After a sun-soaked day of watching Superchunk and Spoon and all those other bands, we went home and slept in.
Tre Brashear and others organizing the second Maha Music Festival woke up the next morning to clean up.
And while you moved on to other shows, Brashear and his buddies started worrying about next year.
Right now — about nine months from the third annual Maha — Brashear and other Maha organizers are trying to lock down sponsors.
“That decides budget. That decides everything,” he said.
They can’t move ahead and plan any of the stuff most people care about (date, bands, venue, etc.) until they have a budget in front of them.
So who are we going to see on the stage next summer?
No one knows. Yet. They’re looking forward to booking artists in January and February. Booking agents already have expressed an interest in getting their bands on Maha’s 2011 roster.
“We’re definitely on the radar now,” Brashear said.
It helped that the 2010 fest went extremely well.
“This year was a success all the way around,” Brashear said. “Our sale numbers were better, and the people who were there stayed for the whole day. That helped with our vendor and alcohol sales. It was a really fired-up, hard-drinking crowd.”
Fan reaction was good, press reports were good, bands said they enjoyed the experience and the festival’s bottom line was in the black.
A year earlier, the first Maha barely broke even.
“We learned a lot the first year; we broke even; we had fun,” Brashear said. “This year, we knew a lot, and we had money left over, which is good.”
OK, we’ll ask one more time. What’s in store for next year?
Brashear will tell when he knows who his sponsors are.
But at the very least, expect to spend a Saturday next July at the third annual Maha Music Festival.
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