For The Bands Interested In Playing: Please Read
At the Santa Fe Cafe we welcome huge variety of music to our stage and invite all types of performers to enact they're craft in front of a live audience. It is always an all ages and no cover charge event, which also means we cannot afford to pay our performers. We are located in Fullerton in the downtown area at the local train station. As for equipment , we provide a PA for vocals (fits five) and accoustic intruments. We have one mic and two extra mic stands. We're more than happy to accomodate any additional equipment, only ask you to provide it yourself. We are a very different type of venue due to the unusual location of our stage, but unusual also tends to be unique. Everyone who has played the Santa Fe Cafe agrees that it is a whole new experience in performance when a train will go by adding to the effect and mood of the music. We are currently the only outdoor venue in Downtown Fullerton, and because of that we have a few restrictions we must abide by to have these special events.
- There will be no cursing or obsenities said into the mic. We have neighbors across the tracks that don't want to hear it and neither do we. We are an all ages venue at a train station. So please be aware that all children & people outside of our area can hear you too. General rule: Keep it PG-13.
- Showing up on time. As stated before we are not the typical venue, here we try to promote bands being there for one another out of respect. We book three bands a night and each one will have a full hour to set-up and perform. There is no real headliner at Santa Fe Cafe, your bands placement is solely on how loud you like to play. Heavier bands will be placed sooner in the line-up while more mellow bands will be asked to end the night to avoid noise complaints. Our time slot to play is from 7pm to 10pm, so we ask all bands to be present for check in at 6:30. If you don't show up on time you are considered as a no show and the bands who did come, will divide and get to play your time slot.
- Noise levels. We are outdoors, we cannot let you forget that because the police won't let us. It's happened far too many times when a band refuses to turn it down, when it's too loud, and our neighbors call the police to come shut us down. We've had numerous complaints and warnings already and our events are hanging on by a thread. The best volume for your music is matching that of your drummer and that's all we ask you to do when sound checking.
- Performers must play only original material. Due to the recent threats from the American Society of Composers, Authors, & Publishers (ASSCAP) we no longer can permit bands to play any copyrighted material without the direct consent of the original artist. They believe that an artists' material is about self expression, but more importantly that the artist and non-profit venues showcasing that music should have to pay for their self expression to an intermediary who will take 11.3% of that money away from the original creator. In plain English, we cannot allow cover songs. Watch out free speech, ASCAP is coming for you next!
These main points being followed feel free to do anything that will add to your performance. We want you to have fun and enjoy our stage because we enjoy having you. We only ask that you perform with common sense and be as respectful to us, as we are to you. One final notice:
- It is up to the bands to promote themselves, not the venues. If you'd like to send us posters and flyers to put up in our store we welcome it if not encourage it. We try to tell as many people about our event nights as possible but it is a band's following that generally makes up the audience. Those bands who tend to promote themselves better and bring a larger crowd will have first dibs on requesting open nights for booking.
We hope to hear from anyone interested in playing and don't be afraid to message us to find any further information. In regards to booking we ask that you reply in a timely manner to confirm your date as soon as possible. If a response is not heard in over 3 days your day may be given to someone else.
Thank you,
Santa Fe Cafe