I apologize to Michael Myers, that guy from Scream and Freddy Krueger in advance.. this article is not for you.
In my eight years of event planning, mostly for music performances, I’ve hit a few stumbling blocks along the way. My hope is that you’ll learn from my mistakes and plan even better events to be enjoyed by all!
I wrote this article for event planners, people in bands and general party people who are looking for specific means and methods for event planning. Steps 1 thru 6 should be completed within the first month of the event planning, about three months prior to the actual event date. I’ll be using “event” and “show” interchangeably from here on.
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1. Start early.
Starting early will make or break an event. If you’ve got 2 months to plan an event and it’s your first time, do not get super excited and try harder to book the event. Do everyone a favor and simply pick a later date! As a general rule of thumb, for every one hundred people you’re expecting in attendance, you should have three months of lead time.
Here’s why: when you plan a show, unless you’ve done previous events at this location and you are the luckiest person on the planet, things will change! Other people will undoubtedly force you to alter your mastermind plan. If you’re not comfortable with this, move to a self-sustainable island and send us a postcard.
Expect that bands may drop out, venues may double-book and someone may forget to tell their entire fan base that the show was THIS weekend. In order to combat all these things, the best ammunition is TIME. The more the merrier. I’ve seen bands book tours a year in advance. But depending on how big your event is, I recommend three months in advance from start to finish for a one hundred person show.
This will not only give you time to overcome challenges, it will give you credibility with everyone involved. Any legitimate booking agents know that you need at least two months to properly advertise. They will laugh if you say, “Uh, how about next week?”
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2. Get a solid line-up
Pick performers that have great recordings or a solid live show that you’ve seen first hand. If someone takes the time to make a solid recording and they email you back, the chances are they WANT to put on a stellar show and will make everyone’s life easier. It’s a great idea to help out your friend’s bands. What goes around will come around. Go with your gut on this.
One way to crap a show is to book Josh Ritter, Killswitch Engage and Barbara Streisand on the same bill. This isn’t rocket science. The closer the bands are in style, the more likely people will come to the show and stay till the end. Remember, bar venues love to sell frosty beverages, so they love it when people hang out to see all the groups. When they make money, everyone makes money. Get bands in the same ballpark.
It’s a good idea to place the more experienced bands at the end of the show, so everyone stays until the end.
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3. Find the Venue
Contrary to what your Ex told you, venue size is critical.
Let’s say you’re planning a punk-rock show, it’s three months away and you’re planning on hosting three hundred fans. From personal experience, whatever number of people you physically tell about an event, about one third will actually show up. Therefore, for this example I will book a venue that holds one hundred people maximum.
At rock shows, you can be squished in there and it’s awesome. Weddings require dancing room. If it’s a jazz group, make sure there’s accommodations for one hundred chairs and a little more walking space. Consider “genre”, but aim for a venue slightly smaller than you think you’ll need. Having a half filled venue looks and feels LAME. Most people will actually have a better time if they’re forced to get over their “Please don’t enter my personal bubble” attitude. It’s called being social. You’re planning a social event. Everyone who makes it to your show should say, “Yea, it was awesome- it was packed!!”
When booking any venue, don’t be afraid to try the phone. Email works, but it’s daunting. You’ll likely get a better outcome if you connect with busy people in a different way then everyone else. Snail-mail a letter if you have to. If you’re not getting verification from a venue, move on or find a back-up venue. Don’t wait on this- time will fly.
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4. Kick out the Jams!
Sound reinforcement or P.A. (public address) systems are extremely necessary most events. Doing this wrong will kill your event. If you’re not an expert with sound systems, it’s worth spending a little money on this, especially for a music related event. The more phone calls you’re willing to make, the more money you’ll save.
Many venues have their own built-in P.A. system. Great, but take that with a grain of salt. Is it old, new, who runs the mixing board? Do we have to pay your sound guy? If the bass player plugs direct into your system, will it explode? These are the kinds of questions you should be asking. If these questions are Greek to you, ask your performers to send you a detailed list of what they will need. It’s called a Tech Rider. A band tech rider might look like this:
Bass Di box
2 Guitars- 2 SM57s
Drum-Kick, Snare, OH
3 Vocal Mics across the front
Monitors: 2 floor wedges, 1 drum fill
*If they’re nice, they’ll draw you a doodle of their typical stage layout.
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The venue tech rider will look like this. It tells you what equipment the venue provides and describes their expectations.
Borrow
If the venue does not have an adequate built-in system, you can borrow a sound system. I do not recommend this route. A borrowed system will not be adequate 9 out of 10 times. Even if your best friend is telling you, “Yea dude, we used it for my graduation party to play music from my ipod!”
Run away.
You can trust the musician in the band that says, “Yes, we’ve used this system before in a room that was the same size and make.” Understanding the dynamics of a sound system and room acoustics takes years of practice and unfortunately, most people think they are experts.
Rent
Another option is to rent. Renting a system is the best option for an event that has a modest budget. Make sure the sound rental establishment knows exactly what you need. If they are not asking you detailed questions like the number of balanced inputs, and monitors or room dimensions, go somewhere better.
Hire
The best and most expensive option is to hire a sound reinforcement company. I always hire someone who has enough people skills to deal with eccentric musicians. It’s a general industry bias that sound guys have a reputation for being jerks. The best sound technicians can deal with signal flow AND people. 
Talk to them on the phone. Did you feel comfortable and informed? Yes- then they’ve passed.
Here’s another super easy test: Ask them how many years the Front of House Engineer has been mixing live sound. If they respond with an “Ummm, ahh, oh, well” you’re talking to the wrong person. Don’t be afraid to ask for references, especially if you’re paying money.
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5. Find trusted friends who are willing to help with food & staffing
Who’s doing tickets at the door? Security? Set-up and tear down crew? Food sales? Staff chairs, merch tables, facilities crew? Is there a trash service before and after the event?
Sounds like a lot and it is. Don’t be afraid to ask for help! Friends that you trust are good place to start. Most will be glad to help you out in any way they can for a noble cause like this one!
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6. Follow up because you can
Ninety-nine percent of show problems can be avoided by talking to your key contacts on a weekly basis, ie: the performers, venue, facilities management and event staff. Not only can you answer their questions, they will be thinking of the show at least once a week and subconsciously brainstorming ideas or solving challenges. They may even start consciously advertising earlier, which leads me to..
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7. Tell Her about it!
It’s been a productive first month: you’ve booked the performers, you have a line-up, the venue is secure and you have enough staff to run the event. Now for the fun part!
Make an electronic flyer. Most of today’s advertising is done via Facebook event pages, Twitter, email or other social media. Use all your free social media outlets.
If you’re not Photoshop competent, that’s fine. Most performers are great sources for graphic design and most of them will make their own electronic flyer for the event. There are many graphic designers that will gladly make show flyers for free because it will be mass-distributed. They will get the prestige of having their design and credit plastered on Facebook and emails for the next two months.
If there was a pie chart of the time you spent on event planning, notice that two-thirds is advertising. This is completely necessary to have a packed and successful event. Follow up! This is a sample break-down on what that means in the real world:
week one: send out an electronic invite with basic event information
week two: start telling your network of friends and send out a mass email with basic information
week three: send out a detailed electronic invite reminder on social media network (ie: Facebook, etc.)
week four: mass email with additional information about the event
week five: send out text messages to your fans/friends/network
week six: print flyers, call people in network to invite them personally
week seven: hand out flyers, call people in network AGAIN, mass email
week eight: flyers, mass email, call, text, message network through social media (ie: Facebook, etc.)
Two days before the event: stop and relax, respond to last minute questions about “How do I get there?”
Your attendance rate will double if you directly ask someone multiple times to attend your event. This does not mean spam people daily. Just tell everyone you think will be interested in attending and tell them more than once. Use difference outlets once a week. Get back to people with questions.
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Day of the Event
Event planning is like everything else in life: the more you do it, the easier it gets. It’s important to keep the faith when planning big events. If you have adequate lead time and you make a few phone calls a week, you will have an awesome event.
Show planning is an extremely rewarding experience, especially when you get to see all the awe-struck faces enjoying your hard work.
Savor it.
Welcome unexpected thanks.
On the day of the event, forget about the details. If someone calls you, frantically explaining how their van broke when monkeys overtook their caravan.. just relax. Take a deep breath and solve it.
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