All,
After much prayer and consideration, we’ve decided to abandon the idea of doing a generator stage this year. There were several factors in this decision. First was the financial end of things. We have no doubt that we could get enough money to do a stage. The question was would we make it in time to put in the order for a festival tent and if we would have enough time to build a better stage than a folding table on cinder blocks with a cloth over it. The second was talent. One of the rules for doing a generator stage is that you cannot book an act that is also performing as an official festival artist. We have not received enough demos or at least attendance confirmation of DJs from Tastyfresh.com to fill up the 24 hours of “live” time we would have. Given these two factors, it became apparent that we could not do a quality stage this year. That left us with plan B.
Really about four months, I mentioned to Doug and Kevin that we should do a CD to hand out at the festival. We all kinda looked around at each other (over the phone) and laughed a bit. We knew we need something that people could take away with them to remember the Afterhours Club Stage, but budgeting for this seemed too hard for some reason. I think it was mostly because we wanted to do the generator stage again so bad. In fact, we wanted the stage so bad that we forgot why we were doing the stage in the first place and we could never come up with a solid and convincing list of reasons to support it. In reality, all we wanted was a way to market the Afterhours Club Stage for this year, a way to get people wanting to come back next year and hopefully to point them to Tastyfresh.com so we could further grow the site. That said, in retrospect, the CD is the only solution that does that.
Why a CD? Well, for whatever reason, you never see anyone just giving away free music at Cornerstone. It’s so easy to get a merch booth at the festival for one thing. For another, the festival is a haven to sell used, out of print CDs right next to the new CDs. Everybody is there wanting to buy music, and music is pretty much treasured there by everyone, unlike say your stereotypical torrent user. A free CD will be unique in this environment and if there is one type of music that’s hard to find at Cornerstone, it is electronic music. We will almost have the market cornered for this music… and it’s all for free.
We’re also not talking about some cheesy CD-R in a paper sleeve here. We’re going to professionally press up 1,000 copies of this CD. The disc itself will come with 3 spot colors on it. It will also be placed in a full-color cardboard sleeve. This will look like – no will be – a professional CD. The sleeve will have official Afterhours graphics on the front and on the back will have the track listing, a bit about Christian dance music and a link to Tastyfresh.com. The CDs will be manufactured by NationWide Disc.
Content wise, we’re looking into getting some of the hottest Christian producers to submit unreleased or at least “license-free” material. Under consideration right now are Stryke, Joel Armstrong, Shiloh, Alex B, Dave Richards, Kevin Oneel, Deeflash and more. The CD will be a mixed by Kevin Oneel to recreate the whole Afterhours vibe.
I know that this is a major change in plans from what we proposed almost six months ago now, but it is a necessary one. We plan to have the tracks selected by June 6th, mixing and mastering by June 13th, and manufacturing by June 20th. That should give us a week to have them shipped to us and ready to go when we leave on June 29th.
We are asking for your continued support in this project. Some of you have already given to this cause. If you feel like you cannot support the new plan, we will refund your money. All those who give, will get a copy of the CD.
The whole CD should cost about $910. We currently have about $690. Anything that will receive over this will be put toward any odds and ends expenses that are usually not covered by the festival. I’m personally driving to Birmingham, AL and riding up with Kevin, Brooks, and Alex B. We’re renting an SUV so we have enough room to haul all of our gear and so we only need to take one car to cut down on gas and mileage. The rest of the Afterhours Club staff will be coming in from New York, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and maybe a few other places. In total, that’s about 5,000 miles worth of driving. With gas between $4.00 and $5.00 a gallon, every bit helps.
If you have given already, thank you. If you haven’t and would like to, please do so. We can take money up until about a week before the festival. If you do want a refund, just let me know.
Thank you.
David Richardson
