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Modern Drummer Festival 2002

DrumHeads everywhere, as far as the eye can see, waiting outside the doors to open.

The Modern Drummer Festival Weekend, held at Montclair State University in New Jersey, is an event I look forward to all year long. (Me and more than a thousand other DrumHeads!) Those of you who have been to one, know what I mean. Those who haven't, should try to get there – at least once.

Always a Sellout
This year's MD Fest was a total sellout, as it has been from the very first one - 15 years ago. After all, an entire weekend of drum clinics and performances by the world's greatest drummers (not to mention cool prizes) is pure heaven for any DrumHead!

Although the doors don't open until 12:30 PM, you'll find lines of DrumHeads waiting outside hours ahead of time. What do they do in line? What does ANY DrumHead do? (Check out the photos above.)

The 3 R's

Richie Flores

Robby Ameen

Robert Vilera

Richie (Flores), Robby (Ameen), and Robert (Vilera) opened up this year's event and what a powerful opening it was. They each played solo and then all together, bringing the crowd of over a thousand drummers to their feet in appreciation.

John Blackwell
A virtual unknown just a few years ago, every one knows John now supplies the drum power behind Prince. For the MD Fest, he appeared with his group The John Blackwell Matrix, which featured Bruce Bartlett on guitar, Baron Brown on bass, Tom Coster on keyboards, and his dad, John Blackwell Sr., on drums.

I caught John signing a Drumhead's drumhead!

Drums, Drums, Drums
As important as the Modern Drummer Festival is to the average DrumHead, it's even more important to those with backstage access. I'm talking about networking (not the computer kind), and it all takes place backstage from the initial sound check on Saturday morning before the doors officially open, until the final cymbal crash on Sunday night.

Here's where gear manufacturers and pro-drummers all get the chance to say hey, make deals, trade business cards and network. That's part of why the Modern Drummer Fest is so important.

It's not only a source of entertainment and education for the DrumHeads in the audience, but it is also an important networking connection for the entire drum industry. And it all started one day when a DrumHead had an idea that drummers should have a magazine of their own.

That DrumHead was Ron Spagnardi, Publisher of Modern Drummer Magazine and Festival Producer (see the sidebar for my interview with Ron). And although, by Ron's own admission, the idea for the Festival Weekend was the brainchild of Production coordinator Rick Van Horn, without Modern Drummer Magazine there would be no MD Fest.

Behind the scenes: DrumPros "network" backstage.

Turn to the next page for a photo sampling of some of the cool kits the pros played during the weekend.

To The Drum Gear>
More MD Fest Artists>

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* S I D E B A R *

Following are related
links to this week's
feature article.

Related Links on this Site:

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Modern Drummer Festival 2002: Sunday

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Robby Ameen

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John Blackwell

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Richie Flores

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Robert Vilera

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Interview with Modern Drummer's Ron Spagnardi

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Modern Drummer Festival 2001

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Modern Drummer Festival 2000 DVD

Related Links on the Web:

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Modern Drummer Magazine