Thank you for your interest in performing at Still Cellars, a distillery and arthouse. We are a truly micro distillery and community arthouse in Longmont, Colorado. We lovingly distill fine handcrafted spirits from whole organic ingredients on site, and craft a wide variety of innovative fresh cocktails. Our arthouse is a space where we host a wide array of exhibits and performances such as: music, theater, film, storytelling, dance, comedy, puppetry, book and poetry readings, salons, and the like and inspired. Our purpose for being is to celebrate and support art and artists of all kinds and in every way that we are able.
Outlined below are some basics about how we operate in general. We want your experience here to be smooth and positive, so do please continue the conversation if you have questions, and/or would like to discuss any changes, alternatives, exceptions, wonders, etc.
Tasting Room Eves vs. Arthouse Eves
Our tasting room is open steadily on Fridays from 4pm – 8:30ish; we typically host live music on Fridays. We generally advertise music as being from 6:30pm – 8:30pm, and though we can be flexible we ask you to factor in our hours to any post-show socializing you might desire. We are committed to not charging a cover price on these particular evenings, and customers freely come and go throughout the duration of these hours. We offer no guarantee of attendance or compensation. We do offer performers a couple of complimentary handcrafted organic beverages ($8-$12 value each), the available use of our PA system and lights, a shiny tip jar, the encouragement for tips, and boundless gratitude. Artists are, of course, welcome to sell merchandise as well! Our space is conducive to gathering a listening audience, but as it is also a tasting room, there may be nights of more chatter and you may feel more like background music.
We reserve other evenings as our “arthouse” evenings. These are for more ‘focused’ or private events. For these events, you as the performer(s) may sculpt the eve to be exactly as you wish. In order to keep the arthouse operational we need to generate arthouse revenue of at least $350 on weekdays and $500 on weekends. We retain all bar proceeds, and generally all event proceeds will go to you. You may choose to charge a ticket price, cover charge, suggested donation, etc. Depending on the details of your event we may discuss with you spliting some portion of your ticket sales in order to help the arthouse cover its expenses. We will happily set up a ticket page on our website if advance ticket sales are desired. A small transaction fee is charged per online ticket sale, but at 2.9% + $0.30 per transaction it is less than most online ticket sales services. You may set your own start time, knowing that we generally open the doors one hour prior to this (i.e., doors at 6pm, show at 7pm). We prefer to serve drinks throughout the evening, and are very good at doing this respectfully and discreetly. We understand that some performances need absolute quiet, and when this is the case request an intermission be built in if possible. On arthouse eves we can offer half-price beverages for up to five primary performers. In terms of gathering an audience these evenings rely a bit more on marketing efforts, depending on how well the event/performer is known in the area. These ‘arthouse eves’ work nicely for ticketed shows, cd releases, songwriters in the round, gatherings, film screenings, fundraisers, etc.
Marketing & Promotion
We will always do our utmost to assist in rallying attendance as desired. Indeed, our own success relies heavily on attendance. We include all open-to-the-public events and performances on our website, in our e-mailings, list in local papers and pertinent music magazines, submit to the local radio station, hang posters and flyers if you deliver them to us (hard copies or digital), post events on facebook/instagram/etc., and do our best to spread the good word to gather a crowd. We expect performers to be similarly motivated to reach out as well, and we ask that you send us all details of your event (time, title, price, description, photos, web links, etc.) in a timely manner well in advance – preferrably a full month since some publications are monthly. If you provide us with a poster or flyer to print, we will cover those printing costs ourselves. All that said, crowds flux unpredictably from night to night, and we can offer no guarantee on ticket sales, attendance, or monetary gain. Please budget, plan, and promote accordingly.
Sound/Video
We have a full PA system, a large projection screen and digital projector, a basic LED stage lighting setup, and access to most music. You are welcome to use any of these, and/or bring your own equipment, music, etc. We ask that you return any equipment of ours to its home when you are done (cables, mics, etc.), and that you take responsibility for our equipment as you would your own. (See equipment list for technical specs/details)
We prefer you to handle the technical demands of your show, and are happy to coordinate in advance in order to lend our good ears, guidance, and technical know-how. We appreciate you planning some appropriate set-up time to work out any kinks before audience begins arriving. When called for we are happy to schedule a visit in advance of your show to set lights, test video, etc.
We take responsibility for staffing and running the door. We consider our comfortable seating capacity to be 40, and are happy to discuss the nuances of this with you to suit your event. For ticketed shows, please send us your list of comps in advance. When pre-selling tickets, please let us know if you want any reserved to sell at the door. We will pass along all ticket sale proceeds within one week of your event; let us know if you’d prefer us to mail a check or whether you’ll pick it up when it’s ready.
Thank you again for bringing your event to our space and for helping to bring the arthouse to life. We look forward to hosting, and are available to discuss any questions or other desires, etc. you may have.