I often harvest a touring band for a house concert gig. I’ve had Genticorum, Buddy System, Syncopaths, Faux Paws, and Countercurrent all playing in my living room. The dance bands love playing repertoire that they can’t play for a dance. I reach out to them, but what would be useful is a database of house concert hosts willing to hear from touring artists. Or at least a way for local organizers to know who hosts concerts in their area. 

The pandemic is still making hard to get people to come indoors and sit close to each other. I have a concert tonight for a touring artist from Ireland that ought to have 40 people at it. I have only 20. I have abundant Covid precautions in place, but people aren’t used to being in a crowd anymore. I live stream too on Facebook, but people are sick of staring at a screen and hardly anyone shows up for those. I feel less nervous hosting concerts for local artists who don’t have the travel nut to cover.

Doug Plummer
Doug & Robin’s House Concerts
https://www.facebook.com/DougandRobinHouseConcerts





On Sep 21, 2022, at 9:05 AM, Emily Addison via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Hi Seth and Doug + All :)

Seth and Doug - Thanks so much for sharing some ideas and tips on house concert organizing!   I had to set that project aside for a few weeks but I've dug into some planning today and your advice and links are really helpful.

All - I'm wondering about house concerts being an additional way that we can support dance musicians + bring together our communities during this time when some people feel able to dance while others can't.  For a long time, our contra community (in Ottawa ON) would book a little tour for dance musicians, with them playing in Montreal the day after, and sometimes doing an afternoon workshop.    I know lots of dance musicians are ready to play but there aren't as many dance gigs (at least yet) than before the pandemic.   Having the option of house concerts seems like a really great option.

Anyway - I don't want to take up too much bandwidth on this list as it's about dance organizing but Seth and Doug... thank you!  I'll follow up as I'm sorting out details. :)

Hope you're all doing really well.  I got in my first in-person dancing this past weekend since the start of the pandemic. It was the Adirondack Dance Weekend. What an incredibly well organized event it was... .... so many lovely details making the whole weekend very magical.

:) Emily
Writing from Ottawa ON
_______________________________________________
Organizers mailing list -- organizers@lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to organizers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net