NewSong will again host the Winter Jam Tour.
How does a tour sell out every date without ever putting a single ticket on sale? The organizers of the annual Winter Jam Tour have perfected the formula and they're confident that it will once again pull in packed houses in 2017.
The tour kicks off Jan. 6 with a show at the Charleston (W. Va.) Civic Center and will hit 46 cities through April. With 10 of Christian music's biggest stars on the roster, Winter Jam will include sets from such popular acts as Crowder, Britt Nicole, Tenth Avenue North, Andy Mineo, Colton Dixon, Thousand Foot Krutch and tour creators and hosts NewSong. Among the arenas on the roster are: Atlanta's Georgia Dome, Allstate Arena in Chicago, Toyota Center in Houston and BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla.
"'Ticketing’ is a misnomer," explained Brian Reese, event manager for Premier Productions, the tour's promoter. "We take $10 donations at the door, so there's actually no ticketing at the door at all." Instead, the tour staffs venue doors with volunteers who collect "expected" donations, with Reese saying there's typically "a bit" of a disparity between Winter Jam's paid count and the actual drop counts.
"We typically expect to see a five percent disparity between the paid and actual drop count," he said. But Winter Jam has been going to a lot of these same venues for years and the tour has agreements with most of them to settle any disparity, which Reese said has never really been an issue in the past.
That means that general admission tickets for the show are available only on the day of for the suggested $10 donation, with no advance purchase necessary for attendees 2 years old and up. Members of Jam Nation ($49.99 per membership) get free tickets with early admission, priority seating, a limited-edition tour t-shirt, collectible pass, early-bird on-site merchandise shopping, a chance to meet and chat with some of the artists and other special offers. The shows will also feature a Prejam Party featuring sets from OBB, Sarah Reeves and Steven Malcolm, as well as appearances from "Duck Dynasty" star Sadie Robertson and author/evangelist Tony Nolan.
Kevin Preast, SVP of Event Management at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay, Fla., said the venue has been hosting Winter Jam for several years, and though the unusual ticketing process took some audience education at first, now buyers seem to understand how it works. "No one is turned away, even if they don't have a donation, but we usually have to turn some people away because it’s such a family-friendly show and more people show up than we can accommodate," Preast said. He expects 18,500 for his venue's Jan. 18 show.
"It's obviously very unique because of the donation, and most touring shows want some kind of guarantee of what they can expect from an audience standpoint," he said. "This is a numbers-driven business and loading in and having no idea how many people will show up would be nerve-wracking for a 'normal' show. But now that it has brand equity, and you can plan on a packed house, it's just a matter of execution."
Reese said part of the reason the ticketing process works is because the tour typically visits the same venues year after year. One of the challenges with new buildings is explaining the process of ticket-taking, which involves a hefty volunteer effort. "Our ticketing is managed by [us through] a third party, which means the guest list and comps are also managed through our team," he said. "From a venue standpoint it's very unique because every venue handles it differently in terms of how they scan people in. Some use tally counters at every entrance – we have a bucket for donations with every tally counter and a supervisor at that set of doors – and every 10 minutes we take a total and get it to the event manager, and they pass it on to our promoter rep on site so we can track how many seats are available."
Some venues use turnstiles and, in the case of ticket scanners, the production prints up dummy tickets that can be scanned as patrons enter, which helps create a more accurate total to report to Ticketmaster or whatever ticketing system the venue uses. "With no presale in advance, it's very important to get an accurate floor layout drawn up so we know the accurate capacity," he said, noting that the show is presented in a 360 format that is not technically in the round, but features audio and production all the way around.
Winter Jam's staffing runs around 125-150, with 12-20 volunteers collecting donations at each venue and 40-50 volunteers from the tour's presenting sponsor, Holt International, on site to help distribute information packets on their child sponsorship efforts. The tour also travels with a small PA system and stage that is set up outside the venue for an unplugged set from some of the performers for the patrons who are unable to get tickets on the day of. The five-truck tour employs 15 riggers, 24 hands and 4 loaders to hang a 001850,000-pound production.
The event typically hits National Hockey League and National Basketball Association arenas, with the largest show slated for the Georgia Dome in Atlanta for approximately 30,000 fans and smaller markets typically drawing 7,000-8,000; the average attendance is about 15,000. "This is how we've always done it… I say tongue in cheek to the chagrin of many venues we work with," Reese said. "We know doing advance tickets would be easier, but to do the type of touring we're doing with 10 bands for $10 a head and a full production – five trucks, plus a catering truck, 13 buses, 125 touring personnel – and what ends up being more like $8.75 a head… it has to be done this way."
Premier has its own ticketing system, but Reese said even they couldn't do it that cheap because of the overhead. And if they got into advance ticket sales, they would have to add in fees and staffing costs to serve the 500,000-plus fans they expect to see. It's vital that they keep doing it this way, he said.
Besides, despite the low ticket price, the tour is able to make money – Reese would not specify how much – thanks to a number of sponsors, including Liberty University, Samaritan Ministries, Premier Vacations & Events, Xtreme Conferences, Camp Electric, Texas TransEastern and Wayne E. Bailey Produce.
Reese said that although alcohol sales are off the table, venues make "good money" on food and beverage because so many patrons line up six or more hours early to get a good seat and are hungry by the time they walk in the doors. "They're coming in looking for dinner, a meal for a family or church group and the margins are not as great, but [the venues] do well," he said, adding that the tour does not share in any food and beverage take.
Amalie Arena's Preast said concession sales have been decent at his venue in the past, with a "relatively low" per cap because of the lack of higher-ticket alcohol sales.
The reason so many venues go the extra mile for the show each year, though, is because of the loyalty of Winter Jam's fans, according to Jake Carswell, the tour's producer along with NewSong Ministries. "This tour started 20 years ago and has grown from one concert to 60 cities in all the major North American arenas," he said. "The repeat customer base is very strong because the model is built on brand loyalty. The core audience is church groups and youth groups and they put this show on their calendar every year."
That loyalty is stoked by the unusual sight of almost all of the artists coming out after the show to sign merch and take pictures with fans, oftentimes until after midnight. "Or when the venue runs us off," Carswell joked.
Interviewed for this story: Kevin Preast, (813) 301-6500; Jake Carswell, (615) 614-8421; Brian Reese, (336) 887-3582