FRFF2009- a response to Anne and support for FRFF

[maedbh7]

Early Sunday I was contemplating having a houseparty in January "A Taste of the Ridge"....serve Jamaican sorrel, good coffee, chicken satay, and vegetarian portobello wraps, with some peanut butter balls for desert. Decorate the place in tarp, tent, airmattress, and wooden signs on the doors of the rooms telling you the water is safe to drink and where the privvies are. Maybe invite some musician friends; certainly have the CD player acting as 'mainstage' with all the CDs I bought this year.

Now, post-storm, I'm thinking *definately* do this, and have a donation jar at the door. If you liked the party, put money in the jar. All proceeds go to Falcon Ridge.

So...Houseparty Donation Jar. Anyone could do this anywhere. And if 20 of us have houseparties, we could make a goodly dent in the FRFF deficit. My.02

(And also, first time attendee, first time posting, I had a blast, I got pelted with hail, and I'll be back in 2009.)

[Fantine729]

We would love the T-shirts, too. We planned on buying little baby T-shirts at the merch tent for our 14-month-olds, who survived the storm and thought it a grand adventure, but, alas, we waited until Sunday to do so and never got the chance. "I survived..." T-shirts would be even better!! We'd buy two 12-month-sized shirts and 2 adult shirts, at least (we may want larger kids shirts that they can wear in later years too).

[moonshimmer]

I'm totally in for a t-shirt, and I also think individuals holding "Falcon Ridge in December/January" parties (along the lines of "Christmas in July") is a clever idea, with a donation jar for the festival.

The Budgiedome will make some sort of financial contribution directly - not sure of the amount yet as I have to talk to the other principals and figure out what we can do as well as what is really needed. But without FRFF there never would have been a Budgiedome, and Steve and I certainly feel it's appropriate to support the festival in its time of need.

[TyteFystedFolkie]

[quote="betsys"]I'm wondering what the economics of FRFF are. As far as I know it's a for-profit operation and it feels a little funny asking people to donate and do benefits without knowing how the money flows. I assume it normally brings in enough to support the director and pay all the myriads of people who need to be paid for time and equipment and space and such. Is it usually profitable? Does it make sense for it to run as a for-profit vs a non-profit?

(I know it's a HUGE amount of work and I am very appreciative of that, don't get me wrong! I am sure it is a labor of love!)

Of course since it *is* a private operation nobody has to reveal any numbers but it might make it easier to raise money.

We could probably pay a bit more for tickets myself, but not too much more, especially with food prices high (I've heard that we've lost vendors because the FF cut is high, but I don't know any numbers). I would suppose that the bad weather and high gas prices cut into the revenue this year even before the storm wiped out Sunday afternoon.

We'd definitely come to any sort of benefit in the Greater Boston area and buy t-shirts or CD's or whatever, and we're holding on to our spare bucks for next year.

PS we might also pay more to camp a day earlier, if that's an option.[/quote]


Gee!! Early-on I brought up the subject of ATTENDANCE figures (Let alone, ECONOMICS!!), and was (discourteously) told by Arnie (MedTent) that it was none of my bidness.

[TyteFystedFolkie]

How about 'hitting up' the guy with the quad for a donation?? It looked as though he was making a killing dislodging folks' vehicles from the mud. Was he a patron, or did he just show up?? If the latter, was he charged admission??

[jcnork]

Hello -
I have been reading about the financial crisis for Falcon Ridge and see the PayPal donation link on the website. I can't find any information on the cause of the crisis. Is it because of the storm on Sunday? Was there equipment damaged? Walk-up attendance down? No event insurance? Was there some other reason for the crisis? Is this the first year the festival has had financial trouble?

I have also seen some postings questioning whether this will be the last year for the Festival. We have been going to Falcon Ridge since 1994 and it is our main family vacation every year. I really hope the Festival continues to happen! We love Falcon Ridge and look forward to going all year long!

I hope to learn more about the financial problems and how they can be remedied. Maybe if the situation is explained in more detail, it will help people understand and aid in raising more money in donations and other fund raising efforts.

Jack

[TyteFystedFolkie]

[quote="jcnork"]Hello -
I have been reading about the financial crisis for Falcon Ridge and see the PayPal donation link on the website. I can't find any information on the cause of the crisis. Is it because of the storm on Sunday? Was there equipment damaged? Walk-up attendance down? No event insurance? Was there some other reason for the crisis? Is this the first year the festival has had financial trouble?

I have also seen some postings questioning whether this will be the last year for the Festival. We have been going to Falcon Ridge since 1994 and it is our main family vacation every year. I really hope the Festival continues to happen! We love Falcon Ridge and look forward to going all year long!

I hope to learn more about the financial problems and that they can be remedied. Maybe if the situation is explained in more detail, it will help people understand and aid in raising more money in donations and other fund raising efforts.

Jack[/quote]

My guess is that 'walk-in' attendance as nil.

[frogaret]

Although I would purchase a new T-shirt as a survivior of 08, I have to let you know that I dug through my laundry and already changed the 94 survivor shirt that I wear every opening day of festivel with my sharpie. Anyone else going for 3?

[FyreGoddess]

We planned on buying little baby T-shirts at the merch tent for our 14-month-olds, who survived the storm and thought it a grand adventure, but, alas, we waited until Sunday to do so and never got the chance.

Just a tip... never wait until Sunday to buy Festival shirts in:

Small, XL or larger, tie-die, specific colors, kids/baby sizes.

We always have limited numbers and on Sunday are down to the last of it. Thursday afternoon/Friday morning is your best bet.

[photomonk]

Yeah, there is only one year in which I attended that I do not have a FR shirt because I waited too long. Now I try to get it on the first day that the shirt tent is open. I think this year I got the last XL baseball shirt with black sleeves.

[Amber]

...
I hope to learn more about the financial problems and how they can be remedied. Maybe if the situation is explained in more detail, it will help people understand and aid in raising more money in donations and other fund raising efforts.
...

Up among the "stickies" and and "announcements" at the top of the "FRFF Talk" forum is an announcement from Anne, subject "Tornado Donation Fund is on website" in which she says, in part

]... I will respond as soon as I can to the economics issues asked about by BetsyS in the FRFF 2009 topic in FRFF Talk...

So the concerns raised by jcnork and others are not being ignored; the staff is simply too overwhelmed with work to write about it yet.

For the benefit of anyone who doesn't have time to read the whole forum from top to bottom, the message from BetsyS is here.. (It's on the first page of this topic, about halfway down.)

[Fantine729]

Just a tip... never wait until Sunday to buy Festival shirts in:

Small, XL or larger, tie-die, specific colors, kids/baby sizes.

We always have limited numbers and on Sunday are down to the last of it. Thursday afternoon/Friday morning is your best bet.

Thanks for the tip. We knew it was a risk, but with two 14-month-olds, it was all but impossible to be anywhere not in front of a stage for more than a couple of minutes and the last thing we wanted to do was subject the buying populace to their crankiness/squirminess/exploration of the upper registers of their vocal ranges.

Also, it seemed that everytime we thought about it and thought we might have a window of opportunity (at night when they were asleep at the main stage), the wallet was up in the car out in 15 acres. After the 21st trip of the day, sometimes you just say "ah, screw it".

We wouldn't have held it against anyone if you were out; I understand how it works! We weren't all that picky about sizes...if we needed to get a larger size, that would have been fine, too. They seem to still be growing....

[TyteFystedFolkie]

Will it be necessary to provide documentation that one did, indeed, survive the 2008 festival in order to purchase and don said shirt(s)??

[TyteFystedFolkie]

Will it be necessary to provide documentation that one did, indeed, survive the 2008 festival in order to purchase and don said shirt(s)??

[john r]

<<Will it be necessary to provide documentation that one did, indeed, survive the 2008 festival in order to purchase and don said shirt(s)??>>

who cares? if someone wants to buy one, with proceeds going to help the festival, why not? i mean, is this an exclusive club with privileges? geez.