The Calendar is part of the Contemporary A Cappella News (CAN) magazine. It's an international listing of any a cappella concert we can find, which runs in the CAN bi-monthly.
At the start, the Calendar contained whatever dates happened to be posted to rec.music.a-cappella, or sent to CASA HQ. We tended to have about 50-100 dates per issue. Since the continued surge of Internet savvy-ness, and since I took over and started reminding groups of the deadline, the Calendar has grown to nearly 500 dates each issue. A 1999 survey of CASA members found that it is the most popular thing in the CAN, so take advantage of it!
You may have come by this site hoping to find the Calendar itself. Sorry, you'll have to join CASA to get the CAN with the Calendar. I realize it would be useful to everyone to have it here, but it's through your memberships that we're able to provide such services as the Calendar, so it's reserved for members.
Being listed in the calendar is open to any group - you don't need to be professional and you don't need to be in North America. Our April/May 1996 issue contained dates from five continents and 13 countries. In fact, the more diverse, the better, at least for my bias. <grin>
The deadline is about two months before the gig. They always fall on the 25th of the month, and the 26th is not good enough. (Sorry to be cranky but the other editors and I tend to have to put our lives on hold to get this thing done.)
Deadlines are as follows:
Deadlines |
Dates needed |
| December 25th | February and March |
| February 25th | April and May |
| April 25th | June and July |
| June 25th | August and September |
| August 25th | October and November |
| October 25th | December and January |
To send 'em, click here. Or fax 'em to (510)865-7254.
Please send your listings in the following format. With 500 dates each issue, I will love you forever if I don't have to re-write your stuff for you.
This is how it runs, so if you send it in this format I can just cut'n'paste it directly into the Calendar, decreasing the risk of lost information. (Eg, making both our lives easier):
Deadlines are only that -- the final day dates are accepted. If you're not sure your submission has everything we need, send it a few days early so I can get back to you if something's missing.
The DOs and DON'Ts:
DO send:
- Public shows only!
- Name of all the group(s)
performing
If there will be others and you aren't sure who, please give me a
contact for someone who might. Do your fans a favour - if they
show up thinking you're the only group performing and you're one
of three, that's misleading advertising.
- Date of performance
- Full Venue or event name
You and residents of the town may know the common abbreviation,
but I don't and people thinking of driving from three hours away
to a show might not, either.
- City and State/Province, country if not in North America
DO NOT send:
- Americanized/Canadianized/etc spellings
If the venue's name is Centre, don't change it to Center, etc.,
please - I confuse easily.
- Private/corporate/school shows not open to the public
Otherwise, I have to guess, and I've guessed wrong (and got heck
for it) a few times.
- Time of show
- Directions
- Phone numbers
- Addresses
We simply don't have room for anything more than the essentials,
sorry.
- Press releases
Sorry, I just don't have time to wade through dozens of releases,
especially when some are done for local media and are missing
information an International Calendar might need -- like the name
of the city! (No joke. That actually happened. Though I grant the
man who sent me that was horribly embarrassed to realize it.
<smile>)
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