Putting on a night

[tatty_b_jangles]

Right, myself and a buddy of mine have been djing for about a year and a half now and feel we're at the level where we could play out. We're toying with the idea of putting on a night locally to push the sound in our area as there seems to be a whole bunch of people complaining but no one doing anything. We have a sound system and a venue, we'd be on the decks and we know guys who are well known musically in our town who could help us promote it. Am I being incredibly naive in thinking that this is it sorted or will there be more? Any advice from people who have done something like this before would be massively helpful. Cheers.

[twilitez]

If you wouldnt mind sending me a message with some more detailed info i might be able to help out. To put it shortly, ive been personally involved in about 10 sessions where we 'did it wrong', but some of my friends went on a different path after that and are pretty huge at the moment. Not big on namedropping so would prefer PM

[blinx420]

Security

[LA_Boxers]

Few questions you probably need to be answered:-

As above, is the venue providing security?
Do you have a budget for the event at all?
Are you expecting to make a profit from the first event?
Do you have a good network of friends to help promote & attend the night?
What sort of night are you billing it as? Dubstep, Brostep, Garage, House, Bass, D&B??
Are you going to be doing any promo other than FB? Will the venue help with promo? Does the venue have a regular crowd or will you literally have to fill the venue?
Are you charging an entrance fee, if so how much?

Not trying to rain on your parade, but Ive put a night on and it wasnt overly successful as we didnt think about everything like this.

[Dystinkt]

from my experience, one of the key areas where nights go to shit is adequate promotion. you really need to do anything and everything you can to get the word out there and make your night the place people want to be at. flyers, posters, fb, pretty girls handing out flyers is always a sure thing

[Alistairr]

man this shit is hard work, too much in my opinion, its fine if u live in a random town, go for it! but i tried in london and failed miserably lol.

[PinUp]

Make sure everything is set up properly before you start promoting.

Sort out the venue - Do you need to sort security? Do you need someone on the door taking money? What DJ equipment do they have? Are there any sound system restrictions? What time can you get there to set things up? Will they do drinks deals? How much do you have to pay?

then sort out your DJ's & MC's - You probably want to bring in someone with a bit of a reputation. No offence to you and your mate but general people on the streets only really go to this sort of thing if they recognise atleast 1 name on the lineup. Find out what sort of equipment they need and if they have a rider.

Make sure you've got plenty of spares for the night aswell. Leads, mics, needles, maybe even a spare CDJ incase one decides to die.

After you've sorted all the details and got everything totally set you can start making flyers and do your promo.

Nothing worse than an event that's been over promoted and then turns out to be shit.

Have fun with it but stay professional, pay everyone you owe money to on time and be respectful if anyone has any issues they want to bring up.

[tatty_b_jangles]

Thanks, guys, for the posts. Definitely brought some stuff up I wouldn't have thought of.

As above, is the venue providing security?
Do you have a budget for the event at all?
Are you expecting to make a profit from the first event?
Do you have a good network of friends to help promote & attend the night?
What sort of night are you billing it as? Dubstep, Brostep, Garage, House, Bass, D&B??
Are you going to be doing any promo other than FB? Will the venue help with promo? Does the venue have a regular crowd or will you literally have to fill the venue?
Are you charging an entrance fee, if so how much?

We have two possible places to hold it in, both of which will provide security.
We have a budget which will cover the sound system, venue and some promotion.
We're gonna make a loss, we know that from the start as it's gonna be free entry. It won't be a huge loss and will definitely not exceed 200 each. We want to push the sound and test the water to see if there is enough interest to justify making it a regular thing.
We're billing it as a dubstep night.
One venue will help with promo, the other won't. The venue that will help with promo also has a regular crowd and does promote local bands a fair bit. This venue would be free as the promoter who works there said he would book us as he's interested in what we're trying to do. The other is more of a place people book for events and isn't open every weekend. However, the 1st venue might not allow us bring in a decent system and their's is a bit lacking in the low end and it can be a bit off sometimes.

What DJ equipment do they have? Are there any sound system restrictions? What time can you get there to set things up? Will they do drinks deals? How much do you have to pay?

then sort out your DJ's & MC's - You probably want to bring in someone with a bit of a reputation. No offence to you and your mate but general people on the streets only really go to this sort of thing if they recognise atleast 1 name on the lineup. Find out what sort of equipment they need and if they have a rider.

Make sure you've got plenty of spares for the night aswell. Leads, mics, needles, maybe even a spare CDJ incase one decides to die.

After you've sorted all the details and got everything totally set you can start making flyers and do your promo.

Nothing worse than an event that's been over promoted and then turns out to be shit.

Have fun with it but stay professional, pay everyone you owe money to on time and be respectful if anyone has any issues they want to bring up.

We'll have to bring our own stuff, Technics, CDJs and mixer.
Locally, there is massive interest in promotion of local musicians, djs etc. The area has a musical background with interest in people doing something a bit different from your typical indie bands and electro house djs. Infact, the underground side of stuff is bigger in the town, so we're hoping that this will attract interest as we cannot afford to bring in a dj/mc. Bit ambitious, but we think the risk is worth it.
Promo is gonna be done and we're going to promote on fb, in local music stores and local music venues.

Thanks again, guys.

[PinUp]

Sounds like you've got things pretty sorted!

I'd go with the venue that has the regular crowd, that sort of thing is a godsend.

Good luck!

[tatty_b_jangles]

Sounds like you've got things pretty sorted!

I'd go with the venue that has the regular crowd, that sort of thing is a godsend.

Good luck!

Cheers. We are leaning that way, just trying to get the system in there. I'd say if we outline the reasons why, we'd be allowed do it.

[Olska]

If you want any posters/flyers i'd be happy to make you some designs for free