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Private showcases offer individuals and organizations the opportunity to present artists to talent buyers, agents, managers, and media people. Whether you are an individual artist, a record label, a talent agency or a songwriters collective, sponsoring a showcase allows your performers to present their best material to the movers and shakers of the folk world in an intimate setting.
Presenting a Privately Sponsored Showcase
Time
Qualifications
Publicizing your showcase
Sound and Instrumentation Issues
Food and Drink
Performing in a Privately Sponsored Showcase
To perform in a Privately Sponsored Showcase, you must be a member of Folk Alliance. Full conference registration is highly encouraged so that the performing artists can take advantage of the workshops, showcases, and Exhibit Hall at the conference. For opportunities to perform, or share showcase space, you may post messages on the Folk Alliance members discussion list. Visit our website at www.folk.org for information on joining this list.
Registering your Privately Sponsored Showcase
Registering your showcase is voluntary; however, it provides some great advantages. Your showcase will be listed in our Program Book, with the time, date, location (hotel room numbers will not be known until check-in), performers, and sponsor. It will be listed in the web-based spreadsheet and in any versions printed out at the conference. In addition, registration allows you to post announcements at reserved bulletin boards and tables in the hotel.
To register your showcase fill out the Private Showcase Registration form available
from the office or in the September conference mailing and submit it with a
non-refundable US$50/CD$70 fee to be received in the office by December 1.
You may also register online .
Privately Sponsored Showcases can take place in hotel meeting rooms, in sleeping rooms, or in suites.
Meeting Rooms
There may be a limited number of meeting rooms available for Privately Sponsored Showcases on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. Use of these rooms will be decided through a lottery. To enter the lottery, simply contact the Folk Alliance office by 5 pm EST by Monday, November 3rd, and give us your name, phone number, fax number, and email address, as well as information on the showcase you plan. You may either call or email the office. There is no automatic entry into the lottery. You must contact the office specifically to be entered.
If your name is drawn, you must register for the conference, and return the contract we will provide plus the room fee of a non-refundable US$400/CDN$550 within two weeks, or your room will be given to someone on the waiting list. If your name is drawn and you do not wish to keep your lottery room, Folk Alliance will assign it to the next person on the waiting list. You do not have the option of passing the room contract on to someone else.
These rooms are available only for registered, sanctioned showcases (see below).
Hotel Sleeping Rooms
Certain blocks of rooms at the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center will be designated as Music rooms: these are the 3500 block of rooms, the 3400 block of rooms and the first two floors of the Royal Palm Tower (more rooms may be added later depending on the need). These are the only rooms in which showcases may be presented. You must tell the hotel reservation agent that you want to be in a Music room when you arrange your hotel room. These are regular hotel rooms. There are absolutely no drum kits or sound systems allowed in Music sleeping rooms. The Town and Country Resort and Convention Center will not allow furniture to be removed from guestrooms or suites. Please be aware that some second floor Garden, Courtyard and Deluxe bungalow rooms do not have elevator access.
Hotel Suites
Suites on music floors will be assigned by the Folk Alliance office in early fall. Suites must be booked for all three nights, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights (February 26, 27, and 28). Contact the office to get on the waiting list.
Flyers and Posters
Flyers and posters must not be larger than 8.5"x11". Flyers and posters for unregistered showcases will be removed (flyers and posters outside of designated areas will always be removed). All artists appearing in Private Showcases must be members of Folk Alliance or the flyers will be removed.
CONDITIONS for a sanctioned, registered showcase listed in the Program Book:
(Privately Sponsored Showcases may not conflict with Folk Alliance plenary events including the Thursday luncheon, the Folk Alliance Showcases on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 7:30 pm -10:30 pm, and the Saturday afternoon Membership meeting)
Afternoon: Absolutely no showcases may start before 2:30 pm on any day of the conference.
Evening: They may not take place between 7:30 pm and 10:30 pm on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday.
The person registering the showcase must be registered for all four days of the conference. Each person appearing in the showcase must be a Folk Alliance member and should be registered for the conference. Supporting the conference ensures that these annual meetings will continue, offering you the opportunity to showcase for the continent's largest gathering of folk music and dance presenters.
Publicizing private showcases is an important part of showcase planning, but it needs to be done with consideration. Because we do care for our environment, please take note of the following:
All flyers announcing showcases MUST be placed on the Folk Alliance bulletin boards and designated tables ONLY. There will be bulletin boards in high-traffic areas around the property. Flyers on any other surface will be removed by Folk Alliance and hotel staff. If Folk Alliance is charged by the hotel for these postings, you will be billed.
Showcase hosts might also consider advertising in the conference program book, referred to by attendees throughout the conference. For more information on advertising, see page 9. The deadline for advertising in the Program Book is December 1.
Finding performers or performance opportunities.
Showcases in hotel sleeping rooms and suites MAY NOT use sound systems or drums because of sound-bleed problems.
Sound amplification can be used only in some of the meeting rooms and only by permission from the Folk Alliance office. If you are in an area approved for sound system use, you agree to abide by the arbitration of Folk Alliance conference staff regarding the volume. In the event of conflict/complaints, performers appearing in areas approved for sound system use will be bound by the decisions of Folk Alliance conference staff regarding volume.
Folk Alliance is investigating sound system packages for those who are showcasing in meeting rooms. There is a charge in addition to meeting room rental for this service.
Due to serious problems with sound bleed in the past, drum kit use in meeting rooms will be strictly limited. Drum kit use must be approved in advance by the Folk Alliance office. There are absolutely no drum kits or sound systems allowed in Music sleeping rooms or suites. NO EXCEPTIONS
Due to licensing requirements, all food and drink must be supplied by the Town and Country Resort and Convention Center and is subject to a service charge and state tax.
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