Oh well.
I got a good dose of rejection today as Scott Miller and The Commonwealth turned down our offer to appear at Fun Fest. These guys felt like they deserved more money and turned down $15k in promotion to promote their brand. Their agent was not even negotiable on any of the details.
I got a little cranky and called up Southern Culture on the Skids, but their manage group politely refused saying their band gets anywhere from $3,000 to $10,000 for a performance, so that’s out too. Bummer….champagne taste and beer budget.
Nevertheless, we’re trying to stay focused on the event and the potential to promote other bands and have a new lineup that may come about. I’m speaking with a few promoters and columnists about a number of possibilities including Matthew Ryan, Mic Harrison, Reagan Boggs, Virginia Ground and perphaps Scotty Melton, but we’ll need to make some offers first and see how this turns out now.
This concert at Fun Fest should be great at drawing over 8,000 fans. The fact that it is free really dampens our ability to draw a big crowd, but it’s a learning lesson all the same.
This has truely been a lesson this year. We had hoped to put out a bigger payment than ever to find a headliner, but Scott’s agents seem to think they are worth more and although we were offering more promotion than they could ever buy when they were in town, they turned down a guarantee of full page ads in newspapers, full flights of radio and television commercials too. Perhaps we weren’t good enough selling the package.
We’re learning….again.