[Noisebridge-discuss] Fwd: [Eventsgroup] Noisebridge fundraiser in October?

aestetix aestetix aestetix at gmail.com
Sat Aug 22 20:46:56 UTC 2009


Hey everyone,

Sorry I'm late to this discussion. Too much craziness in the pre-BM days.

A few things, and hopefully they haven't been addressed.

CELLspace sounds like a great idea. Holding a fundraiser like this at
Noisebridge seems cool (bunch of people get to see the space, etc),
but ultimately it's a bad idea, and I would actually block a large
scale publicly advertised party at NB.

We need to be able to set boundaries so that all members are
comfortable. If we have a large event with a crowd from the public,
this will disrupt normal activity and piss off anyone who is there
working on stuff. Nobody has run a sound test on the venue yet (and we
really can't until we get the new walls up), so we have no idea how
sound will carry within our own space, and we have NO idea how it will
carry outside the space. It would suck to have a fundraiser event get
shut down because there were 20 noise complaints in the first hour,
which also sets a bad reputation for NB with the police. A venue
created for a music event already has this stuff figured out.

Next, we'd have to deal with security. Putting a few NBers at the door
won't work, for a number of reasons. We'd have to go out and hire
security, and when police inevitably come to check out this strange
noise coming from what was an empty building, they'll ask a lot of
questions. It's way easier to go with a place that already has an
established reputation with a solid security team.

All that crap (and unwritten liabilities, like selling alcohol) aside,
if we have one event at the new NB, people will assume we can have
more, start planning them, and get upset when we can't have any more.
Meetings will last hours: "Wait, why can't we do this? The fundraiser
was great!". It's important to keep a boundary between NB being a
workspace and group collaboration area, and a party zone. There's also
a very fine line between having a private event where we bring a few
friends, and when we print up fliers, advertise publicly, and charge
at the door.

Blah blah blah blah blah.

That said, a fundraiser is a GREAT idea. There are a lot of things
need to be taken into consideration. Promotion wise, how do we plan to
promote, and where? The kind of flier(s) we make and where we stick
them determines a lot. Fliering an art gallery or a coffeehouse will
bring a totally different crowd than fliering a bar. The kind of flier
you make is also very important. Or maybe we don't want to flier, and
want it simply spread by word of mouth. This is actually really
important. Do we want a crowd of friends and people we know rule, or
do we just want large numbers to fill the space? Does it matter if
people come in and leave after five minutes as long as they pay, or do
we want a full house all night?

The lineup also matters a lot for this. Is this electronic music, jam
bands, live PAs, or something else? If we're just trying to get
friends to spin/play for cheap, that will bring one crowd. If we're
trying to bring a headliner, that becomes expensive, but will also
bring a larger crowd. Do we have a headliner we want to associate with
Noisebridge? Is anyone friends with a headliner we could ask? (*raises
hand*) What kind of diversity do we want? For example, with
rave-style, some parties are all house, all dnb, all techno, or a
variety. I usually prefer a variety, and set up a lineup based on how
I want people to feel during the night. Put some really amazing heavy
stuff between midnight and 2am (general headliner hours), and have
lighter "come-down" music later on. If we're selling alcohol, take
this into account. If we're carding at the door, take this into
account. If the venue can only be open for X hours, take this into
account. If there's another event we want to cross-promote going on,
take this into account (October 18th is dangerously close to
Halloween, and *everyone* wants to throw a Halloween party).

I'll stop rambling for now, but those are a few things people should
keep in mind when planning all this stuff.

aestetix

On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 11:27 AM, Ian<ian at slumbrparty.com> wrote:
> i am down with that.
>
> On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 11:23 AM, Christie Dudley<longobord at gmail.com> wrote:
>> I'm thinking I'll ask about October 18th.  That's smack in the middle of the
>> month and will allow enough time to settle out after the move as well as get
>> a good production together.  Any other opinions?
>>
>> Christie
>> ---
>> Pigs can fly given sufficient thrust.
>>     - RFC 1925
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 10:02 AM, Ian <ian at slumbrparty.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> btw, do we have a tentative date for the event at CELLspace? i found a
>>> date for fri oct 9th or something like that but i remembered that we
>>> wanted to change it to sunday? if you know anything more concrete,
>>> please let me know.
>>>
>>> thanks,
>>>
>>> ian
>>>
>>> On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 9:13 PM, Christie Dudley<longobord at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> > I think if it fits together, it's good.  There's been discussion of
>>> > bringing
>>> > Moldover in, which I think is kind of a nifty idea.  As I've mentioned a
>>> > couple of times, I think it would be best to feature noisebridge members
>>> > primarily.
>>> >
>>> > That being said, our very own San Mehat, a "retired" internationally
>>> > renowned DJ and club owner has offered to come out of retirement in
>>> > order to
>>> > help us out here.  I don't know that much about this business, so I'd
>>> > rather
>>> > defer to his judgement on what would be a great show.
>>> >
>>> > Christie
>>> >
>>> > On Aug 20, 2009 6:39 PM, "Ian" <ian at slumbrparty.com> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > are we only thinking about DJs? what about other types of music.. like
>>> > with instruments? ;)
>>> >
>>> > On Thu, Aug 20, 2009 at 2:49 PM, Christie Dudley<longobord at gmail.com>
>>> > wrote:
>>> >> Yeah, San has offere...
>>
>>
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