Regular Wednesday Freestyle - would it work?

[Daisy Fox]

A friend of mine has expressed an interest in holding a regular wednesday night freestyle event at his club. Either fortnightly or monthly. The club is in Northampton and there would be a main room and a blues room.
He has asked me wether it would work - mid week. As I am fairly new to all this I haven't got a clue, but would appreciate any words of wisdom from you guys.
Looking forward to any responses.
Thanks

[Piglet]

I don't have any experience of this, however, I think the idea of having 2 rooms is appealing because there's more chance of music for everybody being covered. Maybe start it once a month rather than fortnightly because it will make it more special and maybe dancers will be more inclined to make the effort for once a month in the middle of the week rather than fortnightly.

Mind you, once its up and running, you could survey the dancers to see if it would be viable to go for fortnightly...

Good luck with it

[bigdjiver]

A friend of mine has expressed an interest in holding a regular wednesday night freestyle event at his club. Either fortnightly or monthly. The club is in Northampton and there would be a main room and a blues room.
He has asked me wether it would work - mid week. As I am fairly new to all this I haven't got a clue, but would appreciate any words of wisdom from you guys.
Looking forward to any responses.
Thanks

What sort of entrance fee is he thinking of charging? What is the capacity of the dance floors? How late does he plan to run it?

The problem with the lack of a class is that people do not come until there is a reasonable crowd there, and that tends to get later and later until extinction. The Wednesday night at the "Third Floor" in Bedford died despite having teachers working for free and only £3 admission. People go to events for the people there. If they learn MJ at Ceroc or whereever they tend to stick with that in order to meet their dance friends.

Encourage him. I am always ready to learn from others mistakes.




The problem with not being weekly is that people are not sure when it is on.

[Piglet]

The problem with not being weekly is that people are not sure when it is on.

So make it the first Wednesday of the month (or something else that will be remembered easily... that's how our Scottish weekend parties work)

[David Bailey]

A friend of mine has expressed an interest in holding a regular wednesday night freestyle event at his club. Either fortnightly or monthly. The club is in Northampton and there would be a main room and a blues room.
He has asked me wether it would work - mid week. As I am fairly new to all this I haven't got a clue, but would appreciate any words of wisdom from you guys.
Looking forward to any responses.
Thanks

I don't think a fortnightly event would work - people would always forget which night it was on in any given month.

Something like a "First Weds of every month" session might work, however.

The problem with a freestyle-only event is always that you have to rely on there being a strong existing dance presence in the area - you're not creating any new dancers or appealing to new people, as you're not offering classes. So your marketing plan for the business has to take that into account. It's fairly easy to get good attendance for the first couple of times - the problem is in keeping or growing that attendance on an ongoing basis if you don't have a stream of new starters.

EDIT:

So make it the first Wednesday of the month (or something else that will be remembered easily... that's how our Scottish weekend parties work)

Oops, I should really read previous posts first... I've forgotten how this stuff works now

[Lucy Locket]

Mid-week if you want people to travel in is not a good idea with work the next day, how about monthly on a Friday, Saturday or Sunday, but check out what's happening elsewhere so it doesn't clash.

[Daisy Fox]

Thanks for all the advice, had already suggested to him that there is a class, but he doesn't know of any teachers, and wouldn't want to upset local franchises. Think the first wednesday of every month is a good idea will tell him.
Capacity of the rooms is about 200 in the basement (blues room) and about the same in the main room - plus there is a seperate bar area with comfy chairs.

It is a fantastic venue for dancing, but can only get it on a wednesday. They already have salsa there once a week.

Thank you for words of wisdom.

[El Salsero Gringo]

Thanks for all the advice, had already suggested to him that there is a class, but he doesn't know of any teachers, and wouldn't want to upset local franchises.

If not upsetting local franchises is his goal, then he might as well drop the idea. Opening up a (cheap to run) freestyle night to make money of *their* customers while not even putting on classes to try to enlarge the local dance scene is unlikely to be popular.

Not that I believe in this all-too-common proprietorial air of "I own these people & you own those" - but where money's concerned some people are very quick to throw any kind of common sense straight out of the window.

[David Bailey]

Thanks for all the advice, had already suggested to him that there is a class, but he doesn't know of any teachers, and wouldn't want to upset local franchises.

Sorry, but I don't think that can be avoided, whether or not you do a class, he'll be seen as competing to a point with other organisations, so they probably won't love him. No provider likes competition - although of course dancers love it

Collaborative (affiliate-based, I guess) working between different MJ organisations is, I think, possible in theory - certainly it happens in salsa - but in practice I've not seen it work.

EDIT: hell, donkey beat me to it, I have to speed up my trigger finger... Anyway, to what he said...

It is a fantastic venue for dancing, but can only get it on a wednesday.

It does sound lovely, hope it goes well.

[Daisy Fox]

If not upsetting local franchises is his goal, then he might as well drop the idea. Opening up a (cheap to run) freestyle night to make money of *their* customers while not even putting on classes to try to enlarge the local dance scene is unlikely to be popular.

Not that I believe in this all-too-common proprietorial air of "I own these people & you own those" - but where money's concerned some people are very quick to throw any kind of common sense straight out of the window.

I suppose I hadn't really thought of it like that. He obviously is interested in raising the profile of his club, making a bit of money and attracting the right kind of clientelle, through doing the salsa night he knows that it won't make much on bar spend, but at the moment the club is dead and open on wednesdays, so he thought maybe a modern jive night would work.
I was just excited to think that there would be a decent place to dance in my area on a wednesday!!! selfish I know.
Do you think its worth him contacting local franchises?

[David Bailey]

Do you think its worth him contacting local franchises?

I think Ceroc have / had an affiliate programme, but I dunno if anyone ever joined it.

I'd guess it all depends on the franchisees, on your friend's approach, and on what he's willing to offer. I doubt franchisees will want to help or support him for free (why would they, he's a competitor after all).

But if he can work out a scheme - for example, a registration or turnover-based scheme - that will bring the franchisee more cash in - then I imagine a rational franchisee would at least consider mutual support programmes. But of course, some franchisees are more rational than others; suspicion and paranoia is rampant in this game.

Remember - for us, it's fun, but for them it's a business.

[Daisy Fox]

Remember - for us, it's fun, but for them it's a business.

Too right! Thanks for your help. I think he needs to go back to the drawing board on this one. No easy solutions - and I might have to wait a bit longer for my wednesday dance.

[El Salsero Gringo]

Do you think its worth him contacting local franchises?

Hell yes! I'm dying to know how many new and different ways he gets told to Foxtrot Oscar.

[Daisy Fox]

Hell yes! I'm dying to know how many new and different ways he gets told to Foxtrot Oscar.

You have a sick sense of humour ESG. Playing on my naive suggestions !!! I do like the guy so maybe I'll just tell him to forget it. Although I suppose if the clubs gonna be empty every wednesday, could use it as my own private dancefloor.

[El Salsero Gringo]

You have a sick sense of humour ESG. Playing on my naive suggestions !!! I do like the guy so maybe I'll just tell him to forget it. Although I suppose if the clubs gonna be empty every wednesday, could use it as my own private dancefloor.

I think the point is, if he's running a business then, as DJ says, it shouldn't really bother him about being friends with franchisees. Alternatively, he could approach one of them to front the night while they share the profits. That way he gets his marketing done for him (which to be honest is always the hardest part of any enterprise.)

[Daisy Fox]

I think the point is, if he's running a business then, as DJ says, it shouldn't really bother him about being friends with franchisees. Alternatively, he could approach one of them to front the night while they share the profits. That way he gets his marketing done for him (which to be honest is always the hardest part of any enterprise.)

That is what I thought might be the best solution too. Worth a try I suppose. What was it you said - they can always tell him to foxtrot oscar!!!!

Thanks for your help - all very useful.

[bigdjiver]

It has already been suggested, but has he approached Ceroc Central, or anybody else, as a potential venue, and running a follow on MJ freestyle, and perhaps an overlapping Blues event? It could be win-win.

[Daisy Fox]

It has already been suggested, but has he approached Ceroc Central, or anybody else, as a potential venue, and running a follow on MJ freestyle, and perhaps an overlapping Blues event? It could be win-win.

He has just contacted Ceroc Central, but Phil Roberts is away until Monday. Hopefully they will want it as a venue - they can also take advantage of his membership database - will post when I hear anything from him. Thank you