Tag: local scene

It’s the economy, stupid.

I was going to launch into a rant about how not to throw a local festival, but as I began writing I realized there was an underlying reason behind the individual failures responsible for a bad show.

A local producer rented the venue space, arranged for bands and vendors, and then opened the gates.  Unfortunately not many people actually showed up.  End result, disgruntled vendors, musicians and fans.  He printed up small fliers and got them out to other concerts but failed to advertise in the local alternative press due to financial matters.  He had to wait for a few people to show up and pay him before he could run out and get supplies, this slowed him down and the event suffered as a result.  Due to the economy he could not afford to pay people to help him during the weekend and though there were plenty of volunteers you get what you pay for.  

Now if the kids who go to the concerts can still afford their internet services they had a chance of finding out about it, if they could afford to put gas into a borrowed vehicle, scrape together $75 bucks for a ticket and grab some bologna and bread on the way out of their college ghetto apartments they could have actually made it to the festival and enjoyed themselves.  Unfortunately only about 150 kids were able to do that and I’m guessing half of those were local musicians looking to make contacts.

Another aspect to this dilemma is distraction…I’m quite content to sit on a lounge chair and watch one good band after another hit the stage, that’s what makes me part of a dying breed.  The younger generation needs more stimulation and activity than that.  They get bored with only one thing to focus on and boredom leads to bad ideas.