Drum Circle

[kontara.livejournal.com]

Ok in 2007 you held the Drum and Dance at 9pm and it was well attended with plenty of folks dancing an drumming.  In 2008 you held a class before hand then the drumming started at 11 and was fairly well attended. In 2009 you started it at midnight and held it in  the room next to the Rocky and the attendance was lower.  In 2010 at least you put it back in the better room but still 12 midnight is late.  I can remember in 07 and 08 there were a lot of dancers and kids having a great time early on, but with it starting at midnight I think it has causes a drop in attendance.  Now I am good friends with pixydrum  who moderated it this year and we talked a lot about how much better it would be if it started earlier. 

Comments

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

We would have liked to have started it earlier, but we had to set aside time for the room furniture to be reset. Next year, we'll be at a larger hotel, and hopefully, we'll have more freedom with our schedule.

Drum Circle

[kontara.livejournal.com]

Thank you for replying deguspice,

I can understand limited space if this were something new. But Arisia 07 was also at the Hyatt so the "larger hotel" argument loses some of it's validity.

Also an hour for room reset? Was that at the hotel's request? I'm confused as to why so long. My friend and I joined pixydrum* at 11:30pm and the room was set.....

Re: Drum Circle

[dda.livejournal.com]

But Arisia 07 was also at the Hyatt so the "larger hotel" argument loses some of it's validity.

Scheduling program items and events into limited space is a study in compromise; each year those compromises play out in different ways. I can't really schedule anything loud in the different parts of the ballroom since the airwalls aren't exactly soundproof; this limits when I could put the drum circle, for example. I also don't think you'd be happy with an hour timeslot so it would be preferable to have it later in the evening. And, this year, the person who normally ran it didn't do so which also played a part.

deguspice is right; next year it will be easier to schedule things in general.

Re: Drum Circle

[kontara.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'm a bit confused because the drum circle was not in the ballroom this year, only last year(which was a huge mistake in my opinion) Also it's seems like year after year it gets pushed back further and further. As i stated before it's not friendly for kids or people who do not wish to stay up til 4am. We had a newbie to the con this year who came just for the drum circle, I think if we had been earlier he may have been able to enjoy more of the con.

Please also check out the Belly-dance show feedback thread they are potentially looking for live drummers for the class or some type of joining of the two. http://community.livejournal.com/arisia/359743.html

And yes I am well aware that the moderator changed this year, the person who ran this year is a close friend of mine.

Re: Drum Circle

[dda.livejournal.com]

Ok, I'm a bit confused because the drum circle was not in the ballroom this year...

It wasn't in the ballroom mostly because I didn't have a time when it wouldn't be opposite something that was either louder than it was or would be bothered by the sound. This put it (back) into Program space but they have even more time constraints. To run it for several hours during late evening (prime time) is costly when there are only a few program rooms that can support it.

If the Belly Dancers want to merge into the drum circle, that's fine although it also changes how much time they can be in a large room like Prez CD. But since we will be in a larger hotel with more function space next year, it shouldn't be an issue.

Note also that I've been asked in the past to start the Drum Circle later; those people did want to drum all night. Much of the scheduling is balancing conflicting demands.

Re: Drum Circle

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

The hotel needs time to do each room turn, and sometimes they have multiple room turns happening at once so we need to allocate an hour for the room turns.

Re: Drum Circle

[kontara.livejournal.com]

Thanks.. I understand now! :)

[oakenguy.livejournal.com]

Does this mean Dr. Horrible can start earlier than midnight? It was one of my favorite events last year, is family-friendly, and 12AM seemed like a *really* strange timeslot for it.

[dda.livejournal.com]

Midnight was the only timeslot I could fit both it and Buffy (R-rated) into without even more juggling of other events. Having a musical guest, especially one as popular as s00j, makes it hard to schedule anything opposite it since sound comes through airwalls pretty easily.

Next year there will be much more space so things like this should be easier to schedule.

[jenwrites.livejournal.com]

I know I, for one, would have attended if it had started earlier, because as a day tripper, I need to have enough brain to drive home every night.

response to jenwrites

[kontara.livejournal.com]

Thank You!!!
While pixydrum* was the moderator this year both myself and my friend Wolve were very involved with her to get this ready. We are both drummers and would have loved to have more dancers and even some kids. What better way to tired your kids out for bed time!!! :)

Wolve and myself intend to volunteer to help pixydrum next year formally.