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Rationale

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Rationale

My team and I have planned a headline gig for Leeds artist Thomas Jason at The Lending Room on February 25^th, 2026, our event is a night of Indie folk. In this Rationale I will go into further detail of the nature of our event and how we applied the project management skills learnt. I’ll explain the decisions my team and I made and show evidence that give testimony to our decisions, showing we made the appropriate choices.

Time Management

Time management is crucial point of project management as it’s all about creating a logical schedule to ensure “efficiency, productivity, and help to reduce stress. It’s all about knowing how much time you have to start with, and thus how much you can allocate to certain tasks” (Unkown, headbox, 2022)

In preparing our event we assigned each member a task.

• (Myself) – Marketing & Publicity
• Shania – Production
• Leo – Costings & Finance
• Tom – Risk Assessment
• Gracie – Contingency Plan

Splitting up the workload like this helps create a clear understanding of what to do, this clear sense of instruction means fast work, keeps us responsible and organised.

When it comes to managing time, we created an advance. This is to insure everything runs smoothly on the day of the event. An advance is basically a page or two outlining information we need like venue details, technical needs, health & safety but it also contains a timeline of the day from Load in into Curfew.

The timeline starts with load inn at 4pm then followed by soundcheck, we start with Thomas Jason & finish with Leo Hoad this is so the 1^st support can leave their equipment on stage meaning the event can start without further changes this reduces time waste. Another tactic we used to manage soundcheck timings is a 15 min break giving enough time for the artists to take gear on & off stage.

Doors are at 19:00 with the 1^st support on at 19:30 this not only helps create an atmosphere by giving people time too buy drinks, settle down & maybe buy merch but scheduling why’s we considered that not everyone will be on time.

Leo Hoad & Gracie de Wolfe both have 30 mins while Thomas Jason will have a longer set of 50 mins this is because Thomas Jason is the headliner (he will bring the largest ticket sales) so only makes sense that he has a longer set. Between artists we will have a 20 min break this helps time as different artists have different instruments/backline, so the sound engineer needs to adapt the mix. This also saves audience energy keeping interest throughout the event.

Lastly there is an hour break between the headliners expected finish & Curfew which helps time management by working as our safety net. As we all know not every gig runs to plan & this hour gap gives us enough time to pack down gear while also taking into consideration any possible delays.

Production

Technical

The technical set up will be basic but still create quality sound suitable for the acoustic textures, honest lyricism, and warm guitar tones of Indie Folk. An appropriately sized house PA will be provided alongside microphones; the sound engineer will know the direct use of each mic and mic placement to create the best possible sound & vocal clarity. All artists gear will have to be tested prior each event by the artists and again by the sound engineer, as for patch testing the venue will have tested all their gear and it’s the artist responsibility to test theirs.

Stage lighting will be aesthetically pleasing making sure to use warm tones as an intimate environment will suit the setting of Indie Folk. The lighting cannot be overly complicated with flashing lights every where and crazy colours this is because we want the focus to be 100% on the artist and their emotional music.

Logistical

Logistics are so important for efficiency that is why myself & all my colleagues will be equipped with an advance and any other documents needed. This ensures all team members know all information about load in, load out and equipment requirements therefore reducing set up time. Artist schedules, soundcheck and performance slots need to be communicated to all. We also need front of house organisation this helps guide audiences and improves their gig experience.

Hospitality

Artist, crew and audience hospitality is vital for creating comfort through out

& maintaining good relationships. Artists will be provided with water and any refreshments at the bar. They will also have access to a green room making sure they have a space away from the noise to relax and prepare for their set.

It is the front of house job to consider audience hospitality first step in ensuring this is to be welcoming and have good customer service.

health & safety

Health & Safety is extremely important so all team members need to be aware of all fire exits these can be found in the fire risk assessment document. For health and safety, everyone needs to be briefed on emergency procedures and who to contact for first aid.

Contingency plan

In the world of project management, a contingency plan is a small document all about potential pitfalls and plans to get over them. “With any event, there is potential for many things to go wrong; this plan will help you prepare for undesirable circumstances and successfully change your event” (Unkown, thebrewery, 2023).

An example of this is sound system failure, the sound system might fail due to faulty equipment or faulty electrical connections, and the responsibility falls under the venue and the promoter. We worked out that completing sound check early, backing up the sound system and keeping spare cables and Di boxes will help fix this problem if it occurs.

Another risk with equipment is monitor failure, this may be a fault with the stage wedge or in ear issues and both the venue and the artist are responsible. To help resolve this issue artists should line check beforehand and make sure to practice without in ears as worst case scenario they perform without.

A very common issue is Illness; there are many reasons why an artists could be ill or absent but in any case, the responsibility falls on them as they made an agreement. If this happens, they should replace themselves for another act and in worst case scenario reschedule. If there feeling up too it (depending on how they feel) they may have to shorten the set or use backing tracks to keep the show on the road.

There are many more examples on our contingency plan but lastly if band members have forgotten equipment (which in my experience is likely) its usually just human error but sometimes may be due travel disruptions. Either way its their responsibility and to ensure a smooth, stress free gig they should back up kit, research shops/rentals/etc, communicate and arrange with the other acts and to be double sure keep a spare instrument available on site if possible.

Finance

First financial decisions we made were all about budgeting as our objective was to cut unnecessary expenses. We originally planned to set up our event at left bank which has a large hire fee, you also have to pay for sound. This was way out of our budget but luckily Shania had Tom Fords contact details which was useful as Lending Room have a set fee of £130 (a lot cheaper then left bank) which includes PA, Sound & in house lights. Also, we decided to print & create the poster ourselves meaning know expenses on printing & graphic design. If you’ve seen our financial risk plan it states we may have to cut out paid ads but instead we would be manually sharing wherever we can. These decisions helped financially because the less expenses you have the easier it is to break even & the more likely it is to create income.

Due to our helpful budgeting the only costs we have are our venue hire £130 & local advertisement £20 this comes up too a total cost of £150 so now it’s time to think about ticket price.

Our artists and probably the bulk of our audiences are from Leeds conservatoire. The local promoter Lubi Jovanovic states an important fact we had to consider “a new LCom second or third year band you can’t charge £12 when their following/fans are students and mainly attending free entry PAYF or £3 -£5 entry shows” (Lubi, 2024). We took this & the venues low capacity into consideration while weighing up costs vs expected ticket sales and decided the best possible ticket price would be £5 advance & £7 to £10 on the door. This is because we don’t want to discourage potential customers but depending on the number of advance tickets sold we may have to raise the on door tickets (£7-10).

Saying this £5 is a great price because if only 30 people attend, out of lending rooms 200 capacity, we will cover all expenses and break even (£5 X 30 = £150). Now if we took just the advanced tickets at £5, times it by the capacity and took away expenses we would earn (£5 X 200 – £150) equals £850 but if everyone buys the on the door tickets we will make (£7 X 200 – £150) £1250 or (£10 X 200 – £150) £1850. Anywhere between £850 & £1850 is a great success and these figures give me confidence as I know with our marketing strategies in place were bound to drive ticket sales.

Marketing & Publicity

According to the Oxford Dictionary marketing is “the activity of presenting, advertising and selling a company’s products in the best possible way” as a project manager I need to understand that the artist’s are the company and the products are their music and their image but why is marketing so Important?

Marketing is crucial as to market is to create interest, the “goal is simple: Put bottoms on seats” (Reynolds, 2013), without a strong marketing plan nobody in the world will hear about our gig. Without marketing & publicity we won’t gain enough tickets sales to create a suitable audience & income to keep both the artists, venue & us happy.

The first thing you need to consider (way before you create your marketing plan) is target audience. “In constructing a marketing plan, a company defines who its market is” (Shagan, 2001) this is significant because the demographic of our target audience will impact how I will advertise & promote. Our event is a night of indie folk music so using streaming analytics, audience research reports & cultural studies I worked out the demographic of our target audience are mostly teens to young adults aged 16-25 but I do need to consider the smaller percentage of our older audience which age up to 59. Gender wise, indie folk listeners are equally male & female but listening data suggest (if anything) a higher percentage of female listeners. Taking into consideration that all three artists are biased in Leeds & study at the Leeds conservatoire it is a safe bet to say our target audience will be located in Leeds & other surrounding areas in West Yorkshire. The way we market also depends on our Audiences Interest, such things like fashion/aesthetics, film & literature will mean a more unique alternative to media (especially social media) will have a larger success as it relates to Indie folk & current media trends. I will go into further detail on how we used these facts & statistics.

Timing your promotion can make or break your event, too late and you risk your advertisement not reaching your max audience but too early will certainly fatigue them, even irritating your audience making them lose interest in the whole event. Through trial & error I myself have experienced the effects of both of these mistakes that is why I have decided to use Event Crowd (UK’s leading online education provider for event management)suggested 12 of the minimum of 10 – 12-week marketing plan.

There are two ways to market in this modern industry & that’s physical promo & Online promo. Nowadays social media is the most effective tool for any project manager this is because “Physical Promo assets have slowly diminished as social media promo has grown” (Lubi, 2024). This is why Instagram, Facebook & ticktock are going to be my main use of advertisement.

The Average Instagram users are Gen Z and millennials with the highest percent of listeners aged 18 & 24 years old (31.8%) meaning its perfect platform to hit the bulk of our target audience aged 16- 25. Remembering that there are a higher percentage of female indie folk listeners I decided that Instagram is the best media to reach out to this audience due to the UKS similar majority of 55% female Instagram users.

Meta is the company that owns Instagram & Facebook, because of this I can connect my Instagram with my Facebook meaning every marketing reel, story, post will automatically post on Facebook. This is excellent because Facebook can help reach the other side of our target audience that Instagram hasn’t. For example, Instagram doesn’t cater to our older audience which age up to 59 but Facebook largest percentage of listeners are aged 25 – 34 (31%) & second largest are 55+ (24%) so using Facebook will mean I will optimize our publicity to the whole spectrum of Indie Folk listeners which therefore will bring even more interest to our event. Facebook also will help me advertise to our male audience because 56% of Facebooks global users are male. I plan to promote the event on Facebook groups such as “Leeds Music Scene” there a great and cost-efficient way to advertise, my colleague Leo Hoad has done this previous and said he had much success.

Lastly, I plan to use Tick Tock. As a part of a multi – media strategy Tick Tock will boost our content, doubling our chances to catch our target audience interest as its famously known for reaching a younger audience. Another positive is just like Indie Folk & Instagram, Tick Tock is also female dominated but what makes tick tock stand out to me? Well, its because even small accounts can go viral as it by passes follower counts & prioritises engaging content which is perfect as our artists our still finding their feet in the Leeds Circuit & are currently in the process of building a fan base.

There are three main content formats I am going to use stories, posts and reels to market our event. Posts are a collective of photos, videos etc their best for announcements, high quality visuals & brand storytelling, which is important for marketing as it helps educate, build brand image, bring long term clientele & drive engagement. I plan to post on my feed 3 – 5 times a week this is because it boosts your reach by 12%, research does say “the more you post in any given week, the higher your reach” (Lang, buffer, 2025) but I don’t want to sacrifice quality other quantity. Stories are short, temporary videos or photos their great for behind-the-scenes content, daily updates & direct engagement through pools and Q& A which matter for marketing as it builds relationships, enhances interaction and creates urgency. Social Media Manager & Coach Jalyn suggests 3 – 5 stories a day but to prevent audience fatigue I will reduce this two 2 a day until near the event to boost interest. Most Important are reels as “Reels has gone from a TikTok clone to one of Instagram’s most popular features” (Dilday, 2025) as short form content dominates social media. Reels are amazing (short videos) for trends & brand awareness, reels are crucial for driving results because their algorithm-friendly, show personality quick, high shareability and are perfect for reaching new audiences. I plan to post short form content on Tick Tock 2 to 5 times per week to gain 17% more views per post, I could post up to 11 posts to gain up to 34% but again I don’t want to sacrifice quality as I need my short form content to refer to the Indie Folk/Alt Aesthetic. I also plan to use Meta Adds, every well-known venue, artist & promoter I’ve talked to has had great success, for example one of Leeds famous promoters says he uses “organic scheduled posting using content created by me PLUS META paid adverts” (Lubi, 2024). Theres two things to consider that’s price & geographical coverage, I came to the conclusion to spend max £20 and set the location to Leeds & its surrounding areas this will help broadening our reach using precise targeting.

Physical forms of marketing our still important Lubi suggests “social media (80%) and physical promo (20%)” (Lubi, 2024).My original plan was to print 20 posters/flyers at a local printing company called beam works, this came up to £44. This would have increased our expenses therefore increased ticket costs but considering that the Lending Room is targeted at young people & our event is placed on a uni-night I decided to print at Leeds Conservatoire cutting costs while keeping image quality. These posters will be shifted to universities, barbershops, music shops, record shops and basically any independent business that’ll take them. I have seen great success through posters and plan to ramp up this form of promo nearer to our event. Along with posters I plan to use a press release to secure publicity on magazines/newspapers & radio DJ announcements. Lastly, is the oldest trick in the book word of mouth! I plan to book a free table at Leeds Conservatoires café bar in the last few weeks leading up to our event, I also plan to utilise open mics as this face-to-face promotion really does encourage new audiences by bring a sense of personality to our gig which is challenging via the internet. If people, see a gig is on there bound to drag their friends along.

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Technical Specifications

Tech Specs, Advance & Costing Chart

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Press Kit

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Press release