The Catalyst

By Michael McGhghy, Reporter

Midnight Sun Events, a small town production company bringing smaller name performers to venues all over the valley, was founded by Brooke Ray in March of 2007 and soon thereafter, a large majority of her family jumped in to help. Brooke, the Logistical Manager of the company soon got her mother, a teacher at FMHS, Susan Allen the Public Relations manager to come aboard. Soon over half of their family was soon to follow. In fact their entire staff is comprised of their family and friends and work for no pay.

Within months, they put on their first concert with Western Underground and Midnight Sun Events became a reputable company. They had only one simple idea in mind, “to bring entertainment to this town,” said Susan. They soon found Charlie Jenkins, a singer out of Utah, and they brought him to town as an opening act for other artists. They eventually built a very good friendship with him and his entire band, and now he is at nearly every one of their concerts. He was on a prime time nation wide T.V. competition, Nashville Star, although he didn’t win getting on in it’s self was a, “huge achievement and was a huge career boost.”

Midnight Sun Events have brought a number of big bands to Grand Junction, including One Republic, Three Dog Night and The Williams Brothers. They recently put on their first music festival at the Rifle County Fairgrounds with Skid Row, and Unwritten Law and a host of other names. Midnight Sun has also pulled together concerts in Bozeman Montana at the Gatling County Fairgrounds, Avalon Theater, Two Rivers Convention Center and the Mesa County Fairgrounds.

It doesn’t seem to matter to Susan or Brooke where the music is played or even if they make a large profit, their main goal is to make everyone else happy, and make sure you, the audience, have a good time enjoying the acts that they put on.

Midnight Sun has a host of employees that help them make all this possible. They have built a staff of approximately 25-30 people consisting of only family and friends, all of which work for free. Their only reward is the fun or working at these “shindigs” and to listen to the music. However the owners, Susan and Brooke do host BBQ’s at her house, inviting the entire staff it is basically one huge pot luck where everyone simply chats and gets to know the people they work with a little better. In fact a lot of the staff comes from FMHS, such as Robin Kendall, the campus liaison, Lauren Harbin the student learning center coordinator, Nancy Thompson the Assistant Principle’s secretary and even Lee Carlton, the assistant principle have pitched in. Even some students from her classes, and even her granddaughters and mother, who is the real head honcho of Midnight Sun.

As to their lives aside from Midnight Sun, Susan and Brooke also work for Jam Productions, Susan being Personnel Manager and Brooke, the Stage manager, together they have done this for the past 14 years. Susan recently became the proud mommy of 3 baby pygmy goats. But even though they bring a lot of country music to town and work for Country Jam, Brooke has a, “secret love of rap music.”

The production company business is a “financially risky” business but they do have a lot of fun, made a multitude of new friends and have gained so many life experiences. With these experiences they have seen and done things that many people will never get to see, and even meet people that only a select few get to meet. All of this is thanks to their hard work and motivation over the years and hopefully it will pay off in years to come.