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The Short Life of a Conway Venue
The Agora's grand vision doesn't fly
by Amy Bowers
The Agora Conference Center operates on a private club permit and primarily serves as a conference and special events center. It specializes in weddings, fund-raisers, and banquets, and recently opened itself up to concerts as a way to generate regular income. Alex Harmon and John Gray, Hendrix students who work as music director and station manager, respectively, of campus radio station KHDX, were approached in November by the owner of the Agora, JD Waller, to use the venue as a concert hall on Friday nights. The two music lovers took the initiative, excited by the opportunity to pump up Conway's music scene, or lack thereof, and to provide local students with entertainment at a place where they, if old enough, could finally drink beer instead of sodas.
The team went all out on advertising—articles ran in three papers, they bought a two week radio spot on 100.3 in Little Rock, and covered Conway schools and businesses with posters. Alas, in a town with some 11,000 students, hopes were too high for attendance, and where several hundred were expected, only near 100 showed up, the highest turnout these Friday night concerts would see. Needless to say, the owners of the venue were disappointed. Much promotion went into the first show, featuring Wooden Stares and American Princes, and still the venue suffered significant financial losses.
“The equipment though, was all really nice and they were very professional,” said American Princes guitarist Luke Hunsicker, who hours before the January 27th show took photographs with the eager owners, awaiting the expected Conway hundreds to walk through the door, each paying the flat entrance fee of ten dollars. Harmon offers a few reasons for why the attendance was so low. He wishes “the cover could have been lower,” and he feels that the fee, combined with the high price of beer, due to liquor license stipulations, adversely affected attendance levels. He “had a feeling that one or the other needed to be lowered so that people would have a reason to come.” Also there were hired police for security, which may have turned people off. “Regardless, the first show was a learning experience for all of us,” Harmon says, “and it did fall way short of our expectations."
The remaining shows, as of now, are cancelled, their website says, “due to poor attendance and significant losses,” but KHDX stepped in to sponsor the February 17th show featuring Deathray Davies, Eagle Seagull, and Grand Serenade to happen at the Hulen Hall ballroom. Amy Bowers is thinking about grad school and is trying to find a “real” job. And by real she means pro boxing. She also wants to send a shout out to Buddy Thumbs. Hire or holler at her via email at skullandarkansas@yahoo.com. |
