Sean C. Morgan
The Oregon Jamboree finished moving from its office space above Mollie’s Bakery to the old Linn-Benton Sweet Home Center last week.
The Jamboree is using four areas in the new office space, located on Long Street across from Sweet Home Evangelical Church.
The Jamboree is using LBCC’s reception counter as a box office. An old classroom is now used as a meeting room, break room and work room and a small room off the meeting area serves as the event manager’s office. The new facility also includes storage space.
The move increased office space from 700 square feet to 2,200 square feet.
“It just got to be critically small, especially the three months when we’re ramping up to the show,” Event Manager Peter LaPonte said. It became an inefficient work space.
The stairs up to the Jamboree office were a problem for many of the Jamboree’s older volunteers, and merchandise had to be carried up the stairs to the back room for storage .
“This allows us room to expand a little bit and maybe bring it some additional staff,” LaPonte said. Depending on the time of year, the Jamboree employs one full-time employee, LaPonte, and three part-time employees in addition to volunteers.
“When we ramp up to the event, we can have up to 10 people in that little office,” LaPonte said, and often, the Jamboree would have committees meeting too.
The Jamboree used the back room, down the hall from the old office, for meetings, LaPonte said. The area was also used for storage. With its location, the room heated up, and the only way to cool it down was a noisy air conditioner that made holding meetings difficult unless it was set on low.
The Jamboree’s networking, telephones, security system and work stations are set up, LaPonte said. The Jamboree still has “fine tuning” to do, unpacking and putting up pictures.
People would have preferred a Main Street location, LaPonte said, but the new building is owned by the Hanscams, the same landlord. The Jamboree has had a good relationship with the Hanscams, and Jamboree officials thought they should explore the possibility of renting the LBCC building.
“I would have really hoped for a Main Street location with a billboard,” LaPonte said. “But we did gain a sign. It’s as close as we could get at this time.”
Operationally, it is a good location, LaPonte said. It is near the Post Office and it has parking access from both Long and Main streets.
LaPonte looked at four or five other locations, but they required major upgrades or were not large enough, LaPonte said. “This was turnkey,” with few issues and little work to make it workable for the Jamboree.
Portions of the building are used by Food Share and were separated from the Jamboree office.
The Oregon Jamboree is an annual three-day country music and camping festival. It is held on the field south of Sweet Home High School. Camping is available at various locations throughout Sweet Home. The concert has drawn up to 9,000 persons for concerts. More than 400 volunteers per year put on the event.
Artists who have performed at the Jamboree include Keith Urban, Clay Walker, Martina McBride, Trick Pony, Asleep at the Wheel, Brooks and Dunn, Wynona Judd, Clint Black, Brad Paisley and many more.
Proceeds from the Jamboree are used for economic development efforts by the Sweet Home Economic Development Group. Typically, SHEDG donates 10 percent of its profits to the Sweet Community Foundation.
The Jamboree reported an estimated $155,000 profit for the 2004 event.
For 2005, the Jamboree has signed five artists so far, LaPonte said. Those artists probably will be announced sometime in the next two weeks after the Jamboree is permitted to begin advertising those artists’ names.
Ticket sales for 2005 are higher than ever, LaPonte said. The event has only 74 of 2,080 reserved seats left. Ticket sales are at about $375,000. Last year, the Jamboree closed the year with about $300,000 in sales.
If the Jamboree can announce artist names before Christmas, LaPonte expects sales for next year’s event will go higher before the end of the year. The last time the Jamboree was able to announce an artist before Christmas was in 1999 with Reba MacIntire. That year, the Jamboree sold some $40,000 in tickets in one month.
Most of the sales so far this year were part of a special offer by the Jamboree before, during and two weeks after the 2004 event.