Greetings Seaprog supporters,
The Central Committee has emerged from its post-festival swoon and would like to end the suspense: Yes, Virginia, there will be a Seaprog 2016!
We want to make the workings of Seaprog as transparent as possible to our audience, and to involve you in helping us shape a more sustainable future for this vital event, so please read on.
We couldn’t have been more pleased with the quality of this year’s truly spectacular musical performances, and with the community spirit embodied by all festival attendees. Attendance was up over the previous two editions, and there was a tangible feeling of gathering momentum. However, festival income still hasn’t crossed the threshold of what’s necessary to make the event truly sustainable, so we’re seeking your input on constructive solutions to strengthening the festival’s financial well-being and boosting its profile. With a few sensible adjustments, we hope to put Seaprog on a solid footing for years to come.
Until now we’ve financed Seaprog on a quixotically altruistic out-of-pocket basis, but sober reflection has led us to conclude that operating a festival at a personal loss simply isn’t sustainable in the long run. Building greater attendance is the obvious solution, but the catch-22 is that we need more prominent headline artists in order to achieve that, and artists with that level of recognition are currently beyond our means. Therefore we’d like to explore other strategies for building up the festival’s coffers. Crowdfunding is an admirable idea, but our experience is that it is not a practical way to meet operating expenses — at best, we see it as potentially helping us with a focused project related to the festival. A benefit concert is in the works for January, featuring some of our more illustrious local Seaprog alumni (details forthcoming soon). But at this point the most sensible solution seems to be to seek out assistance from local arts funding organizations. We have some ideas in that regard that we’ll be following up on, but we’d be extremely grateful for any suggestions or introductions that Seaprog enthusiasts might be able to offer — we’re all ears (survey forthcoming shortly).
On a related note, it’s been suggested that midsummer might not be the ideal time of year to hold a festival like Seaprog, due to vacation absences, benign weather, and a plethora of competing events. For that reason we’d like to take a straw poll among our audience to see what you think the optimal time of year would be to hold Seaprog. Look for a survey to be posted soon; your feedback will help us determine the optimal time of year to stage the festival.
Finally, we must admit that we’re finding ourselves locked in the perennial struggle over the “P word” (prog), as divisive a term as has ever afflicted a musical genre. By now, Seaprog supporters and detractors alike have noted that our bookings extend far beyond what is typically considered “prog” in orthodox progressive-rock circles. That’s just fine with us, as we’re all about ignoring artificial boundaries and exposing listeners to music outside their sphere of familiarity, but it does raise questions as to whether we’re doing our artists a disservice by saddling them with the P word, and whether the term has scared off significant numbers of potential audience members who we’re certain would love the music we’re presenting if they could just overcome their resistance fed by stereotypes. Consequently we’re contemplating a name change but would like to hear your input before taking such a plunge.
Heartfelt thanks for your support to date. Please keep a lookout for the follow-up survey — your comments and suggestions are most welcome!
— Dennis, John, and Jon
The Seaprog Central Committee