Rationale:

For our show we decided to set up Riot Circuit Promotions, a student run promotions company with the goal of putting on a live music event in Leeds. This essay details the rationale behind the company’s first show, specifically the decisions that went into choosing the lineup and choosing the right venue to host it. 

The main challenge for most first time student promotion companies is the question of finance. Without the backing of a pre established brand or a headline act with a built in fan base, breaking even is not guaranteed. The decisions made in the early stages of planning the event, from who plays to where the show is held, are therefore are extremely important. 

in order to most efficiently tackle the task of setting up our first show as a group, we divided the labor amongst ourselves by assigning each of us roles to operate as. The group roles consisted of group leader, promoter, graphic design, booking agent, social media and marketing, and production. we assigned them as followed: 

group leader, and promoter: Oliver Hargreaves 

social media and marketing: Brynley Martin 

Graphic Design: Luke Hanney 

production lead: Ben Gosling Davis 

booking agent: me, Tom Harte. 

I chose to take on the role of booking agent as my experience in my band (student slasher film) has gained me many contacts in the Yorkshire area, and had a wide selection of artist i knew to ask to take on the gig, as well as knowing a lot of promoters and venue promoters personally. in the end though, we opted to use our own bands, still making use of my connections to secure the venue we thought was best. 

This essay aims to make clear that the choices we made as Riot Circuit Promotions in the lead up to our first ever show were driven by a conscious strategy to reduce our financial risk while still being able to put on an event that reflected the identity, genre and ethos of the bands playing our show. By explaining the rationale behind both the line up selection and our choice of venue (e.g Key Club) it will hopefully demonstrate how our student-run promotion company can approach event planning with the same level of critical thinking a professional promoter would apply. 

I hope to show how our smart, early stage decisions about line up and venue, turned our ambitious idea into a viable one. 

Rationale for the event and venue choice: 

in putting on riot circuit promotions first event, we wanted to try mitigating most of the pitfall’s student ran gigs can fall into, so we tried to look at this show we are putting on through the lens of a gig promoter. the first obvious pitfall to avoid being unable to break even financially, and so we have decided to host the gig using our already known contacts and bands that we ourselves are in. in doing this, we won’t have to pay for bigger, more established bands to play the show for us. However, this presents a new problem, because without their larger influence and following, we will likely pull in less ticket sales. in order to mitigate this, we decided to host the event at venues that our bands have played before, knowing that we previously managed to pull in enough audience members to break even/make a profit. this decision led us to choose between the following venues: 

boom 

santiagos 

lending rooms 

oporto 

key club 

in the end, we decided to host our event at key club, for various reasons. Firstly, it is a high capacity venue, hosting up to 300 people. This raises the maximum possible audience members and maximizes our potential profit. Secondly, it already has a cult following, hosting regular alternative events, club nights and gigs meaning the people who regularly attend these events are more likely to attend ours. Thirdly, it likely pulls in a high number of students, being so close to multiple student accommodations and the university Leeds Beckett. fourthly, the established sound system is much better than at the other venues, likely due to the fact it works closely with futuresound to host artists such as don broco, you me at six, etc., and often hosting after parties for gigs or festivals such as gold sounds and slam dunk festival. Finally, the promoter of this venue happens to be the manager of my band (Mia Jackson), leading to quick response times and a quicker booking process, with Mia being able to help promote the event as well. 

the venue also suits our line up, with many of our bands being heavier, and all being alternative in some form. the key club website itself states it is “the number one alternative venue and club in Leeds, Yorkshire”, and regularly hosts “SLAM DUNK TUESDAY” hinting at their working with slam dunk, the popular alternative music festival. On Tuesdays they play emo and pop punk music, falling in line with the sound of student slasher film, our headlining act which is a self described “Midwest emo” band. They also host “FUEL, key club alt night” in which they play classic rock, rock, hardcore and heavy metal music, with the three remaining bands (New damage, Janata and How do you plead?) falling under these categories. Not only this, but student slasher film have headlined this venue before, playing on Halloween and has supported many bands at this venue on other occasions. With previous success, and this venue’s ideal audience, location and capacity, it became the obvious choice for riot circuit promotions first ever show. 

booking: 

in order to book our event, we first had to get in contact with the in house venue promoter for key club. thankfully, i happened to know the aforementioned promoter, Mia Jackson, as she is the current unofficial manager of my band, student slasher film. after talking with Mia and discussing costs, timings, number of bands and the in house back line, we have agreed to book the event for the fifteenth of march, giving us plenty of time to promote and refine the details of the event. 

As for booking the bands, we went through a process of trying to book bigger name bands, such as love rarely, hell hotel, and omoia, but sadly they were unavailable due to the time of asking. According to one of the managers of one of the bands, i had unknowingly started searching for bands to play the event whilst the bigger name bands were waiting to receive offers to play festivals and such. Because of this, we began to look at student bands, and quickly realized we were all in bands that were of similar genre. student slasher film, being the band I’m a member of and one of the bigger bands, was already set to be on the line up as support, but with this development, we shifted student slasher film to headline, considering that we have done so before at key club. following this, we recruited how do you plead, janata, and new damage into the line up. 

Project management: 

When starting this project, we assessed what our intended outcome was for setting up this event: 

-We hoped to generate enough revenue to not only break even, but have a profit share between us, the promotions company, and the bands playing. 

-We aimed to set up a gig that aligned with our personal musical interests, opting for the genres of hardcore, emo, and psychedelic rock.  

-we wanted to target Leeds students for this event, and the existing fans of the bands alongside the regular alternative gig attendees. 

-lastly, we wanted people to enjoy our show. 

Now that our goals were made clear, we began choosing our venue, lineup and promotions tactics. I selected the venue that most suited our needs and furthered our goals, we selected our lineup as a group to create a sound to line up with the gig’s identity, and Luke Hanney started working on the graphic design for the promotional material in order to attract our intended audience. We also have asked for and received the tech spec for each band and forwarded them to Mia Jackson, and received the information sheet for key club, including vital information such as their back line, PA specs, load in area, security on site, lastly waiting to see the public liability insurance documents to confirm the gig with the Leeds conservatoire.  

Time management  

In order to efficiently set up the gig in as little time as possible, we delegated roles amongst myself as previously stated. This means that we can achieve a lot more in the time frame we have. the roles work as followed: 

group leader, and promoter: Oliver Hargreaves 

So far oliver, acting as group leader has coordinated our efforts as individuals into one cohesive plan, making sure that everyone involved has the information needed to continue working on the task at hand. This has included writing every thing down in shared documents, making spreadsheets, graphs, and communicating between us all. 

social media and marketing: Brynley Martin 

As our social media leader, brynley will be in charge of the instagram, tik tok, and other such accounts for posting and sharing the gig itself. 

Graphic Design: Luke Hanney 

Luke has begun the process of designing graphics for the the posters, and flyers and social media to use when promoting the gig. 

production lead: Ben Gosling Davis 

As production lead, ben has sourced the tech specs from each band, and arranged the sound tech for the gig. 

booking agent: me, Tom Harte. 

As the booking agent i have sourced the venue, bands, date and time of the gig. 

Production 

The stage is elevated from the audience with a side entrance on stage left for the acts to enter and leave from meaning the acts can safely move on and off the stage without moving through the crowd. Key club has its own back line consisting of: 

1x Mapex 5 piece drum kit and hardware 

2x Marshal 4×12 guitar cabs 

1x Hartke bass 1×15 bass cab 

Key club also has a lighting rig, and twenty microphones, six monitors, three DI boxes available for use alongside the basic PA system. In the event any of this fails, we have access to backup amps, cabs, microphones, and cables. the sound tech is placed squarely at the back for optimal balance. Key club also has a green room with a tv, a fridge, and plugs for charging. This is where we will supply water and other beverages, for hydration and as a courtesy. The personnel involved for the event is minimal, requiring only a sound tech, security, door men and bar staff. Security is paid for, and bar staff work through the event for no cost. As for manning the front desk and sound tech, we will man the front desk ourselves and the sound tech will be a friend of our production lead (ben gosling davis). 

We will have load ins staggered by around forty five minutes to avoid confusion and clutter, starting from 3:30, meaning the final band will load in at 6:30. As load in is done, the band that loads in first will perform their soundcheck, e.g. student slasher film loads in first, and begins to sound check, optimally for twenty minutes. This leaves twenty five minutes for accessing the venue, loading in equipment, set up, and removal of equipment from the stage ready for the next band. We aim to have doors open at seven, giving us just enough time as the last band to sound check would not need to remove equipment from the stage as they would then be playing the show first. With some of our team member being in the bands set to play, this leaves us enough time to then man the door ourselves.  

In order to ensure a safe working environment for the bands and the audience, the floors and stage will be checked for hazards, such as wet floors, broken glass, exposed wiring, or sharp corners. These then hazards will be made clear to the venue for solving, or told to the acts to caution them against interacting with it: cleaning up a puddle or glass, covering wiring or a sharp corner, or simply avoiding the area it resides in. In case of the event of a fire, all bands and personnel will be made aware of the closest fire exit, assembly point, and instructed to proceed calmly and orderly to wait for a head count, and the fire department called. The ticket sales will not exceed venue capacity as this would create a health and safety risk, and all tickets sold on the door will be counted to ensure that we do not go over and risk people being crushed. The event will be run as an over eighteen gig, meaning that all audience members will be required to show their ID to security at the door. The venue itself has public liability insurance, meaning that as the promoters we don’t need to obtain it ourselves, and the insurance will protect the venue and acts during the event of damage to equipment or injury. Finally, water will be supplied to both the acts and the audience members free of charge to minimize the chance of someone suffering from exhaustion or dehydration, and our team and acts will watch the crowd to ensure that no vulnerable individuals are unsupported. 

Finance  

For this event, we have decided to pool our money together to fund this event ourselves. To at least try to break even, we have decided that before any profits are seen for the bands, the venue itself will have to be paid for. This means that with the venue costing more dependent on the ticket sales, we have to ensure that we sell enough tickets to breakeven. 

The venue costs £235, and should we sell enough tickets (how many wasnt disclosed) it will then cost £310. 

Because of this we have decided to sell our tickets at £6 online, and £8 on the door. 

This means at maximum, we would only need to sell 60 tickets to breakeven at a 300 person capacity venue. 

After breaking even, we will share the profits evenly between the bands and the promoters, as the promoters being in the bands complicates making sure everyone is paid fairly. 

Marketing and publicity  

In order to secure the audience we need, we have decided to utilize many different tactics of promotion. This will hopefully ensure we reach as many people as possible, and therefore maximize the potential audience members we can draw in. 

Social media: 

We have decided to make an Instagram account for “riot circuit promotions” and will be utilizing paid ads to push the event to users. We will do this in conjunction with having the band accounts promote both the gig and the account, further generating more “buzz” around the event. 

Physical promotion: 

We will be placing posters in the conservatoire, and having friends put them up in other universities. Alongside this, a friend of mine Freya runs a student focus music “zine” and has agreed to help promote the event there. Lastly, we will place posters in key club itself, hoping to gather some of the regular key club goers to our event. 

Contingency planning  

In this section of my essay I hope to outline some of the risks of putting on a show and how to mitigate the danger involved. 

Crowd crushing: 

This is caused by an excess of attendees and little space to accommodate them. This can lead to injuries such as crushing, labored breathing, and panic attacks. These are our contingencies: 

We wont sell any more tickets than 280 to ensure that despite the 300 capacity, here is enough room for the audience. 

We will watch the crowd for people that are panicking, out of it, or clearly in distress. 

We will communicate with the front desk and security once capacity is reached. 

The next risk is that of fires. Fires can cause panic, injury, and in some cases, death. In order to mitigate that risk, here is what we can implement. 

Make sure all equipment is pat tested and electrics are covered from water spillage.

Make sure all staff involved are aware of the emergency exits, assembly zones, and can calmly direct the crowd where to go. 

Finally, the most common risk is that of injury or medical emergencies. This can range from someone being injured on the dance floor, to someone being injured. In order to mitigate this, we will make sure that one of the bar staff working the gig is a certified first aider, to provide proper care in an emergency. 

Reflection and conclusion:  

In conclusion, we have organized an alternative event, and have checked every box needed to turn our idea into a successful business opportunity. We have aligned the bands, venue and marketing to directly satisfy a specific audience, and have calculated the financial and health risks involved in doing so, making sure to take every step to avoid the pitfalls of a “student ran gig”, as well as negating the more serious problems through insurance and contingency planning. 

Technical Specifications

Press Kit

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Press release