Dinner and Song

midweek music, food, and rejuvenation.

Description:

Brief, relaxing dinner gatherings that feature music and conversation with a traveling artist. The host gathers 6-10 attendees for a low-effort dinner, followed by a short, unplugged concert in the living room. Attendees donate $5-10 each for the artist and also have the opportunity to purchase CDs after the performance.

The host provides dinner and overnight lodging (guest room, etc.)  for the artist. The artist delivers a personal, up-close performance for the lucky guests, as well as good vibes and points of conversation for the evening.

Dinner and Song is perfect for you if:

  1. you love the idea of house concerts but feel your space or number of friends is too small.
  2. you’d like to have dinner parties but need a “Wow!” reason to do it.
  3. you’d like to support traveling musicians and see them perform in a special environment - your house.

These events are designed to minimize setup and preparation, so that you can have a wonderful, low-stress event on a weeknight - lasting only 90 minutes from start to finish.

More reasons for Dinner & Song:

  1. You’re a host that has struggled with attendance numbers, and could benefit from “going small” for a while. Imagine turning people away for a change! Take a few months to rebuild interest with DNS before trying another full-sized house concert.
  2. You’re a host that would be interested in doing more events if they didn’t take as much effort as the typical house concert. Dinner & Song would allow you to stretch yourself a bit in terms of genre, and possibly use it to “audition” artists for your bigger events. For example, there are a few artists I love, but I’ve not hosted them because I didn’t think I could gather 30 people for their style of music.
  3. Burnout: You’ve been tempted to take a break from house concerts for a while, but can’t stand the thought of not doing music in your home. DNS events allow you to lighten the load, try something new, and keep the music and good karma flowing.

Timing: Approximately 90 minutes
Dinner = 35 minutes
Transition = 5 minutes
Concert = 35 minutes
Wrap up= 15 minutes

Notes:
Some artists will prefer to play first, and eat afterward, especially if they have to sing - this is a reasonable request and should be honored if possible. As a compromise, some might be willing to graze a bit with the guests and eat more after the concert.

We recommend dinner before the music when possible, for the following reasons:

  1. If someone arrives late, it’s better to be late for the food than the performance.
  2. Dinner provides a built-in opportunity for introductions and “how are yous” that might interrupt the performance.
  3. Dinner builds anticipation for the performance.
  4. Guests could be truly hungry when they arrive, and snacks or appetizers can add more effort and distractions from the music.

I would love input about the order (dinner vs show) from the point of view of artists and hosts, so please email me with your comments. (or create a separate login/password for this blog to make comments.) Artists, would you be willing to have dinner first for the reasons stated above, or does the idea of going straight from the meal to the performance totally put you off?

Thanks!
Fran