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Winter is Here!

The Echuca Moama Winterblues Festival, that is. And what an awesome holiday Ryan and I had. Ten days in all, via Melbourne and Geelong first, and then back up to Echuca so he could participate in the Blues Boot Camp, which was followed by the festival, the 18th running of this terrific event. I was alerted to its existence by wonderful friends who have recently moved to the town, who will welcome you at the National Holden Motor Museum if you’re in Echuca, which I highly recommend.

Following the concert that marked the end of the Boot Camp and the start of the festival proper, Ryan was invited to play with professional musician Wayne Jury at his gigs on Saturday and Sunday. Mind you, there were no rehearsals, the plan was simply “we’ll play some standard twelve bar stuff”, but to watch these performances, you’d never know.

We had such a fantastic time in Echuca, we can’t wait to return next year.

There are six videos in all, and I highly recommend them all. Proud Dad, y’know.

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Viagogo and related leeches

Ed Sheeran’s Australian tour was announced the other day, with tickets at two price points, neither excessive: $70 or $165. Of course, no good deed goes unpunished: Scalpers thwart Ed Sheeran’s noble gesture for Australian fans with tickets offered on ticket flipping sites like Viagogo for $1500.

It would be nice if sites like Viagogo were outlawed. Easier said than done though, when they aren’t physically located in Australia. And for all the promoters’ tut-tutting about scalping, they’re making their money, and there’s little downside for them when people flip tickets like this.

But resale sites need a critical mass of buyers and sellers to be successful. I think the only way they could be starved out is if Visa, MasterCard, Amex and PayPal refused to offer them payment gateway facilities. If they were forced to handle payments using bitcoin, Western Union or some other niche method, their business model collapses. Unfortunately there’s no great incentive for the card companies to do this either, of course. But the cost to those companies is inconsequential, and the goodwill possibly quite significant.

That’s the only solution I see.