I organise gigs for charity and personally make a loss every time I run the night as I don't claim back the limited expenses I have. An unnamed venue have decided to make a night am putting on in week or so 'free.' There is still a door charge but if you had gone to the bar downstairs and collected a card then you can get in free.
I am thinking of 'doing a Radiohead' and having a voluntary contribution box to get round this. Would you pay in any money assuming you were coming to the gig anyway before the 'free' business was announced?
If it helps the charity is Oxfam and the gig would have been £4 for four local bands.
Most people
who go to a charity gig are going to be generally in favour of putting their hands in their pockets, I reckon. Oxfam's a pretty unarguable charity so a collection should be OK. If a band is popular enough for the punters to demand an encore, you could get them to pass the hat round at that point, and not do another song until a certain amount of money is reached.
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Am I missing something here?
If people don't pay for it, how are you making money for Charity?
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The gig was originally £4 on the door and announced with that. The venue as part of a publicity stunt have made 8 gigs (most of which they are not the promoter of) free with a card picked up free from the bar.
I don't really want to discuss the rights and wrongs of this. I would prefer to not be in the situation but I am. To make the system fair I am thinking of making the door free with a 'recommend' voluntary contribution of £4. People would be free to pay what they like.
Everyone has bad associations with the shaking tin of charity
so, erm, maybe put the box out in good view at the end, (maybe directing them towards it) and assuming it was good they should pay a bit.
^
yeah, put it in plain view of the exits - or prominently in the corridor towards the exits - but don't be like "PUT MONEY IN HERE". i think people would be pretty generous in that circumstance...
although, when i went to see arcade fire last year, they were giving out posters made to promote and raise money for partners in health. people were asking the people handing them out "d'you have to pay for these?" and the response was "not if you don't want to. put in whatever you want - or don't. it's your choice." i'd say about 75% just grabbed the posters and fled. i quietly slipped in a fiver and took three posters. it's a good charity, after all. what pissed me off more was when i gave two friends a poster each and they were all "you paid? sux 4 u lol!", but that's another thread...
and definitely give money, anyway. i'd probably gauge a good price via quality of bands x number of bands + charity.
theres a Brighton based
record label called Woodland Recordings who put on a monthly night at the Komedia and its 'entry by donation'. Always a busy night and seems to work pretty well.