Minstrel Booking

A bit of a disappointing February after last month's good numbers. Average attendance only 73 paid for the two regular shows. We came out $24 in the red for the month, accounting for all expenses. That was in part due to two fairly hefty guarantee makeups of $82 and $89 in order to meet the headline acts' guarantees. For one of those acts, I half expected it, as I needed to set the guarantee higher than I would have liked in order to book them. For the other act, the creel was substantially lower than I would have expected, resulting in the need to kick in additional FP funds to meet what I thought was a reasonable guarantee.

You may recall that I had been reluctant to raise the admission price from $9.00 to $10.00, and postponed that as long as I could, because I had the feeling that crossing the double-digit barrier might psychologically make people a little less generous in the creel. I ran some preliminary figures: The average creel per attendee in 2016 was $4.15. The average thus far in 2017 since the $10 admission price was $3.87. I think the 2017 sample is too small to make any accurate conclusions, and we haven't had any real block-buster acts yet, which might bump that number some. But it's something I'll be keeping my eye on as the year progresses.

Concert Window

The program of webcasting our concerts via Concert Window is moving along much faster than I had expected. Bill Hall has volunteered to champion the project of getting it up and running. He has some video and web experience. Bill and I got a tour of the video system on February 17 from Alex West, MUF's person in charge of that. As it turns out, all the equipment installed when MUF upgraded their system seems to have been selected for precisely the task to which we intend to put it. The camera, the computer built into the console, and the high-speed cable modem to upload the signal are well above the minimum specifications necessary to do the job. The only item of hardware holding us up is a "Video Capture Card" installed in the computer, which is either of insufficient capacity or simply malfunctioning. Alex is going to see to its replacement. And as a gesture of good will, I offered that the Folk Project would split the cost of that replacement (~$50 - $75 our cost). That expenditure was authorized under the President's discretionary spending permitted by the By-Laws. Bill Hall and Alex West will be jointly writing up an "Operations Manual" for the video system, including Concert Window instructions. I will be looking for an additional member to the Minstrel Booking Committee to handle some of the ongoing administrative duties associated with the Concert Window program. (No on-site duties at the show itself.)

Orrin Star, scheduled to play for us on March 3 has had to bow out due to medical issues. I moved the opening act, Tyler Hughes and Sam Gleaves up to the headline spot to replace him. (I beilieve I reported this verbally at the February meeting. But I'm including it here just in case I mis-remembered.)

New Bookings since last month:

March 3: Tyler Hughes & Sam Gleaves promoted from opening act to headliner to replace Orrin Star, who cancelled. Blue Jersey Band booked as the new opener.

April 7: Singer songwriter Dan Pelletier booked to open for Silk City

July 7: Broadside Electric -- Rock arrangements of traditional music after the style of Fairport Convention. Traditional singer Fiona Tyndall booked to open.

July 21: Tom Chapin

Mike Agranoff