Live Music Regents Park
Good morning friends and colleagues,
Please excuse the circular nature of this email.
I have been asked to look after the live music content at two of this summer’s Channel 4 Television’s Taste festivals (www.channel4.com/taste) , namely Taste of London – Regent’s Park 19-22 June and Taste of Bath – Royal Victoria Park 3-6 July.
The Taste events have become very high profile foody events showcasing the finest in chefs, restaurants and real food suppliers & producers. The London event in particular is rated as one of the top five food festivals in the world and sits in the “well-to-do” social calendar alongside Wimbledon, Ascot and Henley Regatta. Typical visitors to these events range from young professionals to retired folks, but all classed as very affluent. There is also a strong representation at these events from corporate event producers and national media. London attracts nearly 45,000 visitors over the four days, Bath roughly 18,000.
Music provision at the venue both events is a bandstand format, located in a central position near the main entrances in each site plan. The London music stage is sponsored by British Airways this year, sponsor for the Bath bandstand is still being negotiated. Musically I will be looking to book artists from a wide range of sectors….classical, jazz, choral, acoustic, world, boogie-woogie etc. The only guidance I have from the organisers is that they want a certain degree of familiarity…so I will be looking to acts who can perform at least a mix of covers, jazz standards etc…..unknown artist performing all original material will not fit the bill for these events. In most cases I will look for two sets from each artist…one afternoon and one evening show.
The Bad News……budget is very low for the live content at these events. The music programme has no bearing on ticket sales (£45 for London this year!) and therefore my budget is minimal. In the past the organisers have filled a music programme largely with artists working either for nothing or simply for token expenses. Some of you will object to this approach on principle, and I fully respect that point of view.
The Good News…..it’s a bit of a cliché but this is very good exposure and there is a history of some artists securing future bookings and corporate work from these shows. The food pages on the Channel 4 website are getting approx 1 million unit hits per month and there will be a dedicated feature page on the live entertainment for both festivals, with biographies and weblinks listed. 75 % of ticket sales for these events are purchased online, so web focus is very strong indeed. Each visitor gets given a menu card on arrival that has the full performance programme for the event timetabled. On exit from the event, every visitor is given a glossy magazine that has a dedicated page to the entertainment featured. Media partners are being finalised for both these events as we speak….Likely Capitol Radio for London, a number of national magazines, Venue Magazine in Bath and others. Coverage is significant nationally. Channel 4 will be doing lots of dedicated web marketing and distribute ¾ of a million fliers in advance of these two events. There will also be a display board / merch stall by each bandstand and we can promote a “meet the artist / CD signing” feature. Poor fees can be offset to some extent by guest ticket allocations, so the prospect of giving friends and love ones a posh day out too is feasible.
Channel 4 Television film crews will be very much in evidence at all Taste festivals, filming throughout each weekend for future broadcasts, but please note…..THERE ARE NO GUARANTEES OF ANY COVERAGE FOR ANY GIVEN ARTIST BOOKED, it really is a lottery, the main benefit is clearly driven through web traffic and exposure to corporate event organisers.
I am about to head off to Shetland Festival for a long weekend, but wanted to start the ball rolling with this. If you want to express interest in participation at either of these events please drop me an e-mail reply in the first instance. I will be back in the modern world next Wed (May 7) and then have a very short timespan indeed in which to nail the programmes.
Look forward to hearing from some of you, have a good bank holiday
Tim Richardson
Tel 01258 817034
Mob 07597 453039
www.mutinymusic.co.uk