Be careful when choosing future show dates that you do not exclude large segments of your target audience.We all know the obvious dates to avoid: New Year's, Passover, Good Friday/Easter, Memorial Day, July 4, Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Here are other not so obvious considerations:<
Mother's Day and Halloween. The former is important to everyone and the latter is important to those with young children (which is an important audience segment).
Other religious holidays. Be aware of other holidays that may be important to your audience. The National Conference for Community and Justice publishes a calendar that lists important holidays for the 12 major religions. Go to www.nccj.org and click on Organization, then on NCCJ Calendar.
Also, many shows avoid being too soon after New Year's or Labor Day because the major promotion effort will occur during December and August—bad months to get anyone's attention.
Yes, following all this advice would severely limit your available dates. But do be aware of who you will be excluding by choosing certain dates.