Introduction
This was Victoria’s Burning Man regional Decompression event! The event included a variety show, a bar, a fire show, and a dance. The theme was based on a pajama party in space. The workshops were to be led by volunteer members of the community, and happened throughout the day.
Decor was donated from the community and created during a few craft nights at Charlotte’s house. We had a few members from Limbic Media who very kindly lent us some amazing lighting and projection equipment.
Location
We used the Victoria Event Center for the event which has also been used in the past. Amanda, owner of the space, is good to work with. Although it was hard to reach her at times, she was very accommodating and let us do our thing. She was very kind to offer us a $250 discount because the date we originally not available. We were able to have our fire show in the back in a safe location. The great thing about this venue is that it is a performance venue. It comes with its own stage, lighting, sound equipment and bar. They have their own bar staff and security that you can rent for a good price. The only downside to this venue was that we had to be out by 1am.
When finding a venue, one spot that stood out was the DaVinci Center, which would also accommodate a fire show yet stay open later. When I called a few weeks beforehand it had already been booked. Perhaps this could be an option for next years event.
Ticketing
Capacity at Victoria Event Center is 250 guests.
We sold three different kinds of tickets:
$20 – 19+ (included the entire day) – 114 presale/37 door (1 refund was given at door of a presale. Jared also refunded 2 tickets via paypal due to family emergency)
$10 – 11-18 (included day workshops and the all ages show + fire show) – 3 presale/1 door
$5 – 10 years and under – 4 presale/1 door
Tickets were slow selling online up until a few days before the event. This may have had to do with the timing of the event being shortly after Halloween, or people prefer to pay at the door.
Door sale tickets are approximations. Some individuals received group discounts later in the evening. The reasoning behind this is that due to the event being a fundraiser it made more sense to draw in the extra money than to be firm on the $20 at the late hour. The disadvantage to this technique is that it may encourage fewer people to buy full price tickets in advance if the venue is large enough that presale won’t sell out.
Although the number of children tickets is low all ages events should be encouraged both in the interest of “radical inclusion”. Not only does having an event that is (at least partially) all ages allow for those under 18 to attend it also allows their parents/guardians to attend as well. From feedback we know that parents did appreciate the all ages event.
Marketing
Ashes took the time with me (Charlotte) to set up a marketing campaign schedule but it was not actually used. Most communication was done by myself (Charlotte), and event leads over Facebook. It was marketed on the event page, Kindle Arts website and Facebook page, and Victoria’s, Vancouver’s, and Seattle’s Facebook page.
Setup & Teardown
Setup started at 9am in the morning. We had many volunteers contribute some of their time and by the time the doors opened the space looked great. We were a little behind on the decorating but we were able to work on areas of the room while other workshops were going on in other areas.
Limbic Media was there to help us setup the lights and tear down the following day. Doors opened at 1pm and closed at 1am. The following day we also had volunteers to help tear down the space. By 4pm we were out of the space. The only problem we had with tear down was a problem in the bathroom. Someone had spilled hair dye all over the tiles and it took a lot of bleach and scrubbing to get it out.
Since the space was not booked we could have gone in early if we had wanted to decorate but I (Charlotte) didn’t think it was necessary. However, the event space was booked later in the day of cleanup. The people filming a commercial were kind enough to not rush us in our cleanup.
Gate & Greeters
Blair had a total of 22 volunteers sign up for shifts and there were no issues with maintaining presence at the door! Although some individuals were late all greeters were more than accommodating to ensure that the door was not left unattended. All shifts were 1 hour long with two people on at all times. The shifts were staggered so that no two people were changing shift at the same time; a great idea that kept the gate well-organized.
Use of GoogleDocs to allow for individuals to book their own shifts worked well.
The Gate was closed early (approx. midnight) due to drop-off in ticket sales.
The Gate Lead should be prepared to provide a small float or seek float from Kindle.
Art
There were no Art Grants issued for PJ Planet.
Scott Amos brought an interactive LED light wall.
Nathan Sorochan and Trina Koscielnuk brought LED painting.
Music
We had five (5) DJ’s throughout the evening that played a variety of different types of music. I feel this helped bring in a more diverse (and new) crowd and we had lots of positive feedback on the different genres.
Performances
All performances went well and there a great variety! We split up the variety show into two parts, with one being all ages and one 19+. The intermission was a fire show. After the fire show only 19+ were allowed back into the building. I (Charlotte) thought this was a good way to separate the crowd and have the all age group feel like they weren’t left out of the shows. It also gave the burlesque performers an opportunity to perform by not making the whole show strictly all ages. There were 8 different variety performances in total.
Dee did a great job of gathering volunteers for the event. Here is her wrap up response:
“For me at least, being a performance lead went pretty smoothly. I appreciated that I was able to do everything online despite having a busy schedule.
Everything was organized, on time etc.
My major suggestion for planning kindle events though would be to work on creating a guide to planning a kindle event that is step by step.
Also, at least for me I see people who consistently take on leadership to help Kindle make money, but at times I don’t really feel appreciated which makes me hesitant to keep volunteering.”
Fire Performances
The fire performance went off without any problems and all of the safety precautions were followed by a good team of volunteers. There were a total of seven (7) performances and included poi, staff, and hoop. The Victoria Event Center was a great place to hold a fire performance. The stairwell provided a great place for viewing and the outdoor brick buildings were the perfect backdrop.
Allan was the fire lead. Here is his post event wrap up:
“The fire show went approximately on time with a few no shows, and a few last minute add-ons. We used almost 2 cans of Coleman’s white gas. Hiltz’s Dragon’s Breath flame poofer added a great deal of excitement (and warmth) to the surroundings as well. The Hotel Realto was quite gracious affording us their parking area for the performance. The Staff and manager at the VEC were great for providing storage space for the fire show equipment before and after the event. There was no visit from the VPD nor VFD, however, having the entry gate closed and locked may have helped. Thank you to the event coordinators and participants for all the effort and organization required to make this event a success. Allan (aka Bent Forks)
Volunteer Coordination
Team leads were responsible for putting together a team and keeping track of their team. According to the leads all volunteers showed up for the assigned show, job, etc. The only problem I (Charlotte) had, taking on the role of ‘decorating lead’ was trying to get volunteers together for craft nights. After scheduling a few craft nights and having people sign up and not show up, I took a lot of the decorating on myself. In the future I would not advise event coordinators to take on lead roles and try to run the event itself, especially decorating.
The event was split into nine teams of action:
- Performance (Sweet Dee Anne)
- Fire Performance (Ben T Forkx)
- Greeters (Blair Wilkinson)
- Rangers (Hiltz Tanner)
- Decoration (Charlotte Wood)
- DJ (Matty Solomon)
- Workshops (Ylana Doreen)
- Event Leaders (Charlotte Wood)
All team leaders worked together very well and provided support and feedback to one another.
This was a learning curve for myself (Charlotte) to organize an event of this capacity and nature. It helped a lot choosing a venue that had lots to offer and I would strongly recommend going with a venue that can do so if the event lead is not experienced in event planning. This took a lot of stress off myself and those involved. Being able to work with a team that was knowledgeable on past KindleArts event helped a lot.
Over all I (Charlotte) believe this event to be a success and received lots of positive feedback during and after the event. The Victoria Event Center was very happy with our business and apparently always loves to work with us. They appreciate the precautions we go to to ensure the safety of our community and the venue.