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Andrea Breneman
Marketing Intern
Image: Paint the Future by Andrew Judd
Midwest Presenters Meet to Discuss World Music Artists and Festivals
The 2009-2010 Season is still going strong but the theater’s staff is busy creating the 2010-2011 Season. In mid-February Theater Director Ralph Russo and I drove to Bloomington, Indiana, to meet with other Midwestern presenters about the 2010 World Music Festivals. In 2004, when we started ours, there were only two other festivals in the region, in Bloomington and Chicago. This time around, there were about 25 people in the room, representing some dozen festivals and venues which book some of the artists who come to the country to participate in the festivals.
It’s exciting to have so many presenters included. Since none of the festivals has a large budget, the more gigs we can offer an artist, the better the chance they can tour. So we sat for a whole day, watching videos and listening to (or making) pitches for over 70 artists from throughout the world. At the end of the day we voted and ended up with about 20 who had garnered the interest of at least seven venues.
We’re now working to try and bring them to the country in September. Because visa and tax issues are complex, time consuming and expensive, and because many of these artists can make better money in Europe, a number of them will fall through. But we’re excited to have a good number of fantastic artists, some of whom you’ll get to see. Stay tuned.
Esty Dinur
Chair for Artistic Selection, Madison World Music Festival
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