LRFest 2017 – Festival Recap

A Banner Year!

We continued and expanded our yearly celebration of house concerts, setting records for local and travel attendance. 2017 was also a great year for our artists, with each act having a full schedule for the week, and immediate interest for future bookings in our area.

Some Highlights:

• 500 Attendees at showcase – best of our 6 year history!
• $2300 (avg) earnings for festival acts.
• 20 house concerts
• 5 additional concerts and appearances – office concerts, radio appearances.
• 6 international attendees (mostly from France)
• 10 out of state attendees (Tennessee, Minnesota, Virginia, Texas)

Media Impact

Our festival received coverage, articles, and our artists made appearances in:

• Creative Loafing
• St. Pete Times
• WFTS Television (ABC)
• WMNF Radio
• Assorted blogs and websites.

Economic Impact for the City

Listening Room Festival contributes ever-growing revenue for the City of St. Petersburg and the Tampa Bay area.

• Room Nights 30 @ $150 = $4500 (24 room nights at host hotel)
• Additional Travel Spending (estimated) = $6000
• After-Party at SouZou, 110 attendees and pre-show dinner bump
• $500 donation to St. Pete Arts Alliance

Preparations already underway for LRFest18! (April 18-22, 2018)

• Artist applications May 15 – June 30
• Judging (done by hosts of ConcertsInYourHome.com) June 27 – July 25

photos by Donna Green, of course!

Press Release – House Concert Workshop during LRFest weekend. 4/22/17

For Immediate Release

A house concert workshop has been scheduled for April 22nd, as part of the Listening Room Festival.

The workshop is led by Fran Snyder, the founder of ConcertsInYourHome.com – the leading resource for house concerts around the world. Anyone interested in hosting house concerts is welcome to attend.

House concerts are an old tradition that has become vital to the careers of independent touring artists. With the shifting sands of technology and the music business, artists have found that the live experience is not easily duplicated (cheapened) and the intimacy of playing in close, homey quarters provides todays best opportunity to sell CDs and merchandise as well.

ConcertsInYourHome educates and inspires music fans to put on concerts in their living rooms, backyards, and other interesting locations. Some of these music fans make house concerts their hobby of choice, hosting 6-12 concerts per year for friends and invited guests.

The workshop takes place during the 6th annual Listening Room Festival – a gathering attended by house concert hosts and fans from around the world. Attendees have 20 house concerts to choose from over 5 days, and the main event is a showcase at the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg, featuring all 6 festival acts.

Workshop will include Q&A session and handouts for attendees. Topics will include building an audience, collaborating with other hosts, suggested donations, common mistakes, and some breakthrough ideas.

LRFest Meeting and House Concert Workshop.
Saturday, April 22

Staybridge Suites (meeting room)
940 5th Ave S
St. Petersburg, FL 33705

10am – 11am – breakfast and meet/greet
11am – Festival feedback
11:30am – HC workshop, Q&A based on your advance questions
1pm – wrap-up

The workshop is free for those who register in advance at this link. ($5 at the door if not registered.)

Inquiries: Fran Snyder   727-280-6208, fran at ListeningRoomNetwork.com   Press Photos

http://www.ListeningRoomFestival.com, http://www.ConcertsInYourHome.com

 

 

 

Press Release: Listening Room Festival 2017 (#LRFest17)

For Immediate Release
Florida “House Concert” Festival Connects Fans from All Over the World

The 6^th Annual Listening Room Festival invites house concert presenters, artists and fans to join in this year’s festivities. Music-lovers from around the globe are traveling to St. Petersburg, FL to enjoy the house concerts, showcase, and planned group activities from April 19-23, 2017.

Six international contest winners will play the Main Showcase (April 21) at the Palladium Theater in St. Petersburg, as well as house concerts in the surrounding region. This year’s artists are The Currys, Teneia, Mark Croft, Flagship Romance, Daniel Champagne, and Christie Lenée.

House concerts are the core of the festival. Music fans volunteer to host living room concerts, and invite friends to attend an up-close-and-personal show by a professional touring artist. Attendees are asked to make a suggested donation of $10-20 per person to the performers.

The main showcase at the Palladium Theater features all six acts and is not to be missed.  In addition, this year’s festival includes group activities and workshops to educate and inspire fans to join the growing house concert movement.

2017 Festival Schedule

Schedule is subject to change. Please register for the festival to receive updates.

Wednesday April 19

• Evening – House Concerts (Tampa, Tarpon Springs, Largo, Clearwater, Safety Harbor)

Thursday April 20

• 10:30AM – Office Concert with Mark Croft at the Greenhouse (440 2nd Avenue North, St. Petersburg.)  One-hour concert.
• Evening – House Concerts (St. Petersburg, Tampa, Brandon, Clearwater)

Friday April 21

• 7:30pm Main Showcase at Palladium Theater, featuring all 6 acts! (tickets)
• 10:30pm After-Party at SouZou – festival performers cut loose and jam. Enjoy themed cocktails named after our festival artists. This will sell out – VIP ticket holders get free entry, all others must purchase.

Saturday April 22

• 10am-1pm  House Concert Workshop and Host Meet and Greet at Staybridge Suites Free to attend if you RSVP here. $5 at the door.
• Evening – House Concerts (St. Petersburg, Seminole, Tampa, Brandon, Clearwater)

Sunday April 23

• 10:30am – Brunch for hosts, featured artists, and invited guests.
• 1pm and 4pm House Concerts
• Evening – House Concerts (St. Petersburg, Dunedin, Ft. Myers, Sarasota)

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The festival is presented by ConcertsInYourHome.com, part of The Listening Room Network.

More information and tickets are available through ListeningRoomFestival.com.

About the Listening Room Network:

Listening Room Network (LRN) creates and nurtures opportunities that pay artists to perform in a listening environment while bringing communities together with a renewed passion for live music. LRN and its signature websites (ConcertsInYourHome.com, OfficeConcerts.com) are leading innovators in the live music industry.

Contact/Press Photos: 

Fran Snyder 727-280-6208, fran@ListeningRoomNetwork.com

Website: www.ListeningRoomFestival.com

Free house concert guide: Download (PDF)

HighRes Press photos: Office Concerts, House Concerts, Fran Snyder, and Festival Finale.

Listening Room Festival 2016 Recap/Video

Our sixth festival was our biggest ever. With 50+ performances, including 3 showcase nights, dozens of house concerts and office concerts. Our goal with each festival is to attract and inspire new hosts, new fans, and create an amazing experience for our artists. We’re delighted to again accomplish all of these.

In particular, the festival is designed to create a foothold audience for each of the performing acts, so they can return yearly for a profitable and enjoyable tour of Florida. The bonus is that they actually make money and have a great time while planting these seeds.

For our hosts and fans, it’s wonderful to bring everyone together once a year. Many hosts attend to make new friendships as well as hear great music. Join us for LRF17.

http://www.ListeningRoomFestival.com

Artist Applications close May 31.

Video by Donna Green.

Are you applying to the right festivals?

For artists who want to prospect for opportunities at festivals and conferences, there’s a lot of choices out there. When deciding whether or not to apply or attend, costs are often the deciding factor.

So let’s start with the costs of applying and attending.

Festival/Conference Expenses

• Application Fee
• Showcase Fee
• Hotel/Camping Costs
• Food Costs
• Booth, Program, Printing/Marketing Costs
• Travel Costs

Artists often pay $2000 or more to perform at festivals and conferences, going into debt for a chance at getting gigs to recoup over the following years.

Other factors and criteria

A lot of preparation often goes into these trips, and much of that centers around making your act stand out among dozens, hundreds, or maybe thousands of artists. Aside from getting invited, and getting there, you have to put extreme effort to get people to notice you and/or attend your showcase performances.

Results?

Results vary greatly. Most artists have to justify the trip with the intangible benefits of a fun and exciting weekend, because the resulting gigs are too few and too small to recoup their investment.

Is there another way?

I’ve been frustrated by this model for a long time, and six years ago I created something very different. Our Listening Room Festival was designed to create a profitable tour in addition to a showcase opportunity, in front of the largest gathering of house concert presenters in the world.

Here’s how It works.

• One fee – the application.
• Bonus for all applicants – Most judges are active house concert presenters – showcase or not, you get seen by people who can book you.

Listening Room Festival Acts get:

• Bookings – at 2-4 house concerts and a powerful showcase.
• Lodging – covered by volunteer hosts, some meals included.
• Extra – free membership to ConcertsInYourHome.com * ($245 value)
• Travel – not covered, but many acts use CIYH network to book house concerts to and from the festival.

Most importantly, most of the shows require very little promotion, and this may be the only festival or conference where there are more gigs/venues than artists.

We tweak this model every year, but we’re delighted with the results and the amazing talent we’ve attracted and served. Most of them plant enough seeds in one weekend to make Florida one of their favorite states to tour every year.

Now is the time to apply for LRFest18… application deadline is June 30, 2017.

*6 month membership awarded to artists who are not members of CIYH. Acts who are already members of CIYH are awarded 3 extra months to their membership.

LRF17 – Artist Applications Open

Listening Room Festival was a great introduction into the community in St Pete and all of our hosts did a fantastic job at setting up the space and making us feel right at home. The money was great and we made lasting fans and friendships. I would recommend the Listening Room Festival to any artist who appreciates performing in front attentive, supportive audiences that appreciate the gift of good music and connection. – Rory, Quiles and Cloud

As we approach our 5th annual festival, we’ve just opened the application process for our next festival which will take place March 17 – 23rd, 2017. This festival helps artists actually make good money, playing house concerts, as they travel to play a showcase for the largest gathering of house concerts in the world. Springtime in Florida!

Another unique twist is that the contest judges are active house concert presenters, so any artist in the contest has the potential to get a booking or two even if they don’t get selected as a festival performer.

Learn more and apply at ListeningRoomFestival.com.

LRF16, the 5th Annual Listening Room Festival approaches.

Can I tell you a story?

10 years ago I saw that house concerts would save and nurture the touring careers of artists and built a website that now inspires thousands of profitable, enriching, LISTENING concerts around the world.

5 years ago I started an festival to make sure that FLORIDA would become one of the best places in America for artists to tour sustainably and be HEARD. That festival, Listening Room Festival, is coming up in a few weeks, March 28 – April 3rd.

You can support these efforts by buying two tickets to a wonderful concert, or telling your friends about the most unique folk music festival in the world. The music includes acoustic blues, classical, southern folk, and more. The fans LISTEN and pay the artists a living wage.

Buy your tickets to our showcase events and register if you’d like to be invited to a few exclusive, private concerts. Check it out. The music will inspire you.

www.ListeningRoomFestival.com

Fran Snyder, founder.