16 Oct
2007
16 Oct
'07
2:56 p.m.
chicago charges $6 per person. no discounts for students, though young kids
(below 12, as i remember) don't pay. it has been this rate for several
years. local musicians get $50 each with a band max of $200, and caller
gets $50. no one else is paid. hall is $150. in the past some evenings would
make money, some lose. there are occasional grants. over the last 8 months
attendance as fallen, so now most evening lose money. remains to be seen
what will happen with this situation.
in chicago, considering the general cost of entertainment (a beer is $3-$5),
there hasn't been much comment about the price. more of an issue here is
transportation. more students might come, but don't have cars to get to the
dance. taking combinations of trains and busses at 11:30pm can be
discouraging. or living 1-1.5 hours drive away can seem daunting after a
days work.
jeffrey
-----Original Message-----
From: organizers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net
[mailto:organizers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Chris Weiler
Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 1:09 AM
To: organizers(a)sharedweight.net
Subject: [Organizers] Price
Some of you may recognize this question from the PVCD
(Pioneer Valley Contra Dance) list on Yahoo Groups.
How do you balance the price you charge for the evening of
dancing with attendance? Charge too much and you loose
people. Charge too little and you have trouble paying the
performers and the hall. Do you charge a sliding scale based
on ability to pay? Or student/senior status?
On the PVCD list, a student sent a message complaining about
the rising prices at some dances and the lack of a student
rate at others. She complained that she and her friends could
not dance as much as they wanted to. The response ranged from
"right on!" to "think about the musicians!" to "grow up and
decide how to spend your money". (I'm
paraphrasing.)
Last month (after much deliberation) I raised the price of my
Mill City dance from $7 to $8, but added a "young person"
price of $5. It's too soon to know if it's had any affect or
not. Last month I had a couple less people than usual, but
due to the price increase, the amount that I had to pay the
band was the same. The other dance in town is still charging
$7 as well. When I took a survey in the sign-in book earlier
in the summer, I asked if people were willing to pay the new
price structure. I got about 10 yeas and 2 nays. I should
also mention that I do not have a gate person and payment is
on the honor system. However, the tally pretty closely
matches my quick count from the microphone during the evening.
Thanks in advance for your thoughts.
Chris Weiler
Goffstown, NH
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