The event that I am looking at is the EP release show that I planned for this summer which never went ahead for many reasons.
The gig was at the Wallis Centre in East Grinstead. There are many good things about this venue but there are a few reasons why this might not have been a good choice. This venue is in the town centre and its a know place by people in the local area, easy access and free parking in the hours of the gig. These are all things that would attract people and makes it easily accessible to the public. In terms of the size its quite small which is what we wanted for this event so we could squeeze lots of people into a small room. There are a few things that are not so good with this venue choice as its not normally a music venue. This means its not set up for regular music with lights and a PA system. This venue could only supply staging and power. This meant that we had to pay people to come and supply and run the lights and sound equipment at the show. This may have been easier to hire a venue that included this as it could have saved money. Although we were getting the venue very cheep so it worked out better and cheaper. We booked the gig on Saturday 16th August as Saturday is a good day for an event, people are usually around. Although the bad thing it a lot of people tend to go away in the middle of August. This might result in the crowds that we might get if we held the event in set ember or October might not be there. This is something to consider but it depends on the gig and your audience.
The supports that we have booked are 3 bands and 1 solo artist. Although the bands are similar, 1 band were a post hardcore and the headliners are not as heavy. This may have been a poor choice for support acts and lost interest in the crowd. This could also have been a bad choice to have a solo artist play alongside a hardcore band. Realistically we were using bands that were friends and we didn't think to much about whether the bands where appropriate for each other.The duration of the gig was 3 1/2 hours from 7:30 - 10:30/11:00pm this is a very common timing for events like this where 4 bands will pay. This was effective for the type of show we were putting on as it fitted within the licence we had and anyone coming from afar would have been able to get the last train home and not miss any of the event. Compared to a club night where the event goes on all night through 6am this event is purely in the evening and finishes at a good time. If we were to have kept the event going until 6am we would have been kicked out during the gig and it would have been a massive let down for the audience. By having the event finish at this time it also stops any complaints from near by houses that it may disrupted if the event was to go on. We would have more complaints if the event had gone on into the night. This planning was good as it worked within our rights with the licence we had.
We were restricted to 150 people at this venue due to size and although the TEN gives us permission for 499 people including staff and artist this was much more than we could have. The numbers were also realistic for the size of the town we were in and how many people we thought we could attract. This became a problem because we didn't leave enough time before the event to get ticket sales to a point where we know that we will sell out. We didn't even get tickets ready for purchase until 3 weeks before the event which was much too late. This was part of the reason why the event was postponed. The promotion we had was limited to Facebook, Mailing Lists and Twitter announcements. We planned on selling most of the tickets before the night of the gig but we would have needed to turn people away if there was any over 150 people. All our tickets were available before and on the door for the same price £5. When the tickets were available we made them available in several places online. The people who purchased online would have been placed on a list and gained access to the venue immediately. This was a good feature. This was a release show for an EP therefore it was just a one off show. As we were not trying to make money from putting shows we were not fussed about trying to put a few nights together. This was more about getting people together to support the band when releasing the new music as it would also be on sale. if we had put on a few nights or event just one more we would have had trouble getting enough people together to fill the venue for 2 nights. This would have made more money in the long run. I think it was a good decision to only show the event for one night as it was a night to release new music and worked better making it a one off thing.
The venue only supplied power and staging. Both of these are important because they would have costed more money if we had to buy a generator or hire staging. The problems with this would be that generators are very noisy and wouldn't work to well. We probably wouldn't have used this venue if there wasn't any power. The staging would also be a problem as the bands would be at the same hight as the crowd this would be a problem because people at the back wouldn't be able to see the band.
Temporary Events Notice
For this Gig we had to purchase a Temporary Events Notice (TEN). This enabled us to legally put on this event. We stayed well within our rights with the licence. This costed £21 and we had to get it through the council of the area in which the venue was located. This was great as it gave us permission we needed to do everything we wanted in site. There were problems such as you have to be 18 to buy this. I couldn't buy this myself. This wont always be a problem but could be for near future events if I need one but for people organising an event under 18 may cause undated stress to get this licence. Although we had a TEN licence the venue were not letting us sell alcohol at the event which may have effected the turn out. If there was any alcohol seen on the premises they threatened to shut the event down. This was a perfect venue for the event but this may have caused a few problems. Having in a venue that is specifically for live music could have been better option this may have costed more but also would have included some technical equipment and permission to sell alcohol.
We wanted to make the tickets as available as possible but because we didn't make them available early enough so there wasn't enough demand for us to be confident that we would sell enough. To prevent this we could have piece by piece announced new information but made sure that tickets were made available on a particular day. Maybe a discount could have been applied for people who bought early, much like festivals.
All the other equipment we had to provide ourselves including the PA, lights, monitors, microphones, backline and drums. This all cost money to have someone come and run the lights and sound which is something we might not have had to pay for if we hired a venue that had these things included. This would have given us more time when setting up if we didn't have to set lights and sound systems up. We encountered a few problems that our lighting company closed down 2 weeks before the gig this is something that we didn't expect and if we had the agreement in writing then this wouldn't have happened. We wanted to make the tickets as available as possible but because we didn't make them available early enough there wasn't enough demand for us to be confident that we would sell enough. To prevent this we would have piece by piece announced new information but made sure that tickets were made available on a particular day. Maybe a discount could have been applied for people who bought early. much like festivals.
In terms of staff we had Door Staff, Merch Staff, Stage Crew, Front of House Engineer, Lighting Engineer. Some of these people were being paid and some were friends who wanted to help. We saved money here which was good.
Costing
Here is a breakdown of the costing that we worked out to put on this show.
Venue - £12ph =£108
Lights = £50
Sound = £125
Bands - £50 (£25 each)
Tickets & Promotion - FREE
TEN Licence - £21
Total = £354.00 +/-
Tickets Sales for 150 people at £5 per ticket - £750
Sell out of CD’s £5 x 30 = £150
Gross Profit = £900
Profit = £546.00 +/-
Problems are unless you sell out completely on the tickets before hand you don't really know how much you will make this links back to why the event became unsuccessful and didn't go ahead.
At this venue/event there is, wheelchair ramp access to the venue, no dedicated area for wheelchair users and no signing for the deaf. This probably isn't the type of gig where this is needed but its something that you need consider when putting a show on. Maybe a venue that has these facilities would be better. This depends on your audience and if you are planning on having people there that you need to provide for. Heath and safety things that you need to think about as well is if you are using strobe lighting, you need to have signs that say you will be. Another thing is controlling the crowd with either body guards or barriers or both depending on the lay out and gig type.
All the things I have spoken about combined are reasons why it didn’t go ahead and there are many things I can do to make sure it goes smooth next time.
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