Hey guys

Just wondering, what did you guys think about celebration? What band did you like the most? What was great and what would you change?

Wondering how it could be better.

I really enjoyed it, but there is a lot I would change.

The Good

All the live acts, with the Revolution and NPG doing particularly well.

General events and panels - All really interesting.

Staff effort - Everyone gave a great effort individually. They worked really hard.

The bad

Communication! Information was terrible, and staff gave differing detail. Bedlam.

The tour - should be the heart of it and it was badly thought out and managed.

VIP - total con. The 'photo and autograph opportunites with special guests' suggested a meet and greet type set up but was a scambled mess to grab a selfie with some members of the NPG, with your own mobile phone which you discouraged to bring and cameras were banned. Clinton, The Revolution and The Time didn't show, bar a walk through by Bobby Z while half the VIP tent were queueing for merchandise.

Things they could do to make it better

Communication! - from car park entry to merch, give prior detail of how it supposed to work.

Tour - The celebration should have an enhanced tour, not a 45 minute sampler which mostly included more queueing.

Seats - With of much sitting, bigger and cushioned seats would be a bum saver.

Q&A with panels - sorely missed.

Videos - allow time to see the whole show, not a section of it.

I've been on the tour a lot, so that didn't bother me, but like SM said, it should have been enhanced rather than downgraded. They totally stripped the soundstage of all 5 mini stages and cars. I mean they had all these folks in the building who actually worked there. They should have positioned them in the rooms that was their expertise and told stories and took questions. I didn't do VIP, so I can't comment on any extras they got, or didn't get. I loved the unseen concert footage, but it was a shame they cut them off after an hour. Especially the P&AM show. The live concerts were fun. The panels were very interesting and I wished they could have gone longer. I was particularly touched by the minute of silence for Prince at the start of Friday's events, especially considering one year ago at that time the world was just finding out. Incredibly sad.

SquirrelMeat said:

I really enjoyed it, but there is a lot I would change.

The Good

All the live acts, with the Revolution and NPG doing particularly well.

General events and panels - All really interesting.

Staff effort - Everyone gave a great effort individually. They worked really hard.

The bad

Communication! Information was terrible, and staff gave differing detail. Bedlam.

The tour - should be the heart of it and it was badly thought out and managed.

VIP - total con. The 'photo and autograph opportunites with special guests' suggested a meet and greet type set up but was a scambled mess to grab a selfie with some members of the NPG, with your own mobile phone which you discouraged to bring and cameras were banned. Clinton, The Revolution and The Time didn't show, bar a walk through by Bobby Z while half the VIP tent were queueing for merchandise.

Things they could do to make it better

Communication! - from car park entry to merch, give prior detail of how it supposed to work.

Tour - The celebration should have an enhanced tour, not a 45 minute sampler which mostly included more queueing.

Seats - With of much sitting, bigger and cushioned seats would be a bum saver.

Q&A with panels - sorely missed.

Videos - allow time to see the whole show, not a section of it.

Oh and FRESH lemon bars lol They got older & more tart as the days went by. I'm not really a veggie person, so all I had were the desserts Everyone gave a great effort though. I appreciate them for making it happen!

• I really enjoyed the concert footage. The concerts seemed perfectly chosen to comfort the purple family. In the day 1 Holland concert, what he said made me feel like Paisley Park is more than a physical place, but also a spiritual place any fan can visit any time, and Prince will always be there. The day 2 Paisley concert footage was phenomenal. It's like his musical autobiography told in concert form -- learning to write songs, feeling out chord changes, talking about localized music and djs like pharaoh black. I had been wanting to see it since before it happened, and the reports i had previously read had painted a very accurate description of it. I had expected him to seem nervous, but he seemed totally at ease in his raspberry outfit. i had expected to see him crying more, so i wondered if that was my imagination or if it was edited. The day 3 purple rain easter concert was mind-blowing. it was also a little interesting, probably only to me, that it was on april 7 which was the original atlanta concert date. I felt like a lot of the celebration attendees were cringing each time he would jump from great heights like a high-heeled grasshopper. One thing i thought was cute was when he sang "how come u dont call me anymore" he said something like "call me, it's just 3 little numbers... S...E...X..." also at one point he said something like "i would rather dance than die". And the day 4 Tokyo concert again was beautiful. The lyrics of "the future" took on new meaning.
• the panels were very cool, and i'm thinkin theres enoug prince stories to fill decades of yearly celebrations. it was interesting to hear tony m. he seemed grateful for having worked with prince and also he did a pretty close imitation of prince's deep speaking voice. cool to learn how the cloud guitar came to be, and takumi said prince never broke a guitar string during a concert. the revolution panel was fascinating. how around the world in a day and wendy n lisas brothers were one of princes early exposures to middle eastern music. P's advice to Mark was cool, that the more you rehearse, the more fun it becomes. Mark took it to heart and he rehearsed so much that he stopped looking at his instrument while playing and the performance just became a dance. there was also cool advice about how to channel the excitement felt on stage so you can stay on the beat -- instead of counting 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4..., count 1-*-2-*-3-*-4-*....a good quote from shelby j: "luck favors the well-prepared". and inspiring ideas from donna g: any creative vision is possible. One of my favorite panelists was kip blackshire. he was telling us prince's advice, to see yourself at your destination, and that we are created in the image of a creator, so it's our job to be creative. his first time at paisley park was a really cute story, how he was watching the band rehearse and saw a basketball so started to shoot some hoops. immediately he hears prince's guitar being dropped on stage and prince is there, guarding kip, ready to play. prince learns that kip sings and shows him the sheet music for little red corvette, asking if he knows the song. kip has to explain that growing up, he wasn't allowed to listen to prince's music. prince replies "good! then this should be fun!" it was interesting that if prince was recording vocals with someone else in the room, he required that person to turn their back to him.
• the live music was really great. Highlights for me included hearing Susannah sing "Mountains" and hearing "our destiny" for the first time -- what a pretty song! on day 4 i did start to feel like i was at a tony m. concert . in the soundstage they have a large tapestry of that artwork that features prince's silhouette on the moon, and it's hanging so that prince's face faces the stage. when they started playing "call the law" i started looking back and forth between the tapestry and the stage, half expecting lightning bolts or laser beams to shoot out of the eyes of the tapestry onto the stage. but seriously, the hornz were breathtakingly beautiful, and everyone played beautifully. I would have liked to hear even more of the proteges do a live song or 2 at paisley park, such as natalya, andy, etc. to hear them in that atmosphere free from alcohol, etc would be sweet.
• i thought damaris did a great job. it seemed like she was mainly conveying messages to us that prince had perhaps conveyed to her over the past few years.
• in october there had been a food menu that indicated which dishes were suitable for various diets, such as vegan, etc. Maybe it would have been harder to do that for this event, but i thought it was a cool idea.
• i liked the signs that Paisley employees held up to help guide various groups and to find hotel shuttles.
• i also had been hoping for a tour that went into more detail.
• i liked the illuminated love symbol in the soundstage.
• i hope everyone who hopes to be financially blessed enough to attend a future celebration will make it a daily affirmation to believe that they will be blessed with what is needed to make it a reality. It was really cool to be in that positive atmosphere surrounded by people who love prince, keeping that building alive.
• maybe as is done with various conferences, they could sell a la carte audio recordings of each panel, concert etc. for fans who missed being there.

[Edited 4/27/17 20:14pm]

Flinko said:

Agree with most the above Following complaints to Joel we were allowed to do the VIP tour on Monday and it was far far better. The $1000 VIP celebration tickets were a ripoff. One thing that grated on the tour was the insistence that everything was genuine when all the guitars on show were npgmc schecter replicas. Very disappointing. The concerts and panels were awesome though. I hear Joel is quoted as saying that everything went great. Totally disagree unfortunately. Much improvement can be made.

I think that for an inaugural event, it went well. Definitely room for improvement, but overall things went well.

I think that expectations were so high for some people that they never could have been met. There was a woman behind me complaining about the clothes that some of the staff were wearing. THE CLOTHES. I went in with the expectation that I would see some great concerts and hear some Prince stories and meet some cool people. My expectations were met.

SquirrelMeat said:

I had a great time and think it went well for a first time event. Besides the tour not being complete and very rushed my other complaint would be that there were panels i never got to go to. I followed my schedule and never got to see the "guitars" discussion which would have interested me. All the panels I did see were really interesting though.

• also i thought it was cool to see some of the family there. i had read an article expressing a desire for them to do a panel talking about P's childhood days. maybe its too soon for that, but some day it might be cool. p is lucky to have heirs who give a funk about keeping his legacy alive.

• q&a would be cool but i guess the q's might have to be predetermined for now until the investigation is solved, cuz who knows what kind of questions might be posed these days

sonicfreak said:

I had a great time and think it went well for a first time event. Besides the tour not being complete and very rushed my other complaint would be that there were panels i never got to go to. I followed my schedule and never got to see the "guitars" discussion which would have interested me. All the panels I did see were really interesting though.

yeah. that happened to me with the fashion panel. i just assumed everyone would have all the panels on their schedule.

i wonder, if they have more big events at other times of the year, if the celebration will have a lower number of attendees. the 2 tracks allowed more people to fit in that space, but i'd be okay with a 2 day, all-day event too.

MrNelson7 said:

Flinko said:

Agree with most the above Following complaints to Joel we were allowed to do the VIP tour on Monday and it was far far better. The $1000 VIP celebration tickets were a ripoff. One thing that grated on the tour was the insistence that everything was genuine when all the guitars on show were npgmc schecter replicas. Very disappointing. The concerts and panels were awesome though. I hear Joel is quoted as saying that everything went great. Totally disagree unfortunately. Much improvement can be made.

I think that for an inaugural event, it went well. Definitely room for improvement, but overall things went well.

I think that expectations were so high for some people that they never could have been met. There was a woman behind me complaining about the clothes that some of the staff were wearing. THE CLOTHES. I went in with the expectation that I would see some great concerts and hear some Prince stories and meet some cool people. My expectations were met.

I guess when you pay $1000 for a ticket, that is double the normal admission price, your expectations increase.

The "normal" tour on the Monday after far exceeded the tour during the celebration. The "normal" tour was $50 or so. You can see why those who paid $1000 primarily for the tour (worse than the normal tour) and meet and greet (which didn't happen) can be a little peaved.

[Edited 4/30/17 14:53pm]

Flinko said:

Agree with most the above Following complaints to Joel we were allowed to do the VIP tour on Monday and it was far far better. The $1000 VIP celebration tickets were a ripoff. One thing that grated on the tour was the insistence that everything was genuine when all the guitars on show were npgmc schecter replicas. Very disappointing. The concerts and panels were awesome though. I hear Joel is quoted as saying that everything went great. Totally disagree unfortunately. Much improvement can be made.

I noticed the white cloud was a replica... i mean it has to be as the white cloud was smashed. But the others eemed genuine to me. How can you tell they were ALL replicas? The battered Hohner Telecaster looked original to me.

nuthinbuttamuffin said:

Flinko said:

Agree with most the above Following complaints to Joel we were allowed to do the VIP tour on Monday and it was far far better. The $1000 VIP celebration tickets were a ripoff. One thing that grated on the tour was the insistence that everything was genuine when all the guitars on show were npgmc schecter replicas. Very disappointing. The concerts and panels were awesome though. I hear Joel is quoted as saying that everything went great. Totally disagree unfortunately. Much improvement can be made.

I noticed the white cloud was a replica... i mean it has to be as the white cloud was smashed. But the others eemed genuine to me. How can you tell they were ALL replicas? The battered Hohner Telecaster looked original to me.

At that price the VIP ticket should have included a replica guitar.

I think all my complaints stem from too many people... pretty much agree with everything above.

• It was disappointing that they wanted you to go see the fence, get merch, and eat in such an impossibly short window. The first day all I got done was asking about going out to the fence. Day 2 I got to go out, day 3 I got merch, day 4 I actually got to eat.
• I was also upset that they didn't allow water or make water available until your break (with the impossible lines). Some days my break wasn't for a few hours... and most days I just went without which is not healthy.
• I spent more time in lines than actually doing anything. My walk though was 25 minutes in a line outside and 5 minutes of running through the 1st floor with a guide saying hurry because NPG is about to start playing.
• I also thought the chairs were really restrictive in the soundstage. Everyone was so crammed in you couldn't dance or really even move around.

I'm not really sure if I'll go again next year. I loved the music, the panels, and video. I loved all the events in the area. I just don't know if the level of discomfort is worth it for me.

[Edited 5/3/17 10:18am]

[Edited 5/3/17 10:19am]

PURplEMaPLeSyrup said:

• I really enjoyed the concert footage. The concerts seemed perfectly chosen to comfort the purple family. In the day 1 Holland concert, what he said made me feel like Paisley Park is more than a physical place, but also a spiritual place any fan can visit any time, and Prince will always be there. The day 2 Paisley concert footage was phenomenal. It's like his musical autobiography told in concert form -- learning to write songs, feeling out chord changes, talking about localized music and djs like pharaoh black. I had been wanting to see it since before it happened, and the reports i had previously read had painted a very accurate description of it. I had expected him to seem nervous, but he seemed totally at ease in his raspberry outfit. i had expected to see him crying more, so i wondered if that was my imagination or if it was edited. The day 3 purple rain easter concert was mind-blowing. it was also a little interesting, probably only to me, that it was on april 7 which was the original atlanta concert date. I felt like a lot of the celebration attendees were cringing each time he would jump from great heights like a high-heeled grasshopper. One thing i thought was cute was when he sang "how come u dont call me anymore" he said something like "call me, it's just 3 little numbers... S...E...X..." also at one point he said something like "i would rather dance than die". And the day 4 Tokyo concert again was beautiful. The lyrics of "the future" took on new meaning.
• the panels were very cool, and i'm thinkin theres enoug prince stories to fill decades of yearly celebrations. it was interesting to hear tony m. he seemed grateful for having worked with prince and also he did a pretty close imitation of prince's deep speaking voice. cool to learn how the cloud guitar came to be, and takumi said prince never broke a guitar string during a concert. the revolution panel was fascinating. how around the world in a day and wendy n lisas brothers were one of princes early exposures to middle eastern music. P's advice to Mark was cool, that the more you rehearse, the more fun it becomes. Mark took it to heart and he rehearsed so much that he stopped looking at his instrument while playing and the performance just became a dance. there was also cool advice about how to channel the excitement felt on stage so you can stay on the beat -- instead of counting 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4..., count 1-*-2-*-3-*-4-*....a good quote from shelby j: "luck favors the well-prepared". and inspiring ideas from donna g: any creative vision is possible. One of my favorite panelists was kip blackshire. he was telling us prince's advice, to see yourself at your destination, and that we are created in the image of a creator, so it's our job to be creative. his first time at paisley park was a really cute story, how he was watching the band rehearse and saw a basketball so started to shoot some hoops. immediately he hears prince's guitar being dropped on stage and prince is there, guarding kip, ready to play. prince learns that kip sings and shows him the sheet music for little red corvette, asking if he knows the song. kip has to explain that growing up, he wasn't allowed to listen to prince's music. prince replies "good! then this should be fun!" it was interesting that if prince was recording vocals with someone else in the room, he required that person to turn their back to him.
• the live music was really great. Highlights for me included hearing Susannah sing "Mountains" and hearing "our destiny" for the first time -- what a pretty song! on day 4 i did start to feel like i was at a tony m. concert . in the soundstage they have a large tapestry of that artwork that features prince's silhouette on the moon, and it's hanging so that prince's face faces the stage. when they started playing "call the law" i started looking back and forth between the tapestry and the stage, half expecting lightning bolts or laser beams to shoot out of the eyes of the tapestry onto the stage. but seriously, the hornz were breathtakingly beautiful, and everyone played beautifully. I would have liked to hear even more of the proteges do a live song or 2 at paisley park, such as natalya, andy, etc. to hear them in that atmosphere free from alcohol, etc would be sweet.
• i thought damaris did a great job. it seemed like she was mainly conveying messages to us that prince had perhaps conveyed to her over the past few years.
• in october there had been a food menu that indicated which dishes were suitable for various diets, such as vegan, etc. Maybe it would have been harder to do that for this event, but i thought it was a cool idea.
• i liked the signs that Paisley employees held up to help guide various groups and to find hotel shuttles.
• i also had been hoping for a tour that went into more detail.
• i liked the illuminated love symbol in the soundstage.
• i hope everyone who hopes to be financially blessed enough to attend a future celebration will make it a daily affirmation to believe that they will be blessed with what is needed to make it a reality. It was really cool to be in that positive atmosphere surrounded by people who love prince, keeping that building alive.
• maybe as is done with various conferences, they could sell a la carte audio recordings of each panel, concert etc. for fans who missed being there.

[Edited 4/27/17 20:14pm]

Thank you for this--I actually feel like I can feel the energy of being there from your vivid descriptions. I love what Kip said that Prince said about being made in the image of the creator, and be creative. Prince said something similar to this in the 1999 interview with Larry King.

Thank you! Isabel x

Isabel said:

PURplEMaPLeSyrup said:

[Edited 4/27/17 20:14pm]

Thank you for this--I actually feel like I can feel the energy of being there from your vivid descriptions. I love what Kip said that Prince said about being made in the image of the creator, and be creative. Prince said something similar to this in the 1999 interview with Larry King.

Thank you! Isabel x

nuthinbuttamuffin said:

Flinko said:

Agree with most the above Following complaints to Joel we were allowed to do the VIP tour on Monday and it was far far better. The $1000 VIP celebration tickets were a ripoff. One thing that grated on the tour was the insistence that everything was genuine when all the guitars on show were npgmc schecter replicas. Very disappointing. The concerts and panels were awesome though. I hear Joel is quoted as saying that everything went great. Totally disagree unfortunately. Much improvement can be made.

I noticed the white cloud was a replica... i mean it has to be as the white cloud was smashed. But the others eemed genuine to me. How can you tell they were ALL replicas? The battered Hohner Telecaster looked original to me.

Sorry, I meant all the Cloud guitars were replicas.

The guitar in the Purple Rain room, the guitar in Studio B etc.

The ones in cases in the lobby were genuine, just not the Clouds.

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Does anyone have any idea what the attendance was for each day? Did they have big crowds or just a few die hards?

babynoz said:

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Does anyone have any idea what the attendance was for each day? Did they have big crowds or just a few die hards?

There were 2 tracks and 1000 people on each track.

PURplEMaPLeSyrup said:

• I really enjoyed the concert footage. The concerts seemed perfectly chosen to comfort the purple family. In the day 1 Holland concert, what he said made me feel like Paisley Park is more than a physical place, but also a spiritual place any fan can visit any time, and Prince will always be there. The day 2 Paisley concert footage was phenomenal. It's like his musical autobiography told in concert form -- learning to write songs, feeling out chord changes, talking about localized music and djs like pharaoh black. I had been wanting to see it since before it happened, and the reports i had previously read had painted a very accurate description of it. I had expected him to seem nervous, but he seemed totally at ease in his raspberry outfit. i had expected to see him crying more, so i wondered if that was my imagination or if it was edited. The day 3 purple rain easter concert was mind-blowing. it was also a little interesting, probably only to me, that it was on april 7 which was the original atlanta concert date. I felt like a lot of the celebration attendees were cringing each time he would jump from great heights like a high-heeled grasshopper. One thing i thought was cute was when he sang "how come u dont call me anymore" he said something like "call me, it's just 3 little numbers... S...E...X..." also at one point he said something like "i would rather dance than die". And the day 4 Tokyo concert again was beautiful. The lyrics of "the future" took on new meaning.
• the panels were very cool, and i'm thinkin theres enoug prince stories to fill decades of yearly celebrations. it was interesting to hear tony m. he seemed grateful for having worked with prince and also he did a pretty close imitation of prince's deep speaking voice. cool to learn how the cloud guitar came to be, and takumi said prince never broke a guitar string during a concert. the revolution panel was fascinating. how around the world in a day and wendy n lisas brothers were one of princes early exposures to middle eastern music. P's advice to Mark was cool, that the more you rehearse, the more fun it becomes. Mark took it to heart and he rehearsed so much that he stopped looking at his instrument while playing and the performance just became a dance. there was also cool advice about how to channel the excitement felt on stage so you can stay on the beat -- instead of counting 1-2-3-4-1-2-3-4..., count 1-*-2-*-3-*-4-*....a good quote from shelby j: "luck favors the well-prepared". and inspiring ideas from donna g: any creative vision is possible. One of my favorite panelists was kip blackshire. he was telling us prince's advice, to see yourself at your destination, and that we are created in the image of a creator, so it's our job to be creative. his first time at paisley park was a really cute story, how he was watching the band rehearse and saw a basketball so started to shoot some hoops. immediately he hears prince's guitar being dropped on stage and prince is there, guarding kip, ready to play. prince learns that kip sings and shows him the sheet music for little red corvette, asking if he knows the song. kip has to explain that growing up, he wasn't allowed to listen to prince's music. prince replies "good! then this should be fun!" it was interesting that if prince was recording vocals with someone else in the room, he required that person to turn their back to him.
• the live music was really great. Highlights for me included hearing Susannah sing "Mountains" and hearing "our destiny" for the first time -- what a pretty song! on day 4 i did start to feel like i was at a tony m. concert . in the soundstage they have a large tapestry of that artwork that features prince's silhouette on the moon, and it's hanging so that prince's face faces the stage. when they started playing "call the law" i started looking back and forth between the tapestry and the stage, half expecting lightning bolts or laser beams to shoot out of the eyes of the tapestry onto the stage. but seriously, the hornz were breathtakingly beautiful, and everyone played beautifully. I would have liked to hear even more of the proteges do a live song or 2 at paisley park, such as natalya, andy, etc. to hear them in that atmosphere free from alcohol, etc would be sweet.
• i thought damaris did a great job. it seemed like she was mainly conveying messages to us that prince had perhaps conveyed to her over the past few years.
• in october there had been a food menu that indicated which dishes were suitable for various diets, such as vegan, etc. Maybe it would have been harder to do that for this event, but i thought it was a cool idea.
• i liked the signs that Paisley employees held up to help guide various groups and to find hotel shuttles.
• i also had been hoping for a tour that went into more detail.
• i liked the illuminated love symbol in the soundstage.
• i hope everyone who hopes to be financially blessed enough to attend a future celebration will make it a daily affirmation to believe that they will be blessed with what is needed to make it a reality. It was really cool to be in that positive atmosphere surrounded by people who love prince, keeping that building alive.
• maybe as is done with various conferences, they could sell a la carte audio recordings of each panel, concert etc. for fans who missed being there.

[Edited 4/27/17 20:14pm]

motherfunka said:

babynoz said:

Thanks for sharing your experiences.

Does anyone have any idea what the attendance was for each day? Did they have big crowds or just a few die hards?

There were 2 tracks and 1000 people on each track.

Great, thanks!