What Were They Thinking?
I just heard that two fundraising concerts that took place last week were unmitigated disasters (in terms of draw; I'm not speaking about the quality of the gigs themselves).
On motsai Shabbos (March 20th) Shloime Dachs and Mendy Wald did a gig at the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst that reportedly drew fewer than 100 people. Assuming that a large part of the audience was affiliated with the institution that sponsored the gig, it appears that, despite a lot of expensive print and email advertising, almost nobody showed up.
The next day, the Piamenta brothers and Soulfarm played at Brooklyn College to about 2100 empty seats and 400 humans. Again, this despite carpet advertising in print and email.
When I first saw the advertisements for each of these gigs, I thought to myself "what are these people thinking? They have so misjudged their respective markets." (And I'm not being a Monday morning quarterback...I emailed Blog in Dm with my thoughts at the time so you can ask him).
It was as obvious to me that Piamenta would not play in the bastion of Boro Park Rock as it was that Dachs/Wald would not play in a MO neighborhood like Lawrence. Who advised these charities to go forward? I hope they at least got their costs covered by sponsors.
The whole genre of benefit concerts is so overdone. Between the overexposure of the big names and the lack of interest in the second tier names (and, as we see here, the misjudgment of appropriate markets) people have incredibally unrealistic expectations and often put their charities at risk.
The promoter of the Piamenta gig described himself in the advertisements as the "Minister of Entertainment" at a certain Jewish hotel. Perhaps he should get another portfolio.
I just heard that two fundraising concerts that took place last week were unmitigated disasters (in terms of draw; I'm not speaking about the quality of the gigs themselves).
On motsai Shabbos (March 20th) Shloime Dachs and Mendy Wald did a gig at the Young Israel of Lawrence Cedarhurst that reportedly drew fewer than 100 people. Assuming that a large part of the audience was affiliated with the institution that sponsored the gig, it appears that, despite a lot of expensive print and email advertising, almost nobody showed up.
The next day, the Piamenta brothers and Soulfarm played at Brooklyn College to about 2100 empty seats and 400 humans. Again, this despite carpet advertising in print and email.
When I first saw the advertisements for each of these gigs, I thought to myself "what are these people thinking? They have so misjudged their respective markets." (And I'm not being a Monday morning quarterback...I emailed Blog in Dm with my thoughts at the time so you can ask him).
It was as obvious to me that Piamenta would not play in the bastion of Boro Park Rock as it was that Dachs/Wald would not play in a MO neighborhood like Lawrence. Who advised these charities to go forward? I hope they at least got their costs covered by sponsors.
The whole genre of benefit concerts is so overdone. Between the overexposure of the big names and the lack of interest in the second tier names (and, as we see here, the misjudgment of appropriate markets) people have incredibally unrealistic expectations and often put their charities at risk.
The promoter of the Piamenta gig described himself in the advertisements as the "Minister of Entertainment" at a certain Jewish hotel. Perhaps he should get another portfolio.
posted by MoChassid @ 10:00 AM
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