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Booking a venue to put on bands at uni

orangejuice [Edit] [Delete] 9 replies 12:58, 13 July '13

I've wanted to do this for ages but never got around to it because I haven't got any experience at all. FInally bit the bullet and decided to do it!

Our university's debating society has the perfect space for it, they want to charge me £150 for the night. Is this reasonable? I have no idea of costs basically, and haven't even thought about booking bands/promotional costs.

Given that I'm going to be providing punters in need of a drink for 3-4 hours, and I'm not asking for any of the bar takings, could I stand to ask for the price to be lowered?

Any help with any other aspects of putting on bands at uni would be much appreciated :)

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  • Putting on a band at uni should be no different to putting on a band anywhere else.

    It's a bit difficult to get a handle on whether that's a reasonable price without knowing:

    - the capacity of the room.
    - whether it includes the sound guy's fee.
    - what backline they have and whether you're going to have to hire anything more.
    - where this university is (i.e. whether there's any other competition in terms of venues or gigs, and how easy it'll be to bring band there).
    - what level of band you're looking to put on, in terms of whether you can charge £5 a ticket or £15.
    - How much promotion the venue will do as well. For example, do they do their own listings submissions, listings posters, tweets, Facebook updates etc? A venue might be more expensive, but it might also bring in so many extra people that it outweighs the extra cost.

    marckee | 13 Jul '13, 13:16 | X
    • just want to say

      maximum respect and good luck - i bet i'm not the only person on DiS who has thought about putting on a gig but never come close to actually doing it.

      iamwiggy @marckee | 13 Jul '13, 13:19 | X
      TheWza this'd this
      • It's not hard to do.

        The only challenge is not losing money.

        svenrokk @iamwiggy | 13 Jul '13, 13:31 | X
        • haha

          All I wanna do is break even, don't really mind about profit so long as I'm not losing money.

          orangejuice @svenrokk | 13 Jul '13, 13:33 | X
          • Even if you lose money, it's still fun.

            If you're doing it at uni, look into setting up a society. Some universities give societies funding and it might also mean you get discounts on venue hire/printing.

            svenrokk @orangejuice | 13 Jul '13, 13:37 | X
            • Ah that's a great idea, hadn't thought about that

              orangejuice @svenrokk | 13 Jul '13, 13:41 | X
      • Cheers :)

        I actually had some experience last year with booking bands for our end-of-year ball, but got gradually pushed off the committee because the acts I was about to book were apparently "not well known enough". I had Major Lazer or Disclosure lined up, we ended up with Example :(

        I had a decent budget then though, now I'm just working out of my student loan, so any mistakes and it's me taking the hit!

        orangejuice @iamwiggy | 13 Jul '13, 13:36 | X
    • Yeah, he hasn't got back to me about capacity. About 200 I reckon

      Their backline seems decent, a friend played there and said everything was fine. Doubt the venue will do much/any promotion to be honest.

      orangejuice @marckee | 13 Jul '13, 13:40 | X
  • Ok who owns the room?

    If the debating society is affiliated to this students union/association you should be able to use it for free if you are a society? Can you not just start a society and do it for free? They should also promote it if its a student-led event.

    DarwinDude | 13 Jul '13, 13:47 | X
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