Event Evaluation
Intro
Our aim for this project was to put on a great event that people would remember and to help Romy Taylor push her new music to more people. Ideally, we wanted to profit from the event too, but this was more of a secondary aim for us as financially we would have been happy to simply break even.
Event Evidence Video
Event Atmosphere
One of the biggest factors for our event was the atmosphere of the venue itself. From the start we were keen to book Brudenell Social Club and its main room, predominantly because we all love the ambience in that room over any other event space of that capacity in Leeds. This is backed up by my primary research with Brudenell getting the most votes for atmosphere (see Primary Research). It was a risk going for Brudenell as it was more expensive than other venue options, but we felt it was a risk worth taking. Another deciding factor for Brudenell was the availability of our chosen date, which aligned with St. Patrick’s Day (17 March 2026). Due to the celebrations and the drinking, a lot of people were in great moods which helped lift the room. Having the separate bar in the Brudenell main room was another reason why the venue space worked so well: most places serving drinks in Leeds were packed for St. Patrick’s Day, but our audience members could get a drink without having to queue.
We sold enough tickets (147) to make the venue feel full (see Photos 1,2) and we chose supports that brought their own fans: Lauren Mikki and Emma Coates. A full venue always improves the atmosphere, and this is backed up by the primary research I took (see Primary Research). The research clearly demonstrated that the majority of people polled believed having a full feeling venue strengthened the atmosphere to a large extent. From attending and playing similar sized gigs in Leeds myself, many of them have drastically different audience sizes between each act, due to fans of the headliner not turning up for the other acts. However, on this night, there was only around a twenty percent difference in audience size between each support. This made the start of the event feel much less awkward than gigs I’ve attended/played at (see Photo 3). Jo on sound played fitting background music between each act which improved the ambience. I’ve been to multiple gigs in Oporto where there’s extremely loud metal at the bar and it has no correlation to the artists playing. According to my primary research, all 14 of the people I asked said that the music choice and volume affect the atmosphere, with one of them mentioning Oporto as an example of occasionally getting it wrong (see Primary Research).
Primary Research
Photos 1, 2, 3
Box Office
There were no major issues regarding the box office, and we made sure to let the person on the door know that James would always be close by if there were any problems. The only thing box office was worried about was people trying to enter on guestlist, without a ticket and only having their name to go from. James could confirm that they were on it, as he knew everyone on the guestlist. My main role for the evening was setting up and running the merch table (see Photos 4, 5). Romy ended up making £417.83 in revenue from merch. I made sure to be approachable and friendly and to keep records of everything such as cash sales and what they purchased. I have a Zettle account on my phone so I could take payments for Romy and Emma Coates and have it easily documented (see Photo 6, 31, 32, 33). The only one slip from the box office, was when two people were let in/sneaked in to use the main room toilets instead of the general Brudenell ones and they were a slight disturbance when entering during Lauren Mikki’s set. It wasn’t bad and there was little we could do to prevent it. The box office also supplied wristbands for artists and anyone else involved while stamping audience members (see Photos 7, 8, 9).
Photos 4, 5, 6
Photo 31
Photo 32
Photo 33
Photos 7, 8, 9
Security
Security was consistent. I was just round the corner from the venue’s entrance doing the merch table, and I noticed security’s continual presence (Photo 10). The one thing we didn’t consider fully was that having the event on St. Patrick’s Day could’ve been a security risk due to the number of drunk people potentially being a disturbance to the event.
Photo 10, No Glass, Security Entrance
Health and Safety
Looking at our risk assessment, the problems with the highest combined probability and severity scores were: exposed cables being a trip hazard, injury from lifting heavy equipment, effecting people with photosensitive lighting and the small hole on the stage (see Risk Assessment). To stop the exposed cables, we made sure to tape them down and check that Brudenell’s cables were already taped. To avoid any lifting injuries, we all helped to carry the drums from Romy’s drummer’s car onto the stage, and we offered to help anyone who was moving anything heavy. We also checked that the hole on the stage was covered up by a monitor.
Risk Assessment
Production
Jo on sound did a great job and it really helped that she was familiar with the venue. I saw a group called Lumi supporting Flyte in that room; they had their own sound engineer who had not worked there before, and the ceiling was rattling throughout and became very distracting (see Video 1). It really paid off that we pushed for Jo. We got loads of positive feedback about the lights after the show and how they transformed it, taking it from a normal show to something more memorable and professional (see Primary Research, Video 2). This was greatly helped by James’ vision, how he directed the lighting engineer and how he communicated with Romy and her vision for each song (see Video 3). This was another financial risk, as the lighting engineer was expensive, but the feedback was so positive it felt like a worthwhile asset.
Video 1, 2, 3
Artist Liaison
On the day we made sure to be cooperative and professional, introducing ourselves to the bands and letting them know that they could come to us for any issue, however small. We made space on the merch table so that Emma Coates could have a section for her CDs (see Photo 4, 5). We supplied a rider worth £36.70. We got 5 sandwiches, orange juice, water and 20 beers. In hindsight, the sandwiches weren’t a good move as 3 were left (see Photo 11, 12). All the beers were drunk, but we should’ve asked what the artists wanted before getting anything. Another issue we had to navigate was Romy’s band having a missing guitar strap and IEM pack. James had spares of both which he retrieved from his house which wasn’t far from the venue.
Photos 11, 12, Parking, Wifi Password
Stage Management
On the day, I helped assemble lanterns for Romy’s set which were placed all over the stage in non-invasive areas (see Photo 13, 14). This gave her set a slightly more intimate atmosphere, separating it from the support acts, but it did mean some speedy stage management to set them up correctly. Another element to navigate was that the supports also brought amps which left less room on stage; however, Brudenell main room stage is deep, so this wasn’t much of an issue. There was a potential issue with stage management due to Brad’s (Romy’s Bassist) cable for running track being too short, but luckily it was just long enough. If we had been on a slightly larger stage, they would’ve had to move their places which would’ve been an issue for the players. The performers are used to practising in a specific configuration, and having clear visuals of each other on stage to deliver the best performance is essential. In the future we will bring different length cables for this sort of incident.
Photos 13, 14
Online Marketing
For the online marketing, Romy posted multiple acoustic and full band covers of her lead single, ‘Human Nature’, on Instagram and multiple posts with the gig’s poster. One of these posts being a collaborative post with groovemagazine.co which has 4,440 followers (see Photos 15, 16, 17). All of these posts referenced the gig and reminded people to get tickets which were available in her bio. There could’ve been more collaboration within the promotion team to instigate and help execute content for Romy to post. We could’ve edited videos, brainstormed video ideas more and found more Leeds-based accounts that post about upcoming gigs and emerging talent. This could’ve increased ticket sales, which was, in my opinion, our biggest flaw with the event, as an improvement in sales would’ve improved both atmosphere and profit margins. The promotion team reposted Romy’s content and put links and posters up on our respective Instagram stories. Our online promotion didn’t reach a wide enough audience, and this was represented in the crowd. The majority of the audience came up to the merch table and almost everyone was an LCON student or a friend or family. Having a larger online presence leading up to the gig could’ve helped to reach that wider audience and sell more tickets.
Photos 15, 16, 17 + Other Online Promotional Materiel
Promotional Materials
Our best promotional strategy was setting up a table at LCON. We sold 56 tickets in person. We made sure to stay there for the busiest hours and to be as approachable as possible. The spin the wheel for prizes, sweets and physical tickets helped in persuading people to buy tickets (see Photos 18, 19). We put up posters where we could but once again it was quite insular in that fact that it was predominantly at LCON and Brudenell (see Photos 20-30).
Photos 18-30
Financial Outcomes
Our profit was very small, but we didn’t lose money, and we were happy with this outcome because our priority was to put on a great gig and break even (see Promoter Settlement). The profit wasn’t as high as our predictions, as I think our ticket sales estimations were inflated due to making assumptions with not enough data. We estimated a 50% increase in ticket sales from a trend comparing two of Romy’s most recent gigs. Making an estimation like this needs far more data to find a trend and create a realistic percentage increase. We took financial risks in going with Brudenell and paying for a lighting engineer, but it was great for Romy to play at such a popular and sought after venue in Leeds. It also gives her more credibility for future venue space bookings. In terms of profit, it would’ve been more beneficial to go for a smaller venue and sell it out and not to use a lighting engineer as the number of tickets sold would’ve been very similar, but the costs would’ve been much lower. We wanted to do something more challenging, and we wanted Romy to play somewhere she hadn’t, so Brudenell made sense, but it lacked financial credibility. It was arguably slightly too soon in Romy’s career to play such a big venue from a financial point of view. As I did the merch, I made sure the cash was safely taken home with me in an Uber and that Romy got her money safely and documented (see Photos 31-35).
Promoter Settlement
Photos 31-35
Venue Settlement
Other
A big part of being a good promoter is leaving a good impression on the venue, the staff and the artists. This is especially true in Leeds, because the music scene is very insular and opinions on artists and promoters travel fast in that space. I made sure that the Green Room was left spotless, offered to help Jo on sound, packed down all her equipment. I helped move tables and tidied up rubbish (see Photos, 36, 37). We all assisted the supports move their equipment into their cars and helped out as much as we possible (see Video 4). In our advance schedule we left one hour of extra time which was necessary because we ended using all of it due to issues in soundchecks. (see Advance Schedule) With Brudenell, we planned far in advance and contacted them as early as we could. We never felt we were under any time pressure.
Photos 36, 37
Video 4
Advance Schedule
Conclusion
The event was a success in the actual gig itself, but from a business perspective it’s not sustainable with such small profit margins. However, this can vary drastically from artist to artist as a lot of the promoting and selling of tickets stems from the artist and their fanbase. Using a similar promotional approach with a different artist and a few improvements based off my evaluative points, particularly regarding promotion, we could be a profitable promotion team.
