Re: electro-music festival June 1-3 Philadelphia

[kkissinger@kevinkissinger.com]

Quoting Matt Davignon <mattdavignon@gmail.com>:

> I'm not trying to knock the festival or discourage people from
> participating - it looks like one of the more promising electronic
> events on the east coast.

Indeed, I think the electro-music festival is very promising.  The  
festival started out as a kind of get-together for the  
electro-music.com community and the folks that organize it are  
improving the outreach to the general public.  I agree with people who  
are skeptical about the "pay to play" thing... I don't normally do  
such things however, in the case of electro-music, decided to support  
this effort both by playing, providing some PA equipment, and yep...  
purchasing a ticket.  I believe the future is bright for this event,  
and in the years to come there will be a budget to help musicians with  
expenses, etc.

In visiting the websites of the performers I can honestly say that the  
scope, variety, and quality of the music is quite impressive.  I hope  
that the word will catch on with the community at large because much  
of the music is accessable to general audiences.

> In the least accusatory voice I can muster,
> I'm curious - what's going on? Are festivals that much more expensive
> to put on on the east coast? Is there a really high overhead for the
> space rental or advertising costs?

Well, I don't have access to that kind of info.  By way of comparison,  
I reserved my neighborhood clubhouse (here in the Kansas City area)  
for an "open dress rehearsal" (I don't have a room large enough to  
accomodate my surround-sound PA system and listeners).  For one  
afternoon/evening I was out-of-pocket $50 for the space rental.  So,  
$60 for three days doesn't seem too bad!

(Incidentally, the "open rehearsal" worked out very well... the folks  
who came really had a good time.  And, I accomplished my goal -- to  
run through my electro-music set a few times in front of listeners.)

> Comparatively, one festival I work on invites artists, pays them, pays
> for plane tickets for out of towners, writes some grant requests and
> does local fund raising, and winds up charging the audience about 25%
> less.

I checked out your website... I would enjoy attending your festival  
and, of course, would enjoy performing, too.  ;)

> I don't personally have a lot of experience with grantwriting, but
> from an outsiders point of view, it looks like the Electro-Music
> festival has a lot of qualities that grant providers look for, a
> community aspect with lectures, demos, jam sessions, etc.

I will pass this information on to the organizers.  Excellent point.

In the time-honored tradition of shameless self-promotion, I'd like to  
invite you to the festival.  My set will be on Friday night from 730  
to 815 EDT.  The entire festival will be streamed live on the internet  
(see http://event.electro-music.com for details).  Two of the works on  
my set utilize live-looping and will be premiered at electro-music:  
one that includes tracks from my K2600 and the other entirely real-time.

A great day to one and all!

-- Kevin