Edinburgh Blues Club Statement
Since March 2014 the Edinburgh Blues Club has been bringing international calibre blues acts to Scotland’s capital with the support of local blues artists and during that time we have had some amazing and very memorable appearances at the club. In general the shows have been very well attended and over the course of the last few years, allowed us to build up cash reserves which have enabled us to bring bigger artists to the club in bigger venues.
However the last few months have seen a worrying trend which started with the Edinburgh Blues N Rock Festival which we promoted on 22 September this year. While the performances were excellent, we were short of around 100 ticket sales in order to make the event break even. More concerningly each of the subsequent Edinburgh Blues Club shows since then have seen the club sustain further losses. This does not bode well for the future of the club.
While we have always positively encouraged people to attend our shows to maintain a feelgood factor around the club, we cannot allow the club and its supporters to be too complacent. We feel that it is important to highlight our current position at this time. Thankfully our membership has largely remained stable, although we do notice that some of our members not attending as regularly as they used to do. So far we have had a mixed response in terms of ticket sales to our ambitious forthcoming programme, particularly in the early part of 2019. Strong advance sales are crucial for these shows.
We firmly believe that the Edinburgh Blues Club brings a superb range and variety of acts to Scotland who would otherwise not perform here at value for money prices. We hope to be able to do so for the foreseeable future. However in order to sustain the ability to do so, we would need to see either an increase in the number of blues club members or increased advance ticket sales for some of our shows in particular. Unfortunately if this does not materialise then we may have to regretfully consider postponing or indeed cancelling some of the artists who are currently scheduled to perform at the club. Going forward it will be less likely we are able to bring internationally renowned artists to the club unless we see an increase in the numbers attending.
We thank everyone who has attended the club in the last five years and hope that in the future you will continue to do so.
To join the Edinburgh Blues Club (and never need to buy a ticket again) by annual or monthly payment please click: http://www.edinburgh-blues.uk/join-2/
Forthcoming Edinburgh Blues Club shows: http://www.edinburgh-blues.uk/#focus
