Not to worry guys... I'm on the job.
Just got off the phone with Regge Helton at the "Newton-Conover Civic and Performance Center". It's an old school (complete with a nice auditorium) that was converted into a performing arts center. Recently renovated too.
Anyway, they've got a large auditorium (seats something like 500 + people) that they'd be willing to rent to us on Saturday, Aug. 18th and Sunday, Aug 19th. The stage area is huge; something like 30 ft by 45 ft. They've got a large floor-to-ceiling scrim (cyclorama) backstage that would be perfect for displaying graphics on. I think we could hold the entire event right there on the stage, but if we wanted to we could also place projectors out in the audience (or even on the balcony). They've also got a sound system we can use.
They have *NO PROBLEMS* with us using fog machines or hazers. They have used them 7 or 8 times in the past, and only once did it set off the fire alarm. In that one case, they simply acknowledged the alarm and called the monitoring company to tell them it was a false alarm. They will have a staff memeber present while we are in the building that will be able to do this again if we accidently set off the fire alarm with our foggers.
Now the important part: Cost! He quoted us a rate of $500 for the two days, plus an hourly fee of $10/hour for the one staff memeber that he has to pay to be there to babysit us. So assuming we're there for 12 hours on Saturday and 6 to 8 hours Sunday, we're talking a maximum cost of $700 for the weekend. Not exactly cheap, but it's a far cry from 3 grand...
He also said that we could come in early on Friday and set things up ahead of time. That way when we get started on Saturday we're all ready to go.
He even suggested opening the event to the public, and allowing any donations they made to go to the performing arts center, which could reduce our costs. I thought that such a move might open us up to CDRH issues, so I didn't really pursue it. At the very least, it would drastically increase our liability. Right now I'm not really crazy about opening this thing up to the general public, even in a sleepy town like Newton.
So, whatcha think, guys? Is this something we want to pursue, or should we be looking for something different?
We can also just do a 1-day event if everyone agrees to that. That would reduce the cost a lot. (Note that Reggie is giving us a pretty good discount though because we're booking 2 days. The normal rate is $400 per day + the $10 per hour labor fee.)
Adam