BIG PLANS UNDERWAY FOR 2015 PLEASANTVILLE MUSIC FESTIVAL

July 11, 2015 may seem a long way off, but for the new leadership of the Pleasantville Music Festival, it’s right around the corner. And plans are already underway.

“This is exciting,” says new Executive Director Andy Goodman, who leads a team of roughly 30 enthusiastic volunteers with expertise in marketing, operations, fundraising, contracts, staging, and of course music. “It’s amazing how much talent and energy is out there. All these people who love the Festival, have gone to it for years, invited friends from out of town, planned their vacations around it. And everyone has great ideas. There’s so much love and respect for what the Festival has already accomplished and so much commitment to help it grow.”

BACK WITH THE PEAK

Returning to the team again this year as the media sponsor are WXPK-FM 107.1 the Peak and its parent company, Pamal Broadcasting. “I’m personally thrilled that the Peak is back again for a 10th year,” says Goodman, an avid listener since they went on the air in 2004. “The Peak and Pamal bring tremendous experience and firepower. And of course they’re great at getting the word out.”

CREATING BUZZ EARLY

Getting the word out is one of the chief priorities of the Pleasantville Music Festival team. That includes a completely refreshed website, pleasantvillemusicfestival.com, along with their already-vibrant Twitter account, a new Facebook page and Instagram account, and an e-newsletter to keep subscribers up-to-date about developments, sponsors, and artists. “We want people to get involved right now, to feel that same excitement, engagement, pride, and sense of ownership that we feel.”

STARTING EARLY — FUNDING

Another chief priority this year is funding. While most income from sponsorship, ticket sales, and vendor fees tend to come late in a Festival cycle after performers are booked, the Festival sponsorship team is working hard to increase major sponsor participation early in order to amass a higher budget for attracting headliners.

“We’re already starting to see bands announcing their summer tour plans. Getting sponsor commitment now will allow us to go in with confidence and make firm bids.”

Along with reaching out to major sponsors, the Pleasantville Music Festival will soon launch a new Kickstarter campaign, so that fans of the Festival can join in the spirit early and get discount advance tickets and other festival-related premiums.

“The truth,” says Goodman, “is that people who come to the Festival love it. They love the backyard feel, the positive vibe, hanging out with friends. They love discovering these up-and-coming gems along with the headliners. This is New York’s Backyard Jam. We want to appeal to people who consider this ‘their festival’ and let them know that by buying their tickets now instead of waiting after talent is booked, they can both get a great discount and actually help us to bring in the amazing talent we’re looking to attract.”

About doing a Kickstarter in the middle of the holiday season, “We talked about that. But our sponsorship team loves the idea of offering Festival tickets as stocking stuffers. ‘Honey, I got you a ticket to New York’s Backyard Jam, and these tickets are actually going to help pull in the talent so it’s a bigger show.’ Not a bad gift.”

ABOUT THE TAGLINE

According to Goodman, the tagline “New York’s Backyard Jam” was formed in the very first volunteer meeting and went well with the Peak’s own tagline, World Class Rock for New York’s Backyard. “We all sort of arrived at it at the same time, and we loved it, and the Peak loved it too, so it stuck.”

HOW TO GET INVOLVED

To learn more about the Pleasantville Music Festival past and present, go to the newly relaunched www.pleasantvillemusicfestival.com. There you can learn how to get involved as a volunteer, get your business involved as a sponsor, subscribe to the newsletter, and be on the list to know when the Kickstarter is ready for your participation. You can also use the links to go to their Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram pages.