Folk festivals spin off profit for both artists and venues -- Vancouver Sun, 7/13/07: "Though Canadian folk festivals are grassroots affairs where lots of patrons reflect the ideals of the 1960s, they nevertheless generate big dollars.
The Edmonton Folk Festival, largest in Western Canada, attracts 85,000 people for a box office of $1.4 million. It has sold out all its tickets in 11 of the last 13 years. The smaller Winnipeg Folk Festival draws 60,000, but 40 per cent of the audience comes from the United States, resulting in an economic spinoff to the area of about $20 million.
The three-day Vancouver Folk Music Festival, which begins today, attracts people from all over B.C. and the U.S. (Americans make up 30 per cent of the audience), and even some from Europe and Australia. Smaller than events in Edmonton, Winnipeg and Calgary, last year's Vancouver festival operated on a budget of $1.2 million, attracted 30,000 people and took in $551,000 at the box office.
Dancing at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival
Dancing at the Vancouver Folk Music Festival
Peter Battistoni/Vancouver Sun
One lucrative side business at folk festivals is on-site CD sales. Festival patrons prefer buying recordings directly from the artist or the artist's label on-site because more of their money goes to the music's creator. These sales won't show up on SoundScan or Billboard, but they nevertheless add up. At last summer's 17 western Canadian folk festivals -- which include events in Vancouver, Victoria, Salmon Arm, Duncan, Comox, Mission and Harrison Hot Springs -- CD sales amounted to $754,594.
At the 2001 Edmonton festival, the Waifs from Australia sold 1,000 CDs in a single weekend, a figure matched by Xavier Rudd one year at the Calgary Folk Festival.
CD sales at last year's Vancouver Folk Festival totalled about 15,000. A top artist can sell as many as 700 CDs in a single weekend at the Vancouver festival....
VANCOUVER FOLK FESTIVAL
Attendance: 30,000
Box office: $551,000
CALGARY FOLK FESTIVAL
Attendance: 48,000
Box office: just under $1 million
EDMONTON FOLK FESTIVAL
Attendance: 85,000
Box office: $1.4 million
Winnipeg Folk Festival
Attendance: 60,000
Box office: $1.3 million
Showing posts with label folk music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label folk music. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
San Francisco's Music Scene in the 1960s
Rolling Stone : San Francisco: The Start of the Revolution: "In San Francisco in October 1965, some Red Dog veterans, now calling themselves the Family Dog, staged an evening of bands and dancing at the Longshoremen's Hall; billed as 'A Tribute to Dr. Strange,' it featured the Charlatans, Jefferson Airplane and the Great Society. The event spontaneously fused the lenient spirit of the Acid Tests with the Red Dog's focus on dancing and proved a pivotal occasion in the psychedelic scene's history. Over the next two years, San Francisco dance ballrooms--primarily the Avalon and the Fillmore--became not merely a central metaphor for Haight-Ashbury's reinvention of community but also a fundamental enactment of it.
The bands that emerged in this setting were made up largely of musicians who had come up playing in the Bay Area's folk-music venues. The folk crowd had been notoriously dismissive of rock & roll; they saw it as unserious and decadent, not at all committed to social or political concerns. But after the arrival of the Beatles in 1964 and Bob Dylan's transition to electric music in 1965, Bay Area folk musicians began to see how electric music could incorporate substantive themes and poetic language."
The bands that emerged in this setting were made up largely of musicians who had come up playing in the Bay Area's folk-music venues. The folk crowd had been notoriously dismissive of rock & roll; they saw it as unserious and decadent, not at all committed to social or political concerns. But after the arrival of the Beatles in 1964 and Bob Dylan's transition to electric music in 1965, Bay Area folk musicians began to see how electric music could incorporate substantive themes and poetic language."
Friday, March 09, 2007
How a fan created a successful singer/songwriter concert series
The Other Paper, 3/8/07 -How attorney Alec Wightman created the town’s best-kept musical secret: "Columbus’s best-kept musical secret began 12 years ago on a whim. A fan of [Tom] Russell’s for years, Wightman received a mailing from the singer in 1995 asking his supporters to notify him about performance venues in their cities. It sat on Wightman’s desk for months.
Then, for reasons that still elude him, the attorney picked up the phone. He told Russell’s people that he would try to find the singer a venue and even help sell tickets.
'It was totally spur-of-the-moment,' Wightman said. 'I had never done anything like it.'
There were snags at first—'All the bars I contacted laughed at me,' Wightman said—but, with Russell’s encouragement, he finally resolved to rent out Columbus Music Hall and make the event happen all by himself.
'In eight days, I sold 99 tickets—all friends, clients and co-workers,' he said. 'Nobody but me knew who Tom was.' ...
'There aren’t a lot of these venues left for people on my level,' Russell said of the intimate, 100-seat performance spaces on which professional singer-songwriters have traditionally survived.'A lot of promoters just don’t want to deal with that size room because the profits aren’t there. So it pushes a lot of acts back down into the bars—and that’s pretty rough country.'”
folk music
Then, for reasons that still elude him, the attorney picked up the phone. He told Russell’s people that he would try to find the singer a venue and even help sell tickets.
'It was totally spur-of-the-moment,' Wightman said. 'I had never done anything like it.'
There were snags at first—'All the bars I contacted laughed at me,' Wightman said—but, with Russell’s encouragement, he finally resolved to rent out Columbus Music Hall and make the event happen all by himself.
'In eight days, I sold 99 tickets—all friends, clients and co-workers,' he said. 'Nobody but me knew who Tom was.' ...
'There aren’t a lot of these venues left for people on my level,' Russell said of the intimate, 100-seat performance spaces on which professional singer-songwriters have traditionally survived.'A lot of promoters just don’t want to deal with that size room because the profits aren’t there. So it pushes a lot of acts back down into the bars—and that’s pretty rough country.'”
folk music
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
Your music should sound like where it's from
Great Lakes Myth Society, a Detroit band, talks about place-based music.
Myth, mirth and fresh water (Metro Times Detroit): "'Music should sound like where it's from. Even if it's not entirely in the lyrics, it's about the dark and the light. Pop music is so wonderful and beautiful, but the girl songs have been written so many times over, and all the neat little pop themes, so it's kind of going back to folk music to where a certain sound seems more genuine.'[said Timothy Monger].
"Tim's older brother, vocalist-guitarist and songwriter James Christopher Monger, agrees. 'I think the further north you get, the more folk songs are just outright dark. It's just all laid out there, in British folk all the way through to Scandinavia. There's a reason why there are so many black metal bands in Sweden -- they're all based on folk music, because the translations of those folk songs, the titles themselves, are the entire story. Like, 'My baby was born with one arm; a monster ate it three weeks later.' It's all Beowulf.'"
music scene
indie
Detroit
folk music
Myth, mirth and fresh water (Metro Times Detroit): "'Music should sound like where it's from. Even if it's not entirely in the lyrics, it's about the dark and the light. Pop music is so wonderful and beautiful, but the girl songs have been written so many times over, and all the neat little pop themes, so it's kind of going back to folk music to where a certain sound seems more genuine.'[said Timothy Monger].
"Tim's older brother, vocalist-guitarist and songwriter James Christopher Monger, agrees. 'I think the further north you get, the more folk songs are just outright dark. It's just all laid out there, in British folk all the way through to Scandinavia. There's a reason why there are so many black metal bands in Sweden -- they're all based on folk music, because the translations of those folk songs, the titles themselves, are the entire story. Like, 'My baby was born with one arm; a monster ate it three weeks later.' It's all Beowulf.'"
music scene
indie
Detroit
folk music
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
More on The Antifolk Scene
On August 12, I posted a blog entry about Lach and The Antifolk Scene.
{noise:floor}: One man created a movement and a scene
I just found an older article which gives more background on how he turned a club into a scene.
Columbia Article: "The Sidewalk was once just a run-of-the-mill restaurant/bar. Lach turned the grubby back room into a club where bands play every night to a packed house. Today, that back room, or The Fort, as it is better known, is one of the bigger draws in the East Village, especially for new musicians struggling to get a foothold in the New York music scene."
{noise:floor}: One man created a movement and a scene
I just found an older article which gives more background on how he turned a club into a scene.
Columbia Article: "The Sidewalk was once just a run-of-the-mill restaurant/bar. Lach turned the grubby back room into a club where bands play every night to a packed house. Today, that back room, or The Fort, as it is better known, is one of the bigger draws in the East Village, especially for new musicians struggling to get a foothold in the New York music scene."
Thursday, August 24, 2006
The American Folk Festival
Bangor Daily News, 8/24/06 - Folk fest organizers optimistic: "The American Folk Festival on the Bangor Waterfront is a three-year commitment on the part of the city, and while everyone agrees that it's 'here to stay,' no one encourages seeing the festival as a 'sure thing.'
"As Ryder pointed out, it takes work.
"Three full-time staff members are employed throughout the year, and 750 volunteers help at the festival, which has a budget of about $1 million.
"'Once the festival changes from a novelty to part of the fabric of the community, it has reached a new level of permanence, at least in our expectations,' said Heather McCarthy, executive director of the American. 'If people know to count on us, it can be a positive thing. But they need to realize that we don't need to raise the money once. We need to raise it every year. If people assume it will happen, they may not step forward to make it happen.'
"McCarthy said she keeps her eye on three possible plateaus that could level off in the course of time: attendance, enthusiasm and funding."
"As Ryder pointed out, it takes work.
"Three full-time staff members are employed throughout the year, and 750 volunteers help at the festival, which has a budget of about $1 million.
"'Once the festival changes from a novelty to part of the fabric of the community, it has reached a new level of permanence, at least in our expectations,' said Heather McCarthy, executive director of the American. 'If people know to count on us, it can be a positive thing. But they need to realize that we don't need to raise the money once. We need to raise it every year. If people assume it will happen, they may not step forward to make it happen.'
"McCarthy said she keeps her eye on three possible plateaus that could level off in the course of time: attendance, enthusiasm and funding."
Saturday, August 12, 2006
One man created a movement and a scene
How a event grew out of one musician's need to create an alternative place to play:
How Does It Feel, Antifolkies, to Have a Home, Not Be Unknown? - New York Times, 8/11/06: "IN 1983 a young singer-songwriter known as Lach showed up at the storied Greenwich Village club Folk City looking to play. The club’s booker turned him down, saying that his music was too punk. Lach responded by opening an after-hours club on the Lower East Side the following year, naming it the Fort.
"His first event started during the week of the New York Folk Festival, and so he labeled it the New York Antifolk Festival. The folk festival hasn’t been held for years, but Lach’s festival is still going strong: tomorrow at noon it will begin its latest edition with a parade and an outdoor concert at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, followed by a week of shows at the Antifolk headquarters, the Sidewalk Café on Avenue A....
"From its beginnings at the Fort, antifolk has reached far and wide, and seems to be granted more respect overseas than here at home. There is a festival in London, a zine chronicling the community called Urban Folk (also at urbanfolk.org), various record labels, a book (in German) chronicling the movement and a documentary in the works. During Lach’s recent 10-city tour of Britain, Time Out London called him 'NYC’s living legend.' Mostly, though, there are more and more new participants; the sign-up for the Antihoot now regularly approaches 100."
How Does It Feel, Antifolkies, to Have a Home, Not Be Unknown? - New York Times, 8/11/06: "IN 1983 a young singer-songwriter known as Lach showed up at the storied Greenwich Village club Folk City looking to play. The club’s booker turned him down, saying that his music was too punk. Lach responded by opening an after-hours club on the Lower East Side the following year, naming it the Fort.
"His first event started during the week of the New York Folk Festival, and so he labeled it the New York Antifolk Festival. The folk festival hasn’t been held for years, but Lach’s festival is still going strong: tomorrow at noon it will begin its latest edition with a parade and an outdoor concert at Tompkins Square Park in the East Village, followed by a week of shows at the Antifolk headquarters, the Sidewalk Café on Avenue A....
"From its beginnings at the Fort, antifolk has reached far and wide, and seems to be granted more respect overseas than here at home. There is a festival in London, a zine chronicling the community called Urban Folk (also at urbanfolk.org), various record labels, a book (in German) chronicling the movement and a documentary in the works. During Lach’s recent 10-city tour of Britain, Time Out London called him 'NYC’s living legend.' Mostly, though, there are more and more new participants; the sign-up for the Antihoot now regularly approaches 100."
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