Townsend Cowboy Entertainer Gathering

Well, our weekend is almost here! The 6th Annual Townsend Cowboy Entertainer Gathering is about to begin. (www.cowboyentertainer.com/ourshow.html )

The Program book is being printed, the banners are going up, the radio, TV and newspaper ads and articles are out there and the performers are coming. Am I ready? Not even kind of!

There's a lot involved in getting one of these together and we actually work on it pretty much all year long with the most pressure these last two or three months. The program book is the hardest part, getting ads, building ads, arranging the book and getting it all printed off by a reasonable date. But, without the revenue produced by the program book, we couldn't do this show. But I don't believe we'd get the numbers of ads we do without this being a fund-raiser for the volunteer Fire Department. After expenses, all of the money for this Gathering goes to the Broadwater Rural Fire District. Joann Shindoll and myself make all the arrangements, do the program book, the promotion and everything. We are not on the list of expenses, other than our travel and so on. We'll have Helena's KBLL radio here doing a remote broadcast from about 1PM Friday until about 5PM. That should be fun

We give the Night Show performers a little for being here and we arrange lodging for them but with current gas prices, we aren't really even covering gas for most of these folks. Maybe someday we can be making enough on this to be able to actually pay performers but we are happy do do what we do for them.

We keep lunch and snacks available in the "green room" all day long, we provide dinner both Friday and Saturday evenings and of course all performers and their companion come into the night show at no cost.

We do this without asking for a percentage of CD sales. That has always been a big issue with me and I personally don't like to attend any Gathering or show where they charge me part of my sales. I won't pay them for the privilege of entertaining their audience! The very few Gatherings I have attended where they do that, I have not checked any of my CDs into their sales area. I just carry them with me and do all the sales myself.

Anyway, I need to get back to work on making my house livable for guests this weekend. This is my once a year housecleaning and I'm not doing as good a job as no one is bringing a wife this year so no woman has to try to exist in my little cave. Guys can handle my lifestyle a little better.