Well because of Covid I couldn’t hold the Flagstaff Blues and Brews Festival. I had come to terms with that, and I was OK with it because I knew it was what was best for my community. However, I ended up speaking with another event planner in town for gosh I think almost 3 hours and she convinced me to look into holding an event at the Orpheum theater in downtown Flagstaff. So, I called Susan whom I’ve known for years, and we discussed the idea of it. I am incredibly grateful to that event planner and to the staff at the Orpheum for making this process so easy for me. Putting together a small event like this it’s not an easy task and I did it in a very short amount of time. I was lucky enough to have incredible bands that said yes and didn’t gouge me on price. And I was also lucky with the sponsors who said yes immediately to this event.
So, leading up to the event I had very little to do, I had to organize and pay the bands and I had to order new merchandise and of course some marketing. But everything else was handled by the Orpheum, staffing, security, bartenders, marketing, ticket sales etc.
I couldn’t be more grateful for their help with everything. I show up the day of the event thinking that I had to do all sorts of events set up to do which turns out I did not. And this is the first blues event that I have been able to attend where I got to wear normal clothes, put on some make up and actually speak with people. I got to enjoy my own event which was a new concept for me. I loved the fact that I could sit with my family and friends, that I could go backstage and really interact with the bands. I loved that I could speak to my sponsors and thank them in person for their generosity. And last but not least I enjoyed talking to my fans. I don’t put this festival or even this downtown blues event on for me I put it on for everyone else. So, when people came up to me thanking me for doing the event, giving me suggestions, and overall the incredible support I received was amazing.
I hope those of you who attended downtown Blues while it was small and while the bands were not national artist I hope you had a good time and I hope that I was able to bring at least some live music back in such a weird time that we’re going through.
Jen