Special Events
ANNUAL REPORT
2020 CANCELLATIONS:
The year began with cancellations of two Acoustic Getaways, one New Jersey Uke Festival,
and three Special Concerts - David Bromberg, Dar Williams, and Peter Yarrow.
DRIVE-IN CONCERT:
The one live concert during COVID isolations was the Safety First Drive-in Concert featuring Toby Walker and Vance Gilbert.
The show was done in conjunction with the Borough of Madison and their arts director Eric Hafen.
Thanks to the Sound Crew: John Mahon and Mike DelVecchio.
Thanks to the Staff: Todd Dennison, Annie Donohue, Steve Humphries, and Paul Fisher.
Guests and volunteers were compliant with the safety standards outlined in the committee’s approach - outdoors, distanced, private safety zones, masks required outside private safety zones.
We sold out one show. We canceled a second show for lack of sales.
The show, the sound, the audience, the crew, and the weather were spectacular.
THE STAYAWAY MISSION:
On March 20th we launched the Acoustic Stayaway with a streaming concert by Toby Walker.
Our mission was:
Support our members and the publicduring their COVID isolation.
Keep the Folk Project relevantduring a long hiatus until live programming begins.
Provide income to performerswho suffered a sudden and total loss of income.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED:
1. Members & Public
The Stayaway provides regular gatherings that break up isolation for subsets of our community.
Zoom events include a Monday Song circle, a Thursday Songerwriters Circle, holiday parties and few dozen meetings and luncheons.
An additional community has formed around Tuesday and Friday concerts.
These events provide markers in weeks that are devoid of differentiation. They are something people look forward to and a means to connect when in-person connections are dangerous. We provide important emotional support.
2. Keeping the Project relevant
In a year when many venues became dormant, The Folk Project offers five days of programming weekly.
We started a new internet television show Sundays featuring Folk Project and national acts.
The Stayaway presented over 160 streaming events since March 20, 2020.
The Folk Project receives regular thanks and accolades from:
The public
Project members
Performers and their support staff: agents, management & techies
Fans from around the country and the world.
3. Performers
All donation income from Stayaway Concerts goes entirely and directly to the performers.
The Stayaway has facilitated approximately $70,000 in donations to performers in only eight months.
This performs lifeline has made the Folk Project nationally respected and appreciated by the performers community.
STAYWAY COSTS:
The Stayaway spends $30 on Facebook advertising for every concert.
STAYAWAY GRATITUDE:
The Stayaway Team epitomizes everything we’ve come to expect from the Folk Project at its peak.
The competence, dedication, team spirit, positive attitude, friendships, and devotion to our purposes and our community has been astounding.
Liz Pagan does design work for everything the Folk Project presents. She a seasoned pro, a big help, and ever-ready to pitch in.
John Lamb is the Folk Project’s webmaster. He set up the Folk Project’s Stayaway home page and all those corollary concert pages under high-speed conditions, plus he updates and posts new content constantly.
Bob McNally helped formulate early strategic planning for the Stayaway and produced our weekly guitar workshop series “Teach Your Guitar to Sing.”
Dave Kleiner put his longstanding monthly Songwriters Circle under the Stayaway umbrella as a weekly Thursday online meetup. In addition to developing songwriting skills, friendships, and the growing community experienced by attendees, these events are a critical contribution to easing COVID isolation.
Last year, Jay Wilensky transformed the Project’s live Evenings of Music into very special and well-attended events. This year he did the same for our weekly streaming Song Circle on Mondays. He leads a vibrant community of performing members and friends, in addition to being an emotional community touchstone for so many of our members.
Joe Guzzo produces Folk Project TV every Sunday. It’s growing online audience is learning more about The Folk Project, touring folk musicians, member performers, and Horses Sing None of It. Joe rebroadcasts selected songs from the Horses TV catalogue of decades of music.
Deborah Graham hosted a number of Stayaway streaming concerts and was a gracious hostess, leader, and facilitator from her post in the chat box.
Jean Scully proofreads and edits the e-newsletters. It’s a big job to proof anything I write. She is kind in addition to being a big help and a kind security blanket.
Robin Schaffer tells me when my jokes suck.
The following three Stayaway volunteers are core members of the leadership team, and, in addition to the tasks they performed, should be recognized for the guidance and advice they contributed and continue to contribute to the overall Acoustic Stayaway.
Todd Dennison is the Stayaway Zoom Czar. He set up those programs and maintains them for the entire Folk Project. He is always on hand to advise on the tech and administrative issues that this extensive program continues to present.
Kathi Caccavale manages technology for our concerts, runs tech tests with our performers, is our Facebook administrator, runs our Facebook and other ad programs, posts on line, and too many other tasks to enumerate. She and Gary run the day-to-day Stayaway.
Gary Pratt began a key advisor and planner when the Acoustic Stayaway began - both technically and administratively. Then he became a host of our concerts. Then our performer liaison, making all the technical, management, and personal interactions between the program and the artists and the artists’ agents. This month Gary begins booking the acts for our streaming concerts.
2021:
As of January 1st, Gary Pratt will become the official head of the Streaming Events Subcommittee, a subcommittee of the Special Events Committee. He’s been gradually taking over lead management since August and doing an exceptional job.
When The Troubadour begins live concerts with an audience on Fridays, Tuesday streaming concerts will continue. There is a place for streaming concerts after COVID isolation.
Streaming Zoom gatherings in some form are likely to continue after live gatherings begin. Plans have yet to be made, but participants agree that the convenience of online meetings, plus the connections people have formed independent of geography are meaningful and deserve our attention post-isolation.
Here is a list of 2020 Acoustic Stayaway Concert performers:
Juliana Parker, Vance Gilbert, Nikki Talley, Zöe Lewis, Robinson & Rohe, Dennison & Donahue, Grace Pettis, Don White, Victoria Vox, Brother Brothers, Cliff Eberhardt, Harvey Reid & Joyce Andersen, Andrew Dunn, Peter Ronstadt, Kathy Moser John McCutcheon, The Kennedys, Alasdair Fraser, Ordinary Elephant, Crys Matthews, Del Rey, Trout Fishing in America, Connie Kaldor, Carolann Solebello, Steel City Jug Slammers, Robert Jones & Matt Watroba, Mustard’s Retreat, Liz Longley, David Roth, Jack Williams, Toby Walker, Christie Lenée, Louise Mosrie, Brooks Williams, Keith Murphy & Becky Tracy, David Rimelis, Peppino D’Agostino, Joe Jencks, Beppe Gambetta, Kipyn Martin, David Nachmanoff, Joe Crookston, James Keelaghan, David Jacobs-Strain - Bruce Swan, Claudia Schmidt, Jay Ungar & Molly Mason, Jeff Daniels, David Wilcox, Tim Easton, Christine Lavin, Rachael Kilgour, Don Henry, Martin Swinger, Heather Pierson, Olga Alvarez & Gerry Hazel, Karyn Oliver, Tom Paxton with The Don Juans, Alice Howe with Freebo, Happy Traum, Cosy Sheridan, Carla Ulbrich, Dave Kleiner, Stuart Fuchs, Spook Handy, Halloween Zoom Party, Reggie harris, Ernie Sites, Debbie Fisher & Paul Kean, Raina Rose, The Chapin Sisters, The Mammals, Greg Greenway, Tom Chapin, Brett Fuentes, Stuart Kabak, Tekla Waterfield & Jeff Fielder, and The Happy Zoom Year Party.
I want to thank the Project and the Stayaway Team for an amazing experience.
It’s been a pleasure to serve.
Mark Schaffer, Special Events Chair
MONTHLY REPORT
In November, The Stayaway put on eight streaming concerts, four TV shows, eight workshops, and had a good time.