Hey well hopefully we get our shit together this year and actually get finances in order as then we can at least apply for grants
EVERYONE always mentions on the making it one day blah blah
By keeping it two days we qualify for grants which has been our goal for the past few years. We were going to try and keep it to less than 25 (we always say we want to do less bands) but people come with bands on tour / say they will do split sets. etc. We put our foot down in some cases and in others we are just excited to have the bands come.
Yes this year had no defined larger out of town band. It was still fun for those that attended. Last year we pretty much broke even. So going into this we would hope to do the same. Whatever no go. Next year try again.
I personally have always been on the side of let more play mostly cause i want as many people to get the chance to play victoria.
I was the one that did 17 bands in one day... remember it? FEST 4! YEAH!
Anyways when we have more money to cover venue costs and a decent turnout it is easy to pay those bands (See the year VIHC FEST 6)
Victoria Straight Edge
tylerp wrote: I'm mostly stoked about turning things into money. it's like alchemy.
we showed growth in both VIHC Fest 5, and 6, by probably 5-20% - we expected the same thing this year, but got thrown a curveball.
yes, alot of bands to pay means risky venture, but more exposure for them who actually WANT to come to the island and play, and dont care that we said beforehand "come over at your own risk, we probably cant cover those costs" and they ALL came anyway!
i understand complaining if it were a REGULAR show, but this is an ANNUAL event, one which a fanbase should be established, and regardless of the specific lineup, people should come out to support.
there wer elinks to directly download and stream EVERY band on the lineup, and the majority of people probably didnt bother doing it, because if they did, they wouldve come because ALL the bands were amazing and spanned the spectrum of the genres we wanted to showcase.
after last years fest the majority of people complained about too many "straight up hardcore bands" "not enough NW bands" "not enough vancouver bands"
well, we pretty much catered to those requests, and still got the shaft.
i also didnt want this to deteriorate into analyzing why we lost money, we KNOW why we lost money - i wanted this to be a post where new ideas for fundraising are brought up.
$30 at first glance, sure it's alot of money, but you have all year to plan and look forward it, and like numerous people have stated, you spend more on going out and buying a bottle of booze or a bag of weed, you spend more going to the movies, hell, you spend more just leaving your damn house to do anything. i also believe that if ticket prices were lower, we wouldve had the same turnout, or a negligible increase that resulted in us losing even MORE money. obviously the 80 or so people who came didnt have a problem with the prices.
it's just dissappointing to work so hard all year and essentially get slapped int he face
Text message from Troy "honest dude" Lemberg 07-07-2010
Andrew wrote:Did the society approach any labels about doing tables or being involved in the fest?
I did my annual shirt distro and sold a ton of shirts. I'm not sure how many, but roughly 15-20. the girl who bought my champion zip up looked way better than I ever did in it.
also I agree that the lineup was much more diverse. two days makes sense from that grant perspective. but I still think it's a lot of bands to take in, especially when most are virtually unknown. fewer bands would have actually improved the fest for me and other people mentioned it so I don't think it's something to totally disregard. it's not like more bands = more local people showing up. and I also don't think it's a slap in the face that the low turnout and loss of money happened. just something to learn from. people had a chance to check out the bands but almost all these bands were basically unknown. you can't just blame them for not checking them out. I don't feel very motivated to listen to 30 band links to try and find some band I might like live.
I think a lower ticket price might have meant a bigger turnout. I know that a lot of people I invited to come when I found out Watcher were playing said "it's too expensive, I'll just come to the next normal show you guys play".
anyway I might just try to put on a fest like Ghost Throats / Cry Me A River / The Fest / Dude Fest next summer. one day, like 8 bands, TOTALLY going to lose money and get stoked on it. I shall call it... VIHC.net FEST 1.
The line up was super awesome, the cost of the fest could go either way. I kind of wish this thread didnt exist.
grind/bro wrote:
The front should say VAN ISLE HARDCORE in dripping blood font, with Jesus being impaled on a railway spike with goats dancing around him. The goats must also have bullet belts.
ebony gave me an awesome haircut today and we talked about this thread and I'm a bit embarrassed I even said anything! this basically sums everything up:
ebony wrote:The line up was super awesome, the cost of the fest could go either way. I kind of wish this thread didnt exist.