The Vineyard Café provides both beginning and experienced vocalists/musicians/poets/actors/comedians/etc. an opportunity to perform before an attentive live audience. The focus of the evening is on the performers and the music and is not meant just to provide background music for dining or continuous conversation. Open Mic gives each performer a brief opportunity in the spotlight. There is no house band backing you up. It’s just you or your group and the audience. It is meant to put the performers on the edge, stretching them to be excellent; but with an audience that accepts and appreciates them even if they aren’t.

We have three different types of slots for performers:

1) A Regular Open Mic Slot gives performers 10/15 minutes which usually is enough time for 2 or 3 songs. There is no audition or level of expertise required for these slots. We usually have 7 to 9 slots of this type during the Open Mic portion of the evening. These slots are given out on a first come first choice basis. (When you sign up you can choose from the remaining empty slots.) You can sign up when you come in, call ahead (304) 224-1782 or email ahead (John_Fluharty@yahoo.com) to reserve a slot. We reserve the right to give larger groups an extra song (time permitting) or limit the number of songs if we have a large number of performers. We want to give everybody a chance to perform if we possibly can. If you come late, you may not get a slot because there is a good chance they all will be filled.

2) The Extended Slot gives the performer 30 minutes which usually is enough time for 6 or 7 songs. There is only one Extended Slot each week. It is often used as a reward, to give extra playing time to people that have been loyal open mikers or are favorites of the Vineyard Cafe audience. We also use it for larger groups and performers that have to travel greater distances, to give them more incentive to come and play. It is hybrid slot, i.e. you just can't come in and automatically sign up for it although it is usually filled by previous open mikers. Each performer or group of performers is usually limited to one or two Extended Slots per year. Currently we do not have this type of slot every week. We also do not schedule these slots too far ahead which gives us more flexibility in getting newer performers on stage with extended playing time in a more timely manner than Up Close In Concert.

3) The Up Close In Concert Slot is a full hour and starts at 8:30 p.m. It is often a reward to open mikers that are favorites of the Vineyard Cafe audience, are excellent musicians, have a larger draw capability, have an established reputation, or a unique style of music. It is also used to bring in performers that are more experienced and traveling even greater distances. It is our only paid slot. The cafe pays an honorarium of $50 to the performer or group performing. This is also an invited slot. We often evaluate music on a performer's web site or a CD to determine whether to offer them this type slot if they have not previously performed at the cafe. We have people that want this slot and have little or no performance history of doing hour concerts. We are more comfortable if they work their way up from a regular open mic performer or an extended slot performer. We have had or will be having repeat performances at Up Close In Concert but they are usually a year or more apart. Currently we are scheduled about a year in advance for Up Close In Concert.

The cafe wants to promote musicians and makes a great deal of effort to that end. We submit articles and photographs to the Wheeling News-Register/Intelligencer, the Times Leader (Belmont County), the Steubenville Hearld-Star and the Weirton Dailey Times promoting Up Close In Concert and the Extended Slot musicians for the coming Tuesday. You can always see what is happening at the Vineyard Cafe in the Wheeling News-Register's/Intelligencer'sTGIF Section which comes as an insert on Fridays and the Steubenville Hearld-Star's/Weirton Dailey Times' The Weekender Section which comes as an insert on Thursdays. We also submit articles to the Faith Section insert of these papers when appropriate. We have an email list that includes several hundred people, most area churches and local media organizations. We send them all an email copy of our Vineyard Cafe Program which is also printed and available the night of the performance. Performers are allowed to sell their CDs and promotional materials with the cafe taking no commission. We offer performers a simple web page with the capability of playing their submitted music and also take extensive photographs throughout the eveving which we display along with captions on our web site. We are registered with all major search engines.

Amplifiers are not needed since musicians can plug their instruments directly into the cafe’s system. We usually have 4 microphones and 4 direct boxes for instruments but can add several more of each if needed. Both keyboards and drums are on stage. We do permit people to use their own equipment and amplifiers if they so desire but setup time is critical. We have a full time sound engineer and stage managers to help with setup. We have our own CD/DVD and tape players and can plug in your MP3 player into the system for those using accompaniment music. We also have a dual screen computer with Internet access that is projected onto the on stage screen to create backgrounds and to show promotional and informational materials throughout the evening.

For more information
(304) 224-1782