Dan Swanö and Ohio Prog 2012 (pledging to help a festival)

In the late 90s (maybe 1998?), Edge of Sanity played the US, appearing at Milwaukee Metalfest. Without Dan Swanö. I almost went. My Edge of Sanity appreciation transcends Swanö as an individual, though just barely. But the stars were not aligned in favour of me making the trip, and really, it wouldn't have been the same.

In November 2001, it was a reverse sort of scenario. Swanö's solo-ish band, Nightingale, were booked for their first North American performance – at Atlanta's ProgPower festival. I wanted to go. I began to plan. But things happened. My plans never came to fruition. And as it turned out, the airline I would have tried to fly on went belly-up days before the fest. Once again, the stars weren't aligned. I did, however, manage to snag a copy of the limited release live recording of the show (signed and numbered by Dan Swanö himself).

In the summer of 2003 I had the honour and pleasure of meeting Swanö in person, and received a personally-guided preview of his about-to-be-released Edge of Sanity comeback-of-sorts, Crimson II. But no live performances were in the cards.

But in September 2012 I may have another chance to see Swanö live. Nightingale is booked to play North American soil once again, this time at the in-the-works OhioProg 2012, presented by the Ohio Progressive Rock Association. The tricky bit is, the festival organizers are looking for funding help, in the form of pledges, to get the festival off the ground.

Making a pledge is only a commitment if the fest takes place, and though you can make a donation, you can also get stuff in return: fest merch for smaller pledges, tickets and merch for larger pledges, and if you've really got some cash you could introduce your favourite artist on-stage, or even join them for dinner.

Where the things getting tricky bit comes in is that the organizers have a pretty big funding goal and a long way to get there in very little time. Interested in helping? Swing by funding platform KickStarter to make your pledge.

For more info, including the list of bands confirmed for the fest, visit OhioProg.com.