The Carlsbad Music Festival will celebrate its 10th anniversary on Sept. 20-22 thanks in part to the power of crowd funding.
When the City of Carlsbad changed the requirements for community special event grants (making it so that only events in their first three years could receive funding) the nonprofit festival's organizers had to find another source for $10,000 they had included in their budget, since they qualified under the previous rules, festival Director Matt McBane said.
They decided to turn to Kickstarter, the popular crowd funding website, to make up for the difference. They launched a 30-day campaign, offering everything from high-fives from McBane to tote bags and autographed posters in exchange for pledges. The project reached its goal on the last day of the campaign. McBane said 107 people contributed to the festival, with donations ranging from three dollars to $1,000.
One risk that the festival took was that should it fail to reach its $10,000 target, the festival would get no money at all. While it made for a stressful final 48 hours, McBane said the hard goal contributed to the successful campaign.
"It helped us create a sense of urgency toward the end," he said. "In the last 36 hours we got 40 new donors and raised $3,600 and made the deadline that we had to reach."
The festival used the Kickstarter page to announce some key acts in the lineup, and used social media to spread word about the campaign, said McBane. These news updates allowed the festival to maintain the interest of the public in the campaign, and allowed the solicitation emails to be more than just repeated appeals for donations.
Despite the success, McBane said the festival will probably not launch another campaign of this kind next year.
"It's kind of a special project," McBane said. "We felt our 10-year anniversary was special, and we were able to build that momentum. If you do those (Kickstarter campaigns) too frequently people would get turned off."
In its 10th year, the Carlsbad Music Festival continues to grow, with more than 50 musical acts scheduled to perform during the festival (last year the festival hosted 35 acts). It begins on Friday, Sept. 20 with a Village Music Walk featuring dozens of short performances throughout the Carlsbad Village, and continues for the next two days with full concerts at McGee Park and the Carlsbad Village Theatre.
When the City of Carlsbad changed the requirements for community special event grants (making it so that only events in their first three years could receive funding) the nonprofit festival's organizers had to find another source for $10,000 they had included in their budget, since they qualified under the previous rules, festival Director Matt McBane said.
They decided to turn to Kickstarter, the popular crowd funding website, to make up for the difference. They launched a 30-day campaign, offering everything from high-fives from McBane to tote bags and autographed posters in exchange for pledges. The project reached its goal on the last day of the campaign. McBane said 107 people contributed to the festival, with donations ranging from three dollars to $1,000.
One risk that the festival took was that should it fail to reach its $10,000 target, the festival would get no money at all. While it made for a stressful final 48 hours, McBane said the hard goal contributed to the successful campaign.
"It helped us create a sense of urgency toward the end," he said. "In the last 36 hours we got 40 new donors and raised $3,600 and made the deadline that we had to reach."
The festival used the Kickstarter page to announce some key acts in the lineup, and used social media to spread word about the campaign, said McBane. These news updates allowed the festival to maintain the interest of the public in the campaign, and allowed the solicitation emails to be more than just repeated appeals for donations.
Despite the success, McBane said the festival will probably not launch another campaign of this kind next year.
"It's kind of a special project," McBane said. "We felt our 10-year anniversary was special, and we were able to build that momentum. If you do those (Kickstarter campaigns) too frequently people would get turned off."
In its 10th year, the Carlsbad Music Festival continues to grow, with more than 50 musical acts scheduled to perform during the festival (last year the festival hosted 35 acts). It begins on Friday, Sept. 20 with a Village Music Walk featuring dozens of short performances throughout the Carlsbad Village, and continues for the next two days with full concerts at McGee Park and the Carlsbad Village Theatre.