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This will be our third Record Raid at the Peoples Health New Orleans Jazz Market. They're proving to be a great partner, and with their help we're looking to grow this thing bigger and bigger.
When: Saturday June 11th 2016. Event is from 10am to 5pm. Load-in from 9am to 10am, load-out 5pm to 6pm.
Where: People's Health New Orleans Jazz Market, 1436 Oretha Castle Haley Blvd, New Orleans, LA
How much: NEW TABLE PRICING STRUCTURE: $40 per table 8 foot table until May 15th when paid online. $50 if paying day of (with RSVP) or until June 1st Maximum 2 Tables. There will be more than enough very comfortable chairs onsite free for you to use. Vendors must RSVP by June 1st - no exceptions! If this is your first Record Raid, your first table is 50% off (the difference will be refunded when paid online). More on this change later.
What you can sell: Music of any format, vintage, used or new. Record labels are free to sell their music as well. Consumer audio equipment is great too, in fact there's always somebody there looking for a turntable. Music-related ephemera (books, movies, memorabilia, t-shirts) are OK so long as they're not the focus of the table. We do make some exceptions, so feel free to ask.
What you can't sell: Food and drink. As above, Crafts are generally discouraged unless they're clearly a "side item", musical instruments are discouraged, though you may leave a paper at your table letting people know (so long as they're not the focus). You should be selling *something*, for instance you cannot set up a table promoting another event.
About the Record Raid: This is our sixth year and our last show was our best one yet. We counted about 400 visitors at our last show and we only seem to be gaining more momentum. Our shows are casual and a little funky. We try to keep entry free and tables fees low to keep the crowd diverse and not turn any potential customer away. We want it to be a place where music lovers congregate and can talk about records.
About the Peoples Health New Orleans Jazz Market: This venue has been a hit with our long-time vendors as well as new ones and customers. It's a beautiful space and they enjoy working with us. Load-in is super easy with a side entrance to the main hall and no obstructions for a smooth handtruck experience.The graphic to the right isn't entirely accurate and there's still a number of spots we can expand into.
The jazz market has a bar, though I've been assured that it's still all-ages. We had food outside for sale from a local pop-up last time that went over really well, so we'll do that again. The bathrooms are nice too.
The one bummer here is that there's no dedicated parking, though there's usually enough nearby on the street. We ask that you please repark your car after unloading to allow others to unload and make things easier for customers.
There are some walls with outlets on them. If you need this, people let me know and I'll try to reserve a table near an outlet for you.
Possible Friday options
I spoke with the coordinator about different ways we can expand this event, and one suggestion we spoke about was having a Friday night sale happening alongside a concert performance. Vendors that set up there would pay extra, but would be able to leave their setup overnight. We're still working on this plan, it's not 100% certain to happen, so watch this space.
Other details
Table location is first-come first-serve. You may not provide your own table. You may bring other display racks etc as long as they don't get in anybody's way. You may sell items underneath the table. If for any reason you need to cancel, refunds for the tables are available up until June 4th.
It's generally a REALLY good idea to have a Square or some way to accept credit cards. We'll never force you to accept credit cards, but it's nice for customers. The nearest ATM during the last show was 3 blocks away -- not ideal but we've looked into onsite ATMs and they're not viable.
We expect to have a table at the front to help people with questions (though the event itself is free). We've been assigning nametags to tables and people. The point is to make sure people know who to talk to when they find records. To be honest, we don't care what your name is exactly, the important thing is that it matches what's written on your table.
I would make sure to bring a handtruck if you have one.
People often ask what they should sell. My answer is always "Play to your strengths". We get a very diverse crowd, and there's often somebody that's into what you have. Our recent poll had a few people complaining that there was too much classic rock and other "beginning record collector" stuff. People are definitely looking for deals, but don't leave the big ticket stuff at home either. Things that I always hear people saying they want to see more of: punk, reggae/ska, 90's-2000's indie rock.
About the table price hike
The Jazz Market comes at a price. They're actually bringing it down after such a successful event last time, but we did not break even despite a few new attempts to monetize. Additionally, after a scare before the event was open, we agreed that hiring a security officer is necessary (in addition to a check-in person at the door volunteering). So we've upped the prices a bit more (a number of vendors have volunteered to do this), but in order to keep table prices attractive to newcomers we're allowing a first-timer discount at 50% off. It's mostly based on the honor system, but I also remember most of you. If you've been to a few record raids and think you deserve a discount too, think of every previous record raid as one ;-)
As another monetizing option, we're going to have an early bird admission session from 10am to 11am for $5 a head. After that it's all free. Trust me, nobody's getting rich off of this. Record Raid itself is all volunteer, but the rental companies and venues aren't.
Other "attractions"
As usual we expect to have a few DJs. The raffle went OK last time, will probably do it again but to a lesser extent.
One more thing
I'm on my honeymoon out of the country from April 18th to May 2nd. Please email all questions to recordraid@recordraid.com and I'll get to them as soon as I can.
