Filed under: Birmingham Alabama, Birmingham, AL, Blogging, Cities, city stages, Civic Engagement, Commentary, music, music venues, other cities, The Rambles
I was preparing to post about the firing of Mike Shula from Alabama. I’m saving that one for tomorrow now, though it may just become a rehash of the Crimson Tide of fans upset with the way that the firing was handled. Instead I want to take a few moments to look at the buzz created out here in the world of blogging about this evening’s town hall meeting about sustaining City Stages; something we decided to mention here yesterday.
The questions and points brought up by Wade and others throughout the blogosphere are valid and need to be taken into account along with the numerous suggestions that are bound to be floating around out there, spoken and unspoken, for this festival. How do you make City Stages unique without making it seem to be like all of the other festivals in the area or the country? One thing to point out is that the fact that we even have a festival like this is unique as many cities are either mothballing the concept or they’re trying to revamp the festival to fit in to their changing demographic.
I decided to do a little digging on my own about the price quotes that Wade mentioned on his site this morning, more just because I needed something to do during my lunch break as well as the fact that I wanted to see how a true apples to apples comparison would look like. I decided to rely on a tried and true resource for my last job search that brought me to Birmingham, Salary.com. I decided to see what the cost of living translation of our $40 ticket would be out on the West Coast using their cost of living wizard. It’s been fairly accurate for me and figured it would allow for the argument to be made as apples to apples.
In citing the comparison that is mentioned on Wade’s site, there turns out to be a few things to remember; the festival in San Diego charges more money, even though they have more people. After doing the conversion, it would still cost less than ½ of what it does to go to the festival in San Diego based on City Stages’ original statement.
The $40 City Stages ticket would be $60.40 compared to $115 for San Diego’s Street Scene festival. Insofar as the argument goes, I have a strange feeling that they draw more people. Their patrons also pay more for the additional acts. I am a huge fan of the festival, but am completely realistic about its shortcomings. The real question is “Is Birmingham ready to admit that it must pay more and see what they get for it before it complains?” By the way, the cost of living is 51% more in San Diego than in Birmingham according to the website; salaries are only 10.3% more.
We already pay the lowest taxes in the country and we suffer mightily because of it. Many of the things that we think are necessary are lacking because of how we collect our taxes and how we choose to save and use them. Why do I bring that up? It does translate to our situation with this music festival. City Stages when it started was comparable and probably more enjoyable than it has been for many in recent years and the prices reflected the cost of brining in talent at that time. We currently do not feel the need to pay more in order to see more here in Birmingham, Alabama.
A better product presented by the organizers will end up leading to a higher ticket price. We have to be willing to live up to our end of the bargain and pay more if we are able to convince the festival to live up to theirs. Only if we’re able to get the other things changed.
Let me know what you think. Enjoy the day.
Cheers.
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I posted this on Wade’s blog, and I’ll recycle it here (because i’m full of myself, I guess):
“These are good questions, [and] should be answered. I do think the civic value of the festival is high. I don’t agree with the idea of having “sacred cows” other than making it “Birmingham’s World-Class Music Festival”. I can’t make the meeting tonight, so here are my suggestions:
Emphasize three or four niches in which this festival truly can be world class – stuff that other festivals don’t do. Stuff that true believers board airplanes for. The Shape-Note thing is the right idea. I think merging the Magic City Blues Festival and the Birmingham Improv Festival into City Stages would be smart. I think the ASO should have a few performances with different performers. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to let Bottletree book a stage.
But here’s the thing, having Taylor and Snoop on the same stage was absolutely unique to Birmingham last year. Creating unique mash-ups should be a serious goal of City Stages planners. Suzy Fan might not come to Birmingham for a run-of-the-mill Indigo Girls set, but if you set up the Indigo Girls to play on stage WITH a Lucinda Williams or a k.d.lang, all of a sudden you’ve got people buzzing.
And how about this… instead of one three-day weekend a year, you do a monthly one-day festival through the summer. The BMA’s Art on the Rocks has been successful with that format. Imagine that with 20 times the number of acts, and sold by subscription as well as by day passes.
It’s evident the festival needs a shot in the arm. It’s evident to me that it’s worth making the effort. Maybe these ideas are worth considering.”
Comment by Dystopos November 28, 2006 @ 2:54 pmThanks for the comment.
Comment by dresramblings November 28, 2006 @ 3:00 pmLet’s be honest: There’s little overlap between San Diego’s superior lineup and Birmingham’s pretty good lineup. That City Stages would compare the two is laughable, or merely sad.
I would pay more to see a stronger lineup. But it may not be a question of whether folks here can or would pay more for a killer schedule. Being realistic, it’s unlikely we can draw the same acts based on population size and probable attendance. It’s the same for touring acts and venues. That’s OK.
“We currently do not feel the need to pay more in order to see more here in Birmingham, Alabama.” That’s simply too broad to defend. I’ve been to plenty of expensive concerts in town and out of town. Plenty of Birmingham residents will pay top dollar for acts they love, whether at the BJCC or in Atlanta or at Bonnaroo.
Maybe a more accurate statement is: We currently do not feel the need to improve City Stages in order to change its fate.
Comment by Wade November 28, 2006 @ 5:01 pmThere is not an overlap; I see though that maybe the better question would be “What would we get if we were paying $80 or $100 for the festival here?” Drawing big name acts has nothing to do with the population size, you’ll draw a crowd. Savannah is smaller than Birmingham and has drawn international acts that people pay a premium for. The big question for them is how much people are willing to pay. And people in Birmingham consistently sell themselves short and are more willing to pay for things outside because its not Birmingham.
I’m just saying that to be realistic and not always part of the we can’t do it or shouldn’t do it crowd. I’m tired of being cynical. If we can’t support it anymore, fine. Let’s think of what we can get behind. Is it a music festival, a movie festival, one of the art festivals. Let’s pick one and finally say that we’re going to go over the top with citywide support.
No one thought City Stages would work the first timne either. And for a time, it did.
Comment by dresramblings November 28, 2006 @ 5:12 pmHere’s the rub… this NEEDS to be a city festival, NOT set of music performances. Expand the concept of “stages” to include performance art, community dance troupes, etc. Give away free booth space (since City Stages isn’t paying rent on the sidewalks) to every non-profit in Birmingham. Invite any art vendor that otherwise exhibits at Artwalk or others in town. Basically, expand the offerings beyond music… build a world-class event AROUND MUSIC. Redefine and expand.
There — I said it.
Comment by catalyst November 30, 2006 @ 9:00 am