Contest Suggestions ?

Hi all,
The owner of the coffee shop that hosts our weekly gathering (almost 3 years now) asked me to put together a show/contest. Participation will be open to both members and non-members of our group. I am hoping to get some ideas from fellow UU'ers as to a format. I believe I need a few catgories ie. age,skill,????.
I am thinking about prizes for each category and then a Grand Prize coming from all the category winners. Judging from a panel + an audience score.

Any ideas/suggestions you all may have would greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

What kind of contest? Music performance? On video or live performance?

Since it's a coffee shop, I'd make it coffee-related. Perhaps covering songs with coffee in the lyrics or title. "Black Coffee in Bed", "One more cup of coffee", "Java Jive", etc.

Do a video contest, with a category for strummers (beginners) and one for pickers (experienced) and set up a projector and screen all the submissions as a playlist on youtube in the coffee shop.

take a penny/leave a penny
that's my two cents

This would be a live performance.
The coffee shop wants to sell coffee and stuff to the audience.
I realize most of you are not in the area, but I am just hoping to get some ideas.

I like the contest Mim is currently runnng -- covering a song by re-imagining it in a differet musical style.

The contest you pick may limit those who are willing to participate. For example, an "original song" contest would eliminate those who don't feel they can write original music. So to some extent the contest you devise may depend on how inclusive you want to be with contestants. Is the idea to get as many people to participate in the contest as possible? If so, select something easy, like a "three chord song" contest. But if the goal is to attract a lot of people to be solely an audience for the contest, rather than participants, you want the competitors to be top-of-the-line ukulele players, so you should pick something more difficult that will be more likely to ensure a smaller field of very talented competitors. I'm curious to see what you ultimately come up with.

Just my never-to-be-humble $0.02 but I think for a "live" contest like you're describing too many rules can be a big wet blanket. To a certain extent the venue will dictate some rules (no 50-piece ensembles because they won't fit, etc.). Otherwise, keep it pretty simple. Also, if the objective is to drive up business then you want to have some element of crowd-participation in the judging (applause-o-meter, etc.). This ensures that the contestants will pack the place with their supporters - then all you have to do is make the contest run long enough that everybody gets thirsty!

John

can you film it for youtube than if it's a live show only? I'd love to see what comes of this and I'm sure others would too

One thing that just occured to me - if copyrighted songs will be played be careful about copyright rules, make sure your sponsor is aware of what they need to do to keep from being sued by the recording industry's jackbooted lawyer thugs...

Hosting your club - i.e. "letting some nut cases bring their ukes into our coffee shop" probably isn't going to attract the attention of said thugs - hosting a contest goes a step further and can very reasonably (at least in the opinion of recording industry lawyers and the judges in their pockets) be construed as having a performance venue.

Not a lawyer, don't play one on TV, but there have been cases where they went after folks on even thinner grounds and won ridiculous judgements.

Fortunately, it's really not expensive to comply with the applicable laws - for a contest at a small venue I suspect the paperwork is going to be a bigger pain in the butt than the actual fee. Your club might offer to pay the fee and help with the paperwork as a "thank you" for them hosting you the last three years...

John

Keep it simple... Open mic, covers or originals, audience judging for their favorites by written ballot, and a planned performance by your group during the ballot counting. huuuh?