Help Save The Moonshiner's Ball

Friends, we send this out to you with sheepish regret, at a time when all we want to do is post photos and praise the weekend's performances. This year's Moonshiner's Ball - it seems to be unanimous - was the best Ball of them all. 

And yet we still did not come out on top.

This year's losses were half what last year's were, but last year's still linger, drawing interest and demanding payments. The whole thing's starting to snowball on us.  We all work for free, and that's fine. The payoff comes with the glory that is the festival itself.  Any delusions of grandeur we might have had early on are long gone now. We only want it to be sustainable.  We want to see our kids grow up at it, maybe one day performing on the stage themselves. Or selling their art. Or running their own food trucks.  Or becoming part of the festival team. We want a built-in reason to gather with you all every year to catch up, to celebrate or to mourn, to collaborate or rejoice in each other's art and music.  We're in it for the long game.

Festivals make money utilizing three primary revenue streams:  ticket sales, sponsor dollars and alcohol.  Ticket sales are great.  You saw the numbers last weekend.  Just a hundred more full-weekend passes and we'd be passing around a full jar rather than an empty one. The other two sources of income  ... well, that's a different story.  As confident as we are about our product and the value we have to offer sponsors, it’s a challenge to sell a small rural festival – it takes a very special business that truly understands our event and the loyalty it engenders to feel confident investing in it. (That said, if you are affiliated with any such business or organization, or know of anyone who is, please talk to us! We have lots of great perks to offer our partners and sponsors.)

And you know we can't sell alcohol.  Rockcastle County is dry.  So was Madison County.  So was Estill.

All year I've been telling anyone that would listen, "one more loss and it's over."   Joel and I can't pay thousands of dollars every year for a party - a REALLY good party, mind you, but still ... a party.  We're not some kind of hillbilly Jay Gatsbys over here. But now we have another loss, and we can't let it go.  We don't want to go into next year stripping the budget and cutting corners. And we don't want to bring it into the city, where we can get the backing we need. And we don't want to leave Rockcastle Riverside for some wet county with half the character of our righteous new home. 

And we know so many of you all love it the same way we do...

So we thought maybe there are some folks out there who might be willing to give a little extra to keep this thing going.  If a bunch of people give a little, we could probably dig ourselves out of this hole.  We have the team now to clear the final hurdle of financial solvency.  You saw what we did with last weekend's logistics.  We just need one more year to get there.  One more year to build on what happened this past year. One more year to rope in some broader support.

Please don't think we'll love you less if you do not or cannot contribute - you already bought a ticket, for chrissakes, and probably a bucket full of merch as well. That is the most fundamental show of support for this event. We all know there are more worthy causes out there. Folks that need and deserve your charity more. But if you love Moonshiner's and have a little extra to spare, we promise every last penny will go into making next year's show the most mind-blowingly awesome Moonshiner's to date.

Forever onward and upward.

Shine on!