Latest news with #Teubner
Yahoo
09-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Edge Fest moves indoors this April, piloting program with crowd favorite Raffoul brothers
CHEYENNE — After 10 years of free concerts, Dave Teubner, Edge Fest founder and owner of Warehouse 21, announced last March that the summer of 2024 would be the final year for the annual event in Civic Commons Park. This decision was made due to it being 'too expensive to maintain' and taking up 'too much time and too many resources' from the community and local businesses who were helping raise the money, he said. 'As it grew, the burden got larger, and that's why we sunsetted it,' Teubner told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle. Warehouse 21 would raise more than $150,000 in cash for staging, lighting, sound and paying the artists. This amount doesn't include the money they needed for the food and drink carts at the event as well as paying for the Warehouse's labor. On Tuesday, Edge Fest announced that they're going back to their roots from before they moved the festival outdoors, and piloting a ticketed event called Edge Fest Indoors, starting with 'A Night with the Raffouls' on April 10 at The Lincoln. The Raffoul brothers, Billy and Peter, have played at Edge Fest in 2019 and 2024, respectively. Both of them will perform 45-minute sets and then an encore with five songs together. Teubner told the Wyoming Tribune Eagle how he and the team at Warehouse 21 have been exploring the idea of moving Edge Fest indoors for over a year and 'kind of crashed into' the event coming in April. He saw that the Raffoul brothers were playing together, knew they were crowd favorites in the capital city, and reached out to them to see if they would play in Cheyenne. Once they secured the Raffouls, Teubner reached out to The Lincoln, and Edge Fest Indoors was underway. 'We knew we wanted to continue exploring and finding ways to contribute to the arts and music scene, so our thought was to try and partner with The Lincoln and do a test-run to see if we can cover our expenses from a ticketed show and see if it's feasible,' said Teubner. 'Part of the experience for us wasn't just the music, but a digital art form (with) the lights and the digital experience, so we're passionate about that.' If the pilot with the Raffoul Brothers is well received, Teubner said that they may make Edge Fest Indoors a once or twice a year event, whether they bring back more Edge Fest crowd favorites or new artists. Teubner also told the WTE that Edge Fest Indoors will likely follow suit with how their brand was 'set' when it comes to the different vibe, bands and types of music they were chasing when thinking of acts to bring to the outdoor event. He explained that they were always trying to fit a niche that Cheyenne didn't have before, and will continue to do so if the event continues. A post on the Edge Fest Instagram account said that whatever money they have left after expenses for Edge Fest Indoors will go to supporting local artists and the arts scene through the Big 8 Foundation, the nonprofit organization that started Edge Fest in 2014. Some things that Warehouse 21 and the Edge Fest team will be exploring are music scholarships for the youth, studio time for artists, future shows to feed the fund, photography projects, donations back to music and arts organizations and infrastructure projects that support downtown. They're calling it 'concerts with a purpose.' 'Giving money versus asking for money is of interest to us,' said Teubner. 'I think our fans are so great, we're just really grateful for the people that have donated, volunteered and showed up for Edge Fest. … It's a ticketed show, but it goes back to other good things and we're grateful for the support.'
Voice of America
28-02-2025
- Business
- Voice of America
Russia and China's relationship may not be as strong as it seems, report says
On the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine earlier this week, Chinese President Xi Jinping reaffirmed Beijing's "no limits" partnership with Moscow in a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to Chinese state media. "China-Russia relations have strong internal driving force and unique strategic value," Xi said, according to the official readout from state media. He also called Russia a "true friend" and a "good neighbor." The sentiment is not new. Moscow and Beijing have long touted the strength and long-term nature of their relationship. But according to a new report from Filter Labs, a U.S.-based political research and analysis company, Russia and China's relationship may be weaker than they want the rest of the world to believe. "Their partnership is vulnerable," Filter Labs founder Jonathan Teubner told VOA. "This 'no limits' partnership is much more complicated." 'Infused with doubt' While the governments and state-run media from both countries work to project the image of a strong partnership, their relationship may be underpinned by more tension, mistrust and competing interests than previously thought, according to an extensive analysis of news media and social media posts by Filter Labs. "The axis is infused with doubt, ripe for disruption," the report said. Teubner added, "The monolith theory of the China-Russia relationship isn't necessarily the way it has to be." But not all experts agree that the Russia-China relationship is fragile. "The China-Russia relationship continues to deepen and widen, and occasional disagreements are dwarfed by the scale and momentum of their strategic cooperation," Robert Blackwill and Richard Fontaine wrote in a 2024 Council on Foreign Relations report. From the Chinese perspective, according to the Filter Labs report, there are doubts over the true resilience of Russia's economy, whether Russia's military is as strong as it says it is, and what Russia's true intentions are in the long term. Meanwhile, says Filter Labs, Russian doubts pertain to quality concerns about Chinese goods, how militarily committed China actually is to Russia, and whether Chinese investment in Russia is really that substantial. Chinese state media is generally positive about the state of the Russian economy and often criticizes Western sanctions. However, Chinese netizens are increasingly worried about the impact that secondary sanctions could have on China. The United States has threatened to use secondary sanctions against Chinese businesses viewed as engaging with Russia, pushing some Chinese netizens to weigh the value of China's relationship with Russia against its ability to trade with the United States. Once those sanctions are enforced on China, Teubner predicts, it will lead to changes in the Russia-China relationship. "The sanctions on Russia actually have a pretty important countering Chinese effect, too," said Teubner, who thinks the sanctions are the biggest source of friction between Beijing and Moscow. Quality concerns Meanwhile, the most common doubt among Russians about China pertains to quality concerns about Chinese goods, according to the report. In Russia, Chinese goods have a reputation for being affordable but of poor quality. "We see more persistent complaints about Chinese goods," Teubner said. "That's paired with Russian anxiety over pairing itself so deeply to China," Teubner added. "That comes through very strongly in Russian anxieties toward being subordinated to the Chinese economy." One consequence of Russia's war in Ukraine has been that it has pushed Russia and China closer together, prompting some governments to default to treating the autocratic duo as a bloc, according to Teubner. "It will increasingly be that way unless we do something to keep them apart," Teubner said. The report recommends that the United States and its allies and partners take advantage of the fault lines to drive a wedge between Russia and China.
