In order to ensure everything is done within time we created a simple Gantt chart and organised the team in to different tasks to carry out in correspondence with each other. Due to the uncertain nature of some of the planning (such as contact with venues and hiring artists) we decided to keep the chart with unspecific dates and times (except for the gig date) and use good online communication within the team to coordinate these tasks, which worked perfectly. A lot of the planning centred around the communications side, which meant that Tommy would alert us on the different stages of his process and we would act accordingly, based on the task we had on the Gantt chart. 

However, despite the Gantt chart, we all had tasks done pre-emptive to when we needed them thanks to Tommy drafting up a list of everything that needed to be done throughout the project.

For example, the show advance and artist transport is already calculated, I am just waiting on the week before the gig to release the advance and transport plans to the artists. This also means that artists have the freedom of approaching me before-hand with queries about transport and other aspects if they wish.

Production

After we had confirmed the venue booked we reached out to the artists we wanted to book who all agreed almost instantaneously. In booking the venue we paid extra to hire out their in-house PA system and a sound technician to man the PA.

We are releasing our online tickets on skiddle and using SumUp for on the door payments. We have hired volunteers to man the entrance and take payments for on-the-door sales, as well as checking for online tickets via confirmation emails or looking them up on the skiddle listings. To mark anyone who has paid we will mark their hand with a sharpie; something distinctive so that no one can replicate it beforehand.

The next thing to consider was the musical equipment for all the acts. I requested tech specs (technical specifications) from each of the bands and then compiled them in to one document and compared them to see how much total equipment was needed and how much they could provide. We also had the venue pack from Hyde Park Book Club to work with too. With all of these specifications I then narrowed down the list of equipment needed by correlating different artists equipment, and contacted each artist to arrange who was bringing what, and what can be used for multiple sets. This significantly reduced the amount of equipment we needed to bring as it got rid of duplicates such as amps, cables and certain instruments. Another aspect to consider is that the acts in this lineup also share some members, using the same equipment that has been listed twice in their separate tech specs. Also, the running theme of electronic music meant that both TONII’s set and Shotbungullet’s set could get away with occasionally using the same interfaces and synths.

This also means that we can set up the stage rather simply: Shotbungullet only requires two tables for electronics and an SPD stand (which is extremely portable). One of these tables is used again for TONII’s set, only replacing the other table with another table of electronics. These can be set up beforehand and brought on stage when necessary, reusing extender leads and interfaces to keep the crossover as efficient as possible. These two set ups do not take up a lot of physical space, meaning we can set up the drum kit, keyboard, bass amp and guitar amp for Deff60 and keep it on stage the whole time. We can re-use the same microphone for Deff60, TONII and Shotbungullet, only needing one more for the saxophone in Deff60. This means that we can get the times in-between sets as exact as possible, as well as the freedom to be flexible depending on audience behaviour.

In terms of specific timings for the day of the gig, we are opening doors at 7pm to start at 7.30, with Shotbungullet first performing a half an hour set. Then leaving a 20 minute break for Deff60 to set up. They will perform for another half an hour, then another 20 minute break. Finally, TONII will perform for 45 minutes, ending just before 10pm. Our cut off period for noise is midnight, which gives us plenty of space to run over if any of the acts end up playing for longer than their set time. We would ideally want one hour at the end to pack everything down to collect in the morning tomorrow, which is very achievable even with spill.

We have requested acts to start loading in at 4pm, sound checking acts in reverse order to allow plenty of time for any technical difficulties and ensuring the first act is set up with plenty of time to spare before doors open. Before deciding on a load in time we discussed transport with acts, landing on 4pm as a reasonable time because all of the acts live within walking distance to the venue (which also saves us money on transport).

Each of our acts are entitled to a rider which we will request four weeks before the gig to give enough time for acts to request things and us to figure out if we can actually provide it depending on our budget. The function of this is quite simple: to keep our acts happy and willing to put on a good show.

Contingency plans

Risk Assessment

There are lots of general and theoretical contingencies we had to consider at different stages of planning the event which we compiled the most likely into our risk assessment sheet to use for ourselves and send to the venue on request. Originally our plan was to cross reference our risk assessment with theirs, filling in any gaps we may have missed without the knowledge of the venue that they have. However, we scrapped this plan upon realising that the Hyde Park Book Club risk assessment was outdated by three years. Considering this, we drafted a large risk assessment ourselves trying to cover all the risks we could theorise.

We used the P x S scoring system to assess the level of severity of each risk and likeliness that said risk would happen, then devised a solution to the risk to try and reduce its score to as low as possible. There were a few potential hazards that we cannot ensure total safety over, such as epileptic seizures, allergic reactions and slips. Using the scoring system we brainstormed methods of reducing the risk and eventually landed on creating warning signs for all of these unpreventable hazards. This unfortunately does not secure a totally safe environment but gets us as close as possible to one. We created the risk assessment and sent it for approval to Leeds Conservatoire, ensuring that we have no bureaucratic hindrances to carrying out the prevention of these risks, as well as gaining proper approval of our risk assessing methods.

Contingency- Booking the venue

With this type of event there are plenty of things that could fail to come through or go wrong to the point where we may be forced to cancel the gig. To prevent this from happening we made a Financial Risk Plan and Risk Assessment to cover all the bases (the risk assessment was also to send to the venue as per their request). One of the first steps in booking this gig was being able to get a spot at our desired venue within the time frame of the assessment. The dream location for this event was Hyde Park Book Club due it being a massive hot spot for our target audience of students and young adults; however, it being a hotspot for music events was worrying as this means they are always busy with events. 

When deciding on Hyde Park Book Club for our venue we also decided to have a few back up venues that we could email asking for dates to hire if Hyde Park Book Club has no availability. This included Brudenell Social Club, Oporto Lounge and Belgrave Music Hall. All of these were central locations in Leeds and big leading names for local music venues, with the same risk of unavailability as Hyde Park Book Club. The risk of being unable to book a space at these is probably as high, but considering we are asking multiple venues the risk is significantly reduced; we should be able to book at least one.

I drafted up emails to send to each venue before sending one to Hyde Park Book Club, making sure to make them a specific request for their venue instead of a clear copy and paste message as that could be a potential turn off for venues. In the email to Hyde Park Book Club I gave a specific range of dates that would work for this event instead of asking for a specific date in order to increase the chances of getting a spot, which ended up working as we managed to book a spot on the 19th of February.

Contingency- Reliance on the acts

Another contingency to consider is how well we can rely on the acts we have asked to perform for the evening. I decided that the best way to ensure that the acts are punctual and communicative is to heavily involve and update them on the processes going into the show and be completely transparent and fair on the split of payment with this gig. We had a fair discussion with the acts to agree on the split of payment, deciding on a four way split between the bands and promoting team. 

Some promoters in the Leeds music scene often employ rules and restrictions for acts they hire for shows such as exclusive periods before and after the gig date where they can’t book any more gigs in that time, or ranked ticketing systems where buyers give to specific bands. From experience working with these promoters, it creates a culture within the show of the acts competing against each other, sacrificing the quality and atmosphere of the show as a whole; acts are not properly introduced to each other, and tend to be less forgiving with lending equipment or other practical necessities. Having the acts heavily involved in the processes of the show, stylistic elements and equality between the acts ensures that the acts are more invested, more likely to follow through on turning up and creates an easy method of solving quick practical issues on the night or on the lead up to the gig through the other projects and their shared resources. We made a group-chat with all the artists where we can discuss any issues or queries with them.

Finance

After figuring out how much we needed to make to break even on this project (refer to the “LMM Costings” file below), we decided to price our tickets as £5.00 online and £8.00 on the door. The price difference is in order to incentivise people to buy tickets online and well in advance, so that the event is more solidified in their calendar and they are more likely to come (and even if they don’t attend, we’ve still received money for the ticket). This also means that we could potentially sell out on tickets before the day of the gig, whilst still leaving some available on the door. If we are able to say that we are sold out online then that lends much more interest to the gig for our audience who will pay on the door, as well as further justifying the ramped up price for on the door tickets.

Looking on the other side of things, there is also the chance that we do not break even with this event. This essentially means that we would still pay the acts the agreed upon split but lose some personal money as promoters. This ensures longevity for our projects; as promoters we do not want a reputation of failing to pay acts if we don’t break even ourselves. On the rare chance that we do not generate enough online ticket sales to pay promoters or acts, then we can resort to more extreme marketing including competitions for discounts, lowering the prices in general or drip feed marketing (it would be too risky to rely on on-the-door sales alone, even though they are more expensive). This requires that we monitor ticket sales closely and regularly, as well as market research of people who know about the gig but have yet to buy a ticket; are they waiting to pay on the door, or do they even know how to access the online ticket? Surveillance of this is necessary as if these types of trends do arise we can identify it early and find a solution to ensure we have a good amount of early online sales.

The main expense of this event is the cost of the venue hire which I have used to determine the break even point. However, there also small costs to consider such as equipment and rider costs. To reduce these to a minimum we are hiring out any equipment missing from the tech specs from Leeds Conservatoire, transporting them down the morning of the event so we can take our time and avoid paying for taxis there to transport it. In terms of rider costs, we have agreed amongst us to cover this cost out of our own pocket, making the financial plan as simple as possible.

Marketing and Publicity

Branding

The line up for this event is heavily centred upon electronic music mixed with live elements; each act in the lineup could be described as such. On top of this, each act has very specific individual stylised elements and shares a running theme of retro electronics. This meant that when it came to branding and marketing tools it was very easy to create a unique and very well defined theme to sell to our target audience. 

We had also decided to select TONII as our headliner which is helpful for us in terms of marketing because her artistic brand is arguably the strongest of the three acts. This meant we could theme our posters and social media posts on her early 2000’s technology aesthetic. Despite this brand already fitting quite well with the other two acts, we also made two individual posters focusing on Shotbungullet and Deff60. As all the acts in this lineup are very close to each other in the music scene, we can rely on fans of Shotbungullet and Deff60 already knowing TONII and vice versa, but considering if this is not the case, we also made posters that focus on the other two acts to post and spread about Leeds, further guaranteeing that anyone who sees flyers and social media posts is fully aware of the lineup. This also means that an equal amount of excitement is generated for each act whilst still maintaining TONII as the headliner by referencing her aesthetic in all 3 posters.

Publicity methods

With these posters created we plan to release them on social media and print copies to place around Leeds. For poster distribution we decided that the best locations for our target audience to see them would be student areas such as the Univeristy of Leeds and Leeds Beckett campuses, as well as the cafe area in Leeds Conservatoire and various hotspots for students and young musicians, such as Le Kaffe in Kirkstall, Headingley Heart, The Fenton and of course Hyde Park Book Club itself.

The social media release is scheduled for Thursday 8th of January, with online ticket links released on the 19th of January and individual posts from the artists being released in the two weeks before the gig. This creates enough online awareness for the gig for our target audience to find without over saturating them with promotion, avoiding a burn out of hype before the gig has even happened.

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Artist Biographies

Artist HD Photographs

Risk Assessment

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Additional Material

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Reference List

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Decker, A. (2021). The Ultimate Guide to Event Marketing. [online] blog.hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/event-marketing.

Allen, J., O’Toole, W., Harris, R. and McDonnell, I. (2011). Festival & special event management. 5th ed. Milton, Qld: John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

Yeoman, I., Robertson, M., Ali-Knight, J., Drummond, S. and Mcmahon-Beattie, U. (2004). Festival and Events Management : an International Arts and Culture Perspective. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.

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