Booking Venues in Regional NSW
Road sign on the way to Emerald Hill Hall promoting Music in the Regions Blanch & Granger tour stop.
Music in the Regions has a mission to bring professional classical music across the state of New South Wales. The most important tool we have, after the artists, is our network of community partners who help us to make concerts successful no matter where they are. A committed and passionate partner- whether volunteer, civic group, or small business- is far more important to us than the fanciest bricks and mortar of the venue. After all, every small town has a church or a community hall- what every small town doesn’t have is the local champion.
Our best partners are often very conscious of the audience experience. What makes this concert special? Our partners know their audience- their community- better than we could ever hope to. Finding these champions is a major part of our work at Music in the Regions. In New South Wales, we have a superb network of Regional Arts Development Offices and the Regional Music Offices from Music NSW who can help us talk to the right people. Whenever we can, we also try to meet with them in person: even in the age of online meetings, being visible in person is meaningful. For independent artists, there is no avoiding that this is an investment but with the right time and research it should be an investment that leads to great opportunity.
When considering venues, churches and community halls tend to work for us because of their construction- as a general rule, wood and stone are great for classical music while lots of fabric or carpet can make things trickier than we would like. That said, we will take a fully carpeted room if the local partner will be a strong champion for us!
Finally, running a cash bar can often seem more trouble than it's worth with inventory, RSA and portable licenses. Something we have learned in this role is that these problems can often be solved with a local solution: the footy club! We’ve had several concerts where the footy club has run the bar as a fundraiser. The other option is to avoid alcohol entirely: we have very fond memories of jelly slice in Condobolin and homemade soups in Ganmain. Our musicians nearly always want to chat with the audience after the concert, it is one of the great joys of regional touring, and providing a sociable way for this to happen is a great value-add to a concert ticket.