Dear local community tourist bureaus, city councils and sundry organizers-of-fun: Do ya'll ever talk to each other?

The reason I asked is that, this past weekend, citizens had at least six different festivals or festival-type gatherings to consider in terms of "getting out and doing something." It seems to me that, if you spread them out a bit, calendar-wise, you wouldn't make people have to choose one over another and perhaps boost attendance. Granted, a certain event or two might be the only one(s) interesting to a certain set of folks, so which to go to wouldn't be an issue.

I found all of them intriguing, though, and so on Saturday I decided to attend all six events. In order, they were: ComiConn at Foxwoods, the Blast from the Bayou Cajun & Zydeco Festival at Strawberry Park in Preston, A Taste of Mystic at Olde Mistick Village, the Sea Music Festival at Mystic Seaport, the Outer Light Outdoor Party at Outer Light Brewery in Groton, and the Blues & Brews Festival in New London. Here are a few thoughts on what I experienced.

ComiConn — it's a pop culture celebration focused on the minutiae of comic books, movies and television (mostly sci-fi and pro wrestling), and tangential other stuff. Many attendees wear costumes — this is encouraged, apparently — and I quickly figured out that fans not wearing thematic outfits constantly congratulate those who do, rather like ballplayers who gather post-game to express "well-played" sentiments to the other team.

The layout of the Premiere Ballroom at Foxwoods was row upon row of vendors selling posters, comics, toys and so on. There were also three long segments of "celebrity booths" where you could get an autograph and/or photo with Famous People, or at least famous in context. Owning no comic books and not having seen a science fiction or super hero movie since "The Blob" in 1961, a lot of this was lost on me. Celebs I did recognize included wrestler Ric Flair (he looks like Count Dracula if the vampire used White-Out to dye his hair); the guy who played the Yankees general manager on "Seinfeld"; and Tawny Kitaen. Like the rest of us, she's aged since dancing on the sports car in the Whitesnake video, but she still looks in good enough shape to re-beat-up her ex-husband, former California Angels pitcher Chuck Finley.

I felt most sorry for actor Robert Romanus, who played "Romano" in "Fast Times at Ridgemont High." He signed the occasional photo, but he was directly across from headliner Ron "Hellboy" Perlman, whose fans stretched through a maze like airport passengers in the security line a week after a terrorist attack. It had to be a bit demoraling for Romano, though he smiled a lot and seemed pleasant.

In contrast, the Blast from the Bayou was relatively tame. It was the third day of the four-day event, and folks who enjoy Cajun and zydeco will travel to these festivals. Plenty outta-towners were on hand for the duration (as evidenced by plenty of indigenous T-shirts advertising Boozoo Chavis, Steve Riley & the Mamou Playboys, Rock 'n' Bowl, and Festivals Acadiens. It's been a while since I was in southwest Louisiana — where this music originates — but I guess I missed the fashion announcement that female fans all wear cowboy boots. I guess you can dance in 'em, but it seemed a peculiar stylistic development.

I'd hoped to see the Pine Leaf Boys, but my intricate scheduling precluded that. Wayne Same ol2Step was supposed be onstage but we were told he was late getting into the airport. Saturday's show openers, Slippery Sneakers, kindly encored and filled the dance floor with the likes of "Goodnight Irene" and "Jambalaya."

I made it to the Taste of Mystic in time to see Chris MacKay & the ToneShifters roar into what was presumably a tribute to Gregg Allman with "Whipping Post." Not easy to do, but they rocked it. The "Taste" is held in a huge back parking lot with parallel rows of booths from local restaurants offering savories. There's a huge circus-y tent for shaded seating, and the bands set up at the far end. Wandering around, I figured this was probably the most generic of my stops for the day inasmuch as the common denominator is food. I suspect it got more crowded toward late afternoon and evening, but it was nicely attended with an overall, drowsy sort of, "Did I really need ice cream after four hot dogs and shrimp skewer?" aura.

Just up the street at Mystic Seaport, I found four different acts performing simultaneously, and that's how the Sea Music presentation rolled Saturday and Sunday. This was the music gathering with the most to offer fans in terms of abundance and diversity. I checked in on three of the four in-progress shows — a humor music symposium, "Songs of Whales & Whaling" and "Northeast Traditions." These are all in a round-robin format with several artists on one stage, alternating turns and occasionally joining in with each other. My first thought was, "Wow, that's a lot of songs about the sea." My second? If Paul McCartney had been a whaler, there might have been a little more melodic variation to the form, though I suppose the repetitive qualities were functional in terms of helping get the work done. 

The most interesting thing? A lot of the performers and men in the crowd actually dress and look like seafarin' guys from the 19th century, only with more shampoo and deodorant. Another impressive aspect: Attendees know ALL of these dozens or hundreds of songs. And it's apparently encouraged to sing along, as though everyone really was on a seal-clubbing voyage with Captain Wolf Larsen. Embarrassed that I didn't know when to chime in on "Heave away my bully boys," I slunk out. All told, a chantey festival seems to combine music, fun and a sense of history and scholarship. Pretty cool.

The Outer Light Outdoor Party, held in the craft brewery's parking lot in Groton, was celebrating some new recipes, new logos and branding, and an upcoming line of canned beer. They brought out several fine area bands, turned on the kegs, and booked a barbecue food truck. Lots of familiar New London faces were taking part from across the city's demographics and I suppose good beer and tunes'll do that for you. At about this point, it hit me that it was a very warm day, I'd been mostly standing for about seven hours, and I was pretty waxed (I'm sure the ONE delicious Outer Light IPA had nothing to do with it).

But I willed myself to stop by the first New London Blues & Brews Festival, which took place over the weekend in a variety of clubs, restaurants and bars downtown. The entertainment schedule seemed to fluxuate between actual blues acts and other styles, but "blues" and "brews" has a nice rhyme. I showed up at the host venue, the happily crowded Hygienic Art Park, in time to hear the end of an energized set by longtime Connecticut blues sorceress Ms. Marci and her Lovesick Hounds. They were followed by Chris MacKay and the ToneShifters — who were apparently following me as I'd seen them a few hours early at Taste of Mystic.  In effortless fashion, they segued from their earlier classic rock setlist to the raucous blues one would hope for at "Blues & Brews." Nice job.

The music carried on into the evening and through Sunday at all of these events, but I was done. My experiment confirmed that A) music fans across the board are passionate people, and B) after a cool, drizzly spring, people are ready for summer. Bring on more fests!

r.koster@theday.com