Don Francisco - Host a Concert

If you would like to host one of our concerts,
please email us at

rmmconcerts@earthlink.net.

Please include the name of your city and state in the email subject,

and let us know a bit about your ideas for the concert.

>==<<>>==<

Hello, this is Don. Yep, it's really me. I'm personally taking over my own concert booking now. If you write to the above email address, it will come to me, and I'll answer you. Please read the information below before you do.

Concert requests will be accepted for dates in March and April or July and August.

Concert requests will be grouped into geographical areas so driving tours can be set up. Mike Banta and I will tour with our sound system. Wendy will come when she can.

Flexibility with your date will help to ensure that a concert can be arranged.

Concert costs/fees: $1500 plus travel for a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday; $1000 plus travel for any other night. Travel, $350 per sponsor. Concert sponsors are also responsible for two prepaid comfortable, quiet hotel rooms with high-speed internet the night of the concert. The $350 travel fee also functions as a deposit-- your date will be guaranteed when we receive your deposit. It is refundable until 90 days before the concert date, or if we cancel. We won't cancel, however, barring a real disaster. The concert fee should be given to Mike the night of the concert as a cashier's check made out to Rocky Mountain Ministries. We're a tax-deductible 5.01c3 organization.

Conference & Retreat costs/fees: $2500 per weekend plus travel during touring months. Local conferences and retreats are the same cost, but can be scheduled all year. Consider having your event in Colorado!

In the event that a concert won't fit into a driving tour due to distance (say, all our requests are from the Northwest except one from Chicago), we'll get on a plane for you if you'll cover two airfares and two nights' lodging. ("Airfare" includes baggage charges and airport parking fees at whatever airport we have to fly out of.) The sponsor will also need to supply most of a sound system (speakers, power amps, mike stands and cables).

Local concerts are a slightly different matter. If you want a concert anywhere within a day's drive of Denver (10 hours or less) there are no blackout dates-- any time of year is OK. Another big plus for local events is that you'll definitely get a trio-- Wendy will come, too. We'll need rooms for two nights instead of one if the drive's more than three hours, however.

Concerts, conferences, and retreats outside the above parameters (not local or in the specified touring months) begin at a fee of $3500 plus expenses (two airfares, hotels, car rental, meals, etc.). This is not intended to discourage these events, but is a reflection of the real costs of doing them.

Hints and Tips: Have you thought of a house concert? Especially for a weeknight, if you or a friend has a living/dining room that could seat about 50 people, why not use that? Sell seats for around twenty bucks. People would get a great concert up close and personal! Get your friends to bring their friends, etc.; tell everyone you know! These can actually be the most fun of all. (You don't need to spend anything to advertise these, either: It's just word of mouth.)

If you're concerned about recouping your financial investment in a larger venue, don't be afraid to spend money for advertising. Don't think, "Don Francisco's so famous I'm afraid we'll be overrun if we advertise!" Successful concert promotion takes money and effort. Get as many spots as you can afford on your local "Classic Rock" station, starting about three or four weeks out; newspapers are always hungry for stories and news, so use them-- and buy ads, too; put up posters everywhere! Get the concert mentioned at other concerts and in church bulletins. If there's a Christian radio station that has an Oldies show, buy a few spots on that show. Use PSA's, of course, but if that's all you do, attendance is almost guaranteed to be tiny. If you decide to sell tickets to a concert in a larger venue like a school or civic auditorium, we suggest a price of $10-$20.

Another method for raising funds is to create a handout for the concert, selling advertising in it to local businesses. Don't be afraid to ask wealthy believers to underwrite the concert's expenses (they might want to do one in their house!).

Prison ministry: If we're doing a concert close by, we'll do the best we can to make room for a prison concert. Email us.

We'll be happy to give advice along the way if you feel you need it. We have been doing this awhile.... And if your idea for an event is totally outside the box and doesn't fit any of the parameters above, email anyway. The worst we can do is say no.