May Heydays - Job description
March: Arrange headline artist line-up for following year (needed for the T-shirt which needs to be ordered in mid-April), discuss fees (ask past director for guidance) and requirements (we offer a bed with a 'friend of the festival' — Brian or Meg — indoor or outdoor camping, we do not pay for performers' accommodation), record negotiation results in spreadsheet (needed for contracts later). Have a budget to hand (previous budgets available from director/treasurer) and stick to it as much as possible.April: Help with final preparations for festival, finalise programme, arrange for A3 prints of programmes (in colour) and workshop descriptions, 5 each to put on display outside the four major halls and the festival office. At the Festival: Be available for trouble- shooting/queries, make announcements, mingle.
May: Deal with post-festival correspondence (often including feedback), analyse the attendance figures for the events to see what worked and what didn't.
June to September: Network at festivals, fill the rest of the slots with recommended performers (make sure to keep a tally and don't overbook), aim for a balanced programme:
- English (must include Playford and Modern): 10 workshops.
- American: usually at least one caller from the US: 10 workshops
- Mixed English/American: 10 workshops (be clear to callers that a mix is required) — try to have one of each of these categories at all times of the festival.
- Evening dances: 3 American dances, 2 Playford Balls, 1 mixed dance is the core requirement, if more than 300 attendees, an extra dance can be added on Saturday and Sunday; these should be Mixed (this to be done in April when numbers are clearer). Friday evening tends to be relatively quiet as people are still arriving.
- Scottish: 2 workshops and one dance in a workshop slot (or ask the teacher if they prefer 3 workshops).
- International: one major Balkan teacher (ideally native to the country whose dances they teach, Bob Robinson is a good adviser) (6 classes) additionally other genres like Argentine Tango, Indian etc. (see previous programmes) 4 classes, 3 evening dances (one Western European/Balkan mix, two mainly Balkan).
- French/Scandi: two to four workshops, one or two (Euro-)Bals, usually in the Large Hall in the evening break on Saturday and Sunday.
- Singing: 2 to 4 workshops (watch take-up).
- Music workshops: 2 to 4 (find out which of the musicians you have on site does music teaching workshops).
- Callers' workshop(s) and Showcase.
- Have at least one new event every year.
September/October: Fill the programme grid. Currently the director fills in the online grid (tuition by Colin or past director available). As there tend to be a lot of changes, this is the most time-efficient way of dealing with the programme (rather than having to explain to Colin where a change is needed — quicker to fill it in yourself). First programme draft needs to be complete by end of October, tickets go on sale on 1 November, dancers really appreciate having a programme to look at when they book.January: Send out contracts, give performers a deadline, say end of January, always include a link to the programme grid and tell performers to look at it. There are often queries (wrong room, wrong band, wrong time etc.) — you want corrections now, not three days before the festival!
February: send a mass reminder to those who haven't returned their contract.
March: second reminder
Forward returned contracts to ticketing and treasurer as they come in.