This is an amalgamation of advice, information and experience from lots of people in different areas.
Firstly, funding:
Brighton & Hove council provide an online resource for funding sources
and advice, including links to funding sites -
http://www.community.brighton.co.uk/funding/
, so you might find your own council has something similar.
Businesses will make charitable donations as well as provide sponsorship. Be clear what you are looking for - if you are approaching as a charitable cause be clear on the benefits of your proposal. If you are asking for sponsorship you are selling a publicity opportunity to them - be clear on the benefits to them and the amount of publicity and exposure they get. Arts & Business say anything under £500 is a charitable donation, but will themselves provide matching funds. Sponsors don't want to know what you spend their money on.
Local businesses may contribute small amounts if you have regular dealings with them. Sponsorship in kind and product placement are also worth asking about.
RAB's are there to support the arts and this means creativity. The key words are Contemporary Practice and Cultural Diversity. They will not support something that is clearly heritage or the preservation of tradition. However, it is important to remember that Folk is contemporary and inclusive in that it is performed within the community, goes to great lengths to be accessible (being performed often for free and in public spaces) and is constantly evolving.
The South and South East are the two poorest RAB's. Note also that the
South, South East and South West regions are being
reorganised into two regions. Consequently contacts and addresses for
South East Arts may change rapidly over the coming months. If you are doing
this in this area it's worth talking with SEFAN before approaching SE Arts
to find out the state of play. You can do that through Anthony John Allen
at brokenankles@btinternet.com.
This information comes from Trevor Mason, our (South East and Southern
Arts) Music Officer.
While you're working out how to get some money up front you'll need to work out how much to charge. Current rates are about £6 - £8 and you may want to consider concessions or preferential (money-up-front) membership. This will depend on how many people you have working with you to administer this. I think Lawrence at Godalming had people coming in tonight on advance tickets and buying next month's on the door.
You'll need to have about £1000 for each ceilidh: £400 - £600 for the band when you add their expenses to their fees; the caller may not be included in that. You may need up to £300* for the hall because you need it from around 6 - 7 pm for the band to set up (the Committee Band and Tickled Pink, for example, will probably want to get in a couple of hours beforehand); the gig will finish anytime after 11 then you'll need an hour to crash the gear; all in all you might be paying for up to 7 hours or part thereof and it'll cost more after midnight. Think of the poor old caretaker on the minimum wage who has to clear up after you! Some halls charge by the evening, others by the hour or quarter-hour after midnight.
* This works out at about £42 per hour for 7 hours which may include the bar staff, duty or security manager, hall insurance, etc.
When you start up you may be in competition for the hall's availability with other more established events and until you can prove your economic worth you may have to take whatever date is free. This means you need to check with other organisers, sometimes those quite far away, so you don't clash. At the Meltdown Ceilidhs in Haywards Heath we don't want to clash with Oxfolk, Godalming or the Megabops. Check out a map some time to see the distances involved in that and do the equivalent for your area with the help of the most excellent Webfeet. People may travel up to about an hour and a half for a good ceilidh (me, I'd go a lot further to see a new band, but hey). If you've been running them for 25 years you can afford to say they're on the 3rd Friday of each month, but otherwise you'll need to put some thought into advertising them in a particular way until they get into the heads and diaries of your customers.
Advertising: I like Gordon's comment of, "Advertise, advertise, advertise, and in between times, advertise". I spent most of last year sticking flyers to the walls of every toilet in every festival and ceilidh I went to, as well as e-mail lists. People hate spam so I went through my address book and picked out those I thought would be interested and only two people out of the dozens I wrote to said they wouldn't be interested in hearing about any more.
You also need to target your advertising: who will be coming? Local papers; colleges; schools; local shops are often very helpful and cheap; burger bars where people might go after the dance - Haywards Heath gets leafletted to within an inch of its life by Penny Allen and John Bacon - folk mags, folk diaries, local folk networks. Morris sides, dance clubs; send info to all the bands and callers you want to book; agents; the hall's own publicity machine and keep your own mailing list. The best advert is, of course, word of mouth. But you don't get that until everyone knows about it!
Paying the band: when you start up everyone will very kindly offer to do you a booking for a reduced price. You may want to take advantage of this but you'll get a distorted view of how much it actually costs to run these things.
Some people really worry about hospitality. Bands' requirements are
terribly simple: They want good directions and a clear way to the stage
door entrance; to be able to get in in time to set up and soundcheck properly;
have loads of enthusiastic people to play for; a caller who'll show them
off to their best advantage and some help at the end of the gig to carry
out the heavy stuff to the van. A round of drinks would be nice but if
you can't afford much hostility money match it with being
prepared to go to the bar and don't forget your door people!
And if they need to stay overnight most people, if given warning, are happy
with spare beds, settees, mattresses and sleeping bags, with someone who's
been to the gig - that's you - to join them in an apres-gig chill-out afterwards.
Sleep? It's just so over-rated!
In matching callers to bands you may want to ask each band if they have a wish-list and pick someone from there, or you may have just a few (or even one) callers who works the venue. You may need to be fairly well established - maybe five years or so - before your customers will come along to see a new name. If you're going to do this, which I think is an absolute necessity, indeed an obligation, you'll have to marry new names with established ones carefully and check with each party that they're okay with it. Some bands and callers work very differently. I always try to see a band I'm going to work with beforehand, get their repertoire, learn their stuff backwards and do the tunes *they* want to do in the order they think is best, but other people seem to do it by magic - Mick Brooks is one.
Finally, if it doesn't work, you're losing money and not enjoying it
any more, don't be afraid to stop it. Some series dry up for
reasons completely beyond your control - a new by-pass, the hall changing
hands and becoming a restaurant, another one starting in a place that's
easier to get to.
Fee x