I have a lot of people email me and say, “You should play at [fill in your festival or venue here]”. I love those emails. I just wish I had time or someone to follow up on each of those suggestions. Sadly, most go the way of the wind… but not all of them!
The most-exciting ones are when people follow through to bring me to their events. Here are several tips that you can do to insure that I, or whatever musician you enjoy, will perform at your event.
First, contact the venue and let them know about me. They may be familiar with my music or the music of the Brobdingnagian Bards. They may be cat lovers or listen to one of my many podcasts. They may recognize my contribution to the Celtic Geek musical movement. But until you contact them, you may never know. That's how The Bards started performing at I-Con many years ago. I called them up. Turns out the Entertainment Coordinator was a fan from the MP3.com years.
Get Involved. In college, they said that the quickest way to improve in ballroom dancing was to join the board. Everyone who did became one of the best dancers in months. If you enjoy the Celtic culture, get involved with local Celtic organizations, festivals, pubs, whatever. Talk to people there. Get to know them and become involved. The more you know about the intricacies of the events you're a part of the easier it will be to say, “Hey, Marc Gunn will make a great addition to our festival.” Plus, when you get involved, you have the added joy of helping to build a community. They will love you for it.
Tell a friend. Fans are what make successful musicians. So share my music, especially with people in your area. Help me make new fans by talking about my music. Whenever someone starts talking about something cool, people perk up and listen. They want to be a part of the cool stuff too. But until you talk about it, they will never know.
Sign up at Eventful. Someone told me once that for every fan signed up at Eventful, you can expect twice that many people at your show. Meaning, if I can get 30 people signed up on Eventful in a specific area, I can expect about 60 people to show up at my gig. It's not a lot, but that's good enough for any small venue to consider booking me.
Find Sponsors. When I look at most of the gigs that never happen, it is usually due to money issues. It costs money to bring me anywhere. If you don't have, or are unwilling to pay those fees and the venue can't afford it too, find a sponsor or two. You can do that through Celtic organizations, the city, non-profits, small businesses or corporations, or by getting a bunch of your friends to pool their money together and paying for it themselves.
Be a Promoter. The absolute best way to make anything happen is to do it yourself. Then follow through the process working with the venue and me to make sure each of us receives what we need to make it worth our while.
These are the first things that came to my mind. If you have other suggestions, please post your suggestions below. I look forward to sharing my music with you.
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Originally published at Marc Gunn .com. Read. Interact. Breathe. It's easy; it's free.
