Issue 2 12/97

The FolkWorld Editors' column

The online editorial from the Mollis

This time with:

FolkWorld - from strength to strength
Welcome to the second issue of FolkWorld, and thanks to all, who have send us comments and feedback!
We are quite surprised on the amount of response on FolkWorld. It shows that an online mag can help to create links between the international folk scenes.

Drawing by German artist Annegret Haensel; for more info on the artist, look at the editorial page

A few dates of the success: Already now, about six weeks after its launch, FolkWorld has subscribers from at least 20 different countries - like Germany, USA, Ireland, Great Britain (Scotland, Wales, England), Greece, Newzealand, Belgium, Ukrainia, the Netherlands, Australia, Finland, Japan, Denmark, Austria, Sweden, Switzerland, Norway, Canada and Italy.
FolkWorld is read by a big number of media people (radio presenter, print journalists etc.), by well-known and unknown musicians, by agents and labels and of course also a huge number of fans.
Also, professional folk music journalists from Australia, Scotland, Belgium and America have contacted us if they might become contributors of FolkWorld. You can read already in this issue an interview with Christy Moore from Tasmania, a report of a Swedish uilleann piper on Tønder Festival and news from the Belgian scene. With the Belgian news part we hope to start a European column system with news columns from all over Europe. We need your help to get an inter-European news forum!

Drawing by German artist Annegret Haensel; for more info on the artist, look at the
editorial page
Looking back on 1997 - a good year for folk or not?
Drawing by German artist Annegret Haensel; for more info on the artist, look at the editorial pageTo the end of the year, everybody looks back. We as well. Of course from a German point of view.

For many people in foreign countries, Germany seems to be a good country for folk music. But also Germany has had a difficult year - but nevertheless there were also several successes for folk.

This year, the three biggest German folk mags Folksblatt, Folk Michel and Musikblatt dissolved; there is just one new paper mag, Folker!, started by some people of Folk Michel and Folksblatt. In our opinion this is sad - the diversity and charming difference between the different mags is lost; and also, competition is always good to keep a high standard.
But there is a newer nice folk mag of Folkclub Frankfurt that we discovered this year and that showed us that there is still a bit of competition and diversity in the German folk mag market. Also, there is still the old established Folklore & Mitmachen, and of course the new FolkWorld.

Speaking of agents and organisers, it has been for most of them a very difficult year. We experienced that there were less concerts this year than the years before, and many concerts were not well visited. Part of the reason is that there is the new German tax on foreign performers, the Ausländersteuer; making concerts of foreign perfomers quite expensive. But also and especially there is no money for culture in Germany left.

Fortunately, there was also some success for folk music. In 1997 there was with the Wolfenbütteler Folk festival a new big festival which was relatively successful. Two Galician bands toured first time in Germany. German band Lecker Sachen, a modern folk influenced band, won the Rock & Pop newcomer price for Northrhine-Westfalia, qualifying for taking part at the national competition - so folk is also for a wider public attractive. Internet takes more and more its role on the German and also European scene, which can just help to widen the appeal.

So much on the German folk scene of this year. What about Europe? We do not know it exactly; we have heard that in Great Britain there are some problems, too. In Spain therefore, there is a very newly established folk club scene, and folk music is going from strength to strength, becoming as popular as rock or pop, or sometimes even more.
We would like to hear of you how it looks like in your country/region, if folk music has problems there, or big success. Please let us know more about it, as others can learn from your experiences.

Meanwhile, from the musical point of view, folk seems to be strong all over Europe. There are loads of young and good folk musicians, playing and presenting themselves with selfconsciousness and enthusiasm, with music ranging from traditional to very modern. When we put together our personal CD top ten '97 (to be found in the scene part), we remembered once again what a year it was for good CDs.

Drawing by German artist Annegret Haensel; for more info on the artist, look at the
editorial page
How to help FolkWorld

As successful as FolkWorld has already been, we nevertheless need still your help to establish FolkWorld widely. If you want to help, you can do the following:

Thanks a lot already now!

Wishing you a very good year 1998 with loads of good music,

Your FolkWorld team.


To the content of FolkWorld online music magazine Nr. 2

© The Mollis - Editors of FolkWorld; Published 12/97

All material published in FolkWorld is © The Author via FolkWorld. Storage for private use is allowed and welcome. Reviews and extracts of up to 200 words may be freely quoted and reproduced, if source and author are acknowledged. For any other reproduction please ask the Editors for permission.


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