Actually, it was originally a one day event expanded into a day and a half with additional activities, not a three day festival cut short. That's where the different perceptions rest.
I don't think fans here are disputing that the DS 'event' if you will is, or ever was to be, a full-fledged 3 day Fest. I think everyone 'gets it' that it's a 1 & 1/2 day 'event' much like last fall's Halloween party in LA and the
Lyndhurst Day they had back in June 1992. But, whether intentional or not, Shadows
did refer to the August event as a Festival, see below what I've cut and pasted from my copy of Cyber Shadowgram:
This SG newsletter spotlights and announces planned programming and details for the 2007 DS Festival Convention on Friday, August 17 to Saturday, August 18, at the Westchester Marriott Hotel in Tarrytown, NY.She even calls it a
convention!
Now, you're right when you say that the 'DS Festival' is an entity (i.e. official fan club if you will), but it is also an event (in other words it's what Jim and company call our annual
convention) All we're saying, as MB pointed out, is that The Festival (fan club, not the convention), or at least Marcy Robin, is calling it a Festival, not a 1 or 1 & 1/2 day 'event'.
It seems too that ppl here, while grateful for ANYTHING this year, are disappointed, and justifyably so, that it's not a full-fledged 3 day Festival w/all the stars from both coasts attending. Some ppl plan their vacations around these Festivals, not so much to see the stars per se, but to see friends they've made through the years. I can tell you that getting to see my friends is the ONLY reason I go to the Fests anymore as I'm WAY over the stars. Not saying I don't like them anymore, but I'm done being star-struck. After 17 years you'd hope that one would be over that anyway.
And while the one day events ARE fun, they are not as good as the Fests themselves.
As Gothick would say, just my two drachmas!
P.S. I'm not happy either that Johnny K won't be there either. I look forward to seeing my boy every year and really, how many years does the poor man have left? :- And, as he indicated at a previous Fest, he's retired and he just waits around for the Fest's every year. He could have been joking when he said that of course, but if not, how doubly sad for him that his annual highlight won't come to pass this year. I too would have enjoyed seeing the two Johns onstage together in a Q&A.
