Tour Schedule/Planner
Tour Schedule/Planner Commentary
This tour is for London based indie/country band Adult Cat. The tour aims to boost their profile within their scene, whilst promoting the release of a debut EP. They are prepared and in the correct position to embark on a tour after a couple of years gigging frequently and making a name for themselves within London. They have recently supported higher profile band Scruffoftheneck on a UK tour at multiple 500 cap venues. All this as well as being booked to play The Isle of Wight festival this summer means they are on an upwards trajectory and ready to do a UK tour.
All the venues selected for the tour have a capacity between 100-300 people. These are suitably sized venues for the tour. Adult have frequently been in the smaller pub circuit and in doing so have gathered enough of a following to warrant performing these sized venues. All venues picked have been so as they promote and showcase indie talent that Adult Cat fit into. Each venue chosen has shown artists of a similar musical profile to Adult Cat and so will have an audience.
This tour consists of 6 shows across a 9-day period from the 11th-15th of October 2026. I have chosen for the tour to happen around this time as the cities chosen to have big student populations and October is the beginning of term time which coincides with students receiving their loans and are looking for gigs to attend. The route of this tour is as follows: Leeds, Hull, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Rotterdam, Hull (See Appendix 1). This route hits most major cities of the east coast of the UK and utilises the ferry ports at Hull, Rotterdam and Harwich (See Appendix 2). The use of these ports and ferries allows for a cyclical route making it efficient to return to London and return the hired van.
On the road will be 5 members, 4 band members and the tour manager/ driver. Being on the road and in the same small space for this long can naturally take a toll on peoples mood so it’s important to ensure members have enough space and alone time Matan Zohar states in guardian article “It’s easy to let your mind and body slip into decay, even for a person with a healthy emotional state. For those with anxiety, hotel rooms are like prison cell.’ (Luke Morgan Britton, 2018) this highlights the problems with being confined into the same spaces for days and how than can grind anyone down. Therefore, putting a day off when the band arrive in Rotterdam on 11th of October is mandatory and allows the band to experience being in a European city whilst doing an interview and photoshoot.
Financial Planning
This budget is based on real quotes for all the budget items having research cost effective options for travel, accommodation and food. The income estimates are based on 80% sales on both merch and tickets. The ticket pricing varies between £10-£15 based on how expensive each city is, London and Edinburgh tickets are £12, Rotterdam is £15 and the rest of the dates are £10. Assuming 80% of tickets are sold at each venue the ticket sales would make £9,552. The venue hire fee is between £120 and £180 for each venue based on research and emails sent out (See Appendix 3,4) and hire documents I received from The Cluney and Sneaky Pete’s (See Appendices 5,6).
3 of the 9 nights on the tour will be spent at friends houses in London and Leeds and 1 other night is spent over night on the ferry from hell to Rotterdam. This means accommodation has been booked for 5 nights (As detailed in tour book.) Adult Cat will be paid £250 per gig (based on figures from interview conducted with Jake Scott (See Appendix 7)) and the supports will be paid £100.The Tour manager will (me) will be paid £200 a day. Fuel pricing has been calculated based on milage and diesel price with extra mile contingency (950 miles at 43 miles per gallon x £8.30- £183). A photographer will be hired for Leeds and Rotterdam at a flat rate of £200. Each band member will get £20 per diems a day and there will be £100 snack and food budget for on the road. Due border crossings, an ATA carnet is required in Rotterdam This is a customs passport allowing for the temporary export of professional equipment, requiring a detailed record of the tour inventory (Appendix 8). A contingency of £500 has been put aside in case of any emergency. Marketing and merchandising costs from CDs and t shirts to posters have been included in the cash flow as well. An Insurance cover quote has also been put in (Appendix 9
Marketing and Promotional plan
This tour will be marketed primarily on social media utilising the bands Instagram profile page to market before and during the tour done mostly by the tour manager and with help from friends in different cities. Promotional videos before the tour will consist of videos of previous live shows in conjunction with new aesthetic music videos teasing the EP release to create excitement and buzz. There will joint posts with each venue to allow wide reach- venue Instagram’s like @sneakypetesclub has 29.5k followers, @windmillbrixton has 36.9k followers, @hydeparkbookclub has 30.4k followers etc. These numbers and exposure will prove as a useful tool for marketing and can be done inexpensively. Press release plan (Appendix 10) details the dates behind each marketing move and explains when the tour posters will be delivered and put in multiple areas in each city. There will be key and important areas to display these posters. Firstly, in the venues themselves but beyond that these are student cities and the main target audience is students so communicating with university societies and student accommodation areas to help put these posters up in the most visible areas is key.
On the first night of the tour in Leeds there will be a photographer/ videographer who will get shots and videos to be edited and ready to release the next day on tour day 2, this early documentation and release whilst being on the road will further boost the excitement for the tour and upcoming tour dates. On tour day 7 there will be an interview with Rotterdam music magazines- for the love of band which will help market the EP and boost the bands profile in the Netherlands. It’s important to note the upholding of a band image and aesthetic in marketing – “branding videos are so powerful is because they are highly engaging” (Schepers, 2023) so creating distinct promotional videos of the band’s performances using things like filter and effects will prove helpful. Other than that, throughout the tour there will be daily light-hearted informal content that will be uploaded on the Instagram page: videos from the van, videos post gig, interactions with fans, etc. 2 key inspirations for these decisions are the videos released like keo and tooth both of which are lighter larger scale indie bands who have built the popularity of their music and gigs alongside well-crafted videos with moody image. Inspirations for light-hearted daily posts come from pictures and vids posted on small scale tours of bands like Spanish horses. So, the aim is to place the imagery of the tour between light-hearted and moody.
Technical & Logistics
Stage Plot
Channel List
Add your PDF in the file block below. Please see the exemplar channel list for reference.
Merchendisng and liscensing
Throughout the tour the idea is to regain from tour costs not only from ticket sales but from merchandising as well. “Tour merch accounts for 30-50% of total touring income for independent artists” (Kova, 2026) considering the importance of selling merchandise to fund independent tours, 200 CDs (Appendix 11) with well-designed CD wallets (Appendix 12) and 200 T-shirts (Appendix 13) will be sold at a merch table for each gig. Fortunately, all the venues don’t take a cut of the of merch sale profits. The merch will be sold by the band members to minimise costs. The idea behind selling the CDs in well-designed covers made from good materials is to add an element of exclusivity to the product “This exclusivity builds a sort of social anxiety stemming from the belief that others might be experiencing something positive that you are not” (Wallace-Brewster, 2021) the idea of this item being only 1 of 200 and the psychology behind this type of marketing will help get more people buying the merchandise.
Licensing opportunities are likely to be more limited for Adult Cat compared to larger or more commercially mainstream artists. As an emerging independent band, their audience reach and industry visibility are still developing, meaning they are less likely to secure major sync licensing deals for television, film, or advertising campaigns at this stage of their career. Music licensing is highly competitive, with supervisors typically looking for artists who already have strong streaming numbers, established branding, or proven commercial appeal.
This means the opportunities to gain money through merchandising is far greater than gaining money from licensing opportunities so the focus should be on the selling of merchandise.
Potential pitfalls + Artist Wellbeing
One of the main potential pitfalls facing the tour is financial sustainability. Although the current budget shows a small projected surplus of approximately £500, this is heavily dependent on achieving at least 80% ticket and merchandise sales across all dates. This means the tour is effectively close to breaking even, leaving very little margin for error. In addition, a £500 contingency fund has been included to cover unexpected expenses such as vehicle issues, accommodation changes, equipment damage, or emergency travel costs. However, if ticket sales underperform or merchandise sales are lower than expected, the tour could quickly move into a deficit. To reduce this risk, the Tour Manager should closely monitor ticket sales in advance and work with venues and promoters to strengthen marketing activity where required. Only just breaking even between is there enough of a cushion.
Although Adult cat as a band is on an upwards trajectory their social media presence might not be big enough to promote the tour as much as the need to for the bigger venues so in retrospect the tour could be held at smaller venues.
Artist’s health and wellbeing on tour is important as some artists can experience burnout. Burnout is a result of bad situations rather than a weakness or lack of resilience in the individual. “The music industry can be a challenging environment to work in. Research shows that around 80% musicians have struggled with mental health worries, and that incidence of burnout is high.” (James, 2024). Burn out is caused by a multitude of reasons one of which being around multiple personalities your unfamiliar with for a long time. One perc of Adult cat is that the band is built up of 3 brothers that get along (most the time) this can result in less depersonalization and present a stronger support network which works well them.
After weighing up the potential pitfalls of this tour its apparent that making large profits as a small indie band is increasingly difficult a music radar magazine article “84% of independent artists in the UK cannot afford to go on tour in 2025.” (Simpson, 2025) After planning and budgeting this tour I can see how difficult touring being able to make a reasonable profit is.
Bibliography
Bound, C. (2025). Touring on a Budget: How Bands Make It Work on the Road. [online] Mystic Sons. Available at: https://www.mysticsons.com/article/touring-budget-how-bands-make-it-work-road.
James, E. (2024). Burnout Advice for Musicians | Musicians’ Union. [online] Musiciansunion.org.uk. Available at: https://musiciansunion.org.uk/health-safety-wellbeing/mental-health-and-wellbeing/musicians-wellbeing-guidance-pack/burnout?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
Kova, L. (2026). Tour Merch Strategy 2026: What Actually Sells on the Road. [online] Chartlex. Available at: https://www.chartlex.com/blog/touring/tour-merch-strategy-what-sells-2026?utm_source=chatgpt.com [Accessed 29 Apr. 2026].
Luke Morgan Britton (2018). Insomnia, anxiety, break-ups … musicians on the dark side of touring. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2015/jun/25/musicians-touring-psychological-dangers-willis-earl-beal-kate-nash.
Schepers, R. (2023). The power of branding videos: engaging, effective and unforgettable. [online] VIDEJOW. Available at: https://www.videjow.nl/en/post/the-power-of-branding-videos-engaging-effective-and-unforgettable?utm_source=chatgpt.com [Accessed 29 Apr. 2026].
Simpson, B. (2025). The vast majority of independent artists cannot even afford to tour, new survey reveals. [online] MusicRadar. Available at: https://www.musicradar.com/music-industry/the-vast-majority-of-independent-artists-cannot-even-afford-to-tour-new-survey-reveals?utm_source=chatgpt.com [Accessed 29 Apr. 2026].
Wallace-Brewster, D. (2021). Retail Exclusivity In The Digital Age. Forbes. [online] 29 Jan. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/councils/forbescommunicationscouncil/2021/01/29/retail-exclusivity-in-the-digital-age/?utm_source=chatgpt.com.
