FAQ

What is the Mercury Cafe?

Since 1975, the Mercury Cafe has been a home to poets, punks, rebels, and artists from all walks of life. The Merc is built on the inclusion of spirit, character, free opinion and heart. As Denver’s oldest venue, it’s provided a home for many an aspiring artist and a place to come back to for many a weary wanderer. 

Located in downtown Denver, it’s highly accessible with amply parking as well as a nearby light rail station.

What is the stage?

The jungle room where we have the performance portion of the night and holds up to 150 people max capacity.

What is the stage?

What is house sound system like?

I took a photo! ^^

Slightly more info – The sound board is 8 channels and has 4 compressed channels. There is phantom power on the board, but it is either on for all or off for all channels. There are monitors, and the venue usually has 2 mics available and we also bring 2 additional mics. Bringing your own XLR cables and mics is highly recommended if you have particular sound requirements. The setup pictured had the band plugging in their own wireless board into the house sound and it worked great. If you need more details email or use the contact us form.

Is there a minimum payout?

Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a minimum pay for the stage.

So how do I get paid?

You will receive $10 per ticket at the $15 ticket price. As a performer you can opt to charge $30 dollars per ticket if you think you can fill the house at that price point, and you will get $20 per ticket. The venue gets a flat per ticket charge plus a percentage of the total take. It turns out I was actually doing the math wrong before and shorting the venue (doh!). They were cool about it, but now we are fixing it for shows going forward. The breakdown comes out as:

$15 Ticket:

• $5 to Venue
• $10 to Band

$30 Ticket:

• $10 to Venue
• $20 to Band

If possible, as organizers, we would like to reserve $10 for an opening act (if there is one), and at least $10 to tip the bartender, but won’t ask for those costs if less than 20 tickets are sold (Ticket 21 and 22 go towards those costs otherwise). If over 40 tickets are sold, we ask for the front of house also be given $20 (Tickets 41 and 42) as that helps us keep things running for the the events.

So how many people actually show up and do you help with that?

Well, I’m not a promoter, but we’ve put together a pretty straightforward package of stuff that we do. Basically, we create basic banners and ads for use on websites and social media, advertise to local groups, have a mailing list of 30+, have friends with mailing lists of 200+, and then we have some relationships with a local radio station that can help promote things for you if you hop on their show. Our most recent shows have had an average of ~40 attendees. We do what we can, but can’t make any guarantees that you will see that number of attendees.

How early can I access the stage for setup?

Typically we get 30-60 minutes open time to work things out (We tend to be the first event of the night). Front of house staff will help configure the room based on your requirements. The default setting seats ~60 comfortably with tables throughout the room. Additional seating setups can be made to allow for larger audiences if needed.

My set is longer than an hour, can I get more time?

Possibly! This is still very much a work in progress and if you’d like more time for your performance, and the Jungle Room does not have another event or band coming in after you, we can likely delay the session and provide you more performance time.

Do I have any obligations for the session portion?

Not specifically, but we would love for you to stick around and toss in a few songs or tunes to the mix if you can. We’d love to build this event up over time and you are a huge part of what makes this awesome. The session will be managed by volunteers, so if you just want to hang out at the bar and enjoy the Craic that’s fine too. 

Opening numbers

If you know or teach a young musician (ideally a student younger than 18) who might be interested in doing an opening set for these events, please send them our way! This event is a community effort, and we would love to involve a broader set of folks. The ask would be to play a set of Celtic tunes, or sing a song, and they would get some small stipend (we can discuss what might be appropriate). You can contact us here if you have questions or referrals!