Running a club night

bear grills · Post by **bear grills** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:05 pm

hi everyone, i hope you are all full of easter cheer, wanted to know of those of you who run nights. what advice would you give to someone wanting to start a night up. i have had mixed success in running a night, but want to start promoting again, nothing major just small scale. any tips and advice would be great. the night i am hoping to run would be a mixed bag not just dubstep.

felis · Post by **felis** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 6:35 pm

good venue , lot's of promotion .

jamie · Post by **jamie** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:06 pm

My advice to you is you've got to kill it with the first bite.

Bear Grylls - legend...

RubiconMan · Post by **RubiconMan** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:09 pm

FELIS wrote:good venue , lot's of promotion .

an maybe free lollipops fer the students

jamie · Post by **jamie** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 8:17 pm

Giving people sugar when they get through the door makes em buy more drinks - good if you get a bar cut

But seriously, if you can find something new or different from the other promoters pushing your sound then that always helps. People need to remember your night for its atmosphere aswell as just the tunes.

shonky · Post by **shonky** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:47 pm

Best things to avoid

1/ Book a club that's cheap but has a shite sound system. We used to run a night that had the nastiest, tinnitus-inducing system I've ever heard

2/ Do fuck all promotion. Don't go out and flyer when you can be arsed, do half an hour half-heartedly and then go and do loads of last minute flyering

3/ As soon as it looks like it's becoming a success, make sure you book regular slots. We did this really badly and didn't figure on the place being booked out for the next two months. Loses all momentum for the night.

If you're doing it as a group, make sure that all decisions are agreed on by everyone (i.e. don't spend silly money on a graphic designer for the flyers if you're starting out, don't book dj's that cost more than you're likely to make of an evening, etc). Also make sure that they're enthusiastic about doing it and don't just want to be seen to be in the promotions world. You'll just end up doing all the work and feeling resentful of the slack fuckers.

Something I would recommend is guest-listing a load of good party people if they come along early - people are more likely to go in the club and get into it if there's already a crowd there. If possible try and make sure there's some sort of drinks promotion as an added incentive

product · Post by **product** » Mon Apr 02, 2007 9:48 pm

book music people want to hear

TRANCE

villem · Post by **villem** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:11 am

my bro smashed it on his first ever night - it was RISE in Brighton - upstairs was Tech Itch, The Sect, Metrik, Kulak, and himself Matter - downstairs was Kion and Dubloaded crew i think - he made banners, big fuckers and flyered at 4 in the morn every other night, postered up everywhere, by getting local crews involved like metrik and the El-P collective there was alot of peeps, he got the gramps hi-fi which is sicko (when running proper) and it was at the Volks..... he worked his arse off

So good venue, good soundsystem, heavy promotion, apparently 10 flyers handed out would generate one punter as a rough rule of thumb

Forensics · Post by **Forensics** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:15 am

Where you based, and what night of the week you going for..?

rich_c90 · Post by **rich_c90** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:49 am

ABOVE ALL: BE REALISTIC...

(a) how many people will turn up... ?

(b) how much will you charge on the door... ?

(c) who / what / where can you afford given the figure you get by multiplying the answers to (a) and (b)... ?

(d) don't cut corners on a soundsystem just so you can book a big act.

(e) promote the hell out of it. But be selective. There is no need to flyer a metal night. All other things being equal, my own view is that posters are better than flyers (depending on where you live)

(f) Doing it with other people is a good idea cos it breaks up the boredom of putting posters on bins.

(g) Do it cos you love the music. And don't EVER compromise on THE MUSIC.

termite · Post by **termite** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 12:15 pm

As a lot of ppl mentioned above:

- Good music (obvisouly)

- Try and get some ppl to play/mc who are from different crews. They are
likely to bring there mates, so good way to get a few ppl in.

- PR material to be eye catching.

- Speak to your punters. Don't just hand em a flier, actually interact with
them. Punters like promoters who are down to earth and not stuck up.
U get me?

- Try and be as cheap as pos...punter friendly is the KEY.

- Get a myspace page on the go, and use that as a major form of PR.

- Get on the case to the media. Make a press pack to send out to all
appropriate magazines, websites, newspapers etc. Then maybe even
give the journalist from magazines/newspapers a call and invite them
down to your show for free. Always good to have the media on your side!

Hope that helps some

ramadanman · Post by **ramadanman** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 1:00 pm

definitely all about promotion

don't skimp on flyering / posters! seen a fair few events in leeds be empty cos the promoter didn't push it enough

kins83 · Post by **kins83** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 1:52 pm

ramadanman wrote:definitely all about promotion

don't skimp on flyering / posters! seen a fair few events in leeds be empty cos the promoter didn't push it enough

Too true.

thomas e. griffin · Post by **thomas e. griffin** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 1:58 pm

Don't live in Liverpool, where everyone listens to house and the Beatles.

Get a good myspace site and batter the promo through that and on the forums. It's free and functional and viral.

ozols man · Post by **ozols man** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 2:03 pm

make sure u tell all ur extroverted and alpha male/female mates, each one will bring lots of friends with them as it will be a matter of reputation

grievous_angel · Post by **grievous_angel** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 2:13 pm

Make sure students are in town / not in exams

Don't get suckered into booking a club when it's the end of the month and people are skint

Don't expect to make any money and be realistic about how much you can afford to lose. There are many fun and interesting ways to blow 500 quid, including an array of substances, but watching one of your favourite DJs play to an empty room is not one of them. Work out the costs in detail, and know what the break even capacity percentage is, and how much you lose for every 20 people below capacity

If you have loads of mates, do it as a one off and treat it as a party - but this won't work for a regular night

damo · Post by **damo** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 2:27 pm

Villem wrote:by getting local crews involved there was alot of peeps

this is key i think.

if there are local crews in your area doing similar things then get them involved. even if you just book one of their djs to play chances are they will bring their audience with them. and if they are well established then some of their cred is bound to rub off :)

benjybars · Post by **benjybars** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 2:37 pm

Bear Grylls??

thomas · Post by **thomas** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 2:42 pm

Grievous Angel wrote: Don't expect to make any money

Yes, its sad to see promoters loosing money after a long time, but straight away just be glad you are doing it and if you break even then shabba.

pangaea · Post by **pangaea** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 3:19 pm

Shonky wrote:Best things to avoid

1/ Book a club that's cheap but has a shite sound system. We used to run a night that had the nastiest, tinnitus-inducing system I've ever heard

Innnnnit. Of course, you can always book a cheap club with a shite system and then hire a soundsystem from elsewhere.

Shonky wrote:2/ Do fuck all promotion. Don't go out and flyer when you can be arsed, do half an hour half-heartedly and then go and do loads of last minute flyering

3/ As soon as it looks like it's becoming a success, make sure you book regular slots. We did this really badly and didn't figure on the place being booked out for the next two months. Loses all momentum for the night.

Most definately, we also hadn't banked on having trouble finding a second venue after problems with the first, and you certainly lose momentum.

Shonky wrote:If you're doing it as a group, make sure that all decisions are agreed on by everyone (i.e. don't spend silly money on a graphic designer for the flyers if you're starting out, don't book dj's that cost more than you're likely to make of an evening, etc). Also make sure that they're enthusiastic about doing it and don't just want to be seen to be in the promotions world. You'll just end up doing all the work and feeling resentful of the slack fuckers.

Something I would recommend is guest-listing a load of good party people if they come along early - people are more likely to go in the club and get into it if there's already a crowd there. If possible try and make sure there's some sort of drinks promotion as an added incentive

Sound advice! I think a lot of it just comes down to making common sense decisions and putting the work in.

Running a club night

Running a club night

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