Leigh Feldman is Portland’s man behind the curtain.
Pulling levers, pushing buttons, and generally keeping things cracking.
The identity of the man who runs the Crown Room’s second and last Saturday parties is a bit of a mystery for most. He keeps his face darkened in his social media pictures, and doesn’t try to make the events he puts together about himself.
Instead, he develops ideas that are bigger than him.
“I’m not a rapper. I’m not an artist. The events are about other people. I’m just the guy that puts things together.” He continued, “A lot of people think I’m a girl. I get people writing me back on my emails all the time like, ‘You’re the party princess, let me buy you a drink,’ and I have to tell them ‘I’m a dude homie.'”
His e-mail newsletter, Life Is A Party, is sent out every Thursday. It includes a schedule to Portland’s upcoming events and chance for those on the e-mail list to win free tickets to concerts. The newsletter currently extends out to over 16,000 people.
“Originally I was sending out flyers my friends were making for bands that were coming to town. And more and more people started asking to get added on the email list because it was telling them about bands they had never heard about.”
Leigh eventually started contacting promoters and venues about doing trades. He would include them in the email as long as they agreed to donate tickets he could offer to giveaway to subscribers.
“It grows because people want free shit. As long as there is something people want to get a piece of as part of the e-mail that’s fine,” he said.
Leigh now only asks a small fee to be added to the list for events with a cover charge.
Being able to recognized what people want to be a part of has been huge in the young man’s success. Both of his monthly nights at the Crown Room reach close to capacity with regularity.
“When we started doing fashion shows, we’d see a lot of kids who were doing club events claiming they were doing a Hugo Boss Fashion show or a Bebe fashion show. And they actually have no ties to the brand, and the production value was terrible. We weren’t trying to do some big fake fashion show where the brand actually has no ties to the show. So we decided to just do local shows, and let the local designers design it the way they want.” He said, “”Plus, the Crown Room is incredible. Their sounds and lighting is the best in the city.”
Portland loves authenticity.
“A lot of companies have been interested in sponsoring because it offers such as diverse demographic to the city. It’s been pretty awesome to see it grow. It’s like a club party for kids that don’t go to the club, a fashion show for people that don’t go to fashion shows, and a performance for people that don’t want to go to concerts. So it brings a very nice collection of everything.”
His second Saturday live music event is so popular that he already has touring national acts booked for the rest of 2011. Acts that perform on the night frequently ask to return. The combination of a live band, DJ, local support and a national touring artist has been so successful for Leigh and the Crown Room that it is a mystery he doesn’t have more imitators.
While he admitted he would like to be able to work in a larger scene, he said he has no plans of leaving Portland.
“I lived in New York, I’ve lived in Miami and I would not go back. Portland’s an incredibly manageable city. People actually allow others to have access to them. In other cities a lot of promoters and talent don’t really talk to other people. So here in Portland you really have to be talented and hustle to rise to the top. ”
You can follow him on twitter @leighfeldman3