Concierto De the Avett Brothers en Moorhead Bluestem Center for the Arts May 16
Nancy Edmonds Hanson
hansonnanc@gmail.com
Jade Nielsen knows the region'south concert venues by heart. Of all of them, he says, Moorhead's Bluestem Center for the Arts may exist the very best.
"Bluestem is a jewel," says the bearded, baseball-capped businessman, who'south steered the Fargo-Moorhead concert scene for near 30 years. "Information technology'due south one of the all-time outdoor venues in the Midwest. When an artist similar Bonnie Raitt – who has played everywhere, all over – tells you she wants to come dorsum here, you know you've got information technology going. It says a lot about the market, the venue and the fans. And nosotros're merely getting going!"
His company, Jade Presents, is a familiar name among audiences for all kinds of events – contemporary and archetype stone concerts, comedy, hip hop and even theatre. Jade's event division stages expos similar Roughrider Iron and Ink (a motorbike and tattoo fest) and the Salary & Beer Festival, both of them at present replicated far in other cities. It sells tickets for Jade'southward own and others' events. Its subsidiary Nocturnal Resources employs 300 in cities all over the region to provide effect staffing, stagehands and equipment for dates booked everywhere from the FargoDome and Ruby-red River Valley Fair to One thousand Forks' Alerus Center and Ralph Engelstad Loonshit and the Shooting Star Casino.
Real estate has entered the moving-picture show, too. After revamping and later on selling a downtown storefront, he has invested in some 10 properties, including the Sanctuary Events Centre and a make-new deal to turn the old Moorhead American Legion on Kickoff Avenue North – nigh recently Usher'south Firm – into a similar events middle. He owns a host of other properties almost downtown, too, including his visitor'due south quarters at 300 Northward. University Dr. and other former industrial sites in the vicinity He's a partner in both The Hall at Fargo Brewing and a new eatery going into the one-time Rosie's Laundry, located on opposing corners at the intersection of University and Seventh Avenue. He recently acquired the Angels Ice Arena on 5th Avenue, too: "Whenever I run into a big costless-span building similar that, I get excited."
Jade, at present 48, says he's ever had the instincts of an entrepreneur. "I was always trying something. When I was 14 or xv, I had an aquarium cleaning business," he reminisces. But music was an even bigger attraction. "I was hanging around the record store when the manager said, out of the blue, 'I like your taste in music. Want to work here?'" he says. "The more I worked there, the more intrigued I got." Every bit he moved up, then briefly operated his own downtown tape store, he put together his get-go show, a local band showcase at a short-lived club called Go out 99 on Fiechtner Drive.
The door opened farther when a record promoter tapped him for assist putting together a local gig for a band y'all've never heard of called Firehose. "They were trying to play every state, fifty dates in 50 nights," Jade says. "I rented the basement of the Civic Auditorium. Oh, man – 9-foot ceilings, a stage just a human foot off the floor. But it sold out all i,000 tickets. I felt I'd won the lottery. I made $700 and idea, 'I'm actually onto something now.'"
He promoted his first shows at the Fargo Theatre – still a big office of his company – back in 1995 with Rev. Horton Heat and John Prine. A few years afterwards, he establish himself booking talent full-time for the then-new Prairie Knights Casino south of Bismarck, those connections; in improver to Prine, who became a friend, he grew personal too as professional connections with Willie Nelson and B.B. King. He eventually booked a adept share of Rex's and Prine'southward appearances effectually the land.
Back from Bismarck in 2004, he went full steam ahead into the concert booking and promotion business under the new banner of Jade Presents, starting with Harry Connick Jr. at the Fargo Borough. His bookings increased in range and frequency – threescore or seventy a year at Playmakers alone, which became the Hub, then the Venue; shows in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Wyoming and Montana, and a staff that past 2008 had grown to 9 full-timers. Calls poured in from managers looking for dates to make full between stops in amend-known locales across the Midwest. He'd been working out of his house until his staff outgrew it; moved downtown; outgrew that spot; sold it, then bought his building on University.
The community's appetite for all kinds of entertainment seems to have grown along with Jade Presents. What started as a contract for four or five shows a year at the Fargo Theatre has multiplied into dozens. Jade's first two productions at Trollwood/Bluestem in 2009 – the Blenders and "Prairie Abode Companion" – have grown to a total schedule this summer of 18, from the band Chicago May 10 to the "50th Anniversary of Peace and Love" Aug. 17 (think Woodstock, only don't even whisper that trademarked proper name), and a musical based on the music of Queen, "We Volition Stone You lot," Sept. 11. What started as one entrepreneur with a single employee has grown to a team of 17 managing concerts and events.
There's an art to arranging those dates. "You don't want to compete with yourself – to steal ticket buyers away from one effect to another," Jade observes. He looks for the almost diverse artists currently on bout, aiming to rest music genres and timing to appeal to the largest possible range of ages, tastes and audiences. This summertime'due south menu as well encompasses comics similar Steve Martin and Martin Short (June 7), contemporary favorites the Avett Brothers (May 16) and Incubus (Aug. 3), archetype rockers the Turtles, Gary Puckett and the Cowsills (Aug. 22); and even "KIDZ BOP World Tour" (Aug. 21.
Though national booking agencies dominate the big-name market at the FargoDome and other very large locations, Jade says he and his team have found that having the local bear on tin make all the difference. "When all is said and done, nosotros're guests in their house. Everybody needs to do well – the talent, the venue and the audience as well as united states of america."
That doesn't mean every issue is a winner for all involved. "Each is almost like a stand-lone business organisation. We have to pay the artist a certain amount, along with the venue, catering, audio and lighting, the stage crew," he explains. "And the days of splitting the gate 50-50 with the artists are long gone. Some of the large names are asking for 95 percent. Some desire more than 100 percent, leaving you to make your money on concessions and parking.
"The truth of the matter is that this business organization is incredibly risky. You tin can lose for all kinds of reasons – overpaying artists, pricing tickets too high, storms that force y'all to abolish." He adds, "I've gotten amend. I'm more than careful and calculating than I used to be." He estimates Jade Presents now breaks fifty-fifty or better on nine out of ten concerts today.
20-9 years of staging concerts has taken a certain toll on Jade'due south private life. For ane thing, attending all the concerts on his calendar is no longer what he does for fun. "I exercise become to some things, but information technology's non the same," he admits. "It's difficult to carve up the business side at my own shows and totally savor them. I'1000 always keeping an eye on what'south going on." Instead, he focuses on more than personal pursuits, including his motorcycles and his three young children still at habitation.
With contacts throughout the entertainment world, has he e'er thought of going for the big time? "Certain, I've had quite a few opportunities to move, but they're never been appealing. My goal is to aid make this community a better place to live. That's vitally important to me."
For more than data on Jade Presents' upcoming dates, go to jadepresents.com
Source: https://www.thefmextra.com/backstage-with-jade-nielsen/
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