Well, here we are with a new year before us all shiny and bright and the first shiny thing on my list is the 2015 Flagstaff Blues and Brews. When we finished the 2014 festival, I was so relieved. When you start a festival, you have to go through the building years and I gave myself 3 years to break even. Believe me, when your entire financial success of an event is based upon one day, it feels like an eternity before you’re going to get another chance to learn from past mistakes and to make necessary changes. In 2014, we were hoping to lose about half of what we’d lost the year before, when low and behold – people came out and we broke even. Holy Moly you have no idea the pressure you have until you hit the break even mark and can sigh. Unfortunately for Jen, that gave me the confidence to pursue MUCH bigger acts for 2015 and that’s what I’ve been working on for the past 3 months. I should have it completely wrapped up by the end of next week and we’ll announce sometime after that – hee hee!
But I can tell you about the changes to this year’s festival beside the bigger national acts! We’re going to add VIP! VIP will have a private bar, seating, shade, parking and food. We’re also adding more breweries and that should make for an even more successful microbrew tasting! We still have limited onsite parking, however, we’re going to be encouraging more and more people to take the bus – after all, who wants to drink and drive?
We’ve changed the layout a bit, and we’re adding more shade tents so people don’t fry in the Northern Arizona Sun, and I’ve already put in my order for a “average” Flagstaff June 20th weather – I mean who doesn’t want to sit in the sun, sip beer and listen to great music when it’s 78 degrees with 10 MPH winds?
Debbi