Resources » Organising a Gig

Organising a Gig

When it’s time to organise your own gig:

Have a team of 2 who arrange the whole set up, including a team leader who is overseeing all the bits of the jigsaw, just to make sure everything is being covered.

The team leader liases with their band mentor for any advice.

What needs to be arranged:

Venue - Community and school halls are usually cheap to hire

Some local examples - Hokitika Dramatic Society Hall, Barrytown Hall, someone’s house, (called a House Concert), Shantytown, Trowbridge Room, Racecourse, DP:1 Cafe, Franks Cafe

Performers

If it’s about showcasing your band, choose a support act that will compliment your style in some way. E.g. I wouldn’t ask a classical guitarist to open for a punk band but hey, contrast can work.

Promotion

Design Posters and photocopy (your school would probably support any initiatives you have).

Hang Posters. The sooner the better, up to about 4 weeks before the gig is good.

Band Profile - Have a current band profile prepared and either write your own press release or contact someone at your local paper, (Hokitika Guardian, Grey Star or the Messenger)

and ask if s/he will write an article in support of the gig. All of the newspaper support I had arranged for one gig didn’t get to print and this sometimes happens.

Put an advert in the local newspaper in the week running up to the gig as well. Make it clear if this is an all ages gig (Drug & Alcohol free) or an 18+ gig.

You can even look for sponsorship for example from the Westland Safer Community Council or the local creative communities (through district councils) - It’s easy to find sponsors for

community events, but of course professionals don’t need this, they get paid by the venue which covers these types of expenses.

Email/text everyone. You must bring your own fans, especially to gigs you are being paid for. The organisers want to see lots of faces, or they may not have you back.

What else do you need to run a gig?

a PA - yes a personal assistant would be useful, but you’re not rich enough yet! If you contact YMDT with a date, they may arrange the Youth & Music Development Trust PA. It’s too
small to do a big gig though, better suited to a small venues.

Lighting - School Halls and Shantytown usually have lights. Trowbridge Room also, but they will charge an extra fee to use them. Sometimes the expense is prohibitive. Always ask
when you book the venue if there are lights you can use.

Door people - if there are any expenses involved, you can cover it by having a smal charge on the door, but you need two reliable people to share the operation.

MC - if you want the audience to be informed and entertained between the acts. The best person for this job is someone with some serious levels of extroversion and appetite for fun.

Treasury - Someone to keep track of the money - requires basic accounting skills. There should be very little money involved in a simple gig with the type of community support you
would have, it may even cost nothing, depending on your choice of venue and level of sponsorship.

Back up Support - Phone/email your band tutor or a YMDT Trustee for any advice.

Or you could ask your student council to set you up a school gig to play at - they’ll probably do nearly all the work. While this is a really good option, don’t forget if you want to be in a serious
band one day, you do need to learn these skills for yourself too.

Thomas Goss wrote a great article in his Building Blocks series in NZ Musican April/May 2008 called ‘Gigging on a 10 week cycle’. Great reference for when you’re ready to start up a serious gigging route with your band.