NEW YORK LOOPFEST: potential staging considerations

["Rick Walker \(loop.pool\)" <GLOBAL@cruzio.com>]

Here is some completely gratuituous advice (and, as such , may be
completeley disregarded as so much 'bad boundary words of wisdom' ;-)
for the upcoming New York Looping Festival.

In the looping festivals that we have had out here in Northern California
(almost a dozen of them so far, with attendance of 500 people at the most
popular ones) we have had everyone set up simultaneously, with stereo feeds
from their rigs going to a central p.a.   We set up two hours before the
show and everyone is assured of 10 minutes of uninterrupted sound checks 
(no
one else on the stage with RIGID enforcement of the time curfew).  Everyone
then brings headphones for the first hour and checks under phones, then the
soundchecks.

I have found that more loopers with a shorter set time (twenty minutes max)
and then one or two 'headliners', each with a 40 minute set makes for a
really, really smooth running and excellently recieved show. Because of
pre set up, there are no 'set changes' so the show runs very smoothly in a
festival styled atmosphere.  5 to 7 loopers makes for a good running time,
total.

You"ll need:

1) one stage manager (who should be willing to be very firm about getting
people on an off-----we're musicians, aren't we?),

2)One M.C. (who should be a different person although we never had that
luxury out here ;-)

3)One p.a. person

These are my two cents if they are helpful.  Anyone who ends up with these
assignments should feel free to e-mail me offlist should they need any
advice (or just if they want to kvetch, which is sometimes helpful).

yours, Rick Walker (loop.pool)