They are a young band. They have a Web site and a mailing list and a few starry-eyed fantasies, like the one in which the A&R guy comes to their best gig, stands in the back, with a low-slung hat maybe, smoke curling from his silhouette. You know: the discovery. So when this band--we'll call them Band A--noticed the ad for a huge upcoming festival, they sent in their demo and their $25 application fee, along with a thousand other local bands who saw the ad on Web sites and at rehearsal spaces. With 400 of those applicants, Band A received the following news: Congratulations, and welcome to the first-ever Dallas Music Festival.
The first-ever Dallas Music Festival includes performances by, clockwise from top left, Tomorrows Rescue, Jibe, The Feds and Starlight Mints.
Details
The Dallas Music Festival takes place Thursday through Sunday, 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., at various venues. Passes are $15. At noon on Saturday two panels ("Agents and Talent Buyers" and "Record Label Executives") will take place in the Gypsy Ballroom. Panel tickets are $40. For schedule info, see
www.dallasmusicfest.com or call 214-432-4595.
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The Dallas Music Festival--"the biggest music festival Dallas has EVER SEEN!!!" read a recent e-mail--kicks off Thursday. Four days, 400 bands, 20 venues. For the price of $15, festivalgoers can take in everything from upstarts to buzz acts like The Mermaid Purse and Jibe to nationals like Starlight Mints and Edwin McCain. Each band gets a robust 40-minute set. The festival has flown in suits from Maverick and Interscope and Columbia for two Saturday panels in the hope that one of the bigs might see some hot local talent and whip out the checkbook. In many ways, the Dallas Music Festival is something to be excited about--a celebration of the talent bristling downtown and a city that has spawned more marquee acts than dear old Austin for some time now.
Yet, Band A dropped out of the festival.
"From the viewpoint of the people running this festival, this is a way they can assure they make money," says the lead singer, who asked to remain anonymous for fear that speaking out against the DMF would hurt his chances with future club bookings. "As a band, this is not the way we want to make music."
The problem came when Band A met with a festival organizer at the fest's Deep Ellum office. "We're doing things a little differently with this festival," they were told. Unlike most festivals, bands at the DMF were asked to sell their own tickets, which would in turn determine their booking. Sell 60 tickets, and Band A would be rocking out at Club Clearview with a headliner (who, for obvious reasons, did not have to sell their own tickets). Fewer than that? It's Elm Street Bar for you, my friends. For every ticket sold, the band kept $5. Each ticket cost $15.
"Fifteen bucks!" gawks the guitarist, who also asked to remain anonymous. "It's hard enough getting people to pay a $5 or $6 cover."
Bands that sold the most tickets would be put in a "special showcase" prior to the industry reps panel on Saturday afternoon. So it would be a really, really good idea to sell 60 tickets. Got it? Good.
"It reminded me of being in German club in high school and selling Gummi bears," says the lead singer.
"I went into that meeting really pumped up," says the guitarist, "and I left wanting to throw those tickets in the trash."
Upon first whiff, the approach is a little fishy. After all, the notion of taking advantage of musicians is as old as rock and roll itself. And who could be more vulnerable than young local bands?
"Trust me, when I first heard it, I didn't like it either," says fest publicist Sabrina Gunaca. Founder of the slim local glossy National Noise, Gunaca is a rabid local-music enthusiast who has worked for the past four months out of the fest office in Deep Ellum. "But it serves two purposes. It makes [the bands] money, so they're not playing for free. Also, it shows us where we need to put the band. I racked my brain trying to think of a more fair system. We have 400 bands. Can someone else come up with a better plan?"
Most festivals use a committee to book shows according to talent or reputation, but Gunaca sees that approach as equally flawed. "I know this is not what people are used to, but if you sit down and you think about it: What is the fair way? I don't think it's fair for a group of six people who are putting on a festival to decide what their favorite bands are and those are the bands who get the good time slots. That's not fair."
Scott Beggs, who books shows for the Entertainment Collaborative, has no problem with it. "Unfortunately, a lot of artists think that all they have to do is show up to the gig," says Beggs, who also helped book the festival. "I think it'll wake up a lot of bands who don't realize how much self-promotion is required to make it."
"Self-promotion? You don't need to tell us about self-promotion," says Band A's lead singer. "We played over 40 shows last year. We spent all our spare time trying to get exposure. The idea that because you didn't sell tickets, you're playing some small bar ..."
"That's insulting," says the guitarist. "Rich kids from Plano are going to be headlining the club."
On his cell phone, promoter John Michalak defends his festival's approach. "We don't force bands to sell tickets," Michalak says. "We do reward bands who do with better time slots."
