by Kirby Laney, posted 15 March 2018
Many volunteers make Moisture mayhem possible. It takes a lot of volunteers to bring to life the Festival that fills Fremont with outrageous performers and outstanding acts. Our vaudeville showcase, Moisture Festival, brings over 100 magicians, aerialists, jugglers, musicians, clowns, and the indescribable to our community – and has for 15 years! However, none of that would be seen if not for a varied collection of volunteers who contribute a variety of skills and strengths to making the enchanting magic happen.
As we enter the latest season of Moisture, on now through April 8th, one of those volunteers, Mike Bailey, acknowledges that he came to Moisture Festival with no theater experience. He just wanted to help. Yet, he’s currently volunteering daily, as the Board Treasurer, while he continues his original ‘work’, with hammer and nail, improving the converted theater, Hale’s Palladium, that houses Moisture Festival.
In A Former Life
Bailey found out about Moisture Festival through a very good friend – the mother of Jonathan Rose, a performer. “She took us to a show,” Bailey said, of the first time he and his wife saw Moisture, “They were doing recruiting [for volunteers and donors] with cards on chairs.” Bailey had given time, doing carpentry, for other non-profits, and he decided to see if he could help – and ended up helping build up the stage in the Palladium.
While putting the pieces of the stage together, Bailey got to know Maque da Vis and Simon Neale, two of the founding producers. Together, they built out the green room, dressing rooms, some props, and special rigging, with other volunteers, who came to be known as ‘The Hammerheads.’
“In my former life I worked as an engineer,” Bailey explained. A retired consulting engineer, he lent his knowledge and skills to researching and enlisting advice on the engineering of rigging. For a wider number of acrobats and aerialists to be able to be invited to Moisture Fest, Bailey helped design a rig for the tightrope, the Chinese Pole, and the slack rope. That done, he continued to help da Vis year ‘round with the moving and shifting of equipment and other stuff that seems to always need doing.
“After a few years, somebody asked if I’d be on the Board [of Directors,]” Bailey explained. This time, it wasn’t his engineering skills that got him pressed into service; it was his past experience as CEO for a company that employed more than 100 people. Bailey brought financial experience, and management expertise, to the Board. The Moisture Festival Board deliberately has a mix of people, Bailey acknowledged, “it’s a good blend of internal and external members,” of people from within the show – performers and producers – and those who have business and organizational skills (promotions, marketing, fundraising, etc.) “We’ve got to have that balance of different perspectives.”
There is a divide, Bailey explained. The Moisture Board looks at the mission of the non-profit, and how to maintain it into the future. Simultaneously, the Producers – many of whom also serve on the Board – focus on the operational side of the Festival. The Producers make sure the show goes on, today, and that it sticks to the mission. “They put the thing together, and make it happen,” Bailey explained, doing the inviting and scheduling of performers, setting a theme, and organizing the volunteers who see to the house, the stage, the feeding and the housing of the performers.
‘Every Year Has Challenges’
“It’s a very conversational, collegial Board,” Bailey observed. Its members are friendly, and have fun together, but they can talk seriously about problems that arise – and work to find solutions. “Every year has its own challenges,” Bailey mentioned, including his first year, as Board Treasurer, when they had to address a fundraising deficit. Since then, they’ve taken on employees (approximately 2.5 of them,) and started contracting services as well as looking at seasonal help. This year they have venue concerns, and a 15th Anniversary to celebrate.
One on-going discussion Bailey has, as Treasurer, is about the desire to invite more global acts to the Festival. “We always have a debate about international performers,” he explained. The airfare, VISA, and work permits to bring artists to Seattle costs money, and make it necessary for each invite, and opportunity, to be weighed and measured.
After all, Bailey explained, all Moisture Festival performers agree to take a share of any profit the shows turn. None get paid to attend. This means none of the performers, most of whom are at the top of their craft, make as much by being at Moisture as they would at their regular gigs. It means that even after issuing an invitation, as they did recently to a big name magician, the performer then pulled out when he got a paid gig.
“Our goal is to keep ticket prices reasonable and affordable,” Bailey observed, “We have big discussions on what that is. What is reasonable and affordable?” It remains a priority to maintain prices at a level that encourages people to bring their children, and invite along friends. Yet, the non-profit Moisture Festival organization operates with an annual budget of $420,000, and the majority of that money comes from ticket sales. Some money also comes from grants, endowments, financial donations, and in-kind gifts, but every penny goes into producing a month of shows, with each show featuring about a dozen different acts.
‘It’s Everybody’
Bailey admits that he’s shy on the production side of the Festival, and leaves that to the experts. As Treasurer, he hangs out with theater folk, and “all the theatrical decisions I leave to them. They have good habits,” he praised, “they are good, smart, thoughtful people.”
When asked why he keeps volunteering with Moisture Festival, Bailey said, “it’s the people, and the experience. It’s like running away to join the circus, without having to leave home.” Even as he works inside the inner circle of Moisture, Bailey explained that he has found all the people he has met through Moisture to be wonderful. “It’s everybody,” he explained, “its just great people! The audience, the performers, the Board; it’s a great crowd!”
That great crowd is gathered now at Hale’s Palladium for the four-weeks of Moisture Festival – and you can be a part of it! Shows are on Wednesdays – Sundays, at 7:30p, with matinees (perfect for the kiddies) on Saturdays & Sundays at 3p, and late-night, adult-themed shows on Fridays & Saturdays at 10:30p. Tickets are on-sale now, but shows sell out every year, so book your choices today!
Also, for those looking for something even more risqué, the Moisture Festival Libertease Burlesque will be only three days this year – March 29th to 31st – at the Broadway Performance Hall. Find tickets, and info, at MoistureFestival.org
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©2018 Kirby S. Laney. This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws. Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.