Abney Park Needs Your Help!
With a tour bus big enough to sleep in, we won't have to give money to airlines, or hotels. And we won't have to spend whole days waiting in airports, instead of playing concerts for you. This means we could play for less money, which means we could play more cities, including your home town.
Currently, Abney Park flies to 95% of the shows we play. But flying costs a lot, and that means we have to charge a lot of money for shows...and all that money goes to the airlines! Charging a lot for shows means a lot of venues and towns can't afford us. Only big cities, with huge crowds can afford to pay our travel costs. But our tour bus would change that.
Renting a tour bus costs $2000 a day, as you have to pay for milage and a driver. $2,000 is more then the monthly payment would be on a very nice bus!
The money we are trying to raise is for a down payment on a Class A RV big enough for 5 band members and a driver. If we raise more then $40,000 then we'll get an awesome custom-wrap paint job featuring our airship, the HMS Ophelia, and the band name and logo! (see picture)
Why not tour in the old van your uncle is selling for $398.72? First off, a van won't hold 6 people, and all their instruments and stage gear. The other thing to think about is venues only want bands to perform on Friday or Saturday nights. Occasionally, they are willing to book Thursday or Sunday, but they pay less on these nights, as less people will come on school/work nights. So unless you want your band taking up hotel rooms and waiting all week to play a Friday night show, you need to get from city to city in the middle of the night, while the band sleeps.
It works like this: the band plays a concert Thursday in Sacramento. After the show, they fall asleep in the tour bus while it drives to L.A. Band plays L.A. Friday, and after the show the band falls asleep in the tour bus while it drives to Las Vegas for a show. After Vegas show...well, you get the idea. With a tour bus you don't pay for hotel rooms, and airfare, and in one 4 day weekend you can play 4 shows, in four cities, instead of one show in one city. And one of those cities might be yours!
But that's not the only reason to get a nice vehicle. A tour bus becomes your home. If it's big enough, we can bring our kids. But if it's small, and junky, then we don't see our families, and frankly, don't have a very nice life.
So help us get a bus, and our nomadic home, so we can come and play for you!
