Event Evaluation
In this text I will be evaluating the event organised and held by my group and I on the 2nd of March at Hyde Park Book Club, a student hotspot and widely recognised venue known for supporting Independent bands and artists in Leeds. Our event was a fusion of several different genres, headlined by New Damage (dissonant post-punk meets jazz fusion), with support from Destroya, Janata and Bio-Exile.
Event Evidence Video
Event Atmosphere
After group discussion, we programmed our event to start at 8pm, with doors opening at 7.30pm. With Hyde Park Book Club being a hotspot for students in the surrounding area, there was already a small buzz building with the venue, with a decent line forming at the bar. We were also aware that there was another event (comedy show) taking place in one of the smaller performance spaces, so this also drew more people to the venue, with many of them intrigued by what our event was, approaching us to ask questions. The event succeeded in its ambitions as we didn’t think we would get many sales on the door, but ended up selling 15 tickets here.
As the clock hit 7.40pm, we had our first few ticket holders approach us ready to immerse themselves in the music after visiting the bar. As expected due to our heavy promotion around our university campus, we had several groups of students arrive, which helped to liven the atmosphere as anticipation built for the first band at 8pm. We had a fairly constant stream of both ticket holders and non ticket holders looking to purchase them on the door throughout the night, and the basement started to fill with more heads as the night went on. As seen in the pictures provided, the room was fairly filled up right to the front, with the lights provided by the venue helping to add to the atmosphere and spotlight the performers on stage.
Box Office
We had our box office situated near the entrance to the basement where the event was being held, ensuring nobody could enter without a ticket. We had a rule in place that we would always have two members of our team on box office, whilst the other two were ensuring everything ran smoothly downstairs. We had a Money box, (with change provided by a team member) secured behind the box office members to ensure there was no theft or losses, and a marker pen in place of wristbands offering audience members funny designs to adhere to the relatively young student intended audience.
In order to sell tickets to those wanting to purchase on the door, we set up contactless payments through Square point of pay on iPhone – we did this in advance before the event to ensure ease of use. We marked down a tally of existing ticket holders who entered, and those who purchased on the door, and ensured there was an orderly queue at all times. We also had a guest list to hand for any family members or friends.
Payment app transactions
Payment app
Front of House report
Box office guest tracker
Box office station setup
Box office station
Box office filming notice
Security
As we weren’t anticipating this to be an extremely overcrowded or busy event, we didn’t need any real security, as we had two team members on the entrance to the performance space at all times. We also had the Hyde Park Book Club staff monitoring the bar area in case of any altercations.
We ensured all areas for storing cases and band equipment were not easily accessible to the public/audience, and the green room was highlighted as a safe space for the artists and any personal belongings. As mentioned above, we kept any cash secure behind the box office area, with two of us present at all times. We also made it our priority to ensure all the acts’ gear was secured and transported safely and smoothly to their respective vehicles after the event. We also directed audience members out of the venue safely. The venue had motion sensors and cameras for safety.
Health and Safety
Before the event we conducted a health and safety risk assessment to eliminate any incidents that may occur on the day. Cables were ran up on the ceiling and out of the way of the main viewing area to avoid any collisions or trip hazards, and the main lights through the whole area were well lit incase of a situation where the front of house lights need to be on, and the audience need to see. Several bins were also dotted around at the doors and rear, also helping to maintain cleanliness and reduce trip hazards.
The lighting rig was also clearly out of the way of audience members, avoiding any potential heat or fire hazards. In event of a fire related hazard, all fire exits were sign-posted and clearly lit so everyone could see them, all fire extinguishers were easily accessible and all fire doors were clutter-free and clearly marked. Initially, there was a car blocking the rear fire exit, but we ensured this was moved to the parking area in time for the event to allow clear exit paths in the event of an emergency. There was a slight incline on the floor to the fire exit which we combatted by laying down a carpet to avoid any hazards, as seen in the supporting photos. We also provided free earplugs upon request for any audience members when entering the venue.
Production
Our load-in process ended up running slightly over time, however, we planned for this in advance and tackled this issue by leaving an extra hour between the final soundcheck and doors, allowing room if we ended up being behind schedule as we did. This meant that after the headliner finished their soundtrack we were about one hour behind schedule, however due to efficient management and communication lines with the technician, he was able to reassure us if we kept the momentum going then we would be okay for initial times for doors. We were also able to push doors back to 7.45 if needed, as we supplied a good half hour of doors time.
Upon arrival, we immediately introduced ourselves and became familiar with the sound engineer, Kane. This rapport that we developed helped us to support and communicate with each other throughout the night with ease. We worked with Kane to ensure all band members were happy and could hear their respective mixes well, both in headphones and through the speakers.
To ensure we were prepared for any technical difficulties, we brought spare cables, power and drum-kit parts just to be safe and cover any breakages. We brought 2 amps: one tweed fender blues deluxe for clean tones and one fender hot rod, to be able to increase gain without needing to push the master volume, ensuring conditions on stage and allowing for options with the artists.
We encountered a few problems, but were able to overcome them fairly quickly; During the final soundcheck, one of the guitarists didn’t have enough gain on one of the amps, so we swapped his amp with the other guitarist so he had the hot rod, allowing him to have more gain straight out the amp. We also ran into a problem with the drum kit setup – there was no clutch that fitted on it. Luckily we were able to come to an agreement with a drummer from the one of the other bands who said we could use his, as long as we returned it safely at the end of the night. We also had a snare, provided by our university, that one of the bands needed to use as they didn’t have one. This would be returned to us at the end of the night under close watch.
We were lucky enough to be provided with in-house PA and lighting, which were both fairly professional and helped add to the atmosphere, making it look and feel more professional for the audience.
Artist Liaison
As soon as the bands/artists arrived, we made sure to introduce ourselves and quickly build a rapport, which ensured the night ran smoothly. We directed the performers to the green room, where we provided them with their hospitality riders (drinks / snacks they requested) and safe storage for their personal belongings; we did however advise them to leave any items that were not needed presently, stored away in their vehicles in the parking area around the back, just avoid taking up too much room within the venue.
We ensured to assist the bands with loading their gear in and out of their vehicles and into the venue. As most of the bands were Leeds-based, we didn’t have to delve too much into transportation for them as they had their own vehicles and were happy to travel to and from their houses with their gear for this event, keeping the costs of travel low. We did have one band (Bio-Exile)who travelled from outside of Leeds, but they were close friends with our team member Reece, so were happy to travel at their own expense for this gig.
Before the artists left the venue, we went over payments with them and ensured they were not left with any unanswered questions. We took their details and payments were made the following day.
Stage Management
We had a clear setlist with sound check times, times of performance and changeovers which we sent to all artists performing via a group chat with them all in. We managed the event effectively by trying our best to stick to these times, and shared a backline to allow for smooth and efficient changeovers between sets. Each set was 30 minutes, with the headliner getting slightly longer at 45 mins. You can see an in depth breakdown in the photos provided.
The second band ended up being about 5 minutes late, but we made up for this small loss of time by ensuring the next band was ready slightly earlier in the 15 minute changeover. We ensured the final band finished at 11pm, with one of us near the stage to communicate with the headliner, to let them know when they had one more song left.
Online Marketing
For our online marketing, we used several different platforms to drive social media traffic and educate people about our event. We used Ticketsource to sell our tickets, providing an in depth description about the type of music and what to expect at our event, along with all the exact details (e.g – venue, times, location details).
Hyde Park Book Club also helped to advertise our event by posting on their instagram, which helped us to reach a larger audience as they have a fairly big following, as well as posting on their website the event listing with a description and details again. The bands involved also each posted about it on their own accounts, teasing their fan base with instagram stories and reels to build hype and anticipation, many of which are students. Each member of our group also reposted to our personal instagram accounts, to again widen the reach and encourage friends and family to come on down.
To further promote our event, we were also lucky enough to be featured on ‘Leedsgigs.co.uk’
*Unfortunately, our initial headliner ‘Sair’ pulled out a few days before, so we had to act quick and update our online promotions as soon as we were aware of this
Promotional Materials
One of our team members had informed us that their sibling could help us create our poster for our event, so this worked out nicely and didn’t add to our overall costs. We set up posters around our university campus (Leeds Conservatoire) where we could directly target our intended audience (students). We also made flyers which we cut to size and handed out around Hyde Park Book Club, and directly handed some to other people who were already there drinking who may want to see the music and check out our event.
In addition, we put up our gig day posters near the entrance to the venue and at the bar, and on tables so that people will see it when they come in. We also had help from the bar staff as they agreed to inform people about our event when serving drinks to new customers.
*see photos below for examples of our gig day posters and where we put them.
Financial Outcomes
Overall the event did not go as successful as we had hoped, as we were banking on our initial headliner ‘Sair’ to bring down a bigger crowd, as his shows usually do. Due to him pulling out if the show last minute, we had to think quick and adapt, so we had to get another band to join the lineup and replace him. After deducted costs (paying bands, venue hire etc) we ended up with a slight negative balance as seen in the financial breakdown below.
Overall, we all still had lots of fun and learnt what it is really like to put on an event, and experienced all the behind the scenes organisation and planning that takes place in order to put on a successful event.
