The annual Percussive Arts Society International Convention (PASIC), held November 19-22 in Indianapolis, Indiana, saw numbers consistent with recent years. While several more companies combined booth footprints at the 2014, the total number of exhibitors (106) was virtually identical to the previous year’s tally. The number of on-site $20 single-session and expo tickets, however, was noticeably less than in 2013, which represented the bulk of the difference between that year’s number of overall attendees (5,100) and the reported 4,700 in 2014.
PASIC’s marketing and communications director Matthew Altizer says, “We've seen a lot of the manufacturers and exhibitors joining together whether an actual merging of the companies or just joining together and sharing booths, so it's interesting. We're so excited to have so many exhibitors and they all seem to be very pleased with the numbers coming through the exhibit hall . We're hoping they'll all come back next year for our 40th anniversary of PASIC.
I know we'll we doing a number of special things and there has been talk of some pretty big name artists who will be coming back for the 40th which is in San Antonio next year.
“We are looking internally towards creating some new opportunities for the attendees at PASIC and really expanding PASIC as a whole which will be very exciting and hopefully will bring in some new attendees and younger audiences, as well. The people who are attending PASIC are obviously all percussionists and drummers and this is a great place for manufacturers to release and show off what they have. Then the dealers are here, so that they can sell what the manufacturers exhibit essentially right off the floor.”
“In November, we had over 8 million followers connected to our new 'Social PASIC' Instagram and Twitter feed for #pasic14 and more than 25,000 people downloaded and used the PASIC Phone App to keep up with everything that was going on during the convention,” notes PASIC executive director, Jeffrey Hartsough. “We couldn't be more excited about these positive numbers and the direction they are leading us as we head into our 40th Anniversary PASIC in San Antonio, Texas, November 11-14, 2015.”
Heard on the Show Floor
Pearl's Matt Jordan:
"The biggest benefit at PASIC as a manufacturer is being able to bring some of the things that might not be in a regular music store, that most percussionist might not have a daily access to unless their studio already owns it. It's a nice chance to expose students to instruments they may not regularly encounter. In addition to seeing our artists that do use our instruments in their orchestras and universities, it’s great to see them put to use at a very high level and to see them demonstrate how the instruments can sound.” – Matt Jordan, Pearl Drums
"The dream market for Tycoon Percussions would be to be able to be seen as percussion, in itself, rather than a subcategory. This is a great event for us – connecting with instructors, educators, and clinicians is always great. Being able to see how other people play different styles and just educating percussionists in general to be better rounded musicians is always fascinating." – Ivan Martinez, Tycoon Percussion
