Tour Schedule/Planner
Tour Schedule/Planner Commentary
This five date tour plan and subsequent commentary details a debut UK and Ireland tour for alternative rock artist ‘CHAR’. Currently based in Leeds with a growing audience across the country and into other territories (see Appendix 1), she is building a steady fanbase immediately following the release of her debut single in November last year. This tour has been planned effectively to build a larger audience in different cities and illustrate her presence within the growing rock scene.
All venues on this tour range from capacity of 80 to 125, remaining realistic for the scale of reach from the artist, as well as the potential for maximising profits. The largest venue has been chosen for the last date of the tour in Leeds, and this has been done to accommodate the increase in ticket demands for this show, as CHAR has already played two sold out gigs at this venue (see Appendix 2).
Local support acts have been chosen in each city to ensure the continuation of support for local talent, as well as maximising profits by bringing in familiar audiences. This is also reflected through the careful consideration of sound engineers, photographers and videographers as detailed on each tour pack.
This tour consists of 5 shows over the span of 9 days, from February 22nd to March 2nd, 2027 (see Appendix 3). February and March were the chosen months for this tour as it avoids the Christmas period and festival season, which could have had a negative impact on ticket sales. Starting the tour on a Monday and ending the following Tuesday allows for plenty of rest days and extra time for potential travel disruptions or other issues that may arise. The tour begins in Manchester with the remaining dates in London, Sheffield, Dublin and ending in Leeds (see Appendix 4). This route was chosen for several reasons including lower hire fees in London during the week, ferry fares being lower for weekend travel and allowance for extra rest days in between performances to reduce the risk of burn out for all musicians. Musicians Union details strategies to avoid burnout and specifically states regular breaks, time away from work and post-performance routines are crucial to maintain good health whilst touring (Musicians Union, 2024).
This tour plan accounts for five musicians, two of which will share the driving and tour manager responsibilities between them to save costs on touring personnel. Driving times will integrate regular breaks to minimise fatigue and maintain safety whilst traveling. Activities on performance days are minimised especially to limit overstimulation as constant social interaction for performers may prove challenging at times. Promotional activities will however be integrated into the tour, specifically utilising travel days to use social media to interact with fans and plan post tour content. These include, but are not limited to, Instagram live videos, intimate store signings and acoustic gigs to increase visibility and engage new audiences.
Travel will take place in a hired commercial 7-seater SUV (Peugeout 5008), from a local enterprise in Leeds to avoid unnecessary transportation or delivery fees (see Appendix 5). Due to the limited number of personnel attending the tour, a larger van was not required for this journey and there is sufficient storage to comfortably transport all musicians as well as music equipment and merchandise. Driving time is capped at four hours at a time, allowing for regular rest periods, especially important due to the fact there is no separate driver, and some musicians are doubling as personnel.
Travel overseas to Dublin will utilise the ferry, (see Appendix 6) with an ATA carnet requirement due to transporting instruments outside of the UK. A proof of purchase is now strongly advised, or fines could be imposed (ISM, 2022).
Cash Flow
Financial Commentary
As detailed by Atkins (2007), “Budgets are designed to let you know where the problem areas will be.” This is the case when planning the execution of a debut headline tour. The finance document attached is based around an 85%-90% sales projection, representing a financially successful tour.
Revenue from ticket sales was based on selling tickets priced at £10 for UK shows, and £15 in Dublin. Tickets were priced fairly based on other shows across the country for similar types of events (see Appendix 7). Though the finance document only accounts for tickets sold in advance, revenue could increase if on the door (OTD) tickets were taken into consideration. The only venue that sold out to capacity was Leeds, and this was to be expected due to previous success in the area. Selling tickets at 85% capacity gave a total revenue of £4,475, but a greater number of ticket sales at £12 a ticket (excluding Dublin) would lead to an extra profit of around £200. This pricing allowed for breakeven and small profit to cover venue fees and other expenses.
Venue hire costs have been inputted based on venue hire packs provided and totals £1,074.96, which is a significant expense for such a small-scale tour. These could be subsidised if a promoter was utilised, as the risk is placed on them for spending money on the event, and usually artists can expect to receive a performance fee regardless of ticket sales (Rutter, 2010:66). Four out of the five tour dates required accommodation, with band members able to stay in their own houses for the Leeds date, bringing accommodation fees to £1,423 for five people. There is an average fuel expenditure of £100 across the whole tour, broken down and rounded up in the finances document to account for other unexpected journeys. Other expenses covered in the budget include £150 allowance per day for per diems, £80 per night for photographers, £50 per night as a flat fee for support acts, and an extra £400 contingency fund to cover any additional unexpected costs.
Merchandise and licensing
All venues contacted stated they did not require cuts in merchandise sales (see Appendix 8), meaning 100% of sales will be kept by CHAR, totalling £4,095. Prices of these items range from £7 to £25 which are reflective of merchandise from similar artists within the genre (see Appendix 9). Merchandise production and expenditure totalled £708 for 400 combined units, which could have been more profitable if a bigger quantity was manufactured at a lower fee.
200 quality prints were sourced from FreePrints, with a total costing of £21.04 (see Appendix 10,) breaking even after 3 sales. These signed prints are the highest grossing item of merchandise, generating an income of £1,440. The production and distribution costs of such items are kept low due to the manufacturer being nationwide, allowing for further prints to be ordered and delivered to other territories if stocks become sparse whilst on tour.
Norwich based ‘VinoSangre’ quoted £356.47 to produce 50 screen printed jersey t-shirts, with the logo displayed on the front of the clothing (see Appendix 11), generating a small earning of £900 if 45 units were sold. Due to the simplicity of the design and low pricing, it is reasonable to predict these will exceed supply and demand, and as stated above, further orders can be placed to maximise sales.
A key aspect of CHAR’s merchandising are the handmade products, priced up due to the labour and skill that goes into creating these items. These items are sustainably sourced, using recycled t-shirts and materials to create stars like those used on the posters. The budgeted allowance is £250 for the clothing, and £80 for the bows which allows t-shirts to be purchased at an average of £5 per item, and materials sourced for the bows, such as ribbon and buttons, likely to be less than the £80 predicted figure.
Promotion and marketing
Regarding the promotion and marketing of the tour, this will heavily rely on self-promotion through social media advertisement, as “the internet is the promotional saviour of the independent” (Rutter, 2010:174). Using targeted ads for a duration of 15 days at a total cost of £75, these will be aimed at existing followers, as well as the predicted reach of between 28-52,000 new accounts, as analysed by algorithmic procedures on the platform (see Appendix 12). Promotional multi-media content will be distributed in the form of a pre-tour campaign of behind the scenes and rehearsal footage, as well as footage from during the tour to keep momentum.
Physical posters will be distributed ahead of time to all venues to ensure shows are advertised well in advance, with QR codes displayed to encourage advanced ticket sales. An allowance of £126.02 was set aside to produce 75 posters from Pixel2Print as well as delivery costs (see Appendix 13) and would display the tour posters as well as the logo for consistency across marketing.
During the tour, the tour pack details further appearances to strengthen the audience reach in the hopes of increasing ticket sales. Social media live videos act as fan engagement tools to ‘involve fans that are not physically present at the show’ (Bennett 2012:545). The acoustic live session, to be held on the travel day in Sheffield, significantly extends the reach to those in the vicinity of the performance, kept free to create a sense of accessibility and intimacy. The live session at Windmill Studios in Dublin will have a dual purpose of being used as promotional material as well as to release a teaser of new music in long form content. Collaborating with Leeds Student Radio on the last date of the tour has strategically been integrated to reach a sold-out home show for the artist.
Technical & Logistics
Stage Plot
Logistics/Projections
Technical logistics
The technical arrangement of this tour will include CHAR (vocals/guitar), Tiana (bass/driver), Rowan (guitar/tour manager), Jonathan (guitar) and Ben (drummer/driver).
Health and wellbeing
As stated above, Ben and Tiana will be allocated drivers for the duration of the tour, alternating each day to avoid tiredness and fatigue. Rest days are integrated into the schedule to enable adequate recovery times in between shows. Healthy diet, sufficient sleep and regular exercise should also be considered (BAPAM, n.d).
Travel delays and cancellations
To account for delays or cancellations, the ferry trips to and from Dublin are scheduled on days with no shows to avoid postponing. This also adds extra time to account for border control and delays, weather issues or any other problems that may arise. The vehicle hire includes insurance and will cover assistance if a breakdown happens. The contingency fund will allow for emergency accommodation if reservations are missed due to cancellations.
Gear failure and loss
All gear will be stored with the artists in secured accommodation overnight, ensuring no equipment is left in any vehicle. Safe parking has been identified for each venue, as detailed in the tour pack. The contingency fund may be utilised if any gear is stolen or damaged, but extra items will be carried as a backup to avoid using these finances.
Financial overrun
The contingency fund allows an excess of £400 to cover unexpected costs incurred. To avoid spending overbudget, accommodation costs could be lowered by staying with friends or family if they are local to a show, ticket prices could be raised, and merchandise production could be significantly increased to generate a higher profit. Post tour, any merch leftover could be sold online at a discounted rate to avoid wastage and increase the profit further.
Appendices
Appendix 1 – Spotify statistics
Appendix 2 – Sold out Lois and Oxford Comma gigs
Appendix 3 – full tour poster
Appendix 4 – route plan
Appendix 5 – van hire quote
Appendix 6 – ferry ticket costings
Appendix 7 – ticket pricing example
Appendix 8 – Sidney and Matilda merch cuts/venue pack
Appendix 9 – Chloe Slater merch figures
Appendix 10 – free prints quote
Appendix 11 – merchandise prices
Appendix 12 – Instagram adverts
Appendix 13 – posters quote
Bibliography
Atkins, M. (2007) Tour: Smart and Break the Band. Smart Books, Chicago.
BAPAM (n.d). Healthy touring checklist and rider. Available online: https://www.bapam.org.uk/healthy-touring-checklist-and-rider/ [Accessed 06/05/2026].
Bennett, L. (2012). Patterns of listening through social media: online fan engagement with the live music experience. Social Semiotics, 22(5), 545-557. https://doi.org/10.1080/10350330.2012.731897
ISM (2022). Musicians’ guide to ATA Carnets. Independent Society of Musicians. Available online: https://www.ism.org/advice/musicians-guide-to-ata-carnets/ [Accessed 23/04/2026].
Musicians Union (2024) Burnout. Available online: https://musiciansunion.org.uk/health-safety-wellbeing/mental-health-and-wellbeing/musicians-wellbeing-guidance-pack/burnout [Accessed 23/04/2026].
Rutter, P. (2010) The Music Industry Handbook, 2nd edition.Routledge, Abington.
Supporting Documents/ other research
Sent emails
Venue pack Manchester
Accomodation costs
Average fuel costings
