[Organizers] Questions about booking performers for a series

David Kirchner dekirchner at gmail.com
Tue Jun 26 08:34:50 PDT 2018


Tapestry Folkdance Center in Minneapolis/St. Paul books contra callers and
bands in quarterly blocs (Jan-Mar, etc.). The booking committee has caller,
musician, and dancer representatives. As with many booking committees,
there are some prejudices about what constitutes quality music & calling
(some of which I share, and some of which I don't -- I'm not on the
committee).

Even though we've traditionally been a good-sized dance, we are not really
on the way to anywhere, so we get very few out-of-town bands/callers --
maybe twice a year. Happily, we have wonderful local talent. The booking
committee asks for availability about two months before the start of the
quarter, then tries to fit everyone in with an emphasis on equity. The
occasional traveling band or caller usually contacts us well before dates
are set and can be accommodated.

I think the only band that gets special treatment is Contratopia -- their
regular fiddler (who is absolutely top-notch) is a farmer in Decorah, Iowa,
and does not travel anywhere from mid-April to mid-October. So they get
booked more than their share in the wintertime.

I will comment that our system does tend to perpetuate the same old folks
all the time and we aren't creating good pathways for up-and-coming new
talent. We do now have a regular "community dance" on fifth Saturdays with
open calling and open band, and that's helped. Still, I'd like to see us
doing more to identify and book folks outside our standard circle.

Our monthly family dance books in two blocs, fall and spring (we don't have
family dance in the summer). Similar process, but there's just one booker
and a smaller set of callers and bands, because we operate on a shoestring
budget and sometimes pay very little when turnout is low.

David

On Mon, Jun 25, 2018 at 6:48 PM, jim saxe via Organizers <
organizers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> Hi, folks,
>
> I'd like to hear about different people's approaches to booking bands and
> callers for a dance series. For example:
>
> * Do you ask a bunch of bands and callers at once for their availability
> dates and then try to fill in the schedule based on the combined responses,
> or do you contact folks sequentially on an "if you're available for date X,
> you've got it" basis?
>
> * How far in advance to you seek to book your talent?  Does it vary for
> different people (callers vs. bands; locals vs. out-of-towners; top-tier
> locals vs. others; musicians who don't want to commit too far in advance
> because they might get offered a wedding gig; ...)?
>
> * What if a band or caller asks you about some date and you were planning
> to ask someone else that you'd prefer but might not be able to get?  or if
> you ask about availability of band X and your band contact comes back with
> something like "No can do, but what about (lower cachet) band Y?" or "...
> what about most of band X with substitute fiddler TBD?"?
>
> * Have you found ways to mix different approaches to booking so as to get
> "the best of both worlds" instead of the worst?
>
> * Are there other questions you think I should have asked and, if so, what
> are your aswers to them?
>
> It would be easy to go on at length about the *potential* plusses and
> minuses of various ways of doing bookings.  What I'd prefer is to hear
> about *ideas that have worked well in practice* for other organizers.
>
> Thanks.
>
> --Jim
>
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