Re: [Organizers] Questions about booking performers for a series
Jim, Some odds and ends. I book the Gainesville, Georgia, dance. As Kimbi noted, we work with Atlanta (as does Sautee) to provide easy Friday->Saturday mini-tours to help pull good bands this far south. The Asheville/RiverFalls/Serenity dances provide an established mini-tour path that many bands know, and that helps pull in good touring bands for them. We're hoping to do likewise. I don't have a "stable" of local bands that I need to book, for good-and-ill. Good is that I can book the best available bands for our dancers. Bad is that we're not developing a full contra dance ecosystem. I personally invest in our Gainesville dance in that we pay more than most venues, we have a nice facility, we provide good sound, etc. so good bands are starting to come to us for booking when passing through. (clue here is to be established long enough that bands approach you) I don't have a set pattern. Couple weeks ago I started booking Sept.-Dec. bands by sending out a half dozen emails to key musicians who are in multiple bands. As the dust settles I'll do similar for the callers. Handling that sequence because some callers prefer some flavors of contra music (traditional, fusion, swing, ...) and I try to work positive synergy. I try to give the band the option of saying yes/no as the callers line up. Some bands that I reach out to are already solidly booked well into 2019. I ask them to suggest a date in 2019 and negotiate from there. The top national bands book out a year or more in advance. If there's a weekend dance in the area you can often pick up the good bands by offering Thursday or Monday dances (if your regular dance lands on one of those days). Wild Asparagus played Summer Soirée this past weekend in Asheville. So they played the regular Thursday OFB dance the evening before. Toss the Possum was the other band for Soirée. Toss played Charlotte's Monday night dance after Soirée. I don't like saying NO to someone, but do that from time to time. Doesn't feel good. Can't say I handle that well. KEY: Work with other local dances in the area, if possible, so that everyone can book out as far as good touring bands need to setup their tour. I've had national musicians complain that some important touring areas don't book out at the same time, which makes lining up tours IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE MUSICIANS in that area, without taking large risks. My suggestion is have your regular booking pattern, whatever that might be, but be open to booking much further out if you are approached by a top band/caller. Also coordinate with the other potential tour dances to promote one another to good touring bands. Also, depending on the flavor of your dance, do consider hiring Emily Rush or someone like her to have something similar to her RushFest. That's a techno contra with recorded pop music (rather than the heavy thump-thump techno music). Relatively inexpensive and a ridiculous amount of fun when top hits from the past several decades are intermixed and everyone is singing along while dancing. http://www.rushfestcontra.com/ Trick is the person who assembles the music puts in a *lot* of time to blend the music right. Our dance's prior bands and callers list, going back two years: http://atgaga.com/php/txt.php?txt=/schedule/index#prior Where are you located? We're hosting a southeast and mid-Atlantic region weekend retreat for contra dance organizers July 20-22 an hour outside Atlanta in Rutledge, Georgia. Food and housing provided free. If you're in the area Heitzso http://atgaga.com Hi, folks, I'd like to hear about different people's approaches to booking bands and callers for a dance series. For example: * Do you ask a bunch of bands and callers at once for their availability dates and then try to fill in the schedule based on the combined responses, or do you contact folks sequentially on an "if you're available for date X, you've got it" basis? * How far in advance to you seek to book your talent? Does it vary for different people (callers vs. bands; locals vs. out-of-towners; top-tier locals vs. others; musicians who don't want to commit too far in advance because they might get offered a wedding gig; ...)? * What if a band or caller asks you about some date and you were planning to ask someone else that you'd prefer but might not be able to get? or if you ask about availability of band X and your band contact comes back with something like "No can do, but what about (lower cachet) band Y?" or
Re: [Organizers] Questions about booking performers for a series
Hi Jim, I am the Friday band and caller scheduler for the Chattahoochee Contra Dancers (CCD) in Atlanta. (CCD dances every Friday and 1st, 3rd, and 5th Tuesdays). I schedule on a quarterly basis (Q1: Jan-Mar, Q2: Apr-Jun, Q3: Jul-Sep, Q4: Oct-Dec) Our Steering Committee sets the ratio of touring (aka Out of Town – “OOT”) vs. local bands for each 13 Friday quarter. My current marching orders are to fill 5-6 Fridays with OOT bands and the remaining 8-9 with local-to-Atlanta bands. There is currently no cap on the number of OOT callers I can book in a 13 Friday quarter. When possible (which it isn’t always) I try to keep OOT bands/callers from ‘date clumping’ so that there is an even sprinkle of OOT talent across the calendar instead of 5 OOT bands in a row followed by 9 local bands in a row OOT callers and band contacts may pro-actively contact me about booking gigs as far in advance as they want to. I frequently take bookings for more than a year out. I make booking decisions on my own for OOT bands that have played for us before but if a request comes from an OOT band that has never played our Friday stage before I notify the Steering Committee members who serve on our Band Selection Committee. They do reference checks, watch videos, listen to sound files, etc and then get back to me with a decision about whether I should add the new band to our ‘vetted’ list or not. (i.e., they give me permission – or not – to book the request) I also loop in the organizers of our two other area dances (Gainesville GA and Sautee GA) to see if we can turn the request into multiple gigs and help promote each other’s dances If a band/caller can’t commit to a requested date when they first contact me (which they frequently can’t until they hear back from other dance organizers on the proposed tour) I pencil them in and leave it that way until they can either commit or someone else contacts me about the same date – at which point the first band has to either commit or give the date up. I also proactively reach out to OOT bands that may be interested in setting up tours down the East Coast or in the Southeast. Because touring band needs to string together multiple dates, I initiate this contact several quarters out. If, by the first month of the current quarter, I don’t have a full roster of OOT bands scheduled for the next quarter I start proactively reaching out to regional bands who may be able to play a one-off or set up a mini-tour. My goal for any next quarter is to have all OOT band/caller gigs in place by the beginning of the second month of the current quarter. At the beginning of the second month of the current quarter I send out an availability email to my ‘Music and Mic Magicians’ listserv (aka the pool of local bands and callers who have been vetted to play our Friday stage). When they return their information bands and callers have annotated the dates I sent out with “preferred date,” “available,” “not available,” and “can work but would prefer not.” I wait until all responses have come in (this takes a few weeks), fill out an availability table with everyone’s info (8 callers, 9 bands), and use that information to assemble the band/caller jigsaw puzzle keeping in mind: How many gigs a given local band /caller has gotten over the last 4 quarters (on a rolling basis) -- our goal is equity of playing/calling time Which callers and bands have worked with each other over the last 4 quarters – our goal is to honor band/caller preferences while giving everyone in our local pool a chance to call/play with everyone else in our local pool. What bands and callers ‘match’ well with each other’s style Date spread (e.g. I try to avoid scheduling a band/caller for a Friday close to the end of one quarter and then again at the beginning of the next one) Date preferences – I try my best to keep everyone blissfully happy but this is not always possible Other idiosyncratic factors, as they arise Once I have the puzzle put together I send the filled out availability table, with everyone’s booked gigs highlighted in yellow, out to the listserv, post it to our website, and deal with for requests for schedule changes as they pop up. (Letting everyone see who is available to be booked for a given week, not just who ended up being booked for a given week, promotes transparency and helps if something comes up at the last minute because bands/callers can use the availability table to contact each other about switching dates on their own, if I’m not available for some reason to do that for them. See also specific answers to your questions below. -Kimbi Hagen On 6/25/18, 4:49 PM, "Organizers on behalf of jim saxe via Organizers" wrote: Hi, folks, I'd like to hear about different people's approaches to booking bands and callers for a dance series. For example: * Do you ask a bunch of bands and callers at once for their
Re: [Organizers] Questions about booking performers for a series
Here in Buffalo we have a band booker, me, and another for callers (I call and don't want conflicts). I usually try to send out emails to all our local talent with dates and ask for interest and availability. I try to book first choice. I do try to book local for winter dates and farther away bands for better weather. If I have more than one vying for a date I take type of band,weather, travel and caller into consideration and book accordingly. The longer you do this the better you get. I try to get booked by August for Sept.-June series so I can focus on other things. My local bands are all aware that they may be asked to change dates if a travelling band or national band somehow lands in this "backwater". Oh, I keep a spreadsheet and plug in requested dates. Once all bands respond, I click dates, finalize the schedule and then confirm with bands. I also send a confirming email about 1.5 weeks prior to dance with particulars. If perchance the band has a favorite caller or vice versa we try to accommodate. I think that's it other than I tend to nag the caller booker . Happy booking! On Mon, Jun 25, 2018, 7:49 PM jim saxe via Organizers < organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > Hi, folks, > > I'd like to hear about different people's approaches to booking bands and > callers for a dance series. For example: > > * Do you ask a bunch of bands and callers at once for their availability > dates and then try to fill in the schedule based on the combined responses, > or do you contact folks sequentially on an "if you're available for date X, > you've got it" basis? > > * How far in advance to you seek to book your talent? Does it vary for > different people (callers vs. bands; locals vs. out-of-towners; top-tier > locals vs. others; musicians who don't want to commit too far in advance > because they might get offered a wedding gig; ...)? > > * What if a band or caller asks you about some date and you were planning > to ask someone else that you'd prefer but might not be able to get? or if > you ask about availability of band X and your band contact comes back with > something like "No can do, but what about (lower cachet) band Y?" or "... > what about most of band X with substitute fiddler TBD?"? > > * Have you found ways to mix different approaches to booking so as to get > "the best of both worlds" instead of the worst? > > * Are there other questions you think I should have asked and, if so, what > are your aswers to them? > > It would be easy to go on at length about the *potential* plusses and > minuses of various ways of doing bookings. What I'd prefer is to hear > about *ideas that have worked well in practice* for other organizers. > > Thanks. > > --Jim > > ___ > Organizers mailing list > Organizers@lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net > ___ Organizers mailing list Organizers@lists.sharedweight.net http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net
Re: [Organizers] Questions about booking performers for a series
In St Louis, we are fortunate to have a lot of bands who are very good and want to play for us - so we try to rotate thru them to be as fair as we can. On top of that, about 1/3 of the dances are regional/traveling bands. We usually book about 6 months ahead - so those traveling bands know they need to contact us very early. We contact each band individually and give them a choice of open dates until we fit everyone in. Of course - no system is perfect - so we do a small amount of rearranging after the fact. Callers are booked after the bands so we can match them up with bands they work well with - but again - we have a lot of callers and about 1/3 events have visiting callers - so we try to be as fair as possible. Mac McKeever On Monday, June 25, 2018, 6:49:06 PM CDT, jim saxe via Organizers wrote: Hi, folks, I'd like to hear about different people's approaches to booking bands and callers for a dance series. For example: * Do you ask a bunch of bands and callers at once for their availability dates and then try to fill in the schedule based on the combined responses, or do you contact folks sequentially on an "if you're available for date X, you've got it" basis? * How far in advance to you seek to book your talent? Does it vary for different people (callers vs. bands; locals vs. out-of-towners; top-tier locals vs. others; musicians who don't want to commit too far in advance because they might get offered a wedding gig; ...)? * What if a band or caller asks you about some date and you were planning to ask someone else that you'd prefer but might not be able to get? or if you ask about availability of band X and your band contact comes back with something like "No can do, but what about (lower cachet) band Y?" or "... what about most of band X with substitute fiddler TBD?"? * Have you found ways to mix different approaches to booking so as to get "the best of both worlds" instead of the worst? * Are there other questions you think I should have asked and, if so, what are your aswers to them? It would be easy to go on at length about the *potential* plusses and minuses of various ways of doing bookings. What I'd prefer is to hear about *ideas that have worked well in practice* for other organizers. Thanks. --Jim ___ Organizers mailing list Organizers@lists.sharedweight.net http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net ___ Organizers mailing list Organizers@lists.sharedweight.net http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net
[Organizers] Questions about booking performers for a series
Hi, folks, I'd like to hear about different people's approaches to booking bands and callers for a dance series. For example: * Do you ask a bunch of bands and callers at once for their availability dates and then try to fill in the schedule based on the combined responses, or do you contact folks sequentially on an "if you're available for date X, you've got it" basis? * How far in advance to you seek to book your talent? Does it vary for different people (callers vs. bands; locals vs. out-of-towners; top-tier locals vs. others; musicians who don't want to commit too far in advance because they might get offered a wedding gig; ...)? * What if a band or caller asks you about some date and you were planning to ask someone else that you'd prefer but might not be able to get? or if you ask about availability of band X and your band contact comes back with something like "No can do, but what about (lower cachet) band Y?" or "... what about most of band X with substitute fiddler TBD?"? * Have you found ways to mix different approaches to booking so as to get "the best of both worlds" instead of the worst? * Are there other questions you think I should have asked and, if so, what are your aswers to them? It would be easy to go on at length about the *potential* plusses and minuses of various ways of doing bookings. What I'd prefer is to hear about *ideas that have worked well in practice* for other organizers. Thanks. --Jim ___ Organizers mailing list Organizers@lists.sharedweight.net http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net
