Attendance Down All Over

I got a call this morning from a friend who encouraged a local venue to bring a performer in for a concert this coming weekend.  He asked for help in promoting the event because he was embarrased that ticket sales were so slow.  The performer is well know and normally draws a crowd so he questioned what went wrong. 

Let's roll back to last weekend and talk about a conference I attened.  It was the Performing Arts Manager's Conference and the single subject on everybody's mind was the down turn in ticket sales across the board

It's a fact; we are in a recession and people are watching their pennies.  Gas prices are up. 

If we are going to continue to have quality acts available we need to find a way to bring attendance numbers up.  I would like your input.  Are shows just too expenseive?  What is keeping you from going to shows?

Comments

[PattyLynn]

This last March was the first time in 20 years I did not attend an Arlo Guthrie concert in the Valley. At $65.00 a ticket(NOT reserved seating!), it was just too much. And I haven't been to a Jimmy Buffet concert in years(can't even write those prices, I'll have a stroke). Between the economy and concert ticket prices out of the stratosphere, I am done with concerts. Too bad pub owners are too cheap to pay musicians decent wages, I'd rather go there to listen to music now since they finally outlawed smoking;o)

[Robert Zucker]

Ticket prices for major artists are out of hand. I work with a number of acts as manager and booking agent and I insist on a simple policy for all my acts; everyone should be able to afford to go see your act. Some performers just don't get it; or is it their managers and record companies?