What's a reasonable price for a retreat or a festival do you think?

[GrandmasterP]

Glastonbury Festival costs an arm and a leg to attend and once you get there the concession stands charge the earth.

A ticket to visit the Shaolin Temple and take in one of their shows ( three a day in the Chinese tourist season) costs the equivalent of half a day's average industrial wage for a family ticket of Mom, Dad and usually one kid.

Extra for the ( optional) cable car ride.

The concession stands and gift shops there are pretty reasonable.

I've seen some really expensive ( to me anyhoo) 'spiritual type' gigs advertised here on TTB.

Other more experienced posters have mentioned some gigs costing two grand.

What do you think is a fair and reasonable charge for a retreat or a festival?

I'm defining a retreat as something with a few leaders and no 'acts' ( performers to watch) and a festival as something where there is entertainment provided be it Shaolin acrobatic monks or bands or whatever.

'Spiritual' themed only... Not Glasto type gigs.

Edited July 31, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[silent thunder]

I've paid up to $150 for two to four day retreats in a group of about a dozen students, this included a couple demos, but mostly serious focus on instruction.

 

I've paid up to $350 for four personal one on one meetings of an hour each.

 

 

In the end, this sort of thing is completely relative.

I know folks who wouldn't bat an eye at $2,000 plus airfare and hotel.

[Apech]

I don't mind people charging at all. After all some people teach full time and they need to eat. I also think you have to factor in the expenses for setting up the event e.g. the hire of the venue (which can be a lot) and any food and so on. I think concessionary rates is a good idea so as not to exclude certain people.

[Nungali]

The festivals we put on where aimed for low income people. We got bands to donate for free tickets; healers, masseurs and other similar did it for the love of their path. We owned the land so no rental, and most of it was done without the modern cost of insurance or health and safety laws (including our giant waterslide down the hill side ! ) . We had to be really strict a few years and shut down for one year to redirect energy away from people making huge amounts of money in the market place, a bit of control went on there. We all worked for free; organisation, infrastructure, cleaning up afterwards, etc.

 

It went for 3 days each time. Children free ... ranging from the first to the last ones about $15 to $35 per person per day ( by the last one we had to have first aid officers, registered traffic controllers, etc.

 

Boy did all that drain me ! I eventually gave up when it went from me being on a team of 12 organiseres down to the last one I did with 2 organisers including me. Too much !

 

But worth it ! They were pretty amazing festivals ... some OS people and Australians said it was the best small festival they attended everywhere. I'm too old and worn out to do that again . Good memories though.

 

Nowadays, a fair cost ?

 

That all depends on .....

Edited August 1, 2014 by Nungali

[Flolfolil]

...

Edited March 5, 2015 by Flolfolil

[BaguaKicksAss]

Glastonbury Festival costs an arm and a leg to attend and once you get there the concession stands charge the earth.

A ticket to visit the Shaolin Temple and take in one of their shows ( three a day in the Chinese tourist season) costs the equivalent of half a day's average industrial wage for a family ticket of Mom, Dad and usually one kid.

Extra for the ( optional) cable car ride.

The concession stands and gift shops there are pretty reasonable.

I've seen some really expensive ( to me anyhoo) 'spiritual type' gigs advertised here on TTB.

Other more experienced posters have mentioned some gigs costing two grand.

What do you think is a fair and reasonable charge for a retreat or a festival?

I'm defining a retreat as something with a few leaders and no 'acts' ( performers to watch) and a festival as something where there is entertainment provided be it Shaolin acrobatic monks or bands or whatever.

'Spiritual' themed only... Not Glasto type gigs.

 

Fortunately the last event I went to was $150 for the entire week of training, including an empowerment, several talks, a TSOK (offering) ceremony and etc.

 

However, I was pretty set on doing retreats years back. My customer base are far from rich, so the idea was to do it as low cost as possible. I figured out the costs for camping options, and for cabin or hotel room options.

 

So after paying for the person leading the retreat airfare and hotel/cabin and food, then the insurance cost (in case an attendee gets hurt or something), any equipment rental, and hopefully one spends all their free time advertising instead of paying for it or paying someone else to do it....

 

It's rather difficult to get the cost down. I did run one event which was extremely low cost $120 for the 3 days. It was a camping event. All I had to pay for was some really cheap land, the porta potties, and water. Yep had to have water carted in. That was a large event though, would have to charge a lot more if there weren't a couple hundred folks attending. I think the event came out making about $150. We had about 15 vendors, so that helped. That is $150 for about 300 hours I put in, the many hours the dozen or so volunteer put in, and the main speaker giving me half price for their already low fee. Fortunately the main speaker was willing to fly the lowest cost flight I could find .

 

However these days, if you were born with amazing superpowers and are really interesting to talk to, and help me with errands in trade, I'll teach you for free. Otherwise, I charge, a lot .

[Nungali]

"Donations accepted but not required"/pay events that are easily sneaked into are the only ones that will ever see me attend

 

Ooooo ... I've dealt with your type a lot ... sneaker-inners ... and busted their arse! (unless you meant you sneaked in anyway to an event that didnt require pay .... now thats 'dedication' ! )

 

Silly thing is if they were genuinely in hardship I would have worked something out for them ... if they were honest and upfront like quiet a few were.

 

 

i am perfectly comfortable chilling in hotel lobbies and soaking in all the togetherness without registering for anything especially after having to save up tons of cash to get to the city im trying to get to

[Flolfolil]

...

Edited March 5, 2015 by Flolfolil

[Green Tiger]

In my experience, group seminars and retreats should be around $20 an hour. 1-on-1 instruction will be more like $60-$100 per hour.

 

I'm not so sure about festivals. I haven't been to the renaissance festival here in years. I would guess admission will be $20 and they'll probably charge something outrageous for beer, but you shouldn't have to pay more than $4 for a cheeseburger or $7 for a turkey leg.

 

Speaking of which, I am never buying one of those disgusting turkey legs again!

[CloudHands]

45e for a day or 200e a week but the annual course is very cheap I think (230e beginner/310 advanced) so if you want to go further... you'll have to pay more and generally when you are charged expensively you imply yourself more (I think).

[BaguaKicksAss]

For jewelry classes it works out to $3 per classroom hour for full time training and $10 per hour for courses around town.

 

I guess spirituality costs more than learning to work with precious metals and gemstones!

[GrandmasterP]

£30 for a full day at our centre includes lunch.

£25 if they bring their own lunch.

£15 to £20 for an afternoon session.

The Mindfulness Coaching & Mentoring Award costs £360 and the course lasts two terms, one afternoon a week for 3- hours plus 50-hours supervised and assessed practice.

QiGong classes are free for seniors but the Health Authority pays room rent and my employer covers my wages as part of the college " Community Outreach" programme. Without that subsidy each attendee would have to pay about £5 per 2-hour session based on 30 attending.

TaiChi in our village hall with a super excellent TaiCh Union GB teacher is £3 a session for ' leisure pass' members and £4 a session for non members.

Cup of tea and biscuits included.

Edited August 1, 2014 by GrandmasterP

[CloudHands]

That's pretty cheap, nice