The media covered it, the critics sang its praises, and the organizers went out of their way to book quality acts. But the Equinox Music Festival, a jazz fest based in Boston, somehow never managed to sell the public on its concert series, and this week, the festival shut itself down and cancelled all remaining shows. According to the festival’s president, “The early events were extremely poorly attended, and the remaining events had extremely poor advance sales. It just came to the point where we had to pull the plug and stop hemorrhaging money. It’s most unfortunate, because we had a really phenomenal lineup.”
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Talks To Resume In Charlotte
The striking musicians of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra are set to return to the bargaining table after more than a week of stony silence. The musicians walked out earlier this month after the CSO’s board demanded that they accept a hefty pay cut to assist the orchestra in dealing with a $650,000 deficit. A federal mediator will assist in the renewed negotiations. During the strike, the musicians have been staging their own concerts in an effort to garner public support.
Isabel’s Arts Impact
“After weathering Hurricane Isabel, arts groups and entertainment promoters are wearily assessing the damage and warily looking to the future. Many had to cancel or reschedule performances when concert halls were damaged and electricity and phones went out. The downed phone lines also temporarily halted subscription and single ticket sales that are crucial to arts groups’ financial health at this time of year.” In addition to physical damage, arts groups in the affected area are having to cope with an audience base made up of storm survivors for whom an evening out is the last thing currently on their minds.
Cheap Tix To Become An Annual Event In London
The UK’s National Theatre has announced that it will continue a ticket-sales promotion, launched this past summer, under which all seats to certain performances were reduced to £10. The price slash resulted in full houses throughout the summer for the National, and garnered a fair amount of media interest, as well. The theatre says that it plans to run the promotion again next summer, although ticket prices have returned to normal levels for the main season.
PBS Blues Series Pays Musicians On The Cheap
A new PBS series honoring the Blues paid musicians whose music was used in the series a fraction of the going commercial rate. “I think the musicians deserve much more than we paid, said one executive who worked on the series, speaking on condition of anonymity. On the other hand, he added, the series could not have been completed if the fees had been higher.”
What Happened To The BBC?
“Even people who love the BBC worry that its status as Britain’s most enduringly credible institution — more trusted than the government, more respected than the monarchy, more relevant than the church — is being frittered away by editorial blunders, an inability to negotiate the changing broadcast landscape, and an aggressively adversarial approach to the news among some correspondents that presents a striking contrast to the BBC’s old style of measured politeness.”
Are High Ticket Prices Killing The West End?
The leader of a regional theatre in Leeds charges that high ticket prices are killing creativity in London’s West End. But defenders claim that London prices are “still relatively cheap compared with Broadway, where seats sell for more than £70. Last year 12 million went to West End shows – a record. Top-priced tickets [between £40 and £50] are always the first to sell.”
Rise Of The “Illegal” Artists
There’s a growing movement of artists who break copyright laws on purpose. “According to a growing number of ‘illegal artists’, copyright infringement has become the moral affront of choice – and the cause of “cease and desist” letters and profitable copyright suits. Artists are now appearing in court to defend their entitlement to borrow or ‘footnote’ the work of other artists.”
Who Writes The Better Farce?
“Farce, like cricket, comes in two forms: English and French. One is an exercise in connoisseurship, distinguished by its practitioners and ennobled by tradition; the other a jolly knockabout enjoyed by amateurs. Although the two traditions developed side by side, many people acknowledge that the English play real cricket, while the French write real farce.”
The Killer Preview Review
When newspapers review a book before it’s actually been published, it lets the air out of publication. “Early reviewing means that books don’t get a fair shake. Why, I asked a friend at Viking, don’t they act against editors who infringe the embargo notice? Why not sue, or collectively boycott, offending journals – either directly or through the Publishers’ Association? The fact is that publishers are frightened of editors. So are authors.”