Happy New Year from your Levitt Dayton family!
We often get the question, “What do you do when the concerts aren’t in season?” and there is a lot to that answer!
The Planning Season
One of our friends at a Levitt sister venue changed the nomenclature of “off-season” to “planning season” and we think that is much more apt for everything we do during October to May. This time is spent getting everything ready for the summer concert season so that we can deliver the mission of building community, one free concert at a time.
Levitt UpClose Concerts
This year we instituted a new fundraising ticketed series called UpClose and it’s been a huge hit! These are secret concerts, so you purchase your ticket but don’t know the venue until the day before and don’t know the artists until they come out on stage. Tickets have been selling out within a few hours each month and reviews have been great. If you want to check out the next one in March, tickets will go on sale in February, sign up for our email updates.
Programming the Free Concert Season
Lisa and the team are hard at work working with agents and artists to book an incredible season for you! Lisa likes to call it “concert Jenga” because we try to be intentional about booking a diverse season on many different fronts and then fit everyone into a genre series. It’s like a big puzzle!
Fundraising & Sponsorship
With an operating budget of nearly $1M, we are constantly raising money to make sure that we are sustainable for years to come! Every artist on our stage is paid, we contract a professional light and sound crew, we have security at every concert, we hire janitorial so that audience members are comfortable, and other various operational costs. We raise money through fundraisers, individual donations, and corporate sponsors who receive branding opportunities. If you know someone or you are interested in sponsorship opportunities, you can learn more here. Or donate directly to support the mission.
Educational Outreach and Pop-Up Concerts
Did you know the Levitt Pavilion is more than a concert venue providing free concerts? We also take concerts on the road throughout the whole year bringing music to our community, realizing that there are more barriers to access than a ticket price. We also bring artists into schools for educational experiences as well as hold a week-long day camp in partnership with Signature Educational Solutions at the venue in July.
Building New Audiences
Building community means building an audience! The more people we bring downtown the more folks stay and play, and experience all the amazing things that our downtown has to offer which is a win for everyone. During this time our marketing director and committee are hard at work reevaluating what worked last year, what didn’t and how we can grow our audiences next year. The best way to grow an audience is for those who know how great the concerts are already to tell their friends. So, share the love and bring some new friends with you this year!
After a long, cold planning season we are so excited to see you all when the 2024 Eichelberger Concert Season begins!
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