Proposal: Young Family Music Programming

In recent years our membership and core attendee base seems to be slowly shrinking and graying. We currently under serve and are no longer reaching a key demographic that was once a big component of our customer base: Young Families with Young Children. Over time, we seem to have lost our connection to this important market segment.

In years past, children would usually be found sitting up front, almost directly underneath the microphones, with their eyes, ears and mouths wide open, fully engaged in the magic of performance at many of our concerts. In the past, when our core membership was younger (by virtue of biology and providence) many of us had children and brought them to the coffee house, festivals, music parties, and concerts. When the Minstrel was at SCEEC, just being in an environmental center was a natural attraction for young families. In those days, just having a critical mass of young families and children made us appear welcoming and attractive to additional young families

I suggest that this would be a fertile market for us to target. I am aware of very few live musical performances offered at ‘folkie prices’ for young families in northern NJ. The market is underserved. Public schools have been cutting back on cultural programming and musical instruction, creating more need in this area. Parents generally want their kids to be exposed to culture; those families most sensitive to this need are likely to be the type of people we wish to attract.

I hereby suggest we form an ad-hoc young family market committee. I hope that this group will develop into an ongoing committee to develop specific programs for this market. I hope we can attract volunteers and leadership for this project.

Some specific ideas that I suggest are:

• • A Childrens’ Concert series across several weekend afternoons.

  • Making the Minstrel Concerts more ‘kid-friendly’ with a ‘magic carpet’ for young kids to sit on for some or all of our shows.

  • Placing a ‘Happy Face’ alongside some performers’ listings to signal that an activity is deemed ‘kid friendly’.

  • Provide inexpensive group music lessons for kids on weekday afternoons, taught by available FP members.

  • Partnering with MUF and other cultural organizations in the marketing and running of these programs.

(This is just a first cut at ideas; a successful committee will develop its own list of projects and make them happen.)

Please call or email me if you find this interesting and want to pursue this.