Starting folk clubs and ceilidhs

The practical problems of new folk ventures have recently been aired in internet discussion groups and the suggestions received from Jacey Bedford of Artisan and various club and ceilidh organisers are presented here.

Starting a folk club

I am currently setting up a folk night and would welcome any practical advice on establishing such a night.

The answers

• What kind of event are you planning? eg Local guests, low-key and friendly, or National guests, high profile events?
• Are you rural with plenty of car parking or based in the city?
• What's your target audience, old folkies, youngsters, family audience?
• Are you charging realistic ticket prices?
• What night will you operate. is there any opposition from other events?
• Have you approached the media personally to ensure their support?
• Do you have good, reliable resident performers lined up?
• Do you intend to have open nights for performers of any standard?
• Do you have any kind of back-up budget for starting up?
• Research what nights other folk nights are on and do not duplicate.
• Start off with a bang - get a good well respected artist/band for your first night.
• Do not scrimp on publicity. Posters in all manner of places, local community magazines, what's on sections on local radio stations and television stations. The free papers are always on the look out for news. Make sure that they get regular updates with info about your guests. Let your local tourist information office have a poster about your folk nights. Also make sure that they have programme lists for people to take away.
• Is the venue suitable? Are you going to have interruptions? Is there going to be music from other bars etc?
• Have you enough helpers? You need two for the door(minimum). What happens if you need change? Have you got someone who knows about sound equipment? Always have a few tools handy.
• Even if you have to borrow them, always have a set of guitar strings handy in case your guest has forgotten theirs (we are all human).
• The sound of raffle tickets being torn out and sold is the sound of a folk club surviving.

Starting a barn dance

A friend is interested in running a ceilidh as a trial and then, maybe, if it's successful doing some more on a regular basis. We've both been involved in similar ventures before, so we are fairly confident with the idea of finding a hall, a band, dealing with publicity etc, but what we are not so happy with is the financial side of things!

How have other people financed a first ceilidh before there is any money in the kitty? Do you put it up yourselves and hope that enough people will buy tickets to cover costs? Do you get people to sponsor the event by agreeing to put up a certain amount each in exchange for some benefit? If so, what? Do you try and get funding from the lottery or local council?

The answers

Here's what not to do:-

• Don't advertise, except to friends and dancers who would come anyway. A very important part of most successful ceilidhs is the contribution from non-dancy non-folky people who respond to local advertising.
• Book bands that you really like, and that no-one locally has ever heard of.
• Don't run a bar or raffle or anything that may generate just enough money to pay the band.
• Develop a close relationship with your bank manager to explain your personal loss.
• Don't get involved with local community groups or sponsors who might help or bring groups of people.
• Establish very close relationships with callers so that a good night with lots of drinking afterwards makes up for not having any money left to pay them.
• Ditto with bands.

And here are some positive suggestions:-

• You'll be lucky to get external funding from the likes of The Arts Council, The National Lottery etc. because they simply come back with the comment "Everybody runs barn dances. What's so special about yours?" Corollary: You could make your dance special by incorporating dance workshops (e.g. for children, teachers).
• The venue might be interested in a co-promotion. This approach sometimes gets dances through a thin patch. Don't forget, the venue has an interest in your events going well if you're proposing to be a regular hirer of its facilities.
• Cross-subsidise. If you're involved in running other profitable events you could chose for these to underwrite your dances in the early days.
• The golden rule is not to economise on the band. Many box office disasters are down to booking a less expensive band in the mistaken belief that there would be less of a financial risk. More importantly, if you want to establish your dances as the very best in the area, book only the bands that you know in your heart are undeniably brilliant.
• If you have a local folk magazine, insert attractive ads. Local papers may work, but Barn Dances tend to be hidden away amongst the jumble sales. Handbills are excellent. A really cheap printer can turn out 2,500 handbills for less than £25.00, so you can afford to litter every local library, Tourist Information, college, corner shop, dance/morris/folk club with A5 leaflets.
• Contact 18+, YHA, Young Farmers, singles clubs, etc. Not only do they come in sizeable groups, but once they decide they like you they start publicising your events amongst all the other 18+, YHA etc. groups in the area and do your work for you!
• Go to your local university/union and find who holds purse strings. (Student Activities or some such). Organise an event for 'postgrads' / 'medics' or similar - you can get it underwritten or get a grant from them.
• Find people who can organise groups to come
• Book a local(ish) band on basis of 100 quid plus share of door or similar (usually need a friendly band for this). The band will then help you advertise because it all goes into their pocket.
• Get a group of friends to organise it - 10 people at 20 quid each forms quite a starting fund.
• Aim to break even on a half full evening. If you get a full-house, that means you have just enough to carry one loss.

Let's have your suggestions - e-mail them now!