.
Sure, lots of folk meticulously plan their fest experience with Rogue Map in hand like planning a surgical strike to take out the dictator of a third world country… and that’s OK too. But with the festival running 10 days one should consider dedicating at least one of those to the “crap shoot”. I’ve seen 8 shows over the last two days and it has all been a rewarding experience.
Despite the weather, this has been a pretty good festival so far. (The weather is continuing but don’t let that stop you from experiencing the Rogue.) Lots of first-time-to-the-fest performers, a good smattering of familiar faces and a fair amount of shows premiering. It is the latter element that always excites me… and really should excite more folk. A lot is often written about the not-ready-for-mainstream aspect of the Rogue… and while that is true, there are also shows that start off at festivals like this to move on to a wider audience.
There are also what I like to call “cusp shows”. These are the ones that are already well honed on the fringe circuit and are searching for that one (often elusive) element to make it sing on a wider stage. So, yes… the Rogue is where you can find all of the above. There lies the possibility of you being on the ground floor to be able to says, “I remember seeing that when…”. Just on that last point alone it is really one of the heppest things you can do here.
Even with that, the Rogue is still a mystery in this town even after 15 years. Sure, it has gotten love from from the press but it will still take much more rabid word of mouth to get a wider and more diverse audience. Perhaps we we treated it as a delightful dirty little secret it will.
Whatever the case… and however you decide to do it… go out to shows… have a great time… and Rogue on!