[IVFDF] Re: Whither IVFDF - Costs of Tickets for Students

[Pete Humble]

You might find that you can reduce costs by actually holding it other than
in a University.  You might find, for example, that there is a school,
with
all the required facilities, which is cheaper than anything you can get
from
a University.

However, I would be loth to see that meaning that the festival is held
somewhere inaccessible.

--
___    __o    Pete Humble, JRI Europe, Ltd
  _ \<,_      Email: peet at dircon.co.uk
 (_)/ (_)     Any resemblance between the views expressed here
============= and those of my employers is pure coincidence.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ivfdf-news-bounce at tardis.ed.ac.uk
> [mailto:ivfdf-news-bounce at tardis.ed.ac.uk]On Behalf Of Mason, Richard
> Sent: 18 April 2000 17:49
> To: 'ivfdf-news at tardis.ed.ac.uk'
> Subject: [IVFDF] Re: Whither IVFDF - Costs of Tickets for Students
>
>
> There are 3 basic ways to make an event more profitable.
> 1) Reduce Costs
> 2) Charge more
> 3) Get more people to attend.
>
> There seems to a lot of discussion about putting prices up
> without examining
> the other ways of working.  In Exeter in both 1995 and 1999 we
> concentrated
> on reducing our costs where we could, and especially on getting
> more bodies
> through the door.
>
> Costs tend to fall into 4 areas
> 1) Bands
> 2) Workshops
> 3) Rooms
> 4) Publicity
>
> Bands:
> If you scrimp too much on bands, then you will reduce your attendance.
So
> we booked a few high profile names which would be attractive to a wide
> audience.
>
> Workshops:
> Workshops are an area where some savings can be made, especially if the
> committee have some good contacts and you can call in a few favours.  We
> identified certain 'feature' workshops which we would pay good
> money to get,
> and then made up the others with friends and members of the Exeter group
> with special skills.
>
> Rooms:
> Always the biggest expense.  However if you have a good negotiating
> committee, you can get university authorities to move on their initial
> quotes.  We managed to beat them down from some very scary numbers to
> something that we could live with - approximately £1500 less than their
> initial assessment.  Our university did all the catering and provided
the
> bars, and made a good profit from it (it must have been good -
> because they
> wouldn't tell us how much they had made!).  You don't want to guarantee
> numbers for catering (that way lies ruin), but if you can offer the
> university ways of making money or raising its profile, then you
> quickly buy
> yourself in to a bargaining position.
>
> Publicity:
> Never cut this cost.  You can put on the best festival in the world, but
> unless you tell everyone about it, what is the point?  Advertise
> heavily in
> your local area, you will get the locals in to a few events - often
paying
> your waged prices.  Good advertising always pays - just look at the
amount
> spent in advertising music outside the folk world.  Why should folk be
so
> different ?
>
> The cost/ income balance is a difficult one to get, but it can't be got
by
> just putting up prices.  You have to provide events that people want to
go
> to, at a price that they can afford, and tell them that its on.  If you
do
> these three things, then you have a smiling committee at the end of the
> weekend.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Tom Knight [mailto:t.knight at optichrome.com]
> Sent: 18 April 2000 17:20
> To: ivfdf-news at tardis.ed.ac.uk
> Subject: [IVFDF] Re: Whither IVFDF - Costs of Tickets for Students
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: ivfdf-news-bounce at tardis.ed.ac.uk
> > [mailto:ivfdf-news-bounce at tardis.ed.ac.uk]On Behalf Of
> > chris.j.broan at bnfl.com
> > Sent: 18 April 2000 16:56
> > To: ivfdf-news at tardis.ed.ac.uk
> > Subject: [IVFDF] Re: Whither IVFDF - Costs of Tickets for Students
> >
> >
> > On a different note: I would like to keep IVFDF in a uni' town
> as they are
> > a
> > lot easier to get to than any other possible venue. There
> aren't a lot of
> > towns left that do not have a university in them. If a town has a
> > university
> > in them then a lot more trains stop there.
> >
> > What about universities without towns round them- like Warwick etc?
> >  The key factor to my mind is public transport access, not
> whether there's
> > a university nearby.
>
> I was going to post a very sarcastic reply, but with the same essence,
> mentioning the stunning rail access to St Andrews. You have you
> wonder what
> the original message actaully means - it looks as if all the sender is
> saying is "let's put IVFDF in a large town or a city". If this is the
case
> then the university train of thought it irrelevant at best.
>
> I _would_ like to see IVFDF kept in universities, hosted by a university
> dance society. That, to me is the essence of the festival. It's sad that
> this isn't becoming so viable. On another note, how many university
dance
> side are there now - with students making up the majority of members?
>
> On the other note, I do believe that this festival should be kept
> cheap for
> students. If we have it in the far north or the far south, then we'll
lose
> some possible attendees through cost anyway - let's not exacerbate this
by
> raising prices for those who very possibly can't afford it.
>
> Naturally, if the cost of the festival is increasing, in order to keep
the
> festival profitable, the costs must be passed on to someone - by
> elimination
> it's the non-students!
> I am certainly happy to pay (some) more to attend IVFDF, but I'm sure
some
> wouldn't find it so easy to get away it the prices went up too much...
>
> We could of course have a means-tested attendance fee?  ;-)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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