Today we’d like to introduce you to Brooks Kendall and Shannon Harris.
Brooks and Shannon, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Brooks: I am a legacy, third generation talent buyer, and started my career in the music industry as soon as I was old enough to be in bars. After over a decade working for my family’s company, KenRan Entertainment, I was recruited by our current company to oversee entertainment at The Live Oak Music Hall. The success at The Live Oak leads to the creation of Afallon Productions, our company that provides entertainment and entertainment related services to clients throughout the DFW area. After The Live Oak closed, due to a rent increase in 2017, we opened Fort Worth Live, which is currently operating in downtown Fort Worth, and now we are looking forward to opening The Post in River East this Spring.
Shannon: I had been bartending around Fort Worth for a few years and began bartending at The Live Oak in 2015. It was there where I fell in love with the live music business and decided to make it a career. I worked my way up to General Manager and when we closed The Live Oak, I was given the offer to stay with Afallon Productions. I have been operating Fort Worth Live downtown and am very excited to open and operate The Post At River East this spring.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Brooks: When our company took over operations at The Live Oak in 2014, it was on its last leg. When I told friends that I had accepted a job there, most assumed that it had already gone out of business. We were in a hole that seemed impossible to climb out of. Three years later, we had restored the reputation of the venue and tripled annual sales. Unfortunately, legal conflicts with our landlord lead to an increase in rent that was too high to sustain and we chose to move out of the location. We were able to keep the core team together by opening Fort Worth Live.
Shannon: There are always lots of challenges in closing a large operation and opening a new one, but for me the hardest thing I have had to do over these years was look at a large staff that loved where they worked and tell them that we were closing our venue and they all had to find other jobs in the near future.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Post At River East – what should we know?
Brooks: This is a complicated question because we really operate multiple companies. Since most of my work is relevant to Afallon Productions, I will hit that and then let Shannon give a sense of our venues. Afallon Productions is a multi-faceted entertainment company. For different clients, we handle talent buying, production, ticketing, marketing, staffing, and other things. We work as an outside promoter producing ticketed concerts at Shipping & Receiving, MASS, Fort Worth Live, Tin Panther, Sons of Hermann Hall, The Scott Theater and other venues. We also have as regular clients for talent buying and production The Omni Fort Worth Hotel, Hilton Anatole, Tarrant County College, Visit Fort Worth, and many others.
Shannon: Fort Worth Live is an intimate listening room with a variety of live music every night. The sound system and the sound engineers do an incredible job making every night sound amazing. I would like to brag on the bar staff and say they are some of the best of Fort Worth. People are always complimenting the drinks, service, and hospitality of the staff. We carry those values over to the performers as well and make sure they have a comfortable time and a great show every time.
The Post will be a much larger operation. The inside will serve as a listening room comparable to what we have been doing at Fort Worth Live and The Live Oak. The Post will have a striking outdoor courtyard as well. We will be serving a full made-from-scratch food menu and will be featuring unique, fresh cocktails in a casual, eclectic setting.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Brooks: I think the quality of our team and dedication to excellent experiences for artists and customers is the quality that defines us above all else.
Contact Info:
- Address: The Post at River East
2925 Race Street
Fort Worth, TX 76111 - Website: http://www.thepostfw.com
- Email: hello@thepostfw.com
- Instagram: thepostfw
- Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thepostfw
- Other: http://www.afallonpresents.com, http://www.somuchshow.com
Image Credit:
All photos by Brooks Burris., Logo by Thirst & Co.
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