To construct and maintain a quality mobile concert
system capable of serving a variety of venue sizes to serve Northern
Wisconsin by providing contemporary Christian concerts on a regular basis
at the Soul Garage Ministry Center in Rice Lake, Wisconsin, as well as
other communities in northern Wisconsin as the opportunity arises, and at
the annual Evangelical Free Church of America Forrest Lakes District
Conference in Green Bay, Wisconsin, as well as other unforeseen concert
ministry opportunities.
Current Situation:
The Soul Garage has provided contemporary Christian
concerts for over 2,100 attendees at 8 different events from November of
2006 through April of 2007. With several more concerts tentatively booked
by the end of summer 2007. All of these concerts have been and will be
conducted at the Soul Garage. One of the events was funded by Campus
Crusade for Christ; another was funded by Bethany Lutheran Church of Rice
Lake, Wisconsin, with the remaining events serving as fundraisers for a
local memorial skate park.
A variety of contemporary Christian talent has been
and will be showcased at the Soul Garage. Concerts by Falling Up, John
Rubin, Mainstay, The Wedding, 7th Day Slumber, Manic Drive (2
times), Survive the Drive, Eowyn, Fire Flight, Stukenberg, Against the
Flow, Jesse Hamble Group, Everyday Sunday, Giants of Silence, Second Adam,
and When Men Rise Up at the Sound of Birds have taken place at the Soul
Garage. Again, further concerts are in the planning stages throughout the
spring and summer months. Furthermore, the current sound system was used
at the Evangelical Free Church of America Forest Lakes District Conference
in Green Bay, Wisconsin in January 2007 to provide live sound for the
youth praise and worship bands, drama groups, and seminars from
Evangelical Free Churches throughout Wisconsin. Over 3,000 youth attended
this conference, listening to more than 12 praise and worship bands, 2
drama presentations, and 2 seminars.
The current sound system is old, poor quality, and
inadequate. Purchased over 6 years ago, the current sound system is
primarily Crate Audio equipment. The mixer is a 24 channel Crate board
which lacks true muting. The 4 auxiliary sends do not function properly,
so most of the time there are no monitor mixes. The 4 house main speakers
are Crate 15” speakers with horns that distort when fully pushed by the
Crate bridged 1400 Watt amplifiers (1 for each speaker pair - rated at
1200 watts/speaker). The pair of Crate Subwoofers are powered by another
bridged 1400 watt amplifier (also rated at 1200 watts/speaker) are
inadequate for the needs of most bands. The 6 CGM monitors are powered by
one stereo 700 watt per side Crate amplifier and one bridged 500 watt
Peavey amplifier creating 3 monitor mixes that are inadequate for the
monitor needs of most bands. The entire system has a muddy sound quality
due to the cheap components and age of the system. There is a high degree
of internal system distortion, which degrades sound quality to an even
higher level at higher volume. The situation has improved as of late,
since the Crate board has been replaced with a Sound Craft 32 Channel
LX7ii mixer. This was done to initiate the process of building our
proposed system, but to also eliminate our lack of reliable monitor mixes.
We currently have no portable staging and the concert area is used for
multiple purposes, therefore making permanent staging an impossible
solution.
For one of our larger concerts we were forced to rent
a sound system at a cost in excess of $3,000 to meet the demands of the
tour rider. This added expense caused the concert to lose over $2,000. In
another larger concert instance, we were charged $800.00 by the band for
them to supply their own sound system and sound technician and we had to
rent portable staging at a cost of $1,200 to meet the tour rider. This
caused this concert to lose several hundred dollars as well. Should we
need to continue to rent sound systems and staging, we will probably not
be able to continue this ministry.
Future Plans and Needs:
Initially, the plan for concerts at the Soul Garage
Ministry Center was to hold one multi-band event (4-5 bands with 1-2
having at least some regional notoriety) on an annual basis; however, as
bands have learned of our facility, they have contacted us to book dates
to perform. Other churches and groups have caught on to the uniqueness of
our facility for this area and have hired us to hold concerts for them.
The ministry has now grown to require a greater vision and better
equipment.
The vision we have been lead to set for concert
scheduling for the future would be to hold concerts on a monthly basis,
with special concert events as the opportunity arises. One of the concert
events would be a larger event with 4-5 bands with 1-2 having at least
some regional notoriety. Eventually we would like to raise the level of
talent and notoriety to include 1-2 bands of some national notoriety as
the budget would permit and opportunity arises at that annual large event.
This would have the potential to grow into a multi-day festival event if
God should so bless the ministry.
Provision will be made in our plans for the concert
equipment to be mobile. This would allow the ministry to be taken out to
other communities in our region to provide concert opportunities in them
as well. The mobile nature of the system would also allow for the
continued use of the equipment at the Annual Forest Lakes District Youth
Conference in Green Bay.
A detailed graphic of our proposed system and
equipment list are attached as appendixes. These documents indicate the
system we desire to build in order to better minister to the youth of
Northern Wisconsin (please see Appendix A and Appendix B). We have also
attached a montage of footage from several of our concert events. We hope
this montage will give you a taste of the situation that is evolving at
the Soul Garage Ministry Center.
What are we asking for?
The Soul Garage facility was recently purchased
(summer 2006) by Maranatha Evangelical Free Church in Rice Lake and
remodeled from a motor sports facility in to a youth center at a cost in
excess of $1.8 million. The financial burden of the facility purchase and
renovation has left the church budget unable to provide a concert quality
sound system and professional quality portable stage. Any contribution in
terms of product specific to, or very similar to, our proposed concert
equipment would be greatly appreciated and would be rewarded with the
proper mention as a sponsor of all future Soul Garage concert events in
all media advertising (newspaper, concert posters, tickets, radio,
internet, and television). Further more, banners of all supporting
sponsors will be prominently displayed daily in the Soul Garage Ministry
Center and at every concert event. These banners would travel with the
concert equipment to any and all events at which it will be used. Other
means of benefiting sponsors would be considered at the request of the
sponsor(s).
