Greetings [[name]],
IN THIS ISSUE
Festivals & Fun
* Reggae Festivals This Week
* Recipe From The Caribbean Cove: Chicken Stock
* Fun & Games: What's Patois for party/dance/session?
(for answer, see below under Fun & Games)
The Business of Promoting Reggae
* Reggae Festival Guide News & Offerings
* Ask A Question: How do I create a newsletter for my band?
* Marketing Tidbit: How to Shop for a Web Designer
* About Reggae Festival E-Guide and Contact Us
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Reggae Festivals This Week
The festival listings are believed to be correct; please
contact the promoter directly for more information.
Wednesday-Thursday, May 19-20, 2004
Summer Reggae Open Air Mit Mellow Mark
Herzogenaurach, Germany
http://www.beepworld.de/memberdateien/members20/der_clubhasser/openair_colour_ready.jpg
Hotline: +49913262482
Saturday-Sunday, May 22-23, 2004
Annual Atlanta Legends of Rasta Reggae Festival
Atlanta, Georgia, USA
www.legendsofrastareggaefestival.com
Hotline: 281-893-0044
Saturday-Sunday, May 22-23, 2004
Taste of New Orleans Food & Music Festival
Clear Lake, Texas, USA
www.tasteofneworleansfestival.com
Hotline: 281-893-0044, ext 3
Are you a reggae festival promoter? Post festival at
www.reggaefestivalguide.com/post_festival.html
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Recipe from the Caribbean Cove
www.thecaribbeancove.com
Chicken Stock (c) 2004
Stock is a flavor enhancer for many dishes and a
base for many sauces to pour over meats or rice and
peas! Plan to be close to the kitchen for several
hours as it will take some time to extract all the
flavor from the ingredients.
Ingredients:
2 Fresh Roaster Chickens
-OR-
2 Cooked Roasted Chickens
1/2 lb beef neck bones
1 whole onion
2 cloves garlic
2 sprigs of thyme
2 stalks celery
cloves
whole allspice
kidney beans
Directions:
The bones of the chicken skeleton are used as the base of
the stock. You can either debone the fresh chicken, and use
the carcass and giblets in the stock (saving the breast,
thigh and wing pieces for another recipe) or you can use the
carcass from a supermarket roasted chicken - debone the
cooked chicken and serve the pieces immediately, while
reserving the carcass for stock. You can add the juices from
the cooked chicken to the stock, or add it to gravy to
serve immediately with the cooked chicken pieces.
Chop the onion into quarters, and the celery stalks into
halves, and add to the chicken carcasses and beef bones to
a 6 qt stockpot and fill with water. Set over high heat.
Add garlic, thyme, 2-3 cloves, a pinch of pimento, and a
handful of red kidney beans to pot.
Monitor heat and just before the water comes to a boil,
reduce to a medium simmer, about half heat, uncovered.
Return occasionally to the pot to stir, scrape the sides of
the pot, and enjoy the developing aroma of your stock.
This can take three to four hours.
When the meat on the beef neck bones is tender, and joints
of the neck bones part easily, the stock is done. Remove the
beef neck bones to a separate dish and set aside to cool -
this is "chef's privilege" to nosh on the tender beef as a
reward for tending to the stock for so long!
Place a large colander or strainer over a second pot, which
will collect the stock. Remove the biggest chicken pieces
to the colander to drain. Empty the colander and then pour
the remainder of the stock through the colander into the
second pot.
To remove the fat, allow the stock to cool and skim the fat
from the top. If freezing, you can remove the fat after you
remove it from the freezer and let it thaw out a little.
You can then use the stock immediately in other recipes or
separate into 1 cup and 2 cup portions in 1 quart freezer
bags, and store in the freezer.
Reserve Vegetable Liquids
Liquids used to boil or steam vegetables may be reserved for
future use. For example, when boiling potatoes, drain and
reserve liquid for use in a vegetable curry. We also like to
reserve the liquid from steamed green beans or asparagus -
it may be added directly to a chicken or beef stock or used
on it's own in a future dish.
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Fun & Games
What's Patois for party/dance/session?
"Bashment"
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Food For Your Caribbean Event!
Authentic Caribbean Cuisine
Catering for Special Events, Parties and/or Receptions
Dishes such as Jerk Chicken, Rice and Peas,
Ackee & Saltfish, and Johnny Cakes - you name it!
The Caribbean Cove
San Francisco Bay Area
510-531-2303
E-mail: infothecaribbeancove.com
Website: www.thecaribbeancove.com
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Reggae Festival Guide News & Offerings
News:
The new Reggae Festival Guide magazine is officially
in production and going to the press next week. Hang
tight as it will be hitting the U.S. city streets soon.
For a subscription, go to:
http://www.reggaefestivalguide.com/subscriptions.html
Offerings:
Information on how to advertise in this Reggae
Festival E-Guide can be found at:
http://www.reggaefestivalguide.com/eguide.html
Need Reggae Web site Low Cost & Quickly?
Promoters Get a Web Page for Your Festival for $185:
www.reggaefestivalguide.com/advertising/web_promo_page.html
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Ask A Question
How do I create a newsletter for my band?
By Marc Gunn, Bard
I first started publishing my band newsletter during
the Summer of '98. I tried the snail mail route. It
was exhausting. Electronic newsletters (aka ezines)
were the way to go. I must've tried it all too. I
promoted gigs, told of our latest accomplishments, gave
away a free mp3 every month. Some of it worked. Some
didn't.
Here are some tips I've learned about running my
band newsletter:
Give away something for free. It can be as simple as
an MP3 download at MP3.com, or a sticker, a free CD
once a month. Well worth the cost for their loyalty.
And it can be a great promo tool to draw people into
signing up for your newsletter.
Hype your band. Tell your fans about all the band news.
Who's reviewed your latest CD? Post rave testimonies
by your fans. Post them on your website too. Be
positive and let them know you are the best!
In the two years I've managed my fan newsletter, I've
had scores of fans write, saying, "Wow! I'm glad
you're doing so well." We weren't. And I didn't lie.
But our many small successes sounded like big ones to
our fans. That is what hype is all about.
Keep it short. Write as if you were writing for a
newspaper. Compose brief paragraphs about your
greatness. Use headlines that make your fans want to
read it. Provide frequent links to your website where
you can post articles or more "further info".
Publish every 7-10 days. This depends on how much
info you get. But as long as the content is short and
informative, people won't mind. If you add a little
drama, like how you're doing on MP3.com, and how they
can help, you'll keep the fans reading. But if you're
not gigging much, and don't have much news. Don't
publish. Give your fans what they deserve, the best.
Don't get upset if people unsubscribe. It happens.
If you lose half your list, consider adjusting your
publishing schedule. But expect that some people can't
deal with a newsletter every 7-10 days. Perhaps every
two weeks is better. I was doing every two weeks until
I realized how much more effective a 10 day schedule was
for our fans. But less than two weeks, and you are no
longer on the fore front of your fans' minds.
Choose a great inspiring name. Something that has
meaning and is fairly informative. Certainly you can
can get by without one, but a good name could attract
people just out of curiosity.
Make it visually appealing. Keep lines short--60-65
characters followed by a hard return. Have a decent
amount of space between sections. Add a table of
contents at the beginning of the newsletter. Text
newsletters work best, at present, but if you decide
on an HTML ezine. Make sure you test it out
extensively beforehand. Graphics need to be attached
to your message. But keep it visually interesting on
all accounts.
Content is King. You hear it all over the internet
marketing circles. Make sure the info you provide is
useful and relevant. My biggest problem is that my
newsletter has subscribers worldwide and until we got
hooked up on MP3.com, it was useless telling our fans
about gigs in Austin. So have info that is interesting
for everyone.
Reward your fans. Give discounts for their loyalty.
Have your CD on sale to newsletter subscribers.
--Bard Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards band
has helped 1000's of musicians make money with their
musical groups through the Bards Crier Music Marketing
and Promotion Ezine. For info, go to http://www.bardscrier.com.
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Marketing Your Reggae Biz Tidbit
How to Shop for a Web Designer
By Kristine Cummins
The first thing people typically think about when
shopping for a Web designer is, "how cool can they
make my website? - let me see their portfolio."
First off, a good Web designer designs a site that
completely reflects the client's style, and should not
be representative of the Designer. A good designer's
portfolio of websites should have a selection of
styles and types of websites. Styles could range
from business conservative to fun and wild. Types can
be basic Web presence site, e-commerce store site, a
single person "talent" site, memorial site etc.
A wonderful Web designer's portfolio is a quarter of
what is important when shopping for a designer. To
find out if a designer is right for you, you may have
to make some phone calls to his/her customers.
Here are the top 3 qualities you should look for:
#1 Recommendations: Does the Designer have a positive
track record with clients, and can offer names and
phone numbers for you to call?
#2 Communication: When you talk about your
requirements, does the Designer confirm details with
you prior to starting the job on topics such as
payment, details of the site, what your needs are, and
the Designer's needs in order to produce the site, and
maintenance once the site goes live? Make sure that
you make a written agreement about ownership of the
Web site; that you are the sole owner of all the
site's content and art (if art is taken and used
someplace else, you will need to make a separate
agreement on that topic). Also, make sure that you are
the owner of your domain (Web address). Anyone can
register a domain; just get online and register your
name before even making the call to the designer.
#3 Reliability: When changes need to be made to the
site along down the road, what is the turnaround time?
Will the Designer be around when you need them - call
their references and ask them about their track record
on making changes.
Finally, go with your gut. Do you have a good feeling
about the Designer? If so, you're on your way to
introducing your business to the world on the World
Wide Web.
--Kristine is the Webmaster of www.ReggaeFestivalGuide.com.
She specializes in custom, affordable, fast downloading Web sites
for small businesses. Call for quote 415-213-1914.
www.kristinecummins.com
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About & Contact Us
The Reggae Festival E-Guide is a weekly ezine through the
summer festival season, and monthly during winter. It is
created by RBA Publishing LLC which publishes 2 popular
print magazines annually: Reggae Festival Guide and Blues
Festival Guide. The publisher, Kaati is a member
of the Reggae Ambassadors Worldwide (#111).
Advertise in this E-Guide: http://www.reggaefestivalguide.com/eguide.html.
RBA Publishing LLC
P.O. Box 50635
Reno, NV 89513
Web site: www.reggaefestivalguide.com
E-mail: newsreggaefestivalguide.com
1-775-337-8344
Please feel free to pass this ezine along to your friends.
However, we ask that you forward it in its entirety.
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To subscribe to this ezine, please go to: www.reggaefestivalguide.com
