GIG #3 – M7 Street Fair, Central Phoenix, 11am-3pm, 03/06/10
Most Fairs have music whether they are art fairs, street fairs, or fairs in the park. The organizers of a fair contract certain groups to play on stages throughout the fair to provide a fun, energetic atmosphere. Also, certain booths will play music (live or off an ipod) to attract passersby. Music in these atmospheres is a necessity. Walking along, booth after booth gets monotonous and tiresome. Walking past booths or stages with music provides a release and shows the senses something different.
A contact we made through the networking event introduced us to some people who had a booth in the M7 Street Fair. They had a business along the route and were already looking for music to put in front to attract people. They had an open hour and told us to come by.
We set up on a sidewalk and just started playing. We definitely attracted attention and we drew people from the main drag down the side street to the business. Also, we got a lot of smiles. It is amazing how much people enjoy live music. Walking by, they would stop turn and enjoy the sounds for a few minutes. Occasionally people would even start to dance or bob their heads in time with the music.
When our hour was up, we had heard there was a car show at the end of the street and none of the music sounds carried that far down. We grabbed our equipment and started walking down the street fair. We passed a music stage with a band playing a Caribbean style song that quite a few people had stopped to enjoy. After that we passed kids games and booths and the music started to fade. By the time we got to the car show portion of the street fair, the air was dead- the only sound was a car starting up to rev it’s engine once an hour. We set up the music just in front and between two cars after telling the owners we were bringing them some music. As soon as we started to play, we saw everyone’s head turn to look. With our name on our equipment, everyone, also, knew exactly who we were. We also set out a stool with a few business cards on it so everyone who was interested in the music could learn more.
One by one, people came up to us and took business cards, complimented our sound, told us where else we should play, thanked us for playing, and on and on. Before we knew it, we had played 4 hours that day. Every minute of it was fun, enjoyable, and got us tons of exposure.
Lesson- Play Anywhere! Play to help out friends of friends. Play for the people. Play to brighten people’s day. Play to have fun. Play to play. Also, get a battery operated system to be able to play anywhere (or play acoustic) and if you do not know where or how to convert to a battery operated system, comment back and we’ll blog about that too!
Play On!
-J.N. Oman
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