chicago charges $6 per person. no discounts for students, though young kids (below 12, as i remember) don't pay. it has been this rate for several years. local musicians get $50 each with a band max of $200, and caller gets $50. no one else is paid. hall is $150. in the past some evenings would make money, some lose. there are occasional grants. over the last 8 months attendance as fallen, so now most evening lose money. remains to be seen what will happen with this situation.
in chicago, considering the general cost of entertainment (a beer is $3-$5), there hasn't been much comment about the price. more of an issue here is transportation. more students might come, but don't have cars to get to the dance. taking combinations of trains and busses at 11:30pm can be discouraging. or living 1-1.5 hours drive away can seem daunting after a days work. jeffrey > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Chris Weiler > Sent: Tuesday, October 16, 2007 1:09 AM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [Organizers] Price > > Some of you may recognize this question from the PVCD > (Pioneer Valley Contra Dance) list on Yahoo Groups. > > How do you balance the price you charge for the evening of > dancing with attendance? Charge too much and you loose > people. Charge too little and you have trouble paying the > performers and the hall. Do you charge a sliding scale based > on ability to pay? Or student/senior status? > > On the PVCD list, a student sent a message complaining about > the rising prices at some dances and the lack of a student > rate at others. She complained that she and her friends could > not dance as much as they wanted to. The response ranged from > "right on!" to "think about the musicians!" to "grow up and > decide how to spend your money". (I'm > paraphrasing.) > > Last month (after much deliberation) I raised the price of my > Mill City dance from $7 to $8, but added a "young person" > price of $5. It's too soon to know if it's had any affect or > not. Last month I had a couple less people than usual, but > due to the price increase, the amount that I had to pay the > band was the same. The other dance in town is still charging > $7 as well. When I took a survey in the sign-in book earlier > in the summer, I asked if people were willing to pay the new > price structure. I got about 10 yeas and 2 nays. I should > also mention that I do not have a gate person and payment is > on the honor system. However, the tally pretty closely > matches my quick count from the microphone during the evening. > > Thanks in advance for your thoughts. > > Chris Weiler > Goffstown, NH > > > _______________________________________________ > Organizers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/organizers
