Church Coffeehouse Shows as Kids, Fundraisers for Teens at Churches, Renting Theaters & Producing Shows
My father was a Methodist minister. He let us throw coffeehouse open mics and concerts in his Minneapolis suburban church sanctuary as teens. We also had dances there. Years later as I evolved into a tribute artist, still also doing solo, and cover band shows, we found ourselves renting venues to produce our own shows. This was a huge flashback to those youthful church days.
In Litchfield, MN we rent the Litchfield Opera House for $350… used to be $250, for the day. It’s a historic building with a quirky cute elevated box of a stage and unique balcony. This particular venue we have to set up and ten put back, the chairs for the show, as well as load in, set up and run our own sound, promote banging posters within a couple ours all directions, buy ads in the local newspapers and small radio stations, sell tickets online and check people in at the door. Oh… and perform the show! Lol
When all these elements come to fruition, and wrk in synch and succeed, it’s a pretty rewarding feeling, though fatiguing.
We also did the same at Blue Water Theater, in Wayzata, MN. Cute little former church now community theater. Google it and inquire of them… That location requires you to get a $200 liability insurance policy. Usually good for 1 to 2 million coverage. You can buy an annual policy that covers the 48 mainland states for $600.
Neither the Litchfield or Wayzata venues serves booze, many times you have to get a temporary license after going through city council meetings… hassle. We’d usually say “AFTER PARTY AT and mention a venue for people who wanted to meet us for drinks after.
This was also the case recently for a couple of shows that we recently produced at a church, where we did a Faith Based Tribute to Roy Orbison, sharing about his faith and then also, my personal stories. We conveniently were a block away from a great restaurant where we could tell all to join us for late dinner and drinks.
Consider churches, pitching them to raise funds, as we did, for their teen youth groups. Split the ticket revenue, no rental fees, good cause, fills in a date in the calendar! Those shows were a TOTAL flashback to my childhood days.