rodler
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Tuesday, January 29, 2019 7:03:07 PM
Part of Missouri`s attendance drop too is due steering away from a diverse concert lineup. There is not much interest by the younger generation and rock and roll fans. The local community is industrial based and several of the companies are working 6-7 days a week which makes it hard for people to attend. There used to a pop or R&b concert every couple of years. The fair needs a makeover and think outside the country box because country folks of 2019 are not the same as 1978. As far as the midway goes a lot of people feel like there is not as much there as there use to partly because Wade Shows has seating and concessions where there used to be rides. They also park the trucks out of the way so there is a lot more room to walk around.
We have had a coaster almost every year since they`ve been there and the Fighter has been there several years. As far as I can remember they are the first show to have a whitewater ride. There are rides people expect to see at a state fair because most carnivals carry pretty much the same ones. When they don`t see them it takes some of the nostalgia out of there experience.
RodB
Jackpotter
Wednesday, January 30, 2019 7:19:05 PM
Let me just say in response that booking concerts is a tough thing to do. More and more artists don’t want to play fairs. All the fairs are after the same artists (and so are a lot of competing venues). At the end of the day country sells more tickets at most fairs than R&B or pop.

Another issue for fairs is the continuing price escalation of the acts. The big names are all a half million dollars or more. Most fairs just can’t risk a $750,000 guarantee for a concert and try to keep ticket prices at a level that the fair demographic calls affordable.

This is my fifth year booking concerts for a fair and this year has been exceptionally tough so far.
rodler
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Wednesday, January 30, 2019 8:09:39 PM

We all understand that it is an agriculture fair and country is first and foremost, but is also operated with state tax dollars and the state has a diverse population. I would think if they were in a position where they had to ask for more money from the state it would receive more support from the public when there is something for all to enjoy. When the public sees them being O.K. when a country artist does not draw it makes it seem a little bias. The last 3 concerts I attended that were not country there the grandstand was at capacity and made my experience a lot better. I`ve always been a food and ride person, but a a good concert makes it even better. They did not get these type of concerts every year maybe every 3 to 5 years we would have one.

I usually schedule vacation from my job every year throughout the fair, purchase wristbands for some who cannot afford to and have no problem paying the price for the food I love to get each year. Those who know me usually try to catch me before I leave each day to deliver them a turkey leg or funnel cake on my way home. I`m not your average fair attendee I`m a fair fanatic and I like to see others enjoying my hometown fair. When they don`t I voice my opinions to them and usually get a response. Now whether they value my opinion or not is a different story.

RodB
thunderbolt85
Thursday, January 31, 2019 6:56:38 AM
Originally Posted by: Jackpotter 

Let me just say in response that booking concerts is a tough thing to do. More and more artists don’t want to play fairs. All the fairs are after the same artists (and so are a lot of competing venues). At the end of the day country sells more tickets at most fairs than R&B or pop.

Another issue for fairs is the continuing price escalation of the acts. The big names are all a half million dollars or more. Most fairs just can’t risk a $750,000 guarantee for a concert and try to keep ticket prices at a level that the fair demographic calls affordable.

This is my fifth year booking concerts for a fair and this year has been exceptionally tough so far.




I know for me and my family we really enjoy the smaller local acts rather than the big shows which yes, after having worked with the last few years of Freedom Weekend Aloft I can tell its almost out of reach for some events. I know the last year of the event they got one of those modern type expensive groups and the language was not family oriented which also hurt the event.

The NC mtn state fair does pretty well and does not have the "big" acts, but they do have a lot of smaller acts that folks enjoy. Now, they bring in a mix, but its more geared to mountain music.
Jackpotter
Monday, February 4, 2019 9:01:52 AM
There are so many variables to consider. It's just not as black and white as it would appear.

Most fairs really try hard to keep the ticket prices reasonable as we all realize that a big part of our demographic often times has limited disposable income.

If I book a $300,000 act for a 10,000 seat grandstand or arena I can keep the ticket prices to that show at or around the $50 mark or less. But if I swing for the fence and book a $750,000 to $1,000,000 act my ticket prices are going to start much higher and I risk keeping a big chunk of my demographic away with those prices.

The other thing to consider is that competition for acts is getting tougher and tougher. Between all of the music festivals that have sprung up over the last decade and the avaialability of more venues, everyone is after the same artists. Throw fairs into the mix in the summer/fall and it only increases the number of venues competing for acts.\

Then there are always things in play like the radius clauses which are in every contract and prevents an artist from playing within a set number of miles so many days before or after a concert.

Another thing to take into consideration as well is that more and more acts just don't want to play fairs anymore for any number of reasons.

Also one of the first things I do when I am told by our booking agent of an availability of an act is pull their Pollstar report and see how sales have been for them recently, especially in my region of the country. I also look at any past history at my fair of the artists or similar artists and try to gauge how tickets might sell. Learning and understanding the market you're in is a big key in who is booked.

I'm not trying to come across as a know it all; I'm just explaining some of the things I've learned over the last five years that I've faced and through discussions I've had with people both in the fair industry and the entertainment booking industry.




rodler
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Monday, February 4, 2019 8:04:27 PM

Not sure if our fair used the same company to book acts as surrounding fairs in the past, but it seemed like the top artist used to jump from Iowa, Illinois, and Missouri in the same week.
RodB
Jackpotter
Tuesday, February 5, 2019 6:54:31 AM
My hunch is if you look at those surrounding fairs you’ll find one of two (or both) things. Either their quality and perhaps quantity of concerts have dropped OR, if not, they have a much larger attendance. You are correct though in Booking Agencies can often offer artists package deals with multiple dates/fairs when the Booking Agency has the entertainment contract authority. That's why you'll often see the same acts at 8-10 different fairs in a season.

One case in point is the KY State Fair. They used to have four paid concerts every year in 18,000 seat Freedom Hall. Everyone from Journey, Tim McGraw, Keith Urban, Sugarland, Def Leppard, Taylor Swift, Train...and the list goes on and on. They’d have free concerts every night in Cardinal Stadium (TOAD, Trace Adkins, Alice Cooper, Montgomery Gentry etc) for all 11 nights.

After struggling to attract the bigger acts they did away with the tickets concerts in Freedom Hall a couple years ago and now just have the free ones. The concert lineup inside Freedom Hall had gone down in quality for three or four years before they made the decision.

Part of the issue was that the new arena opened downtown in Louisville....but even before that the quality of concerts had dipped starting in about 2011;