Winfield's compebreastions predate the Dumplin Valley fester by a significant number of years. If anyone's "simultaneously scheduling their event: during another, it's the Dumplin Valley promoter(s).

Not hardly, it isn't. Furthermore, as previously noted, these are largely two different kinds of events - or, at least, the compebreastion part of Winfield is different from a regular bluegrbutt festival. Still further, there isn't a whole lot of overlap between those seeking to make their mark in instrumental compebreastions and those seeking to do so in working professional bands - a lot of compebreastors, for instance, aren't full-time musicians, and many of them don't play in bands; if and when they do so, it usually goes hand in hand with dropping out, or at least considerably scaling back, their participation in compebreastions. The two things demand different skills and different mindsets, or so I've been regularly told by folks who have actually made the switch.

So I very much doubt that participation in the Winfield National Championships is hurt by Dumplin Valley, or any other bluegrbutt festival, being scheduled at the same time. Nor, as I said, does it seem likely that these events are compebreastive with respect to the bulk of audience members, given that they draw these primarily from different parts of the country. Both are pretty successful events, so it's hard to see where there's much evidence to support the notion that the schedule is hurting either of them.

-- Jon Weisberger