Rock Harvest
- Thread starter Justin G
- Start date
Here's Mark Gromen's review on BWBK:
http://www.bravewords.com/news/213456
Skip to the closing note if you don't want to read about what the bands were wearing or whether or not he could get drinks and dinner each day.
http://www.bravewords.com/news/213456
Skip to the closing note if you don't want to read about what the bands were wearing or whether or not he could get drinks and dinner each day.
Jasonic
Doom On!
I agree with about 99.9% of this!!!
Note to the promoter:
John, the charity is admirable, but if you plan to make this thing viable, or any other would-be promoters planning on running a fest and/or friends of someone who's going to, please hear the following, free advice from someone who ran some shows of his own. It takes money to make money. Facebook is not advertising. Granted 1 of every 3 people on the planet are linked to it, but without prior knowledge of Rock Harvest, people aren't going to find you. I hadn't been in that area in more than 15 years, yet I know there were two record store reps present, as well as local publications like Soundwaves and Mid-Atlantic Rock Review. Did you place flyers/show announcements in the sales bags at those record stores? Speaking of flyers, did you have some kids (who could get free tix for their efforts) visit local metal shows? Was there a mention, if not ad, in every print issue, months ahead of the show? Did you do interviews with same? College radio shows? Baltimore weekly entertainment rag? The charity angle opens up these avenues even more than just some for-profit metal show. The majority of your crowd will be local rock/metal fans. Going forward, not many people are willing to pay for tickets, hotels (airfares?) especially after all the cancellations/instability this year. You need to communicate to fans, quick and accurate information. There's a lot of damage that PR goodwill needs to help restore. However, you also have the highly populated NJ, PA, MD, DE area from which to draw.
It's OK to say "no" to bands willing to play for free. They might be the hottest thing of Sunset Strip (does that even mean anything, anymore?), or anywhere else, but their crowd isn't going to follow them across the country, where no one knows who they are. Sure it helps your bottom line, but it doesn't generate paying customers. The old hair band angle was good, if you can secure a few "names," that will drive sales. The diversity between the days, as originally conceived, is a workable model. Not sure why it needs to be three days. Quantity doesn't beat quality. Tighten up a confirmed line-up of known entities, with a few "freebies" thrown in, promote the Hell out of it (including deep discounts for any early sales: many will have reservations, again, due to this year's fiasco, but some might be willing to take the "gamble") and hopefully more people will investigate what was a well run event, once on-site. Look forward to returning in 2014 and seeing how it pans out.
Note to the promoter:
John, the charity is admirable, but if you plan to make this thing viable, or any other would-be promoters planning on running a fest and/or friends of someone who's going to, please hear the following, free advice from someone who ran some shows of his own. It takes money to make money. Facebook is not advertising. Granted 1 of every 3 people on the planet are linked to it, but without prior knowledge of Rock Harvest, people aren't going to find you. I hadn't been in that area in more than 15 years, yet I know there were two record store reps present, as well as local publications like Soundwaves and Mid-Atlantic Rock Review. Did you place flyers/show announcements in the sales bags at those record stores? Speaking of flyers, did you have some kids (who could get free tix for their efforts) visit local metal shows? Was there a mention, if not ad, in every print issue, months ahead of the show? Did you do interviews with same? College radio shows? Baltimore weekly entertainment rag? The charity angle opens up these avenues even more than just some for-profit metal show. The majority of your crowd will be local rock/metal fans. Going forward, not many people are willing to pay for tickets, hotels (airfares?) especially after all the cancellations/instability this year. You need to communicate to fans, quick and accurate information. There's a lot of damage that PR goodwill needs to help restore. However, you also have the highly populated NJ, PA, MD, DE area from which to draw.
It's OK to say "no" to bands willing to play for free. They might be the hottest thing of Sunset Strip (does that even mean anything, anymore?), or anywhere else, but their crowd isn't going to follow them across the country, where no one knows who they are. Sure it helps your bottom line, but it doesn't generate paying customers. The old hair band angle was good, if you can secure a few "names," that will drive sales. The diversity between the days, as originally conceived, is a workable model. Not sure why it needs to be three days. Quantity doesn't beat quality. Tighten up a confirmed line-up of known entities, with a few "freebies" thrown in, promote the Hell out of it (including deep discounts for any early sales: many will have reservations, again, due to this year's fiasco, but some might be willing to take the "gamble") and hopefully more people will investigate what was a well run event, once on-site. Look forward to returning in 2014 and seeing how it pans out.
nomisofsiman
Member
I agree with most of it too. And yes it definitely doesn't need to be 3 days. Considering the fiasco this year I'd scale way back on this year and get more quality instead of quantity.
General Zod
Ruler of Australia
I thought Mark was overly kind, given the result. Look at it this way, the biggest (most relevant) name they had (Ashes) at their 3 Day festival, was a mid-tier band at ProgPower's 2 Day festival.
Diabolik
Member
they had Raven who are way more than a name than Ashes. But I get what you are saying.
nomisofsiman
Member
But Ashes probably are more popular at the moment. Sadly, Raven's shows aren't very well attended as we witnessed.
Diabolik
Member
doubtful....if Ashed played Reggies in Chicago on a tuesday night? you really think there would be more than what Raven had? More people know the Raven name than Ashes. Sure neither band is a draw but in this circle of course Ashes is going to be the band talked about. Ask the average metal fan about each band and I am sure most will know Raven over Ashes.
General Zod
Ruler of Australia
I would have been inclined to agree with you. However, from what I understand, Thursday was better attended than Saturday, despite the fact that Saturday is the far more desirable night to attend a show.
Aside from Raven on Friday and Widow on Saturday, Thursday had better bands. Or fewer unknown bands.
Diabolik
Member
exactly...that saturday line up was terrible so as Justin said...the thursday line up had more quality acts than saturday. I don't think people would go just because of what day it is. Any show with a good line up will still do good no matter the day. It is just easier to miss weekday shows when the line up is weak.
DemonOfTheWoods
Your option out of here
OK so here is my "review" of Rock Harvest II.
With all the bullshit leading up to this and the amount of "inside" info I had from bands I'm friends with who were on the bill at one point or another, I almost backed out of going. Out of the three days, I was there for about 3 or 4 hours on Thursday, the first night. Skipped Friday because everyone I wanted to see had dropped off that day, and Saturday I skipped because of health concerns, and the only bands I wanted to see were locals who I see all the time.
So for the time I was there on Thursday...as someone else said, there was basically no merch. Ashes of Ares had 3 or 4 shirts and the CD, there was some shirts and promo stuff from Fallen Blue (I think that was the organization benefiting from the show) who were also running a silent auction with a really cool off-brand SG copy and a Spector Rex bass signed by a bunch of people who played the fest...I couldn't really tell who all had signed it, and the person at the table had no clue at all. The only signature I could actually read said "Nina" so I'm assuming that Nina & A Sound of Thunder signed it. There was also, as someone else mentioned, a guy with about 200 CDs. Didn't see merch from any other bands, but also there was no designated area for merch, there was some here and some there, so I easily could have missed it.
I really didn't see anyone except for Ashes of Ares, who, despite Barlow being sick (it was obvious but I personally didn't think it was as bad as some of the reviews I've read have made it out to be) they rocked. Met and talked for a while with Matt, Freddie, and Dean before the show, and FINALLY got to meet Van Williams for longer than 30 seconds! We actaully talked for a good while, he is a very cool person. Ashes setlist was the entire album, in order, except the acoustic bonus track.
It was a good show, I had fun, but it's nothing people should be kicking themselves for because they missed it.
I'm hoping next year things work out better for the festival.
A friend asked me "How did this fetival compare to ProgPower?" and the truth is there is no comparison. ProgPower is a unique festival, that no matter how hard others try to "compete" with it, you can't "one up" it.
With all the bullshit leading up to this and the amount of "inside" info I had from bands I'm friends with who were on the bill at one point or another, I almost backed out of going. Out of the three days, I was there for about 3 or 4 hours on Thursday, the first night. Skipped Friday because everyone I wanted to see had dropped off that day, and Saturday I skipped because of health concerns, and the only bands I wanted to see were locals who I see all the time.
So for the time I was there on Thursday...as someone else said, there was basically no merch. Ashes of Ares had 3 or 4 shirts and the CD, there was some shirts and promo stuff from Fallen Blue (I think that was the organization benefiting from the show) who were also running a silent auction with a really cool off-brand SG copy and a Spector Rex bass signed by a bunch of people who played the fest...I couldn't really tell who all had signed it, and the person at the table had no clue at all. The only signature I could actually read said "Nina" so I'm assuming that Nina & A Sound of Thunder signed it. There was also, as someone else mentioned, a guy with about 200 CDs. Didn't see merch from any other bands, but also there was no designated area for merch, there was some here and some there, so I easily could have missed it.
I really didn't see anyone except for Ashes of Ares, who, despite Barlow being sick (it was obvious but I personally didn't think it was as bad as some of the reviews I've read have made it out to be) they rocked. Met and talked for a while with Matt, Freddie, and Dean before the show, and FINALLY got to meet Van Williams for longer than 30 seconds! We actaully talked for a good while, he is a very cool person. Ashes setlist was the entire album, in order, except the acoustic bonus track.
It was a good show, I had fun, but it's nothing people should be kicking themselves for because they missed it.
I'm hoping next year things work out better for the festival.
A friend asked me "How did this fetival compare to ProgPower?" and the truth is there is no comparison. ProgPower is a unique festival, that no matter how hard others try to "compete" with it, you can't "one up" it.
Jasonic
Doom On!
Oh come on now....
Was this last comment really necessary?????
Or are you truly just trying to score brownie points?
I don't think Glenn sees Rock Harvest as any threat in the least.
Also, what makes you think Rock Harvest is trying to compete with Prog Power?
AngraRULES
Member
Comments from Rock Harvest promoter himself, such as "Pretty cool to be able to confirm a band that ProgPower USA has always wanted" and "This will be the "it" festival for next year, second to none, even ProgPower."
Diabolik
Member
And of course we're going to compare other fests to PPUSA. That's a common benchmark for people on this forum, for obvious reasons.
AngraRULES
Member
Don't sweat it. Jason is hurt because even though he hangs out with us, he's not really part of the ProgPower family
Diabolik
Member
Don't sweat it. Jason is hurt because even though he hangs out with us, he's not really part of the ProgPower family
if you want...we can do a Ragnarokkr - ProgPower trade for him. Just give us one of yours of somewhat equal value.
