I believe that the overwhelming majority of people are helpful, friendly and happy to be engaged.
It's not as though you'll be frotting or doing a Borat.
Starting a club night
- Thread starter swears
- Start date
I believe that the overwhelming majority of people are helpful, friendly and happy to be engaged.
It's not as though you'll be frotting or doing a Borat.
mistersloane
heavy heavy monster sound
yeah, you are! If you're hosting the night in your new suit, it gives you the LICENSE to go and introduce yourself, just a quick chat. You can tell if people don't want to talk, but generally people - especially going for a night out - are happy to be meeted and greeted. And that tip ( above )works too.
IdleRich
IdleRich
I don't really see why eclecticism has to be sloppy but never mind...
Anyway, from what you've said above you haven't mentioned a venue and to me that's really important. For our nights we always try and use a different venue to keep it interesting - the problem every time is finding a new and good one. However, even if you're not going to do that (perhaps especially) you need to find somewhere that's suited to your needs. I don't know what the situation is in Liverpool or Manchester but for me you need to think about how late it's open - I think a night becomes much more of an event if it goes on until the morning and if that's what you want then that immediately restricts your choice.
Also you need to think of the soundsystem (presumably you will have to use theirs rather than putting in your mate's rig) and the general vibe of the place but I'm sure you know that.
For promotion, we've always done a mixture of posting it on chatboards, mailing friends and their friends and stuff and loads of flyers. For me, flyers can be good as long as they are good flyers, if they are not then they may do more harm than good. We always hand out loads in all the places near the venue every day of the week for - maybe - two weeks before the end. Chuck 'em on tables in bars etc the ones that don't get picked up will get thrown away but it doesn't matter because you will put some more there the next day.
If there are local listing mags then try and get in there as well obviously.
Collect the email addresses of people who come and try and build up a mailing list, obviously it's very important that you get your friends to come for the first few times but you can't expect them to give up every first Friday of the month or whatever so you need to keep getting new people coming.
Regarding money, it depends what the deal with the venue is, normally you pay to hire it (sometimes it's free, sometimes there is a deposit) and you take the door and they get the drinks money. There are other arrangements but that's a standard one. What we normally do is then add up the costs of the venue, the flyers, any guests/bands etc and then maybe add on a hundred pounds or so (to give you some leeway) and then divide that number by the venue capacity and that's your door price (the lower the better of course). In other words, if it's totally full you will make a ton - unless there are any unforeseen costs. The last night we did we had to change the venue because the original one got raided, the new venue was £200 more expensive which completely wiped out the excess, that meant that after literally months of work and stress I ended up with a grand profit of £20 but everyone had a good time so it was worth it.
I would say don't be too ambitious on your first night. The worst thing that happened to us was when there was a fire on the day of our party and the police roped off the street where it was supposed to happen. We had to move at the last minute to another venue where we couldn't charge on the door and, as we'd brought a guy down from Chester and a girl from Edinburgh we ended up losing more than £600. That's not too bad though, some guys I kinda know did a night recently where they flew someone over from (I think) Israel and ended up losing about four or five grand between them. Nothing even scuppered that, just not enough people turned up.
About guest djs, that's your call I guess. If there is someone who you want to play and will bring some people then maybe do it. On the other hand, presumably you are doing the night because you want to have some fun spinning records so you don't want to have too many guests. It's no fun if you spend months promoting something and then on the night you're on the door and it runs behind and you don't even get to play.
What can be good though is if you can team up with like-minded nights then that can be very nice, they play at yours, you play at theirs, they advertise yours and vice versa.
Also, live acts are something that people seem to like. Personally I can usually take it or leave it but it's surprising how often you see people asking at the doors of clubs if there are any bands on - might be something you want to think about anyway, I don't know.
Oh well, good luck, let us know how it goes.
Hi again chaps. I'm gonna add some more wisdom into the mix for you all.
Okay I'll have to repeat myself again but names will lose a promoter money guaranteed so just forget that shit. And I can honestly say its vanity. To hear of a crew losing 4/5 grand is just retarded - seriously. It'll take them 10 good nights in a row just to get that back and that ain't gonna happen the way they're running things. I know someone who lost over £1k at his party and in short I just don't have any respect for the guy. I did quiz him over it but he was like 'but well man we brought x over to play at our night'. I'm like thinking 'yeah so what you lost over £1k doing it so hardly a success'.
Names will only benefit your night if you have a rock solid following and means of bringing heads through the door. But seriously just forget that shit as it'll only cause you headaches. If ultimately you're desperate to put on a name then pay him half what he/she expects - that's right. And if he/she doesn't want to do that then that's fine because you don't want to get burnt and fucked up the ass. Either way at any price you'll most likely lose money off them.
Forget freebies, guestlists and paying no name djs/artists and putting on name djs. Keep your costs down to a minimum and maximise your takings on the door that way even if your night is a total wash out then worst case scenario, you break even.
YOU DON'T NEED TO LOSE MONEY!
Okay I'll have to repeat myself again but names will lose a promoter money guaranteed so just forget that shit. And I can honestly say its vanity. To hear of a crew losing 4/5 grand is just retarded - seriously. It'll take them 10 good nights in a row just to get that back and that ain't gonna happen the way they're running things. I know someone who lost over £1k at his party and in short I just don't have any respect for the guy. I did quiz him over it but he was like 'but well man we brought x over to play at our night'. I'm like thinking 'yeah so what you lost over £1k doing it so hardly a success'.
Names will only benefit your night if you have a rock solid following and means of bringing heads through the door. But seriously just forget that shit as it'll only cause you headaches. If ultimately you're desperate to put on a name then pay him half what he/she expects - that's right. And if he/she doesn't want to do that then that's fine because you don't want to get burnt and fucked up the ass. Either way at any price you'll most likely lose money off them.
Forget freebies, guestlists and paying no name djs/artists and putting on name djs. Keep your costs down to a minimum and maximise your takings on the door that way even if your night is a total wash out then worst case scenario, you break even.
YOU DON'T NEED TO LOSE MONEY!
UFO over easy
online mahjong
Well it's not that simple is it, it's more about what you want to do with your night. If there's people you want to see, and you can afford it, why not?
If you're just putting on a low key night for your friends, of course you don't need to lose money, ditto if you're putting on a massive rave - certain people and venues will guarentee you'll sell out.
Like everything else in the whole world ever, it all depends on who you are and the kind of night you want to be putting on. I'm pretty sure Mala doesn't reckon booking hatcha, yunx, horsepower, joe nice etc for the next DMZ is a waste of money. :slanted: From the sounds of it, Swears is just putting on a night for him and his friends, and other like minded folks - there was no mention of booking big names at all, so not sure why you're so keen to slate them..
We book appropriately sized names (lol) for our night, and we budget so that we'll break even. We're not looking to make money, but at the same time, despite booking names and bringing in a huge sound system, we don't lose money most of the time - any profit we make goes straight into the next night. It's just all about common sense, and organising your night appropriately according to its size - if you don't have much money to put into promotion, don't expect to make a lot; if you can afford to book names and promote it properly, then you'll likely see that money back again if you do it sensibly. Obviously the more money you spend, the more you have to risk, so tread carefully, but massive sweeping statements like yours are pretty meaningless, especially concerning something like promoting events where the market varies so massively depending on location.
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