The problem with festival booking

I got an email today from someone who is in a management company that works with Christian bands. He asked me for contacts at two music festivals. I have one, but I'm not sure I have the other. I've been in booking long enough to know people who would be able to tell me the contact that I don't have, and I feel good that I'll be able to get it. That's not a problem.

The problem is that new bands, even if they're really good, won't know where to go to to find the booking information to a festival that they've never played. And so, today I pretended that I was in an indie band, and I went looking for an email contact to a random music festival. This is what I found:

Please send an email to booking@festival.org, with a message in the subject line "festival submission." Include a link to your website so we can listen to your music. We can assure you that someone will listen to your music, but we can not promise you a spot on the stage simply based on your email submission.

Most of the music festivals will have the same kind of information for bands who are interested in playing at the event. This method of submission is not effective for indie bands who are trying to find venues to play. First, this information was incredibly hard to find-- how good would you feel about the time you spent finding the address and sending the email? And, after all the time you spent searching for the information, all you are promised is that "someone" will listen to your music.

When you're sending your information to a general email address such as booking@festival.org, you would write:

Check us out at www.bandname.com
We would love to be considered to play at your music festival next year. My phone number is....

But, if someone could give you a personal email address like andrew@festival.org, you would write:

Hey Andrew! This is ______ from www.bandname.com. I am a friend of _______, and he gave me your email address. Please consider us to play at your festival next year. You can reach me at ....

These personal email addresses are the contacts that a booking agent would be able get or would have already. How much would you be willing to pay for a good booking agent who has that kind of information? What if you didn't have to pay for it? Your band still has to be really good to land the gigs at music festivals, but if you didn't have to pay for this kind of booking information, you could afford to spend your hard earned money and time elsewhere to help build your band.

Where do you find information like that other than a booking agent? Stay tuned.

White Collar Sideshow

(t) - the ringleader
(P)hilip - the mask
veronica - the faceless woman

HM Magazine "Pick Of The Litter" August 2008

You don't often hear about hidden addictions, especially to pornography, within the walls of the church, but that is exactly what White Collar Sideshow intends to do. Led by sharing his own personal struggle with addiction, (t) intends to help people who struggle with secret addictions by leading a "revolution of the heart."

Addiction to pornography belongs to no sole demographic. It reaches beyond age groups, married and single, male and female, and the faithful and the faithless. According to (t), most children are first exposed to pornography at around age 8, and it is easy for that "monster" to grow to the point where a person is addicted by the time they are a teenager or young adult.

The music of White Collar Sideshow is drum and bass alone, and the performances are filled with music and video based on (t)'s struggle with sexual and drug addiction. This may not be the type of band you would typically invite to your church to lead a traditional worship service, but it would absolutely be something that would be attractive to the un-churched teenager or struggling adult, and a great opportunity for outreach to these groups.

White Collar Sideshow
Fort Smith, Arkasas
479-650-1498
whitecollarsideshow@hotmail.com

A Thousand Dreams - A Booking Nightmare

The following is a blog that I wrote for my Myspace page in August 2006. This was written by me, but it is from the viewpoint of someone who booked a venue.

The Blog

I was on the website of a venue in Ohio yesterday, and I saw where the booking/sound guy (who is a friend of mine) wrote that over 250 bands have played there this year. So I thought about all the bands that I've booked to play this year. I would say by years end, I will have booked at least 250 to 300 bands to play at Upbeat Cafe, plus another 42 for Ichthus, and 11 for the other festival I do. So we're looking at around 350 bands per year. If I exchange only 5 emails or phone calls with each of those bands, I've written and received 1750 emails for bands that I've booked. That doesn't count the contacts with other venues, booking agents, managers, and people asking me about the concerts. If I count in the emails and cds that I've received from bands that wanted to play, but I haven't booked, I'm getting into contact with about a THOUSAND bands per year. Please remember that there are only 365 days in a year. I try not to think about it too much. I'm getting a head ache thinking about it right now. It's almost too much for a part time job that I barely get paid for. What if a band had to be in contact with a thousand venues each year?

Think about this when you contact a venue about booking. If you send an email and don't get a response, it's not necessarily because your music is bad. I would say that most booking agents are swamped with work. If you send an EPK or simply an email, but get no response, send a follow up email within two weeks. If you take the time to build some kind of relationship with a booker, it's most likely that the booker will think of you first when there is an opening. Note: I realize that there are a lot of booking agents who care nothing about music or the musicians who create good music. There are some who are only concerned with making more money than the bands that they book. I try to stay away from those people. There are still some of us (some who are also musicians) who care about bringing good music to their venues. Stick with us.

Behind CrossGig - Who writes this thing anyway?

If you've been visiting the CrossGig blog, you may have been wondering just who is behind the blog and upcoming site... so, I thought it was about time I introduced myself to you and gave you a little peek behind the scenes of CrossGig.

CrossGig was born from a concept that originated in late 2007 from three people who gathered at a sushi restaurant to talk about music. One of those three people is the writer of this blog; my name is Andrew Baker.

My passion for music, and for Indie Christian bands, stems from my own experiences as a performer, booking agent, concert promoter, stage manager and lover of music. For me, CrossGig is a natural product of my experiences within the industry.

I grew up in Central Kentucky within short driving distance to Asbury College and Ichthus Music Festival. I attended countless concerts of top touring Christian bands starting in the early '80s. The first Ichthus Music Festival that I attended was in 1984, and since then I've seen hundreds of Christian bands in concert. (Just so you know-- I still have most of the cassette tapes that I got bands like Whiteheart and the Altar Boys to sign when I was not older than 12.)

Ichthus 2006 was the first opportunity that I had to actually work for the festival-- a long time dream of mine-- the chance to book bands for the festival that I fell in love with as a kid. I had no idea how much hard work it would take to not only book, but also manage, a stage at a music festival like Ichthus. But, I quickly learned that the hard work and sacrifice is worth it. To those who are looking for a worthwhile volunteer experience, I highly recommend getting involved in festivals like Ichthus. It is an experience that will change your life! Through my work at Ichthus and in following up with bands afterward, I often feel as if I have played just a small part in the friendships and relationships that are made between bands and their fans.

I have also always considered myself to be a "church musician". I have been singing in churches since I was a young teenager, and first started playing guitar when I was volunteering as a youth counselor at a church, while I was still in college. Being a church musician, and leading worship is also very rewarding, and for those of you who are involved in church music ministry, you know... it requires a lot of practice and attention to detail... and wow, is it an amazing experience to be a part of!

As for the "booking" side of my life-- my first booking job was for a praise band mate of mine who happened to open a coffee shop that featured live music. When the coffee shop first opened, we had live music several nights a week, and as the only "booker" I was responsible to fill all the slots. I learned a lot about organization from my experience at the coffee shop-- things I am still very thankful for learning. Within the next two years of beginning my booking experience, I was booking for two coffee shops, an annual community festival, as well as for Ichthus. Because of those first experiences in booking, I have had the honor of booking a lot of bands that are now signed to major labels. I've also booked concerts for churches, start-up festivals, and a few bands who just asked for my help.

As a booking agent, I have always tried to stay "in the trenches" with the bands. All of the bands that I work with are treated the same way, and that is with the same amount of respect that I would hope that they would give to me. Some of the bands might be less known-- and some even break up right after I have booked them-- but a few that I book are going to get their big break and become as well known as Fireflight or Addison Road (who I booked as Indie bands). Until either one happens, I hope to be able to help with every bit of booking and promotion knowledge that I've picked up over the years, and hopefully learn some from the musicians, too.

As I've hinted about here on the blog, CrossGig will be a lot more than a way to help bands connect with venues, and as this is something that I've done for many years in many different ways. I share all of my background with you to say that THAT is the purpose behind CrossGig. At it's roots, CrossGig is about the relationships that we can help to build between bands and venues, and the knowledge that we can share to help the bands along their way. This is my passion... deep down, I'm still a musician and a fan of the music, and I am just happy to be part of it all.

Stay tune... it's coming!

Philmont

By now, you have probably heard of Philmont. Philmont is a band from North Carolina that has recently signed with Forefront Records. I booked them for Ichthus Music Festival 2008, and was really impressed by their performance-- they are incredible! I met these guys for the first time earlier this year at GMA Week in Nashville. I already knew their manager from another band that he worked with in the past, so I was fortunate to meet Philmont through him. Philmont is a super cool band, and they are just regular guys, which makes them really easy for the fans to approach!

When they got to Ichthus this past summer, they called me so I could help them get to my stage and find a campsite... yes, they actually camped! By the time I got to the front of the festival grounds where they were, they were hanging out with a security guard whom I'm sure went to their show when they played. They had been at Ichthus for 10 minutes and already making new fans before playing a single note.


I took this photo of Philmont at Ichthus. The guys worked the festival grounds for 3 days to help let people know what time they'd be playing on The Edge Stage, and they had a great response with the crowd that came to their show, as you can see in this picture.

"The Difference" video, at the top of this post, is a new discovery for me. I just found it about a week ago. I've been texting Scott (the lead singer of the band) about information for this article, and he told me that they recorded this video by themselves for under $300. That is just awesome! It doesn't always have to cost a fortune to make something that looks good.

Philmont is currently on tour with Pillar, Addison Road, and Our Heart's Hero. Of this list, the only band that I haven't booked for Ichthus is Pillar, and I'm working on getting a side project band of Kalel and Lester's (two members of Pillar) to Ichthus 2009. I hope we can see a return of Philmont next year as well. Philmont rocks my face off!

http://www.myspace.com/philmontrock
http://www.ichthusfestival.org/

The Anchor - Nashville

Cannon Blue playing The Anchor during Next Big Nashville on 9-11-08


Inside The Anchor


Jesse the booking guy


The Anchor set up for church services



The Anchor
629 3rd Ave S.
Nashville, TN 37210
The Anchor Website
booking contact - Jesse Kevon - 615-733-0522

I first found out about The Anchor because the venue was used by Next Big Nashville (NBN) to showcase bands during the event in 2008. It wasn't hard to find since it is in downtown Nashville only a few hundred feet from 3rd & Lindsley, which was another venue that was being used as a showcase venue for NBN.

What makes The Anchor different from the other venues being used by NBN is that it is also a church. It probably was a shock to some of the bands that played The Anchor during NBN that even though Next Big Nashville was sponsored partly by Budweiser, no alcohol of any kind was sold at The Anchor.

The Anchor is an abandoned church that has been turned into a venue. Total capacity for an audience is about 400 to 450. It seems like the perfect place for a Christian band to play since it is a very intimate room, and the stage is only a few feet off the floor. The Anchor still has the original brick walls of the church, and in addition to the venue not being air conditioned, the walls add to the rustic feel of the venue.

Bands are booked to play The Anchor on Fridays and Saturdays. The rest of the time, the Anchor is used as a church. The Anchor Fellowship is tied loosely to Vineyard USA. However, The Anchor Fellowship refuses to see the lines of denomination. Part of their calling is to reach out to those who have been hurt by the church. They try to see people as God sees people.

Bands that play The Anchor that are in need of housing are not permitted to stay in the church, but The Anchor has the ability to hook band members up with friends of the church witin the community for housing. They go out of their way to show a little bit of love to all bands that play at their venue, and they also book secular bands to play as often as possible.

In addition to being a really cool venue in Nashville, The Anchor also hosts a stage at Cornerstone Music Festival in Illinois.

NBN Nashville

We're back from our short stay at Next Big Nashville. It was an incredible conference and festival. Venues we visited included The Rutledge, The Anchor, 3rd & Lindsley, and Douglas Corner Cafe. Notes from the events will be posted here on CrossGig throughout the next week. This year was the first year that NBN had panel discussions held at the Musician's Hall of Fame, and for me, that was a very strong part of the event. The Friday morning panel discussions offered valuable information for bands and managers. Notes from the panel discussions will also be posted on CrossGig in the coming week.

On Friday afternoon, I spent some time at The Anchor on 3rd Avenue with the booking person and the pastor of the church. I will be posting information about this as soon as possible. The Anchor is a great venue with a passion for reaching out to people in the community.

Special thanks go to Nikki Herceg from for allowing CrossGig to be part of Next Big Nashville.