Concert Tonight

[jacey]

I've organised a concert tonight with the excellent Canadian performer Dan McKinnon. Venue: our house.

That may seem a little weird to those of you who aren't familiar with the folk scene but houseconcerts are an important part of the circuit in the USA and Canada. People literally book a performer, invite a load of friends who 'make a donation' instead of paying a ticket price (that means you're not turning your house into a venue as it remains - technically - a private party). They give the whole of the proceeds to the performer and also provide them with a meal and a place to stay overnight. It's a sensible filler for performers on tour and far from home. And it's a lovely experience for the audience to get so up-close-and-personal to great performers and also to socialise with them.

I hadn't intended tonight's concert to be a houseconcert, however...

We're in a state of limbo with the folkish concert series I run at Birdsedge Village Hall. I had six concerts booked before we got notification that we'd got a grant to refurbish the hall, so I arranged temporary accommodation for the concerts up at the church hall, just a few hundred yards away from the Village Hall. It's a slightly smaller venue, but quite a pleasant room. The only disadvantage is that being a Methodist church we can't have a bar in there and can't offer our patrons the option of bringing in their own beer. (I'm a bit cross about the latter because the church body seems to make exceptions for the art group who have wine at their showings - but one of the main churchies is on the art group committee - go figure!)

Whether it's the church thing or the beer thing that's putting them off or whether people just don't like change - my ticket sales have not only slumped, they've dropped out of sight. (Or maybe people are really believing the credit crunch to the extent they've pulled up their own personal drawbridges.) When we sell out (which we do about twice a year for certain artists) we sell 100 tickets. I reckon on a good day we generally get sixty to seventy people to our concerts. On a bad day I'd say the turnout is about thirty and we can manage on that if we have to as long as the artist is not too expensive... but the September concert pulled in just 17 people and the advance ticket sales for tonight are just 13. Yes THIRTEEN. I'm gutted.

And that's why I've moved the venue to our house. At least we won't have to pay rent on the hall and I can easily seat twenty five people in my living room in relative comfort. (Thirty at a push.) It means I won't be paying out of my own pocket to stage the event and the performer gets 100% of the 'donations.' It also means the Village Hall doesn't make anything on the catering but - hey - I can live with that, especially since none of them ever buys a ticket.

And the performer, Dan McKinnon, is great! I mean GREAT. He's got a voice that just melts you instantly and has been described by other Canadian performers as 'the best voice in Canada'. He writes intelligent, engaging songs and he also does brilliant interpretations of Stan Rogers' songs - whom he resembles vocally. (Stan being the great Canadian songwriting hero, writer of 'Mary Ellen Carter' and 'The Lock Keeper' who died tragically young in 1983). He's also a charming chap - very likeable both on stage and off.

I don't think it's the performers that are putting people off... and I can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. So where's my audience? At the end of the day I have to ask myself if I can continue. I run these concerts to a) contribute to the Village Hall's fundraising and b) provide another venue on the circuit for touring musicians. I don't actually make anything out of them for myself and they're a certain amount of hard work. (Mailshots, both paper and electronic, designing advertising, remembering to meet advertising deadlines, sending promo to newspapers, taking ticket orders and posting them out, plus all the stuff on the day like setting out chairs, arranging the stage, doing PA (Best Beloved's job) and helping to clean up and wash up afterwards.)

Our first ever concert in the Village Hall was in 1983 and for 25 years we've been working in less than ideal conditions in a scruffy old hall which was not perfect for our purpose. Now at last we're going to have a shiny new refurbished hall and I'm seriously doubting whether I'll still be able to run a concert series in it. Without an audience a concert is just an expensive rehearsal.

Comments

[brownnicky.livejournal.com]

I doubt that you're doing anything wrong. maybe people are just getting lazy. It is so easy to get entertainment in your home now that maybe people are more reluctant to engage with the more difficult business of going out? Dunno.
good luck with tonight I hope you have fun and make enough.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I think there's a general trend towards laziness and letting amusement come to you via the TV screen, but in general folk music audiences know they can't rely on TV for their kind of music and so they are the ones who will still turn out.

Or at least that's how it has been up to now. But people who have been in the business longer than I have tell me about the 'golden' days when you only had to whisper the word 'folk' to get 120 people crammed into a room singing along to 'Wilds Rover'.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Do you think it could be a generational thing? The young live music scene seems to be thriving again with bands playing small venues such as pubs. Perhaps us oldies who make up the folk generation prefer to snuggle up in front of the TV with their mugs of cocoa?

Have you tried different days/times? Our local music club still draws in an audience, ditto the one in Ruthin. Admittedly both Dolgellau and Ruthin are considerably bigger than Birdsedge, I think. But I don't go to the music club because it's always on a Friday and by Friday I'm knackered, so we just slump in front of the TV with pizza and a glass of wine.

Having said that, our new Welsh folk music venue isn't pulling in the crowds as expected, so perhaps there is something about folk that isn't as enticing as it used to be?

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I hope with the refurbished hall the ticket sales go up. It sounds like a wonderful time. I wish I could come hear Dan McKinnon. I'm a huge fan of Stan Rogers.

Maybe the Methodists like wine but not beer because of the whole Last Supper beverage thing. :-)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

I could go on four hours about what's wrong with the folk scene but by and large it's nothing that an injection of media attention wouldn't cure. We used to be able to listen to six different folk programmes on radio plus the BBC national one. Since various rationalisations we can now hear one plus the national one which concentrates on a very few acts who are largely not the ones playing folk clubs.

Our problem at the moment is that audiences have taken a nosedive in a relatively short timespan - i.e. since about April 08. Our regular audience - all oldies - has melted away very suddenly.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

You'll have to take a listen to Dan if you liked Stan. His own songs are very similar in style, too.

[heleninwales.livejournal.com]

Our regular audience - all oldies - has melted away very suddenly

Interesting... Presumably they're all still alive and well? I'm sure you would have heard if they'd all been wiped out by some catastrophe! Therefore there may be some reversible cause for their defection. I wonder where they go now for their entertainment? You haven't been trumped by pub quiz night or something?

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

No we haven't been trumped by any one thing because they all coime from different directions and they aren't local. I did have one email from a lady from the other side of Sheffield to say that now she was semi-retired she had to consider the rising petrol prices and the cost of tickets. She'll still come for the 'people she likes'. Which means she'll miss out on the people she ight like if only she heard them once.