How many bands will be playing NE PopFest 2007?
For each of the previous festivals, we have had 18 bands,
6 per night, playing full sets (about 40-45 minutes) on The
Abbey Lounge Main Stage.
We expect it to be the same this year, possibly with additional bands
on the Pub Stage, but plans have not yet been finalized.
What is Random Rogue and who is actually organizing this festival?
Random Rogue is
the umbrella name for various projects of
Roy Rubinstein.
NE PopFest is being organized by Roy with a little help from his friends.
Are the bands being paid to play this festival?
Yes, but given the number of bands per night, the low ticket price and the
size of The Abbey Lounge, they can't get a huge sum of money.
They also get to sell their CD's, T-shirts, etc., and they get free beer.
The bands are given full details of this prior to their application to play the festival,
and there is no application fee.
The organizers lost money on this each of the past 3 years and will probably
continue to do so.
If the organizers are losing money on the festival, why are you doing it?
That's a question I keep asking myself. :-)
What it comes down to is the music, the musicians, and the music fans.
One of the main motivations I had for putting this together was to give some
more exposure to some relatively unknown bands. I know some local bands
that are good, but aren't known, so they can't get gigs or, when they do get them,
they don't draw enough people to get asked back. In addition, I'm sure there are
lots of good bands all around New England that we in the Boston area simply don't
know about, and they can't get a foot in the door around here. By having a festival
of pop bands, people will come to see bands they know and in the process
become familiar with bands they never heard of but will probably like. This is good
for the bands and the people attending, since the bands will now get some more
people who know them coming to their shows, and the people attending know about
more bands they like. And if a band goes over well at The Abbey, even if they didn't
draw the people, they may get to play there again. And the publicity will help them, too.
With out-of-town bands playing, Boston-area bands may get connections to be able
to play out of town more easily, and the out-of-town bands may get connections
to play in town more easily. I think that this will be good for the music community
in general.
Plus I get to hear lots of good bands.
What is The Abbey Lounge's part in this?
The Abbey Lounge
has graciously allowed us to hold NE PopFest at their club.
They are not, however, the organizers and do not make the decisions about
which bands play, the schedule or similar matters.
Please direct all questions about this festival to us, not to The Abbey.
No. NE PopFest is run by different people with a slightly different slant.
NE PopFest is designed to showcase New England bands (as opposed to
bringing in many bands) and allows band to play full sets.
NE PopFest is intended to complement other festivals, not compete with them.
Note: As with most current FAQ's, these are not really frequently asked questions.
They are, however, questions that we suspect would be frequently asked were
they not preemptively answered here.