I’ve been a faithful City Stages fan for years, at least 15 or so. Most of the last 10 years, I’ve paid for my tickets and happily headed downtown for three days of music and fellowship.
I dare say I’ve spent more supporting the festival than mos…

The progressive young professional group known as Catalyst will progress without a leader.

Cherie Fields, executive director for the past 12 months, will step down Thursday. She plans to continue serving on the advisory board. Meanwhile, the organizat…

You invest in bringing big acts to City Stages on rock and pop stages, and sometimes in R&B/hip-hop, but the failure of focusing on big drawing cards to the former gospel stage is a sign that it’s not about there being great talent here. Instead it’s about putting the money where you feel it needs to be. And gospel music is one of those areas that you fail to fully endorse.

I refuse to support CityStages now…and I really hope that the Greater Birmingham community, particularly those who really love and support gospel music, will stand with me. We hope you will get the message and learn from your current consequences.

Your point was clear to me. IF the product is good then it is the responsibility of the community to support it. And I support higher prices with a MUCH stronger lineup. My issue is with the idea of adding more ancillary stuff to the festival. The bands bring in the people, not the booths. The booths create an atmosphere, but they are a secondary concern. I find it VERY unlikely adding those things will save the festival. A much more radical approach is needed.

Yes, brainstorming is a worthwhile pursuit, but it seems like adding stages or booths is just covering up the problem. It is like trying to polish a turd. No matter how shiny you get the thing it still smells awful. Address the lineup and the ticket prices first and then create the atmosphere.

Now, where I see Curtis’s ideas being more effective is within a Birmingham City Festival where music is just one part of the event. You could then significantly drop the number of stages, book three or four strong acts and fill the rest of the lineup with local and regional acts. Make the festival less about music and more about a general city celebration. Would this draw customers? I don’t know. Nevertheless, this kind of event is not part of City Stages’ scope. City Stages has always been about music. Music is what the fans want and the programming has been poor lately which has resulted in the loss of revenue.

Find me someone that said they did not go to City Stages because there weren’t enough art exhibitions. I bet it will be hard to find that guy.

It IS the ORGANIZER’S responsibility to provide a better product. If and when that better product is delivered, then it is up to us, as customers, to decide whether or not we want to support it. At that point it becomes the public’s decision whether or not they want the festival by voting with their wallet. Higher prices will hopefully dictate a stronger lineup. Otherwise, the vote will be a fairly obvious choice to make.

I apologize if I did not make that point clear in my post on the issue.

I will say that aside from the free space to non-profits that most of the things Curtis mentioned may bring people back to the festival, as many of these things were there before in its early days when the problems had not gotten so bad. Any reason to get any supporter of any of these groups to come out and see what’s going on (so long as it’s not on a free ticket) provides another opportunity to make money. Whether it works or not remains to be seen, but aren’t we just trying to brainstorm ideas anyway?

What I don’t see is how adding all the things you suggest to add will attract one more PAYING customer to the festival. I know I am not going to pay a dollar to visit booths from Birmingham area non-profits, art vendors, performance artists, etc. There are plenty of other FREE and well run events in the Birmingham area that offer these same experiences. We have the Magic City Art Connection as well as the Bluff Park Art show just to name a few.

While I understand and respect what you are trying to accomplish, your suggestion does not seem to solve the revenue problem. It does not address the fact that a large portion of the people who might come to City Stages have avoided it in recent years because of things like a weak lineup, poor stage layout, and uninspiring promotion.

I want City Stages to continue. I have great memories from past years and I have found some great new music at the festival, but as a customer I do not see a compelling reason to attend the event these days. It just isn’t worth the hassle to drive downtown, find somewhere to park, pay the admission and deal with the crowds only to be given a mediocre product.

There — I said it.

The responsibility (and the credit) lies solely with the organizers. Blaming the public for the mistakes of City Stages is wrong, plain wrong.

I know how to work hard and get things done. Does the festival know how to right itself without expecting a neverending handout?

You do get rid of the guys in charge if they are not able to keep the house in order. I have some additional opinions based on what I heard at the event that I’m getting ready to post now since the library wouldn’t recognize my Airport card.

And I buy mine too. I complain about things going on too. We (as a city – to be clear) need to look at what we can do to make the things that we want happen, instead of expecting them (insert problem here) to read our minds. Demanding the best in par for the course. (I think I’ll use that in the post too

Let’s see: I buy my tickets every year. I support the vendors and the acts. I tell my friends about the lineup. And I challenge misstatements and misleading statements from the festival organizers.

Nope, not part of the problem.

They get the benefit of the doubt when they stop being cute and start getting real. But after having witnessed the missteps for years, I think nothing short of complete overhaul of management will turn it around. What corporation hangs on to leaders who lose money by the truckload year after year?

Jennifer: Yours is a common story. People love the festival in theory, but not enough to actually go.

Dystopos: I agree with you on the no sacred cows approach. Given the uneven tactics the festival has taken with fund-raising and programming, it’s hard to see if organizers can integrate creative solutions. I’ll also voice the one solution no one else seems willing to entertain: Let the festival end with dignity, rather than bleed to death.

Emphasize three or four niches in which this festival truly can be world class – stuff that other festivals don’t do. Stuff that true believers board airplanes for. The Shape-Note thing is the right idea. I think merging the Magic City Blues Festival and the Birmingham Improv Festival into City Stages would be smart. I think the ASO should have a few performances with different performers. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to let Bottletree book a stage.

But here’s the thing, having Taylor and Snoop on the same stage was absolutely unique to Birmingham last year. Creating unique mash-ups should be a serious goal of City Stages planners. Suzy Fan might not come to Birmingham for a run-of-the-mill Indigo Girls set, but if you set up the Indigo Girls to play on stage WITH a Lucinda Williams or a k.d.lang, all of a sudden you’ve got people buzzing.

And how about this… instead of one three-day weekend a year, you do a monthly one-day festival through the summer. The BMA’s Art on the Rocks has been successful with that format. Imagine that with 20 times the number of acts, and sold by subscription as well as by day passes.

It’s evident the festival needs a shot in the arm. It’s evident to me that it’s worth making the effort. Maybe these ideas are worth considering.

These blogs are our sounding boards, but we should see how these points hold up against a large group. I will be slightly late to the event this evening due to an unforeseen appt., but I’ll be interested in hearing what people have to ask, and what they have as an answer.