Music Event Management: Gigs
- tom chapman
- Oct 10, 2015
- 2 min read
Gig-
A gig is an event where one or more acts perform. These can be of any size from 20 people in a pub to 100,00 in a stadium and can take place in either indoors or outdoors venues of any type including clubs, theatres, arenas and more. They can be standing, seated or a mixture of both. The location of these events can be anywhere at all, but most commonly is in venues within towns and cities. A gig usually lasts between 1 and 6 hours and in most cases takes place in the evening/night time but sometimes they take place during the day. A gig is a one off event, but a gig can be recreated in different venues as part of a tour or residency where gigs recur several nights in a row or on a regular basis.
The equipment needed for a gig varies alot depending on the size of the venue, however the normal requirements would be a PA system including microphones and monitors, instruments, and amp backline. Larger and more professional shows may also include lighting and big screens as well as stage props, backdrops and pyrotechnics. In many cases the venue will provide some of this equipment. Bigger venues and outdoor venues will require a bigger set up of speakers to cope with the higher level of volume needed. They will also require a larger lighting setup to fill the larger area. Most of the time gigs don’t have food on site, but some of the larger venues that host longer concerts do provide food.
Because gigs are only one night they don’t offer accommodation. For some larger scale gigs, they offer hotel ticket packages which include accommodation in the price. Smaller venues often don’t have their own car park, which means people going to those gigs need to find their own parking. Also venues in a central city location often don’t have their own car parking. Bigger venues with their own car park will have a very big car park and their own parking attendant staff.
A gig will have different staff depending on the size and scale of the event, but almost all gigs will have a sound engineer, a lighting technician, a promoter, roadies and performers. The key difference between smaller and bigger, more professional events is that at a small event one person is likely to do several or even all of the jobs. It wouldn’t be uncommon for a performer to promote their own gig, as well as sort out their own sound and lighting and set up all their equipment. At larger scale events, extra staff are likely to be required. Security and door staff will be needed to keep things under control and make sure the evening runs smoothly, on top of this more staff will be needed at the venue like bar staff and cleaners as well as people to run additional services like merchandise sales and a cloakroom. First aid staff will always be needed as a legal requirement.
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