Foreman: Charging admission would help band festival

By HERB BROCK

Staff Writer

An admission charge to the Great American Brass Band Festival is necessary in order to keep the event going and growing, according to festival co-founder and chief organizer George Foreman.

Foreman said in an interview Monday that a decision to charge an admission fee, starting with the 2001 GABBF, "pretty much has been made." What is left to be decided is how much the fee will be and how the fee will be collected and enforced, he said.

For the past 11 festivals, including this year's, all concerts, the parade and every other musical event have been free. However, people have been charged for T-shirts, pins and other festival souvenirs and for food at the food booths.

Foreman said he and the committee have discussed charging $5 a person for each of the two days of the festival and $8 a person for both days. The charge will apply only to concerts on the main stage at Centre College, and children under 12 will be admitted free of charge. Performances at Weisiger Park, the Danville-Boyle County Airport for the balloon race and other venues will remain free.

"The news of a possible admission charge has been made public. Now I want to talk to the festival committee, staff and everyone else who is involved in putting on this event to work on the details and also to find out what they heard from festival-goers over the weekend," he said.

"We also need to decide the logisitics regarding collection, including whether there will be ticket booths, ticket sellers and ticket takers, how festival-goers will be able to show they've bought tickets, and how the area around the main stage can be controlled and monitored without making too big of a deal or distraction to the entertainment."

Foreman said that when he was mingling in the crowd on Sunday, he did not "sense any big opposition" to the admission charge.

"We pass a bucket for donations and when I was doing that myself on Sunday, people were being very generous," he said. "Many people were putting in $5 and $10 bills. One person put in $100.

"I think the vast majority of people understand it takes a lot of money as well as effort to put on an event like this festival and will be OK with paying an admission charge, particularly one that is limited in amount and scope like what we're looking at," Foreman said. "After all, $5 is less than what people pay to go to a movie, and we believe they get a lot more over a longer period of time, entertainmentwise, at our festival than what a single movie offers."

Whatever the final plan will be, Foreman said that the money the festival committee will collect will be "badly needed."

"It now costs between $150,000 to $200,000 to put on the festival, and I think it's more toward the higher end of that range," he said. "City and county governments, corporate donors and other supporters have been increasing their contributions, but they're reaching their limits, and we're still barely staying in the black.

"For the first 10 festivals, well over $1 million passed through our books, but we were in the black by a net of only $4,000 to $5,000. That's not a comfortable margin. We need a better safety net, and charging admission on a limited basis will help provide that."

And a better net is especially needed if the festival is going to continue to grow, Foreman said.

"We're trying to keep the same character and quality of the festival we've had since it started in 1990, but we also have been adding new things, here and there, every year to keep things interesting. This year, we added foreign bands, and people loved it," he said. "To keep this festival evolving and entertaining and special, we need additional income. It's that simple."