Well the HeadCount train is definitely rolling into a metropolitan area near you. The Team Leaders are getting shows up on our intranet and registering voters along the way. In my capacity as Content Editor, I have been working on creating a Voter Guide for the upcoming election. Basically it will be a short synopsis of where each presidential candidate stands on several issues we’ve chosen to address. These are issues we believe young music fans would be most affected by and include the affordability of college, sustainable energy and climate change, Israeli-Palestine relations, and medical marijuana, among others.
The Voter Guide will also have messages from several artists and will be available in the coming months leading up to November’s election. Though the list of issues we chose to address is by no means comprehensive, we think it will provide voters with enough of a guideline and feeling for each candidate on issues near and dear to them. Helping with this enormous task are three dedicated students from Columbia University in NYC and a talented writer from the Buffalo, NY area.
And if the Voter Guide isn’t keeping me busy enough, I have also taken on the role of Seattle’s Team Leader. I love writing and editing, but the hands-on act of registering people to vote is pretty cool and I wanted some of that action, too. Though we haven’t had any shows yet –Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds (a benefit for Seeds of Compassion with the Dalai Lama) next week is in the works, but may not happen – I am looking forward to some killer gigs and festivals down the road.
One I am most excited about is the upcoming Sasquatch Festival at the Gorge in WA State. www.SasquatchFestival.com. The lineup is ridiculous, especially for a girl who cut her teeth listening to 80’s music, and I can’t wait to catch some of the acts. But it is the incredible diversity of the acts that Live Nation and producer Adam Zacks have secured that made me think HeadCount would be a natural fit. Though there are a multitude of bands for an older generation (ie. me), there are oodles of up and coming acts that will attract a whole new generation of voters. And we’ll be there to register them!!
Next blog I will tell you how I pitched Sasquatch’s promoters and how surprised I was with their incredible generosity towards HeadCount and our mission…