Dope Souf Magazine July/August | Page 7

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1) Venue availability can be an issue. You should make it a rule to at least plan 3 months in advance.

2) Marketing and promotion time. Other than securing the venue , this is also why you want to plan 3 months in advance

3) What else is going on around the date? If there's another event going on around that date,then this may have an impact on turnout for your show

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Make a list of venues that you would want the gig to take place at. While making this list you should consider a few things such as availability, fee, and whether they will let you put on a show there. You need to have other options, if the first venue says no.

Find out the contact person and their details for the venue. The best way to do this is to either call, check their website, and email. You can also visit the venue and try to talk in person. Sometimes visiting the venue helps, because people find it easier to put a name with a face. Also, before even getting down to business it's your chance to make a good first impression.

Make sure you find out about the following (these are a few things to check for, but not all of them):

1) Find out if there is a fee involved. However, if you have enough influence they may pay you part of the door to perform.

2) Venue capacity (the amount of people legally allowed in the venue at one time)

3) PA system (if it doesn’t have one, you will need to hire one)

4) Sound Engineer (same as above)

5) Stage (If it doesn’t have one and you want one, you will need to hire this)

6) Security (If needed)

7) PRS licence (All venues that play live music need one!)

8) Age restrictions (a lot of venues are 18+)

9) Earliest time you can sound check.

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Most venues work with a booking system that involves

pencils and confirmation. Typically, a promoter will contact a venue and ask for their venue availability during a certain time period or on certain dates. Upon receipt of this information, a promoter would then request to pencil a date in which they hold claim to for an event they’re putting together.

If another promoter is then interested in the already pencilled date, they can either:

1) Challenge the pencil - This gives the promoter who owns the pencil 24 hours (sometimes 48 hours) in which to confirm a line up and commit to the date, or give the pencil hours (sometimes 48 hours) in which to confirm

a line up and commit to the date, or give the pencil

l up and allow the challenger to confirm and

commit to the date. (Usually if you confirm to a

date, you will have to pay at least half the hire fee.

There and then, sometimes the whole fee).

2) Take 2nd / 3rd pencil - This means the promoter will have next in line ownership to the date. When someone wishes to challenge the pencil, and the promoter with the first pencil can’t confirm the night, the promoter with 2nd pencil will then have 24 hours to confirm a night or give up the pencil. This is only if the first pencil can’t confirm however.

6BASICS

BE YOUR

OWN

PROMOTER