INTRODUCTION

For this assignment I will critically analyse how the planning, execution and decision making will be applied during the planning process to ensure a successful show.

Myself and my fellow group members have decided to put on an event at the Key Club in Leeds on the 10^th of March 2025. My group consists of myself, Tom Harte, Brynley Martin, Luke Hannay and Oliver Hargreaves. We have delegated separate roles to each one of us to spread the workload of planning the gig fairly. Our group roles are:

Oliver Hargreaves – Lead Promoter & Group Leader
Luke Hannay – Graphic Designer
Tom Harte – Booking Agent
Brynley Martin – Social Media & Marketing
Myself (Ben Goslin-Davis) – Production Lead

I chose the role of Production Lead because I have good familiarity in the backstage operations of live events, so I believe that my experience will help contribute to a successful gig.  

Our event name will be called “Riot Circuit Promotions Presents… New Damage”. The bands that are playing for this event fit are heavy punk, which has similar connotations to the word “riot” in our promotion company name.

Summary of the event
Here are the exact bands that we have planned to play at the gig:

1^st Band: Janata – Heavy Progressive Rock
2^nd Band: How Do You Plead? – Modern Metal
Headliner: New Damage – Post Punk

Doors will be open from 7:30 PM with the first band playing at 8 PM. Tickets will be advertised to sell online for £6 and for £8 on the door.

What we aim to achieve
The aim and main purpose for this event is to give an opportunity to student bands (from Leeds Conservatoire) to perform in front of bigger audiences and venues who would have never had the chance to before. The Key Club is a prestigious venue for its hard core and heavy music, (The Key Club Leeds, 2025) so it will provide these bands with a good stepping stone to play at bigger venues like The Key Club.


RATIONALE FOR THE EVENT & VENUE CHOICE

Live music concerts & the role of a promoter
Music concerts typically involve promoters having to organise booking the venue, providing the artist with a fee, hiring tech crew, putting tickets up for sale and publicising the show with the artist. A common risk for promoters is not selling enough tickets to break even, resulting in financial loss (cmulibrary, 2025).

For this event, we are hosting student bands who wouldn’t mind being paid a small artist’s fee, thus reducing the chance for financial loss. When we pay the artists, it will come as a split of the net profit between the artist and the promoters (ourselves). We plan to become part of the tech crew ourselves, to save money as some of us have had prior experiences in doing technical crewing roles.

Info about The Key Club in Leeds
The Key Club is a 300 capacity venue in the centre of Leeds, that is within a 5 min walk of Leeds First Direct Arena, the O2 Academy, Belgrave Music Hall, Sela Bar, and several other small independent venues. It is known for its alternative & grassroots music, so is geared up for artists who come from these scenes. With its location being in Central Leeds, there will be a strong student audience as it is within a 5 min walk of many student accommodations (google maps, 2025).

When we were shortlisting venues to stage our gig at, we wanted to try and promote at venues who matched the same vibe of the bands that we already had good contacts with.

Our initial shortlist was:

– Boom
– Lending Rooms
– Key Club
– Santiago Bar
– Oporto

We decided that we wanted to stage an event which at a bigger venue compared to most other venues in Leeds, which was the Key Club. We picked this venue because it had the potential to pursue our main goal of bringing student bands to much bigger audiences for further growth and exposure.

The Key Club has a weekly Garage Night hosting “rock anthems & guilty pleasures” on Saturdays and occasional “Alt Nights” featuring metal, hardcore and classic rock music (thekeyclubleeds, 2025). The audiences from these nights at The Key Club may be intrigued by our event and come, so will bring in extra income for us.

As a lot of our current promotion group members were in heavier bands, we picked venues that had a reputation for heavy genres, like the Key Club. In addition, the venue is very central in Leeds, so it will attract a much larger audience than a venue that is situated outside of the city centre.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT APPROACH
Best practise of project management can be defined as “identifying, analysing, and improving existing businesses processes to optimize performance or simply improve quality and the user experience for customers and end-users” (Penn State, 2026).

With my role as Production Lead, I have not been a part of the management of the whole project, but I have been instrumental in improving the communications within the group. During the planning process, I have improved our processes as a group by creating a WhatsApp group so that we could communicate with each other freely and easily. Furthermore, when we were booking the gig, I suggested that we had bi-weekly online meetings online so that we could regularly catch up with each other’s work on this project.

TIME MANAGEMENT
With the schedule for the event, Key Club has stated that it wants headliners to load in after 4pm, with the rest of the support acts loading in from 5pm. This is due to car parking space restrictions (stated on the venue tech spec).

I made the schedule myself, which involves the load in starting at 16:30 pm, sound check at 17:30, doors being opened to audience members at 19:30 with the first band playing at 20:00. The last band should finish their set at 22:20, giving us an hour 10 mins to pack everything down before the curfew. Between each set is a 15 min changeover, giving stage crew enough time to help the bands set up and pack down before and after the sets.

In terms of announcing the gig, we will announce it by the 5^th of February at the latest.  

PRODUCTION – Sound & Lighting

In terms of production, our group has primarily focused on the technical, logistical, hospitality and health & safety aspects of the event.

In reference to the track sheet that is in our technical specifications document, the drum kit will be set up at the centre back of stage. A monitor will be placed by the drum kit, with three more additional monitors available for performers playing by downstage left, right and centre.

In a general explanation, we will be using the Key Clubs in-house microphones to mic up the drum kit, guitar cabs and vocals. We will then be using two DI’s for the bass and the DJ deck.

To save on the costs of running the gig, I decided to get my friend (Will Uttley) to do the sound engineering for the event, which will only cost up £15. On the venue tech spec, it says that there is an Allen & Heath desk, which Will Uttley has previous experience of using that before, so it makes sense to have him do sound for the event. Also, the venue spec said that two stage crew members would cost £16 an hour for a minimum 5-hour crew call. We determined that both Oliver Hargreaves and Tom Harte from the group could become stage crew for the event to save additional money. Plus, they do not have a dedicated role for the event itself, so if they are free they can be stage crew for the event.  

For lighting, I have proposed for myself to be the lighting engineer for the event, as I have previous experience of doing so.

As we have never worked at the Key Club before, we do not know the layout of the venue. We will request that a member from the in-house production team at Key Club shows us the equipment within the venue so that both myself and the sound engineer can know how to use the equipment confidently to produce the show well.

Logistical Aspects
We will use The Key Club’s in-house backline which comes as a small extra fee. This includes a five-piece drum kit, two guitar cabs and a bass amp, which makes the logistics for event easier. This will mean that we won’t have to transport any big and heavy equipment, such as the drum kit and the bass & guitar cabs.

We have decided that the bands will be responsible for paying and getting to the venue by themselves.

As stated on the venue technical specification, it mentioned that there is parking and venue access for bands to load in and get their equipment into the venue, which will be open from 4pm for the headliner and 5pm for the two other support acts. As we know all the bands by ourselves, all bands involved in the event will be using their own transport to get to the venue and transport the equipment that they will need. Since there is already a backline, the amount of equipment that the bands will bring will be less.

For sound engineering, I have asked my friend to run the sound for the event. He has had a lot of previous experience in doing live sound for gigs, so I thought it would be good to have him, especially as he would charge less than an in-house engineer.  

Health & Safety Aspects
In regard to the risk assessment that is attached for this assignment, we have opted in for 1 security member, which combined with the venue hire will cost £235. As we are only expecting around 100-150 guests to come to the show, 1 security member will be a good fit for our event. This is because it is an “often used rule of thumb to assign one security guard for every 100 attendees”, helping crowd control monitoring and providing an effective level of visibility to act as a deterrent (Eric Underhill, 2025).

Risk Assessment
In our risk assessment we have made sure that all general and usual risks that happen are covered in the assessment like items falling, health incidents, ensuring electrical items get PAT tested and ensuring fire hazards are mitigated to the best possible extent.

Hospitality
As stated on the venue tech specifications document, the venue will provide discounted rates for any wet stock (drinks) for the headliner artist. To save money, we have chosen to not invest in buying food and drinks for the headliner band, as they will be fine with buying it themselves.

Even if we broke even, we would like to not spend any profits on the artists’ food and drinks, as we would rather prioritize spending it on production staff who could help make the event run smoother (i.e. like stage crew and / or show rep).

The performers will have access to the green room from 5pm all throughout the night until the curfew at 11:30pm.

CONTINGENCY PLANNING

Here is a list of some things that we as a promotional group would do in the event of these issues arising:

– Issues with Sound & Lighting Equipment (not turning on and being faulty) > We will ensure that a member of production staff who knows how to set up the sound and lighting is present to help make sure the lighting and sound can be done

– Sound Engineer doesn’t turn up > I will do the sound engineering for the event instead, as I have experience in in doing this before with the same desk. This will result in having no lighting engineer, which will be fine because having a lighting engineer is not mandatory for the running of the event.

– Unexpected Venue Closure > As soon as we confirm the closure, we will notify all attendees via email and social media. Once we confirm with the venue in writing that it will be closed, we will offer all attendees a ticket refund from the ticketing platform of DICE.

– Changes to the line-up (bands cancelling) > We have two backup bands who are available for the event and would fit playing for the specific event. These bands are called: Student Slasher film and Pale Sailor.

– Unable to book Key Club > We have a few other contacts to other venues which would work for the genre of the event that we are putting on, which are the Santiago Bar and BOOM Leeds. We believe that we would be able to sell out the Santiago Bar due to its smaller capacity of around 100 and get close to full for BOOM Leeds with a capacity of 200.

– Medical Emergencies > We will make sure that there is a member of staff on shift that is first aid trained. We will also make sure that the Key Club has an immediate local hospital contact, with a clear response procedure to any sort of medical emergency.

FINANCE
First of all I decided that in an online meeting that we should advertise the price of the tickets to be £6 online, and £8 on the door. With our choice of ticket distributer being DICE, all tickets will have a minimum booking fee charge of £1. This would mean that individuals would have to pay £7 to get their ticket online (which would give us £6 and £1 to DICE) (dice, 2026).

Also, due to the size of our production group and the smaller bands, we’ve decided that we will utilize a 70/30% payment split between the artist and the promoters (us) from the net profit. This is because that we want to make sure that the bands get paid fairly, as there are 4 to 5 players in each band, which totals to just under 15 players for the whole event.

We as promoters are taking a bigger percentage of profits (70%) to cover the risk of fewer ticket sales, as these are student bands who are somewhat unknown to the general public.

Furthermore, we are going to spend £30 on printing and making flyers, which would make up about 100 posters to be distributed around Leeds.  

MARKETING & PUBLICITY
An article online about promoting music says that social media will be your “best friend” when it comes to promoting live music events, as it is important to engage with the potential audience, so they feel more connected to the event (Carly Phillips, 2025).

One example of a marketing strategy is using paid promotion videos on Instagram and YouTube. Both social medias offer a variety of ads like pre-roll ads, display ads and sponsored videos which are all designed to reach a wider audience and drive ticket sales. This method will involve reaching out to music blogs related to Leeds and local magazines to see if they have any opportunities (Carly Phillips, 2025). 

A practical handbook on successful event management states that “keeping a cohesive colour palette, style and tone with a uniform profile will create a consistent experience for your audience” making us become more recognisable both as a production company and the event itself (Anton Shone; Bryn Parry, 2019). In our logo and poster designs, we will aim to keep these rules by following the same colour scheme across all our branding and using the same logos / design style for everything that we produce.

Audience members mainly have these reasons to go / not go to an event:

Primary Reason: – They will have a good time, have some drinks, dance all night
Secondary Reason: – Excuse to go out and not get bored in their own rooms doing nothing
Reasons for not going: – Too difficult to get tickets or transport there (Tarlow Pearson, 2002)

When we promote our event, we will use Instagram as our main social media. We will make sure to create posts which promote having a good time at our event to increase positive reception. When making our promotional materials, we will use Canva as a graphic designer to edit any content that we make. 

On average, the three bands have an average following on Instagram of about 200 – 600 followers, so the exposure of this event could boost their followers by 20-50 people (Instagram, 2026).

REFLECTION & CONCLUSION
With good planning, organisation, role delegation and project management I believe that this event will be successful and break even. If we set up a social media page on Instagram, and heavily utilize that for promoting our gig online, it will be beneficial as it will spread the word of the event. With the date that we have in mind (10^th of March), we plan to gain about 100-150 followers by the time of the gig and gain 30-50 extra tickets just via the use of our social media promotional account.

In addition, as we will be splitting the financial cost of booking the venue, paying for the production staff, and marketing the financial burden won’t be too harsh, and plus we can make it back by getting ticket sales. We are expecting to make roughly £850 from the event, which will be enough to break even.

With the group roles that we have in place, the event will run very smoothly if each member of our group puts the same amount of work into the event.

Artist Biographies

Janata:
Hailing from Leeds, Janata are a three-piece outfit inspired by progressive rock, often combining catchy guitar riffs and vocal melodies with chaotic and abrasive musical passages. Their primary influences include King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Yes, and King Crimson.

How Do You Plead?:
How Do You Plead? is a six piece multi media project which aims to promote total and unfiltered creative expression. The sound consists of heavy guitar tones and punchy drums layered with electronic elements to create a unique sound. Each song is a different journey that is tied together by their raspy and emotional vocals.

New Damage:
New Damage are a 4-piece post-punk outfit from Leeds defined by their playful use of rhythm and jagged jazz harmony. With a reputation for tightness and unwavering onstage chemistry, they combine the technical grooves of Black Midi and Primus with the infectious live energy of Fugazi and Shame to keep crowds on their toes.

Artist HD Photographs

Replace these with your own HD photographs, minimum of 3.

Risk Assessment

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Replace this example with your risk assessment as a PDF.

Additional Material

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[Overwrite this text with any supporting material that is relevant to the assignment. You may include additional media blocks.]

Reference List

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cmulibrary (2022). The Live Music Sector | CMU Library. [online] CMU Library. Available at: https://cmulibrary.com/livemusic/ [Accessed 2 Jan. 2026].

DICE (2025). DICE | More of the shows you love. [online] dice.fm. Available at: https://dice.fm/?lng=en [Accessed 3 Feb. 2026].

Google Maps (2021). Google Maps. [online] Google Maps. Available at: https://www.google.com/maps/place/The+Key+Club/@53.8009417 [Accessed 10 Feb. 2026].

Howle, R. (2020). How booking fees work? | Skiddle Help Center. [online] Promotioncentre.co.uk. Available at: https://help.promotioncentre.co.uk/en/articles/9362939-how-booking-fees-work [Accessed 3 Feb. 2026].

PennState (2019). Project Management | Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research. [online] Psu.edu. Available at: https://opair.psu.edu/organizational-excellence/project-management/ [Accessed 1 Feb. 2026].

Phillips, C. (2024). How to promote your music as an independent artist in 2026 – Access Creative College. [online] Access Creative College. Available at: https://www.accesscreative.ac.uk/blog/how-to-promote-music-as-an-independent-artist-2026/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2026].

Shone, A. and Parry, B. (2019). Successful Event Management : a Practical Handbook. 5th ed. Andover, Hampshire: Cengage Learning, Cop.

Tarlow, P.E. (2002). Event risk management and safety. New York: John Wiley & Sons.

The Key Club (2016). CLUB NIGHTS | The Key Club. [online] The Key Club. Available at: https://www.thekeyclubleeds.com/clubnights [Accessed 7 Feb. 2026].

Underhill, E. (2024). Event Security: How Many Security Guards? – Titan Security Europe. [online] Titan Security Europe. Available at: https://www.titansecurityeurope.com/event-security-how-many-security-guards/ [Accessed 4 Feb. 2026].