Venue Guide From Eugene Weekly
To the left is the Venue Guide from Eugene’s alternative newsweekly, Eugene Weekly. The Guide lists music venues in Eugene, OR, as well as those in adjacent cities such as Cottage Grove, Springfield, Veneta, and Junction City. Eugene and its surrounding area is blessed with having many options for seeing live music. The venues I chose to profile for this project are: Luckey’s, WOW Hall, Cuthbert Amphitheatre, McDonald Theatre, Hult Center for the Performing Arts, and Cozmic Pizza. I chose these because of their variety in programming, demographic served, size, and building type. I also chose them based on their popularity; as a new resident of Eugene, I have heard more buzz about shows at these venues than many others found in the Venue Guide. My objective was to investigate audience engagement in these six select venues by gathering and analyzing staff perspectives and making my own personal observations, when possible. Here is the breakdown of my research methods specific to each venue:
Luckeys: attended a concert and interviewed two staff members, Summerfield Habener and Sean Ponder
WOW Hall: attended a volunteer orientation and volunteered for a concert
Cuthbert Amphitheatre and McDonald Theatre: interviewed staff member Cami White and toured McDonald Theatre
Hult Center for the Performing Arts: toured building (both theaters) and interviewed former staff member Mark Loigman
Cozmic Pizza: attended concert and spoke briefly with staff member Alec Cox
Additionally, I interviewed Karen Rainsong of Eugene a-go-go/ Arts & Business Alliance of Eugene for a larger perspective of the live music scene in Eugene.
Questions I asked staff members included: What is your typical demographic? What guides your booking choices? How do you know the audience had a good experience at any given show? Does your venue employ formal (or informal) evaluation methods of audience engagement? What can a venue do to further engage audience members?
Best Show Ever 