FEASIBILITY_STUDY , item 14. PDF 1 MB - Meetings, agendas and ...

A feasibility study prepared for the Black Box TrustNovember 2011of passing trade, people will come down if there is something to see, otherwise there isnot enough passing trade to run the restaurant”.The Bongo Club rent their building from the Edinburgh University, which is provided onreasonable terms, for approximately £50,000 per annum, whereas the Black Box rent theirpremises from a private landlord for £70,000 each year. The Bongo Club‟s building waspreviously a student union, part of a smaller college that was bought over by the University.“People know it is a venue, it works well because we have some students surroundingus, so this is inevitably part of the custom” Venue Manager, The Bongo ClubSimilar to the Black Box, The Bongo Club attract a “quirky” and “bohemian” type audiencedepending on what is put on. Generally, the performances are less mainstream, ranging fromvery small local acts to very large international acts.“You‟ll see your mate‟s daughter one night and your others mate‟s dad another night,our programming goes from jazz to heavy metal across the board” Venue Manager, TheBongo ClubThe Bongo Club hire the venue to artists for them to put on events themselves; occasionallythey will be involved, either through co-promotion or self promotion of a specific event. Howeverlargely, they rent the space and choose the most appropriate events. An early evening slot forlive music, 7pm – 10pm would be charged at £200 to £250 depending on the day of the week. Alate night slot is charged at the same rate, with the exception of weekends, which is charged at£600 – £650, Friday and Saturday nights up to 3am. The venue also charges £5 per hour forrehearsal space during the day. Furthermore, if the space is booked it is charged at £20 perhour, depending on what the artists hiring require i.e. no staff or technical requirements willlower the cost.“A film launch is having the 7-10pm slot for £75 due to an artistic program we are on andtheir staff requirements are low. Basically we hope to cover costs via venue hire and thenseek to make money from the bar” Venue Manager, The Bongo ClubIn total, The Bongo Club has approximately 25 employees which increases to 50 during theFestival period in August. There are 3 core staff that are employed full time, namely the venuemanager, assistant manager and night time operations manager. There are also, 10 to 12 staffwho are employed on an hourly basis, such as security personnel, bar staff, technical staff andPR staff.The Bongo Club has competition from other commercial outlets with similar capacities, mainlyother night club/live music venues.“Because of our success over the years some of them try to appear like an arts andculture type venue. On the arts and culture side we have a few competitors that get setup usually similarly to the way we started off as a sort of collective of people and beingperhaps a little more ad hoc and slowly coalescing and coming together. They aretypically smaller than us and don‟t always have longevity whereas we have managed tostrike a balance between the two and secure a long term lease. It has been a hard spaceto hold on to as it is a small city with a large amount of competition” Venue Manager, TheBongo ClubWhere the initial set-up costs for the Black Box were provided by the Laganside Corporation,Millennium Commission, DCAL and BCC, The Bongo Club received no set-up costs for the39