Another year another Moogfest in Durham, NC. As the conference wrapped up I was able to look back and discover a problem with some of the sessions. The Moogfest team had a mobile app that allowed me to setup my schedule and plan out each day; one thing I did was print out a copy of the schedule to make sure I could deal with the limited amount of time between sessions. The print function would add a bunch of VIP only sessions. Well, when I printed out my plan on the 13th, the app included a bunch of cool things, from LAST YEAR! This App mistake really messed up the expectations as an attendee. I provided feedback to the team, and hopefully they will “Fix” the app for next year.
I went to a few cool sessions on Sunday including a technical overview of circuit design by one of the engineers at Moog. Understanding the math behind the Moog 923 really was interesting and educational. I tend to use MoogFest as one of my “education-vacations”. I really enjoy learning and taking advantage of technical adjacencies in my life and career. MoogFest provides this to me.
The second session was a product pitch, show casing a new Eurorack component. I like these sessions as the guy basically spent 45 minutes making music while talking about how the system worked.
I ended Moogfest watching a movie at the Carolina Theater about Ralph Steadman – the artist who worked closely with Hunter S. Thompson on most of this work. Very cool and educational.
Overall, another good year at Moogfest, but was it great? Looking back, I’d say no, the musical selections were fun and enjoyable, but no real headliner. The technical sessions were fun and educational, but nothing that really blew me away. Will I go next year? That’s the big question. I really wish that the team over at Moogfest would give out more information about what is going to happen next year. They have already sent a note about getting festival tickets for next year. Given how little the music festival had any Major headliners, I did not take advantage of the offer. I will have to think about it when they do “early bird” tickets in Dec.