issue #02 pdf - Razorcake

HOW I (DIS)ORGANIZED
SOME ZINE FAIRS
4 years ago, this guy calls me and
asks me if I can help him set up a
zine fair in a Boston suburb - he
would set up the space, it would be
my job to get the zinesters. Well, it
fell through, as DIY plans sometimes
do, and I started thinking,
SOMEONE should do a zine fair.
That made me sound like the people
who tell me I should do stuff
when they could just as easily do it.
So I decided that since nobody put
on a zine fair in Boston, I would
have to do it.
Fresh out of Mass College of Art, I
asked some friends who were still
there if they could get some space
for a zine fair and Beantown
Zinetown was born.
The first was organizing heavy and
organization low. This was also
before I had computer access, so I
had to use the phone. Bad idea to do
anything like this and put your
home phone # on fliers. Some people
think it's fine to call at 2AM.
Some think it's cool to call at 7AM.
When you are getting calls 19 hours
a day, well, it sucks. The fair went
well - 4 rooms and connecting hallway
space full of zines, music and
spoken word during. Not a bad
event for not knowing what I was
doing.
The second year was a big weird
experiment. My Mass Art got a big,
huge room this time, and we decided
to have acts AFTER the fest, so
as not to distract people from interacting
during set fair time. I booked
too many bands, and while it was
awesome, it was grueling. Unless
you are having a festival that is all
about all day bands, you should
never book more than 4 or 5 bands
for anything, especially after a 6hour
zine event. The bands were
almost redundant anyway, since it
seemed like we could draw a huge
crowd based on the zine fair alone.
6
Year 3. Hmm, Let me
The Twisted Balloon
Zine people are all weird fringe people. At a single zine fair, you can get right wing skinheads and
punk anarchists, straight edgers and drug-obsessed fiends, born-again christians and pagans,
vegans and meat eaters decked head to toe in leather
explain a few things by this point. I
personally think that a zine fair -
being an event where those not
directly involved are expected to
BUY stuff, should be free. I dislike
the idea of charging admission for
something that you are expected to
spend money at. So, it is important
for me to have a zine fair that is free
admission, which means I can't pay
any money for the space, so I turn
to places such as colleges that have
lots of space that can be used free
with the right networking. The
unfortunate part of this, is since a
school and/ or school group is
essentially doing you a favor, you
often have to deal with weird issues
that a paying customer would be
able to balk at.
In the case of Beantown Zinetown
3, we had plans for the event to take
place in the hall BZ2 was in, then
the gym, then the cafeteria, and
back again. This made it hard to
promote until almost the week of
the event since you can't give directions
to an event if you don't know
where it will be. Another SNAFU
was a misinterpretation of a rule
involving admission and money.
The actual rule was that money
taken for event admission needed
to be deposited into a group
account and any payments would
need to have checks cut for documentation
purposes. (The idea is
that if $2000 was taken in at a show
and $1000 went to the performers,
there would have to be a paper trail
for official and tax reasons) The
problem is that someone thought
this meant that no cash could be
used to buy or sell zines - which
caused considerable concern that
never needed to exist. It all worked
out fine, but you could imagine the
stress up until that point.
A lesson learned between BZ3 is
that if you aren't a student at a
school and want to use that school,
make sure that you have close contacts
with a student or student
group. I was informed that the student
group that helped with BZ1-3
knew BZ4 would happen. Of
course, all the individual students
involved had graduated or dropped
out by that point, so when I contacted
those I thought were expecting
me, I was sent a form letter
detailing how the group worked
and how they couldn't except any
outside event requests. Luckily, I
found this out early and was able to
turn to Emerson College students I
know who set up a space there - this
space being even nicer.
BZ4 - well, one thing I learned is
that the ideal setup for a zine fair is
a string of small rooms that are connected.
Separate rooms make the
event seem disjointed; One big
room becomes loud and hectic.
Several rooms connected in a string
allows for an easy flow from one to
another, yet keeps the noise and
business levels to tolerable
amounts. It was a nice accident to
stumble upon.
One odd lesson learned is to consider
a college spring break - on a
plus side, if a school is on spring
break - they don't have much use
for a room and are likely to let people
use the space. On a down side,
they might have different rules
about hours of operations. If the
building normally opens at 8AM,
say, it might not open until noon
during spring break. This was the
case I found out the hard way when
I showed up at 11AM to a crowd of
zinesters locked outside (luckily it
was nice out.) I had learned to tell
everyone involved to show up an
hour earlier than the public was
invited to get set up and problem
solving out of the way. Had I
known the building was locked
until noon…
The event itself was great - zine
fairs are best worried about until a
half-hour before they start, and then
left to themselves. The basic point
is that they are gatherings of cool
people - let the cool people interact
and the rest takes care of itself.
Make sure everyone has everything
they might need and is happy, and
keep in mind that no matter what,
SOMEONE will be unhappy, so
don't worry.
Her are some random thoughts for
those who might embark on such a
task…
FOOD! Food is important. Say, if
you are in a city and there are 3
cool cafes on the same block as
your event, maybe not as much.
Say you have a small 3-hour zine
fair, maybe not, but as a whole, if
you want a long social event, have
food. The two best solutions I have
found are 1) Invite the local Food
Not Bombs to cater. This year, all
food was provided by FNB, who
found it to be a great awareness
builder and fundraiser; or 2) DIY