Arizona Republic's "Best Music Festival:" Now Accepting Nominations for Festivals that Did Not Actually Happen

I really should stop beating on the Arizona Republic's "Reader's Choice" poll -- poorly conceived and executed though it may be. However, a reader just pointed out two other real gems in the "best annual music festival or event" category.Go down this list and pick out which two festivals didn't...

By Martin Cizmar

April 7, 2010

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I really should stop beating on the Arizona Republic's "Reader's Choice" poll -- poorly conceived and executed though it may be. However, a reader just pointed out two other real gems in the "best annual music festival or event" category.

Go down this list and pick out which two festivals didn't actually happen in the last year:

Arizona Fall Frenzy, Phoenix

Circle K Tempe Music Festival, Tempe
Country Thunder, Florence
Edgefest, Queen Creek
Fiesta Bowl Block Party, Tempe
Glendale Jazz & Blues Festival, Glendale
McDowell Mountain Music Festival, Phoenix
Phoenix Comicon, Phoenix
Sedona Jazz on the Rocks, Sedona
Warped Tour

If you guessed "Edgefest" and "Circle K Tempe Music Festival" then, guess what, you're right! TMF was canceled this year -- making it, ahem, not "annual" in the strictest sense of the word. Edgefest last happened in 2008 -- it was rolled into Fall Frenzy last year.

Also, just to nitpick, Arizona Fall Frenzy was in Tempe, not Phoenix. That's not the sort of thing I'd expect a copy editor at one of the largest newspapers in the country to catch, though.

Did you know all that? If so, congratulations, you're smarter and/or more in-tune than editors at the Arizona Republic, America's Worst Large Daily Newspaper.

I imagine the conversation went something like this:

Editor #1: Was last year's Edgefest any good? Should we approve that entry?

Editor #2: Oh yeah, we sent Larry Rodgers out to it... He loved it, wrote a glowing review. I remember he expensed a meal and a nice bottle of wine at Durant's from that night.

Tempe Music Fest was also nominated for "best annual festival or event" so they got that wrong too. Hey, the Republic is apparently not above rendering the results of the voting null-and-void, though, so even if Tempe Music Festival wins, they'll probably just give the award to something else.

What a travesty.

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