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Selby (Mrs. D.C.) Minner
Twenty First Annual
Rentiesville Dusk till Dawn Blues Festival
A Regional and National Advertising and
Promotion Campaign
Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame
701 D.C. Minner Street
Rentiesville, OK 74459
(918) 855- 0978, 473-2411
dcminner@windstream.net
www.dcminnerblues.com
The name Dusk til Dawn, the concept it represents and the data and
ideas presented herin are the property of this event. Use and or
reproduction of the materials contained in this presentation,
without the consent and prior knowledge of the FOR Blues Inc. is
strictly prohibited.
CONTENTS
The Event and It’s
Elements 2 -
6
Marketplace
Momentum
6
Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Festival Marketing and Promotion 7
Budget
9
Markets and Time
Frames 10
Background on F.O.R. Blues Inc., Selby Minner and D.C. Minner 10
Agreement for Participation and List of Responsibilities
11 - 13
Collateral Materials and Supporting Fest Documentation: 14
Tab 1.)
Selby Minner Bio, Promotional Materials
Generated In-House
– Festival posters, postcards, press releases, programs, KBA Award
and bios of D.C. and Selby Minner from Muskogee article Couple
Keeps Rentiesville hoppin’.., program from Phillips State
University Concert, and also Okemah, Lawton and Wilburton State
College papers,
Tab 2.)
Statewide and Regional Press –
Images of Muskogee, Tulsa People, Cover OK State Events Guide, State
Travel Brochure, AAA Magazine, The Oklahoma Gazette, The Muskogee
Daily Phoenix, Tulsa World The Spot, McIntosh County
Democrat, The Black Chronicle, OKC, The Oklahoman, McAlester
News-Capital, Wilburton State College Newspaper, Enid, Tahlequah,
the Current of Tahlequah and more.
Tab 3.)
National and International Press
– including Juke Blues (England), The Guardian (London), Blues
Gazette (Belgium), The New York Times, Living Blues (Chicago), Big
City Blues (Detroit), the Redwood Record ( Garberville, CA), Ole’,
(Bisbee AZ), The Redwood Record, (Garberville, CA), The Blues
Foundation, and Iowa Blues Society.
OVERVIEW: The
Event and It’s Elements
Thirty bands on 3 stages, indoors and
out, over 3 days and nights. Workshops, related foods, jam sessions.
A unique family
friendly
Blues event with plenty of fun
for children throughout the entire three days, plus an adults-only
juke joint, held in rural Rentiesville at the family farm,
homestead-turned-venue, of OK Blues Legend D.C. Minner. A showcase
of Oklahoma and regional blues topped off with internationally known
headliners.
The Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival
is a celebration of a culture and a music which began as African
American and has long ago crossed over and continues to influence
all of mainstream music today. The Rentiesville Blues Festival is
held at the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame and festival site, which
includes the historic Down Home Blues Club. The Down Home Blues Club
is a true juke joint; one of the few juke joints in existence today
in the US, and the only one which is the birthplace and home if it’s
own favorite son, festival founder and Blues legend D.C. Minner.
D.C. was inducted into four Halls of Fame. The festival is carried
on by his wife, partner, bassist of 31 years Selby Minner and the
501 c3 non-profit Friends of Rentiesville (F.O.R.) Blues Inc.
This year’s big 21st festival is your
opportunity to sponsor and associate your product with an event that
nationally and state wide press has praised as a ‘must-see’ (International
Blues Foundation in Memphis). Since its beginnings in 1991 the
Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival has drawn over 50,000 music lovers to
the historic township of Rentiesville presenting over 200 musicians
each year.
Since F.O.R. Blues Inc is a
non-profit 501 c3, your sponsorship is of course, tax deductible
. . . . “The
Rentiesville Blues Festival garners regional and national press; it
is a one of a kind ‘must-see’ event.”
-Tom
Yearnshaw, Blues Festival Guide
LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!
The Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival
has three major integral elements that combine in a promotion and
marketing campaign for you that quickly gets to the hearts of people
in Eastern Oklahoma, regionally (and across the US among Blues
lovers) where it is infused with the kind of grass roots involvement
that makes each Festival a unique event with which people identify.
1.)
Your festival advertising and promotions campaign starts in the
schools months before the festival begins:
High school jazz bands through the region host national and
regionally known blues artists who perform educational workshops.
When they perform with these artists at the festival it results in
bringing students, educators, and their families together. More than
that, Selby Minner (co-founder of the Festival) does many
performances in clubs and at Festivals state wide and beyond. She
also does her Blues in the Schools Residencies (approximately two
weeks each), as an Oklahoma Arts Council Roster Artist, where
children across the state get to experience being in a band.
At all these events, people are given the program as a means of
inviting them to the festival. Your company logo and or product
placement will be prominent in the material. You will be seen as a
proponent of fun, cool, informative, inspiring and engaging music
programming that has been presented through the OAC since 1991.
2.) We invite your customers:
If you are looking to expand your business,
this is the promotion for you. Our demographics surveys have shown
increased income for attendees through the life of the festival.
There is a complete mix of people who attend the event. Good will
abounds - smiles all around.
3.) Our surveys also
document that higher income
individuals follow and attend blues and Jazz performances and
festivals more than any other style of music. Seniors in this
category are also more likely to bring their children and
grandchildren to a blues or Jazz performance or festival. We
also present a Gospel Show on Sunday with free admission for seniors
which adds to the draw for them.
. . . . These three elements expand your
impact past the event itself to a stable, well funded constituency.
AND IT JUST DON’T STOP!
Complete Project Description:
The Blues festival is a three day event in rural Eastern Oklahoma
held Friday, Saturday and Sunday of Labor Day Weekend. We go from
dusk til dawn as that is part of the blues tradition. 30 bands
appear on two outdoor and one indoor stage at the historic and
rustic OK Juke Joint known as the Down Home Blues Club. The OK Blues
Hall of Fame is housed here, and this is our signature event for the
year.
"Everything about the Dusk til Dawn
festival is a family affair. Festival co-founder (together with the
late D.C. Minner) Selby Minner is dedicated and integral to the
show, taking the lead role in organizing and presenting the event
and in performing twice nightly with her band. The extended 'family'
includes 15 board and committee members, over 100 volunteers and
thousands of dedicated fans. Many of these folks have been returning
to the fest every year since the very beginning. Several weeks
before the show, volunteers, some who come several thousand miles to
help, begin to work the magic that transforms the 'back fourty' into
the festival site. Three foot tall grasses are mowed into a
comfortable 'lawn'. Power is run so vendors can sell t-shirts,
jewelry, barbeque, fried fish, candy... The Kid's Village sprouts up
around an old school bus and a circus-sized tent miraculously
appears before the main outdoor stage to complete the 'mirage'."
writes the Blues Festival Guide's Tom Yearnshaw.
We present 4 or 5 national headliners
which give us a great show and bring credibility to the event, but
more than that,
Rentiesville
has been dubbed by radio as the
'Blues Capital of
Oklahoma' because we showcase
state and regional blues artists. This and the fact that we present
young bands on the Back Porch Stage, have a contest which sends
winners to the IBC (International Blues Challenge) in Memphis, and
do extensive statewide publicity means we are also doing artist
career development. - giving back to the music. We
VALIDATE the performers with a life in this music. Publicity and
employment for senior artists and career development for
up-and-comers combine into a fun time for all!
The Blues Festival attracts upwards of
3500 plus people to the rural Rentiesville (pop. 99). Two hundred
artists present 50 sets and workshops. We have several jam sessions,
a gospel show, hands-on drumming, ceramics, harmonica lessons
parades, pottery, costumes, face painting and more...! We include
handicapped performers. We are wheel chair accessible and provide a
golf cart jitney service in from the parking area. Camping is free,
vendor food is reasonable. We hire casual help from the
neighborhood.
All this activity endears the festival to the
hearts of Americans and provides the nucleus for what has proven to
be, for over 20 years, a very successful promotional campaign.
THIS VITAL EVENT INSPIRES
SUPPORT BECAUSE…
As
the Oklahoma State Arts Council says:
"Very nice
line-up. Unique festival held in an underserved area of the state.
This is an incredible example of a little money going a very long
way. Great work!”
They have supported the event since 1993.
We create a TOURISM destination which
attracts upwards of 3,500 plus people to this historic rural
community (pop 99). We spread the word nationally and even
internationally among blues lovers (who WILL travel) about Oklahoma
talent. It would take a visitor a long time to ferret out the vast
array of talent we present here in 3 days. Our marketing audience
(those who follow our progress, although they may never attend the
fest) is huge and loyal.
WE HAVE ALSO DEVELOPED A REPUTATION AS
A FESTIVAL WHICH DISCOVERS TALENT on the way up. Groups who have
gone national after they appeared at Dusk til Dawn include
Watermelon Slim (Stillwater, OK) Little Joe (Tulsa), Miss Blues (OKC),
Smokin’ Joe Kubeck and B'nois King, Deborah Coleman, Indigenous,
Rosie Ledet, and Kelly Joe Phelps.
The Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues
Festival functions as a SERIES OF REUNIONS ON MANY LEVELS. Begun in
1991, this project actually helps GROW COMMUNITY and GROW THE MUSIC.
The MUSICIANS are among their peers (unlike on a normal weekend when
they are all working in different places). Lots of musician
networking, gathering contacts in state and across the US…Meeting
and performing with new musicians…finding new people to include in
their bands… many of our STAFF AND VOLUNTEERS only see each other
here. RENTIESVILLE NATIVES used to all come home over Memorial Day
Weekend, but now a lot of them have switched over to Labor Day
Weekend to be here for the fest – and to help us as well (the best
way to meet people is to volunteer). People plan their vacations to
have fun in Rentiesville.
. . . . The
Rentiesville Blues Festival and F.O.R. Blues Inc. also use a
sizeable portion of the profits each year to support ongoing
in-house music educational programs; Jam Band, Coffee House Nights,
Guitar, Bass and Piano Lessons and more.
WHY THIS MUSIC IS IMPORTANT:
Held on Labor Day weekend this party is the last chance to catch
summer time fun and we hold that Blues is the best party
music ever created! Lead guitar came from the blues. Blues is
the basis of every rock band.
COMMENTS include “Keep up the
good music!” “good friendly atmosphere”, “will be back next year”,
“Best event I’ve attended in Oklahoma; a 5-star event”… “don’t
change a thing”, “loved playing it 5 of the last 6 years” “look
forward to it all year – hate for Sunday night to come”. Your
product and company will be seen as a community builder with a
forward vision.
MARKETPLACE MOMENTUM
As the local community, the state of Oklahoma
and nation sees the marketing campaign of this event it will become
‘their party’ and overwhelming clear that your product and company
has made the event possible.
We involve the entire community and the state
of Oklahoma in this promotion that includes grass roots elements
that are unmatched in today’s marketplace (home town bands, regional
vendors, local volunteers, a showcase of the region’s best music,
birthplace of a legend). That will reinforce to an army of
volunteers and music lovers a deep sense of gratitude and awareness
of your company’s partnership and support of the 21st annual
Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival.
BLUES FEST MARKETING AND PROMOTION
- it’s
your promotion!
THIS YEAR WE WILL
CONTINUE TO MARKET ON A NATIONAL LEVEL: This will include contact with
Blues Societies worldwide and a greater web presence…facebook,
twitter, my space, listings on many events websites, etc. There is
a snowball effect here as others pass our campaign through their
internet networks – facebook, etc. We use the Blues Festival
Guide-Blues Festival Guide Website and weekly E-zine, Living Blues
Magazine, and the International Blues Foundation.
MEDIA OUTLETS include: The Current Alternative
News Source, distributed throughout Eastern and Central Oklahoma
(please see their write-up/program of the event with the band bios
in the support materials.) The Current distributes 75,000 copies
free around the state, including rural communities, also The
Muskogee Daily Phoenix. We do many more press releases than ads,
much of the media considers the festival a news event they need to
cover. The Tulsa World (they always run the story – had D.C. on the
cover of the Spot Entertainment Section a couple of years ago and
inducted him into their Hall of Fame), The Checotah County Democrat
(distribution 2500-3000) and Indian Journal are local papers which
cover our story and print the photos and press releases very
loyally.
The
BLUES PRESS includes the
newsletters of the OKC Blues Society, Wichita and Kansas City KS,
Blues Society of Tulsa, the Blues Society of the Ozarks in MO and
the Ozark Blues Society in AR.
RADIO: These radio stations
support our event with live radio play of artists who are coming;
Tulsa including KMOD; and Stillwater, Claremore, McAlester, Norman
OKC and Fort Smith AR, KFOX in Muskogee, Eufaula and McAlister.
There will be multiple on air interviews where your product will
gain continued visibility.
TELEVISION: Selby and her band
appear on live TV in Tulsa. OETA, Channel 2, 6, 8 and KFOX. We send
an actual PSA video to TV. PSA run on all the public radio stations
around the state.
POSTERS: 500 large full color posters
with your logo are distributed throughout the four state regions of
Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, and Texas.
HANDBILLS:
5,000+ are distributed by volunteers at related music festivals
across Oklahoma and the region with your logo or product placement.
We specifically saturate with local marketing up and down 69 Highway
and along Interstate 40 including OKC and Tulsa; posters, postcards
and handbill. The Current Entertainment News is a special
partnership for us. The Current distributes 75,000 copies in
Northeast Oklahoma to music lovers of all ages. The Current will
feature the Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival starting three
months prior to the event.
POST CARDS:
25000 with your logo on counters and
in racks across the area.
OUR WEB SITE
is large, colorful and informative and
listed on all PR with your logo on top of the home page and the
festival pages:
www.dcminnerblues.com.
The sponsorship promotions that keep on giving
the rest of the year:
The Program is a collector’s item and will
have your logo on it and will be inserted into each copy of the
Current in August (75,000 copies).There will also be 2000 copies
available for Festival attendees. After the Festival, throughout the
year, we send out the program to people interested in our events and
use it in the educational programming mentioned above.
F.O.R. Blues Inc. also uses a portion of the
profits from the Festival to SUPPORT OUR ON-GOING IN-HOUSE
EDUCATIONAL ACTIVITIES year round which include: Jam Band- a
bi-weekly free jam sessions for music students; Coffee House Nights
– onstage experience for music students; and guitar and bass
lessons. The program with your logo
is shared here as well.
BUDGET INFORMATION
Organization Administration $5,000.00
Artist Budget $25,000.00
Technical Costs $6369.00
Marketing and Promotion $ 16,000.00
Public relations Campaign $10,000.00
Facility Rental $3,374.00
Travel $4,527.00
2009 Misc Cost $5,902.00
Festival Labor (INK) $19.000.00
Budget TOTAL $95,172.00
MARKETS AND TIME FRAMES
Your product will receive four months of
promotional exposure from May to September 2011
June:
We are in month two of a series of 7 press releases sent out over
email, snail mail and on the web site. This goes to blues press,
major media and smaller local press. E blasts go out about every
two weeks as the momentum builds and the lineup is completed. You
are seen as a sponsor in on the creation of the event… the flyer
or handbill is being distributed at related music festivals across
Oklahoma with your logo prominently displayed.
July:
Radio starts to receive music. Post cards are
created and get to counters and racks. The posters and flyers are
created and displayed 4 – 6 weeks prior to the Festival. Tee Shirt
designs are underway.
August:
We call the press and make sure we are meeting deadlines with a
variety of photos and several different takes on the story so each
will have choices about how they cover our upcoming event; all with
your name. The program is in the Current distributed statewide.
Radio and Television appearances and interviews are under way. Ads
appear in Tulsa World, The Oklahoman, Tulsa People, Oklahoma Gazette
McIntosh County Democrat, The Current, Living Blues, Blues Review,
Big City Blues, and the Blues Festival Guide,
September:
The festival arrives; the site is completed and your banner, flags
and signage add to the excitement. There is product sampling and and
giveaways. A prearranged number of your employees and special guests
are at the Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival enjoying the
three stages with thirty bands, as children play music rings across
the old cotton field One visitor exclaimed “All I know is I was in
the middle of this old field and music was coming from everywhere!”
BACKGROUND on FOR Blues Inc., Selby
Minner
and a brief description of the organization, its history and
the constituents that it serves.
The Friends of Rentiesville Blues Inc (F.O.R. Blues) is a
non-profit 501 c3, formed by award winning OAC roster musicians the
late D.C. and Selby Minner and the band Blues on the Move with many
of the primary Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival volunteers who love
Blues music and believe in the and want to continue the work of D.C.
and Selby Minner. Working together F.O.R. Blues Board members put on
the festival and have assumed many administrative tasks including
organizing fundraisers, educational outreach to up and coming
musicians and other programming. We serve blues lovers across the
nation, and arts and music lovers in our own community. D.C. and
Selby Minner also founded the Oklahoma Blues Hall of Fame which is
overseen by the non profit 501 c3 F.O.R. Blues Inc
AGREEMENT for Participation
and List of Responsibilities
Sponsor Agreement; page one of three
Sponsor Will:
1.) Provide company logo in print ready
condition to F.O.R. Blues Inc for use in all print advertising.
2.) Provide Name Tags for participants
at the Festival, if desired.
3.) Provide sponsor banner or singe for
the Blues Festival.
4.) Tag electronic and print
advertising with information about the Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn
Blues Festival.
5.) Display posters for the
Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival in retail outlets.
6.) Have the opportunity to display
product; or sample; or coupon at the event.
7.) Have the opportunity to give away a
‘door prize’ at the event.
9.) Receive announcements form the
stage(s) during the event.
10.) Pay F.O.R. Blues Inc. the sum of
$22,500.00 to implement the Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues
festival in the following manner: $11,250.00 upon the signing of
this agreement; $5,625 6 weeks prior to the first night of the
Festival; and $5,625 2 weeks prior to the first night of the event.
11.) Designate a liason person to
communicate and coordinate with Selby Minner and F.O.R. Blues Inc.
to produce and market the Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival.
Sponsor Agreement, page two of three
Selby Minner and
Friends of Rentiesville Blues Inc. will:
1.)
Provide the venue including three stages for the
Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues festival.
2.)
Provide 30 bands, some 200 musicians to perform at the event
and pay them.
3.)
Provide the staff and supplies for the Kid’s Village for all
three nights of the event.
4.)
Provide a Gospel show and Battle of the Bands Contest as part
of the event.
5.)
Provide a radio station as a presenter of the event and
arrange with the station(s) to provide promotional time adequate to
advertise and promote the event. Sponsor to be included in all
station advertising.
6.)
Arrange for electronic interviews whenever possible of the
entertainment entities involved with the event, to generate
publicity for the event.
7.)
Provide and emcee for the nights of the event.
8.)
Provide a stage manager for the event.
9.)
Provide sound adequate for each of the three stages – main
outdoor stage, club stage in the juke joint and the back porch stage
near the Kid’s Village.
10.)
Provide chairs, porta potties golf carts etc as deemed
necessary for the event.
11.)
Provide the 40’ x 80’ tent in front of the main stage.
12.)
Provide lighting for vendors, the midway and each of the
stages and Kid’s Village for the event.
13.)
Provide a poster – 500 copies – with sponsor on each one.
Poster is large and full color.
14.)
See that posters are appropriately distributed throughout the
local advertising area.
15.)
Provide 5000 handbills, all listing sponsor. Distribute these
to similar events (target marketing) and clubs, schools, etc.
16.)
Design and provide multi-colored Tee Shirts for the Festival
with sponsor name listed on the back.
17.)
Provide Tee shirts for sale at the event with your name/logo
on the back .
18.)
Provide advertising in the localized print media sufficient
to promote the Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival with your
name included.
19.)
Provide wristbands and gate people.
Sponsor
Agreement, page three of three
20.)
Provide door and parking lot security at event
21.)
Provide photographer to cover the event
22.)
Provide a commemorative book or CD to sponsor that includes
all press clippings, print advertising, media calendar, poster and
photographs.
23.)
Have the right to make arrangements with airline company to
trade out air fares for a trip contest is so desired, and /or
musicians.
Specifications detailed on pages one, two and
three of this contract, agreed to by both parties signing below:
_____________________________
___________________________
Authorized Representative Date Authorized
Representative Date
for F.O.R. Blues Inc and the
___________________________
Rentiesville Dusk til Dawn Blues Festival Print name signed above
701 D.C. Minner Street, Rentiesville
Oklahoma, 74459 918/855-0978
___________________________
www.dcminnerblues.com
Mailing Address
dcminner@windstream.net
____________________________
____________________________
cell phone, e address
INDEX of SUPPORT MATERIALS
Tab 1.)
Selby Minner Bio, Promotional Materials
Generated In-House
– Festival posters, postcards, press releases, programs, KBA Award
and bios of D.C. and Selby Minner from Muskogee article Couple
Keeps Rentiesville hoppin’.., program from Phillips State
University Concert, and also Okemah, Lawton and Wilburton State
College papers,
Tab 2.)
Local and Regional Press
– Images of Muskogee, Tulsa People, Cover OK State Events Guide,
State Travel Brochure, AAA Magazine, The Oklahoma Gazette, The
Muskogee Daily Phoenix, Tulsa World The Spot, McIntosh County
Democrat, The Black Chronicle, OKC, The Oklahoman, McAlester
News-Capital, Wilburton State College Newspaper, Enid, Tahlequah,
the Current of Tahlequah and more.
Tab 3.)
National and International Press
– including Juke Blues (England), The Guardian (London), Blues
Gazette (Belgium), The New York Times, Living Blues (Chicago), Big
City Blues (Detroit), the Redwood Record ( Garberville, CA), Ole’,
(Bisbee AZ), The Redwood Record, (Garberville, CA), The Blues
Foundation in Memphis’ Newsletter, and the Iowa Blues Society
newsletter Blues News
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