photo by Dave Wilder	About Benefit Concerts
	booking@davidlamotte.com (800) 995-6825 David performs lots of benefit concerts each year. He can't accept all of the invitations, of course, but if you're considering asking David to perform for a benefit, please read this page. You'll find some tips on making it more likely that David could accept, and some ideas to make it a successful event if so.

What's a benefit?

A benefit concert, by definition, is an event that is intended to benefit some cause or organization by raising funds and/or awareness, usually both.

As with any show, please feel free to get in touch with us and ask for promotional materials to be sent. If there's a person or committee that will decide whether or not this is a good idea, it's helpful to have materials for them to look at and listen to, rather than trying to convince them of how good he is. Some promotional materials can also be downloaded from this web site. We're not 'hard sell' around here, and getting in touch to explore possibilities won't lock you into any commitments.

Pros and Cons

David is well known for his backing of various charities, plays benefits frequently and would love to play them all the time. The driving motivation, of course, is always the cause involved. It may be helpful, though, for you to understand the costs and... well, benefits of performing a benefit concert. Here are some of them:

Benefit Benefits

• Of course the biggest plus is getting to support a good cause, but there are others, too.

• If the organization that is being supported gets involved in helping to promote the event, it can expose David to a new audience that might not have discovered him otherwise.

• Depending on the flexibility of scheduling, a benefit can be a good way to fill a 'dark night' on David's calendar when he might not be performing elsewhere.

Benefit Costs

• It is common to charge less to perform at a benefit concert than a standard show in support for the cause. That means that if the show is scheduled on a night when David would have been likely to do a regular show, David is effectively donating the difference. He's happy to do that to the extent that he can, but it can get expensive over time.

• Booking a benefit locks David into a geographical region, and with the extensive traveling he does, that can keep him from pursuing good opportunities in other regions.

• The costs to David to do a show (travel, promotion, posters, press work, paying office staff, mailing list, etc.) remain fairly constant regardless of what he is paid.

Scheduling

If you can get pretty close to David's usual fees, it's possible to book shows farther in advance and on "on" nights. If you're hoping David will be able to perform for significantly less than his usual cost, look at off nights (Monday through Wednesday) and plan to book on shorter notice. Look at David's calendar to find possible dates that would work with his tour schedule.

Fundraising and Payment strategy

Of course it's good to be able to donate all of the admission charges to the cause, so the ideal scenario is to find a source to pay David that doesn't rely on the 'gate.' This sort of scenario has been successfully organized by quite a few people over the years. Sometimes a church or other organization has sponsored the event so that all proceeds go to the cause. Other times organizers have found ten or fifteen sponsors within a community to chip in to cover David's fees. This can turn the sponsors' donations into more than the original outlay and also creates publicity for the cause - not to mention a great concert.

Promotion

Publicize to the organization's constituency. Draw on organization's mailing list, press connections and presence in the community. If the benefit is for Habitat for Humanity, for instance, make sure you get an article about the concert in their newsletter, preferably before the show rather than after. Get on the agenda of their board meeting and take flyers (which we can provide) to pass out to folks. If they have a local mailing list, see if you can partner with them on sending out a postcard to their local supporters. We can layout and design a postcard for you if you like. Of course, we'll also send a postcard to David's mailing list in the area.

Press

Again, be in touch with the publicist for the organization in your town, region, or even the national office to see if they have tips or connections for getting good articles in your local media. We have press releases that you can customize for your show and get to the newspaper, entertainment magazines, etc. We can also provide publicity CDs that contain resources for media, including an 'interview in a box' with some quotations from David that they can use, or we will happily schedule a phone interview.

Don't be afraid to contact the local TV news, too. We have video we can provide to them if they need it. Lots of local stations have morning news magazines, and David has been known to defy all musician logic and get up at ridiculous hours of the morning to perform on them and be interviewed.

We've done a lot of this, of course, and we're happy to help with all of this in any way we can. Please feel free to be in touch.

Contact Information: bookingATdavidlamotteDOTcom (please change yellow text to appropriate symbols) Lower Dryad Music P.O. Box 551 Montreat, NC 28757 Tel. 828-669-7978 FAX 828-669-7002 For *NON-POSTAL SHIPPING ONLY!* Lower Dryad Music 217 Cragmont Rd. Black Mountain, NC 28711 (where baby offices come from)

International Booking: In an effort to curb spam for Chris, Sonja and Jared, the email addresses listed below are not in a form that an address harvester can pick up. Please substitute the usual symbols for the words in yellow below. European bookings: Chris & Sonja Doerr- MailATdoerrs-onlineDOTde New Zealand bookings: Jared White - jaredATtsDOTcoDOTnz Please note: Neither Chris and Sonja nor Jared is a full-time agent, and both have been clear that they are not interested in booking other artists. Musicians: at their request, I ask you not to write asking them to book you a tour. Thanks for your consideration.