SUBMITTED PHOTO ESPLANADE A promo photo of one of the three Pay What You Will performances coming to the Esplanade in the facility's More More More 2018019 Program of Events.
We all work hard for our money. When it comes to spending it on entertainment we all want to make sure that we get the best bang for our buck. Whether it’s curling up on the couch with popcorn binging Netflix, heading to Canalta Centre to see the Tigers get the goal light going, or heading to the Esplanade for another amazing event, we all want to have an experience that we walk away from satisfied.
This can sometimes prevent us from trying new things we aren’t familiar with. As an arts presenter, I always ask myself how to get people exposed to the variety of the performances we offer. How do we build our dance audience? How do we get more people out to family programming? How do we fill the theatre for an incredible unknown artist that years from now will be filling arenas?
There are always costs to produce the events, from the artist fee to the technical equipment to the staff that is there to keep everyone happy and safe. However, we consistently work to keep our ticket prices as low and reasonable as possible. While this helps to a certain degree, there is sometimes a hesitancy from the public to spend their hard-earned money on a risk; an event they aren’t certain about. We are all cautious when it comes to a show or performer that is relatively unknown.
This year we are working to make some of our programming even more accessible and with no risk! We are introducing a Pay What You Will program for three of our performances. All three are family friendly, high quality performances that we want to ensure the theatre is full for! It’s a new take on the age old ‘pass the hat’ tradition that relates to street entertainers.
The program is quite simple. Tickets are required but are completely free, and you must commit that the tickets you pick up will be used: whether you use them yourself, give them to a friend, or get them back to us. When you arrive at the show, you will be given an envelope with a slip inside of it. You can choose to put as much as you would like in the envelope. There will also be a way to put your credit card number down. After the show, our ushers will collect the envelopes as you leave.
The program has proven extremely successful across the world and has been shown to drastically increase audience participation in programming. It allows everyone to experience the performance and determine the value for themselves.
We are looking forward to bringing the Pay What You Will program to Medicine Hat at the Esplanade. This is one of the opportunities of our MORE MORE MORE 2018-19 Program of Events.
Find out more about the three Pay What You Will shows and MORE of the exciting year to come at our free event on Sept. 10 at 4 p.m. on our main stage. There will be tastings by our On-Stage Series sponsor Medicine Hat Brewing Company and the live music of Strum and Bow (Trent of Mahoney on guitar and Jacqueline on cello).
Trampas Brown is cultural facilities supervisor at the Esplanade.
