BOXSTOCK® 2024 - what's involved in getting it to happen.

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We've managed to pull it off again, the 10th edition of BOXSTOCK - The UK Cigar Box Guitar Festival®. It's never easy or simple, but we keep on doing it as a service to the UK CBG community. There's a lot involved - finding a venue, fixing a date, booking the acts, selling tickets and running the event on the day. We thought that the venue for last year's event, the Halton Turner Brewing Co. was good, but we felt that we were lucky with the weather as were able to use the courtyard for the daytime, but we were worried that if the weather was poor, it might be a bit small for the daytime sessions. We also had reasons to believe that the venue might not continue to be in business...after Boxstock® '23 we got the vibe that they were struggling to put on events and their opening hours seemed to be very limited, so we felt a return booking wouldn't be a good idea. Indeed, our predictions were correct, and sadly they stopped trading earlier this year.

We'd sort of let the date drift a bit for organising another event, as I was under a lot of pressure. My mum died just a few day's after last year's event, and after a busy summer festival season I'd been very busy dealing with probate and getting her house ready for sale, so time was marching on if we were to do a Boxstock® '24.

In February I was asked to play at a birthday party party for Dominic Antonucci, assistant director of Birmingham Royal Ballet (yes, I move in some very elevated circles!) and it was at Iron House, Birmingham. Straight away on entering the venue I felt it might work for Boxstock, so Anne and I arranged a meeting with the owner, struck a deal and set a date for our event for October.

I wanted to try and get some performers who we hadn't had before, so contacted Stompin' Steve who I'd seen at Upton Blues Festival, then La Durance Blues Band from France messaged me, and I was also in touch with another solo performer, Howlin' Mat. That was that pretty much sorted...although there was a fair bit of searching around before we arrived at the lineup.

As the venue had a limited capacity (but round about the numbers we'd had at previous events), we decided to ticket the daytime and make a nominal charge for it. Getting the finances right is important for us - we don't aim to make a profit but we can't afford to make a substantial loss, and we need to keep ticket prices at a reasonable level.

Sorting out the sound and other practical matters is something that over the years we've got covered, as we've acquired pretty much everything we need to run the event. As we had a band coming from France and they were flying in, they asked us to provide backline amps and a drumkit. This wasn't a big deal - the only thing I hadn't got was a bass amp, but I managed to get a decent Carllbro bass combo..small but plenty loud enough for the venue...and a mere £36 thanks to eBay! Just to give you some idea of what we typically need to run the event, here's a brief checklist:

PA - 2 x Mackie 450 speakers, stands, Mackie 12 channel desk, 2 x monitors, 6 mics, mic stands DI boxes and cabling
Fender guitar combo
Session guitar Combo
Carlsbro bass combo
Full drum kit - bass drum and kick pedal, floor tom, 2 x toms, hi hat, cymbals, stool
Stage lights
Tables for traders
Boxstock sign
"A" board sign
Workbenches for workshops
Tools for workshops
Front of house payment system and cashbox
Guitars and slides for learn to play workshops

There's loads of other stuff we also have, such as our own stage risers and a 2nd smaller PA system in case we need one for open mic sessions etc.

On top of this we also bring our own stall, so it was two trips with a full van to get it all there. Fortunately we were able to set up most of the stuff a day in advance and finish loading-out the day afterwards.

Just days before the event, Stompin' Steve had to cancel due to injury, but I wasn't too worried, as I could cover the spot myself. As well as things going wrong, some things go right - Hollowbelly said he'd do a feature conversation with me, as did Jim Simpson of Big Bear Music, then the Dusk Brothers said they'd like to come and play a short set in the afternoon. These sort of bonuses come about through knowing people in the scene, but it's their enthusiasm and generosity of spirit that are at the heart of it.

We were also fortunate to be helped by Chris Barrow and Jane, my wife, who ran the door for much of the event, and Chris and Harry who ran the PA, taking care of the open mic sessions and keeping the evening gig on schedule. This sort of help is invaluable - it's a tiring job to keep the show running, and this sort of practical help lifts so much pressure off me and Anne.

Just a little aside - you might wonder why we use the registered symbol alongside the Boxstock® name. It's not an affectation, it's a legally registered name. Way back when we did have a situation when someone was also trying to run an event called " The UK Cigar Box Guitar Festival" or some such. It was very close datewise to Boxstock, and we felt that it could jeopardise our Boxstock event (when we running it in Manchester). It was organised by people we knew, so we tried to appeal to their better nature to try and better co-ordinate things. There was a very real danger of us loosing money if people went to their (albeit smaller) free event instead of ours, as we had performers from USA and Finland booked. If I recall, commonsense and co-operation prevailed, but we did take the steps of affording ourselves some sort of protection by registering "Boxstock - The UK Cigar Box Guitar Festival®"with the Trade Marks Registry...so now you know!

We are already thinking about next year...watch out for further details!

John and Anne.

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