Re: how much to book mid level to top acts
This is all good advice. As everyone has noted, there are lots of variables and sometimes you can get a major act for much less than you'd expect, if you're lucky enough to be between (in both date and location) two gigs they already have. But any way you look at it, a festival with multiple acts and at least one or two big names is a huge, expensive undertaking. You need a lot of contacts and a lot of volunteers, along with a lot of money.
Another option, to test the waters, is to book one "name" band for a single concert, maybe with one or two local or regional bands to open, and see what kind of turn-out you get. You still have to be ready to write the check, regardless of attendance, but it's a much smaller risk (and takes way less work) to rent a local auditorium or meeting room (try high schools, colleges, churches, community centers) and put on one concert. Try a mid-week date if that gives you more availability (and a lower price) for the room and for the band. Put a ton of effort into PR -- no one comes to an event that they don't know about. Hit all the local radio stations, especially country stations or public/community stations with folk or bluegrass shows. Print up flyers and leave them everywhere: libraries, music stores, other concert venues of all kinds, every grocery store with a bulletin board, etc. At the concert, put out a clipboard and ask audience members to write down their e-mail address and/or postal address to be notified about future events of the same kind. That builds a database of potential attendees for future concerts and, eventually, a festival. You may also be able to build up a group of volunteers who would help out for any future events, small or big.
If you do plan a festival, pick your dates carefully and do some homework about any other major activities (not just bluegrass festivals) for a hundred miles around your location. If the neighboring town has a popular art festival the same weekend, or a film festival, or an arena that's presenting Bruce Springsteen that week, all of the PR and attention will go to that other event. You want to be *the* event of that weekend so the newspapers and radio stations will give you the maximum space.
Lastly, figure out a way to sell advance tickets (ideally online as well as via local businesses). There are always people who will plan to go, but either won't be able to at the last minute (in which case you still have their $) or who might change their mind and do something else (in which case, if they've already paid for the ticket, they're more likely to go to your festival after all).
Good luck!
Bob Blackman
Former host of "The Folk Tradition," WKAR-FM
East Lansing, MI
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