Rationale
Premise
The following is a report on the planning and preparation for a live music event to take place at Hyde Park Book Club on March 2nd, 2026. The event will be headlined by Sair, with support from New Damage, Janata and out-of-town band Bio-Exile. Our aim for this event is to put on a musically cohesive showcase of four up-and-coming young acts in the British indie/alternative rock scene, taking some chances whilst remaining financially sound.
Marketing Strategy
Our strategy for marketing is based on our analysis of our target audience profile. The primary demographic we are appealing to is Leeds-based university students and young music fans aged 18-25 living in the Hyde Park, Headingley and City Centre areas of Leeds. Pyschographically this is a segment of the population with a penchant for ‘alternative’ culture, as can be seen through polling by organisations like YouGov. This demographic has a high price sensitivity and relies on social media for event discovery. We have positioned our event to have strong appeal to the youth by providing an alternative event at a reasonable price, undercutting the standard £10-£12 ticket offered by rival promoters. By framing this event as a showcase of ‘young, up-and-coming’ artists, we offer the consumer something new and palatable to their cultural tastes and sensibilities.
Given our target audience’s high social media use, we will be building our campaign around Instagram. In a scenario where this promotion team had decided to continue working together after the project, it would be wise for us to create a brand and a social media presence for that brand that we could build upon. However, even then we would be encountering the challenge of building a presence from the ground up and this is a challenge for us. To mitigate this hurdle, we have planned to utilise Instagram’s collaboration feature. This allows us to work in tandem with the bands, who have the real pull. Using this feature we can create promotional content for the artists and by posting that context as a collaboration with the bands, our marketing material will appear on their follower’s feeds and on the feeds of accounts that interact with them or similar accounts. This allows us to leverage the artist’s existing fanbases, combining their collective reach into a single channel without even using our ad budget at this point.
We can supercharge this approach by investing our ad budget into this promotional content, utilising Meta’s tools for targeting certain demographics.
We also recognise that physical marketing builds local credibility, and as such we budgeted for printing A3 posters and A6 leaflets. The strategy here is to focus on locations with high-densities of students. These include cafe noticeboards, record shops and the Leeds Conservatoire campus. We understand it is illegal to fly post and doing so can damage the venue’s reputation and finances. This legal and targeted approach ensures that our promotional materials are seen by our intended audience rather than the general public, maximising our value for money. Further, we will make the most of our relationship with Hyde Park Book Club by placing posters and handing out leaflets within the venue itself in the weeks leading up to the event, capturing an audience we know is pre-disposed to attending similar events.
Finally, we have been putting together a press kit that we can send out to expand our reach beyond our immediate network. This includes high-res photos of the artists, blurbs describing their sound, a press release creating a narrative for the event and streaming links. We can distribute these to local listings magazines and local student radio stations two weeks before the event to create hype. We are also planning to assemble the artists in the studio to shoot short promotional videos consisting of them performing their material ‘live’.
Financial Strategy
Our financial strategy was to balance out putting on a commercially viable event whilst remaining ethical and accessible. We understand our target audience are students, who are often strapped for cash and include not only the price of admission in their calculus, but also the price of having a drink, getting a meal and maybe a taxi. We aimed to keep admission affordable whilst also hedging us against the risks of the £210 venue hire fee. In group meeting and discussions with other stakeholders in the project, we decided on a competitive £7 general advance ticket, pricing us below potential competitors like 360 Productions (£9.90). This figure accounts for variable deductions on our gross income, including a 4.2% PRS levy and 8.2% ticketing platform fee. To optimise our use of the 150-person venue capacity, we implemented a tiered pricing structure. We have ‘Early Bird’ (more specifically a 2-for-1 deal) and ‘On The Door’ (implementing a +£2 model, we settled on a nice, even £10) tickets to incentivise potential attendees to buy early. A separate password-locked ‘Special Guests’ ticket was also implemented, allowing friends and family to attend at a discounted price.
Whilst we planned this event to be financially self-funded by ticket sales, in future endeavours we could leverage the funding of large arts organisations. As someone with a genuine interest in promotion going forward, for a future gig of this scale I would look into the PRS Foundation’s ‘Early Career Promoter Fund’ that provides grants of up to £3,500 for exactly this kind of event. This would allow us to guarantee our artists higher fees and invest more into marketing, helping us to provide them with a crowd and a level of production their performance deserves.
To ensure security and transparency, we have decided to adopt a cashless system using ‘Tap to Pay’ technology. This allows us to cut down on hardware costs as these apps can be downloaded to a smartphone and keep a digital sales log we can report to the venue when invoiced for PRS payment. All money collected after the night will be consolidated into a designated group bank account, avoiding security concerns with carrying large amounts of cash at night. The purely digital cashflow allows us to immediately determine our gross income, allowing us to pay the PRS levy and artists upon invoice, and leaving us with a clean, auditable paper trail.
Health & Safety
In compliance with the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, we have carried out a comprehensive risk assessment of the venue. We understand it is our responsibility as self-employed promoters to assess and mitigate potential hazards to the public, staff and performers at our events. In line with standard due diligence, we proceeded on the understanding that Hyde Park Book Club holds valid public liability insurance (PLI), a mandatory requirement for all licensed venues in the UK. We have contacted the venue requesting their current PLI certificate to ensure our event is fully insured against third-party claims, in addition to the cover provided by Leeds Conservatoire.
Whilst many venues provide free ear protection, we identified that it is only legally required under the Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005 for music venues in the UK to provide free ear protection to staff. In anticipation that this may be a gap in the venue’s own control measures on sound exposure, we are looking into purchasing foam earplugs in bulk for distribution to attendees who would like the option. This is a minor expenditure which the promotion team can absorb personally.
The Basement venue has multiple exits, marked on the diagram provided in the venue pack. Whilst public entrance is via stairs down from the bar area, load-in is via double doors at the rear of the room, which are the designated evacuation route in the event of an emergency. These doors are marked with clear signage that it is a fire exit. Entrance through this door is always accessible from within the venue. As part of our fire mitigation strategy, the event will host no naked flames and no flammable backdrops or banners. In the event of a fire, the established protocol is for the venue’s duty manager to immediately stop the show and raise the house lights.
We are aware, then, that a significant fire risk remaining is that of electrical hazards. Electrical hazards can also pose the risk of electrocution if faulty. To mitigate this risk, we are ensuring all equipment we are using has undergone routine PAT testing before use. As promoters, we are providing the backline for the event. We are renting this backline from Leeds Conservatoire Performance Resources, which carries out regular PAT testing on all items in their catalogue. Any items without a valid safety sticker will be prohibited.
Further, we have made the decision to not use any floor-standing lighting fixtures. These two would require PAT testing and numerous cables running across the audience standing area. Their presence would also further clutter the room, creating crowding issues for both the performer and the audience, increasing the likelihood of a fall, collision or even the fixture itself toppling over. Finally, many type of standing lights can get very hot and are not suitable to have in close-proximity to people.
Logistics & Hospitality
The venue pack informs us that there is parking space around the back of the venue, with direct access to The Basement. This will be communicated to the band that has confirmed they will be driving their own vehicle to the venue. This complements our ‘drop-and-go’ load-in strategy, as we can expect other bands to arrive via taxi, preventing congestion in the small parking area.
A challenge of the venue is managing its spatial limitations inside. In my experience the green room seems like it must double as a keg storage room for the bar upstairs, which could be problematic if traffic in and out is bad, however that has not been my experience previously. The room itself is not large and our house backline strategy will help prevent unnecessary chaos in a limited space.
We will be running a ‘house backline’, where the promotion team will be providing the drum kit and amplifiers. We will rent these from Leeds Conservatoire and transport them via large taxi. This is the safest and most efficient way for us to transport the equipment.
Whilst we would have liked to provide better hospitality for the performers, unfortunately our budget only allowed us to offer them Hyde Park Book Club’s existing 10% off food offer.
Technical Production
After deliberating over whether to use the venue’s front-of-house engineer and PA or try to save money by sourcing our own, we settled on paying more and using the in-house resources. We decided from a technical and logistical perspective this would be much more efficient and save us time. We can guarantee a house system is going to be appropriately calibrated for the space and the in-house engineer is familiar with the hardware.
To ensure quality production for the event, we will be providing the in-house engineer with our house backline patch list two weeks before the event. This will allow the engineer to pre-configure the mixing desk channels for a four-piece rock band setup ahead of time. This will ensure that our 15-minute changeovers run efficiently and avoid technical error.
Regarding visual execution, we have decided to go with a less-is more approach. Instead of spending resources managing lights, we will go with a darkened, moody atmosphere appropriate for the music being performed. We decided that moving head or strobe lights would be inappropriate and we could put on a better production whilst make things easier for us. Even if we had wanted to go for this, we would have run into a couple of issues. Firstly, we would risk bloating our already constrained budget. Secondly, the stage area in The Basement is limited, and introducing floor-standing light fixtures would reduce this area further and create further hazards (as detailed in the health and safety section).
Time Management
To ensure that the event runs smoothly and does not run over the venue’s strict 23:00 sound curfew, we have identified the sequence of critical tasks that cannot be delayed without delaying the entire show. These include load-in, soundcheck and changeovers. We had to ensure we could allow the performers their full allotted slots, which meant leaving ample time for these tasks and ensuring we were sufficiently prepared to carry them out. We decided on a 15-minute changeover period, creating a suitable buffer for our house backline (swapping breakables and running line-checks) whilst maximising performance time. A shorter changeover may risk technical failure, while a longer one may reduce audience engagement and cause us to run up against sound curfew.
Our strategy for mitigating the risk of overrun involved advancing technical information early and reducing the complexity of the technical requirements. For a start, we have implemented a house backline strategy in which all backline will be shared by all bands. This has numerous benefits. For one, it means no plugging or unplugging of amplifiers, which wastes time and creates unnecessary trip and electrical fault hazards. For the front-of-house engineer, it means no amps will need to be re-mic’d and no levels adjusted. This creates a streamlined process where bands can essentially just plug-in and play. It is also beneficial as it reduces load-in and soundcheck time, which is crucial to ensuring the event remains on schedule. Finally, this strategy allows us to communicate simple tech specs to the venue two weeks in advance, allowing the engineer to set the desk up before the day. This document also details the precise load-in time, soundcheck times, and stage curfew for each act. By advancing this information early, we are able to ensure all stakeholders are working from a single source of truth, minimising the possibility of on-the-day miscommunication.
As part of our project management responsibilities, the group set up a shared Google Drive to host live versions of the tech specs, risk assessments and other trackers, allowing us to collaborate remotely in real-time. Each member was delegated a different task in the project based on their skillset, so it was crucial we were all able to access the work of others. Further, each member had a designated artist on the bill with whom it was their responsibility to liaise with. This clear division of labour ensured a clear workflow without creating redundant work.
Contingencies & Crisis Planning
Live music events can be subject unpredictable variables. As part of our project management responsibilities, we established a tiered contingency plan, in which different crises would be given different precedence so as to not overreact.
Should a support act pull out, this would be an unfortunate but non-critical scenario. For example, the third support act does not have a local pull in Leeds and their absence would not endanger turnout. As such, our protocol is not to rush for a replacement, which could itself introduce unknown variables and stress into the equation. Instead, we would extend set times of the remaining three bands by 10 minutes each so as to make up the time. This absorbs the missing slot whilst still providing value to the audience and minimising changeover pressure.
Should a Leeds band pull out, we will reach out to our local contacts in the area, as there are numerous other appropriate bands in our network that would be suitable and ready for this event. We have established a shortlist of local bands ready to go should one of the local supports pull out. Replacing a Leeds band would be critical as a key draw is bringing in a band’s hometown audience.
Should the headliner withdraw, this would have to result in a fundamental change to the event marketing and promotion. Like with the Leeds supports, we would immediately contact one of our shortlist of local groups who we have an existing relationship with who could stand in at short notice. We would then make use of the ticketing platform’s bulk-email feature to notify attendees of this change and offer a full refund window, in line with our reputation and ethical business practices.
We have also made preparation for the event of technical failure. Whilst our house backline makes for a streamlined technical and logistical process, it also creates a single point of failure should an amplifier break down or be seen to be without possession of valid PAT testing credentials. We understand Hyde Park Book Club carries eight different DI Boxes, which is enough to fully accommodate a full band should even more than one amp fail. Should an amplifier stop working mid-show, the instrument can be patched directly into the PA via a DI box, and the event and continue swiftly with little compromise to production quality.
Should there be an uncontrollable event that results in emergency venue closure (e.g., severe weather or power outage), we shift our priority from delivery to communication. Using the ticketing platform’s bulk-email feature, we will send out a communique to all ticket holders announcing the cancellation of the event. We will draft a cancellation email in advance ready to go immediately in the event of any uncontrollable incident in which the show cannot take place and this will go out via email and social media. This ensures that in the worst case scenario, attendees can be informed ahead of time and cancel plans to travel to the venue on that day. This mitigations damage to the reputations of our stakeholders and the risk to safety from a large crowd congregating outside a closed venue.
Finally, we have put aside £30 for a contingency fund should it become necessary.
Conclusion
To summarise, this rationale provides a broad overview of the planning and preparation that has gone into this project ahead of the event. We have determined that this will be a quality production whilst remaining commercially viable. By balancing our financial realities with those of our target demographic, we have mitigated the primary risk of poor attendance. We have analysed potential safety hazards and practiced risk mitigation when necessary, adhering to the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 and our house backline strategy shows that we have put safety and efficiency at the heart of this project.
The Basement at Hyde Park Book Club is an imperfect venue. It is small and has poor facilities, but we are confident that our focus on in-depth planning (thought-through time schedules, focus on advanced preparation, contingency plans, etc) will prove to be practical and resilient on the night. Our cashless cashflow system keeps us transparent and secure, whilst our cloud-based collaboration process has made for a seamless workflow with in the group. We are confident that this venture will be a great night of music and serve as a scalable model for future events.
Technical Specifications
Artist Biographies
Sair Biography
Drawing influence from Madison Cunningham and Jeff Buckley, his music strives to evoke emotion out of an audience – whatever the feeling.
New Damage Biography
New Damage are a 4 piece post-punk band formed in 2023. With an emphasis on fusing the relentless energy of punk music with dissonant jazz harmony, they have gained a reputation around the Leeds underground scene as a result of their intense live sets and fugazi-esque rhythmic hooks. New Damage draws influence from old as well as modern post-punk bands, with the recent wave of acts from the post-brexit UK scene inspiring a great deal of the band’s songwriting, coupled with an infectious rawness in their delivery that perfectly translates from a live setting to the studio. With their long-anticipated debut single, ‘Loud In The Ken’, the 4-piece outfit captures the vigour of their live shows as well as their tight musical chemistry to create a tirelessly dynamic track with infinite energy.
Janata Biography
Janata are a band hailing from Leeds, influenced by the progressive and experimental rock sounds of artists such as King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Geordie Greep, and Porcupine Tree. Their sound is characterised by powerful drums and catchy guitar riffs, with sporadic chaotic soundscapes scattered throughout.
Bio-Exile Biography
“For the past year and a half, Bio-Exile have been making a name for themselves on the live circuit, both in their native Northampton, and as far out as London. Equipped with over an hour’s worth of original live material and a small selection of covers, no two shows are the same.
Bio-Exile takes influence from many hard rock and post hardcore acts that play before them adding in their own blend of grunge attitude and classic rock guitar wizardry to create a sonic experience unique to them. Bio-Exile has grown a small community on social media and has two songs on streaming. If Bio-Exile comes to your town, make sure you get there.”
Artist HD Photographs
Replace these with your own HD photographs, minimum of 3.
Risk Assessment
Additional Material
Reference List
skiddle.com (2026). Lending Room. [online] Available at: https://www.skiddle.com/whats-on/Leeds/Lending-Room/#events [Accessed 5 Jan. 2026].
Legislation.gov.uk (2005). The Control of Noise at Work Regulations 2005. [online] Legislation.gov.uk. Available at: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2005/1643/contents.
Hyde Park Book Club (2025). Venue Tech Specs and Promoter Pack. [Unpublished internal document]. Received: November 2025.
PRS for Music Foundation. (2025). Early Career Promoter Fund – PRS for Music Foundation. [online] Available at: https://prsfoundation.com/funding-support/funding-music-creators/next-steps/early-career-promoter-fund/ [Accessed 5 Jan. 2026].
Yougov.co.uk. (2024). Entertainment, arts & media | YouGov. [online] Available at: https://yougov.co.uk/topics/entertainment.
