So what exactly does it take to try and host a music festival? Is it a venue, some artists, and some promotion? Sure, but it's also a commitment to spending a lot of damn time in front of a computer doing everything from listening to the artists that have submitted material, to designing logos & fliers. Here's a little insight into the Acoustic All-Stars from our eyes . . .
First off let's give you a little background about how the Acoustic All-Stars came to be. In 2008 Melody and I had just started getting really serious about performing out as often as possible, so we were very busy playing show after show. We were sitting in Liquid Joes on a local music Wednesday night just after playing our set, and we were listening to one of the acts that was performing after us. Melody leans over to me and says "there needs to be a venue or event that helps showcase all the great acoustic talent here in Utah". And thus, the seed was planted.
We spent the next month or so brainstorming different ideas on how we could get involved in such an event. Finally Melody comes up to me one night and says "what if we do a festival type show that promotes artists coming together, sharing fans, and building a stronger all around music scene?" Brilliant! Oh, and let me just stop here and say that when it comes to amazing ideas, Mel is FULL of them!
So we had the idea, now it was time to find the venue. We already knew that we wanted to have more than one show that stretched over more than one day. We were looking for a place that would allow us to book out a weekend, and on top of that, a place that would allow us to book a weekend of JUST acoustic music. With that in mind, we started out search. We contacted a few different places, but nothing was panning out quite as we had hoped. We were talking to owners, manager, friends, basically anyone we knew that might be able to help us out. Finally our answer came one night in Park City just after we had played a show at a new venue. We talked to the manager/booking agent and he really like the idea, so we were off and running!
One of the hardest parts about booking a "festival" type show, is finding all of the musicians to play, and trying to coordinate them. We started spreading the word that we were doing a 3 night show and we needed musicians. Still being fairly new to the SLC music scene, it was a bit difficult finding the acts. We were asking everyone we knew, from long time friends, to newly found musicians we had met just a few weeks back. Everything was panning out beautifully, until . . .
We got an email that read something like this, "we are sorry to have to do this, but we have to cancel your acoustic shows due to a change in ownership. they are changing owners and they want us to cancel all of our upcoming shows." We had been planning this for about a month so far, and with just about 2 months to go, we had no venue. Back to the drawing board.
Now I'm a believer that all things happen for a reason, and there was most certainly a reason for this, but we just didn't know it yet. During all of this planning and having the venue cancel on us, we were still playing shows and working on our own music. Alas, here steps in The Star Bar!
We were playing a show in Park City at The Star Bar and as we're sitting there, we started talking about the possibility of hosting it there. We played our set, and it was a bit of a slower night so we took the opportunity to sit down and talk with Danny, the manager. We explained to him the idea we had for the show and almost instantly he said "we'd love to be involved!".
We were back in business!
So to save some time we'll just skim over the weeks leading up to the 1st official Acoustic All-Stars Festival. We found all of our musicians, some by asking, and some that found out about the show and asked us if they could be a part of it. The show was a success, the first night was amazing, we had numerous friends come hang out and support the show, and all of the music was spectacular. This was exactly what we had envisioned!
Year 2 was more organized seeing as you get better the more you do something, and you learn from your rookie mistakes. We had musicians applying that we had never heard of (which is awesome because it means that the festival was spreading), we understood marketing a little better, and we felt more confident about ourselves as "event organizers". By way of a couple well timed emails & phone calls, we had landed a spot as the cover story on one of slc's weekly magazine IN.
Now it's the 3rd year of the show and this is what we've learned so far. #1 - there's always going to be at least 1 artist that is "a bit difficult". #2 - There's always going to be some sort of snag that will make us think that nothing will work out, but eventually it becomes not nearly as bad as it originally seemed. #3 - Coordinating musicians, the venue, sponsors, tv spots, marketing, advertising, and promoting . . . can be a BITCH! And last but not least #4 - Meeting all of these talented musicians has been worth it's weight in gold!
One of the main challenges for us has been advertising. In the first 2 years Mel and I came out of pocket on everything we did for the shows, but at this point it has grown enough that we can no longer do that, forcing us to seek sponsorships. Asking people for money is one of the hardest things to do, now I know that they guy that stands on the corner just off of the freeway ramp just had to find a marker, some cardboard, and stand there. But this is a little different.
We've had to search out companies that have vested interest in our festival, companies that want to invest in what we're doing, and companies that want to be involved. It's tough, but we've got some fantastic people on board so far... Park City TV has been with us from year 1, they allow us to promote by having artists on their Mountain Views Show and inviting us on for Acoustic All-Stars week at their station... The Local Landing just came on board and they are ALL ABOUT promoting local events and spreading the word to all of their followers... Park City Lodging has given us an amazing offer on hotel rooms. Stay 2 nights and your 2nd night is HALF OFF, stay 3 nights and the 3rd night is FREE! Now that's what I call awesome... and of course The Star Bar. This whole thing would have been possible without Danny giving us the chance to prove ourselves as promoters and music lovers. From the very first they have allowed us to basically do what we want in booking the shows. They provide us with an amazing venue that is complete with a killer atmosphere. Amazing sound system, sound engineer provided, extra friendly staff, and great great drink specials! Oh, and for those of you who don't know much about The Star Bar and it's history. The Star Bar hosted the ASCAP Music Cafe during Sundance each year from 1999-2008 and here is a small list of just some of the people who have performed on this stage (we'd list them all but there are FAR too many to list), deep breath and here we go . . . .
Silversun Pickups
Neil Young
Graham Nash
Ingrid Michaelson
Pat Monahan of Train
Brett Dennon
Emserson Hart
Martin Sexton
Glan Hansard and Marketa Irglova
Jonatha Brooke
Tim Easton
Jonny Lang
Damien Rice
Emmylou Harris
Jason Mraz
Josh Ritter
Kings of Leon
Joseph Arthur w/ Ben Harper
Joseph Arthur w/ Peter Gabriel
The Dresden Dolls
Imogen Heap
Joe Purdy
Bruce Hornsby
Shawn Colvin
Ben Kweller
The All-American Rejects
Michael McDonald
Linda Perry
Deana Carter
Guy Clark
Jon Mclaughlin
and that's just the start of it. So you can see why we LOVE The Star Bar and having our event at this wonder venue. The musical history of the place alone is worth bragging about.
The Acoustic All-Stars is our heart, our soul, and our passion of trying to bring attention to some of the many talented musicians that Utah has to offer, we hope you enjoy what we're doing!
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