Music Event Management Assignment

Defining factors of different events

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.

Tour-

A tour is where the same show or material is played and recreated over multiple different nights in different locations. The shows of a tour can take place in venues of differing size, depending on the popularity of the artist, which means they range from pubs and clubs like The Bullingdon in Oxford, to Wembley Stadium in London. A tour can also span over any sized area ranging from a region or city (e.g. Ho99o9’s tour of London in 2014), a country (Foal’s 2015 UK Tour), a continent (Mike Oldfield’s ‘Tour of Europe 1979’ tour) or a full world tour (Metallica’s World Magnetic Tour).

Tours are usually a one off, as they are normally promoting something which is only promoted once. However a tour can recur over several legs, like The Rolling Stones’ A Bigger Bang tour which took place over 8 legs. In some rare cases, the same tour is recreated, for example The Wailers who now tour Legend in its entirety annually with the same set list.

The individual shows within a tour typically last for 1-3 hours, sometimes with other acts playing which make the whole event last around 4 or 5 hours. The tour itself can last anywhere from a week to several years, for example Roger Waters’ The Wall Tour which lasted from 2010-2013.

A tour will require all the same equipment as an ordinary gig, as a tour is just a string of gigs all together. Unlike all gigs, a tour will also require various modes of transport such as tour buses or vans, and for larger scale tours travel by plane will be required.

The individual dates on a tour will have the same situations with parking, accommodation and food and drinks as a normal concert. In addition to this the act on tour will need providing with parking, accommodation and food and drinks as they are temporarily living on the road so need somewhere to stay etc. This should be prearranged by the tour manager.

A tour will have the same staffing requirements at every show as a normal gig. However, a tour will require some additional staff on top. A tour manager will be needed to arrange the tour beforehand and go along on the tour to supervise. A driver will also be needed to get the act around to the different shows. Much like a normal concert, in smaller events one person may perform many roles, with an act choosing to arrange a tour themselves, get themselves there and do all the set up without help.

Classical Recital-

Classical recitals are usually quite formal events. Most classical recitals are small to mid size venues. The largest take place in venues like the Royal Albert Hall which seats around 5000 people. The venues are almost always seated, and very purpose built like theatres and town halls. These are normally indoor venues within bigger towns and cities.

Recitals can be quite long, lasting up to a couple of hours, but there isn’t normally a support act or any entertainment after so the whole event can sometimes end up being shorter than other kinds of event. Recitals are often a one off event, or sometimes several nights running of the same show and don’t normally recur. Sometimes an orchestra or a venue may hold an event which recurs annually for example the Proms, or maybe a local annual night.

Due to the smaller nature of the venues at classical recitals, a smaller sound system is used, if one is used at all. In smaller venues an orchestra might not use any microphones (except for vocals) and rely on the acoustic strength of the individual instruments and the audience being quiet and listening carefully. In a bigger venue like a larger theatre or the Royal Albert Hall, microphones will be used to mic up sections of an orchestra or a soloist and then be played through a PA system. Monitors will not normally be used for this, and amplifiers are never used. Lighting isn’t normally used to the same effect it is during a rock/pop show in a classical recital. Only normal light will be used to help the audience see the audience. The only specialist equipment needed would be a spotlight to occasionally draw attention to a soloist. These will always be provided by the venue as it is unlikely a classical act would have this kind of equipment to bring.

A classical recital has similar logistical requirements to a standard concert or gig. A lot of inner city and smaller venues will not have their own parking spaces, however some of the larger concert halls and ones in less urban areas may have their own car park. Accommodation will also not be provided because it is only a one night event. Almost all venues for recitals will come with their own bar to serve drinks, and may or may not serve food as well. It is less common for a theatre or classical concert hall to serve food.

Staffing requirements at a classical recital will be slightly different to an ordinary gig or concert. There will not normally be a road crew at all, and only some stage hands to prepare the area for the performer. For performances that do use a PA, a few people will be needed to set up the sound system as a full orchestra can be very hard to mic up and get the positioning right, so multiple sound engineers may be required. The lighting setup is very simple so it is unlikely a classical recital would need many professional staff working on lighting. There will usually be less security at a classical recital than a gig due to the more formal and seated nature which means there is less likely to be any incidents requiring security or first aid. Door staff will always be required for checking tickets, and ushers will also be there to help show people to their seats. Venue staff will include bar staff and maybe some extra staff to sell programmes. After all this there will be the performers, which will usually either be a full orchestra or a soloist with accompaniment.

Promotional Launch-

A promotional launch would typically be used for an artist to promote a new piece of work, usually an album or a music industry product (e.g. the Tidal streaming service 2015 promotional launch). At a promotional launch the artist will normally speak and take questions, and then perform the work either in part or in full. A promotional launch is more formal than an ordinary gig or concert as part of a tour, as it is more of a special one off event. They will normally take place in smaller to medium sized venues which keep them more selective and unique.

The equipment requirements will depend upon what happens at the launch. There is usually quite a lot of talking from different people so more vocal mics would be needed to go with the usual PA setup. There is also usually a performance of some kind so the full set up for that will be required which includes instruments, backline and monitoring. The lighting is less important at a promotional launch as it is more about showcasing some material by itself than putting on a good show or event, so fairly standard stage lighting is used. This equipment might not be provided by the venue, as sometimes promotional launches don’t take place in venues that normally host music.

A promotional launch will usually provide a bar and refreshments for the guests attending, but much like gigs and classical recitals, accommodation is not provided due to it being only one night. There is again a similar situation with parking, where it depends on whether or not the venue has its own car park. Some of the higher profile promotional launches may have valet parking.

The staffing at a promotional launch will also be slightly different. There will definitely be professional sound and light engineers as well as trained stage crew. At a promotional launch there will normally be members of the press and industry there.

Festival-

Festivals come in varying sizes. These range from small local festivals held in towns and villages, like local beer festivals, all the way up to international festivals like Glastonbury which have thousands attending and watching broadcast coverage. Most festivals take place outdoors in fields and parks during the summer months, and are almost always standing only events like Reading and Leeds festivals. Typically, festivals have more than one stage and take place over more than one day. A lot of larger festivals have campsites for people to stay in for the duration of the festival. Traditionally, festivals would normally take place in the countryside where there was more space and fields to use (e.g. Isle of Wight Festival) but in recent years urban multi venue festivals have become more common where lots of venues in a small area host bands at the same time for example South by Southwest in Austin and Dot to Dot in various English cities. Some festivals also change their location and tour for example Lollapalooza. Most festivals take place annually but some festivals like Coachella Valley run multiple times every year with different lineups.

Bigger outdoor festivals will have a lot of sound and lighting requirements. They will need multiple temporary stages that can be constructed and deconstructed easily, and will often need some of the stages to be under large tents for sound control and weather reasons. Most will have big screens next to the stages for bigger crowds, and will also have very big PA systems because outdoor concerts require a lot more volume. A lot of festivals will have a large house lighting set up but some bands will bring their own lighting equipment. Bands that do this are normally headliners or higher up the bill, smaller acts normally use what is provided.

Food is normally provided by outside sources at festivals. The organiser will bring in a variety of food providers who set up a temporary food stall within the festival. This is because festivals are usually only temporary events, so they don’t have their own facilities on site. Parking is often provided at festivals for an extra charge, it is necessary as people are usually at festivals for several days.

A festival requires a lot more staff than just a usual concert. It requires additional levels of security and emergency services to cope with the higher number of people and because of the duration of the events, staff have to work in shifts 24/7. Extra staff will be bought in by the outside food sources to run the food stands as well as additional bar staff. It is very rare that these staff permanently work for the festival, and are just bought in annually to help. Professional sound and light engineers will also be at a festival to get the best out of all performances, as well as trained stage hands. More stage assistants will be required as there are more acts who have to set up and perform in a shorter space of time, which means more help is needed. There will be a mixture of these people who work for the festival and for the individual acts. Other members of staff at a festival will be the organisers, who spend the whole year booking things and arranging the event as a whole. One thing that makes a festival unique is that acts will not normally do several jobs by doing their own sound, lighting and promotion, all of which will be done for them.

Different Sized Venues:

Craufurd Arms

This venue targets a demographic of people local to the area and the regulars of the pub. This means it is aimed slightly more towards men than women, and in general people over 30. They usually host local bands in the smaller pub section of the venue, and have up and coming touring acts which are starting to get established in the main hall. In general, the music leans more towards heavy rock/metal/punk music with acts playing at the venue including Slaves, Sleaford Mods and Baby Godzilla. They advertise heavily on social media, with an official venue website and social media accounts. They also put up a lot of posters in the pub and local area, as well as use local papers.

They have their own large PA system including monitoring, and also a lighting rig which they use for all the acts that perform.

The venue has its own bar staff and security/door staff which deal with the gig goers, and has house sound/lighting technicians. Promoters will work at the venue to try and sell tickets and bring in a crowd, because the acts that play here don’t have as many fans so will need help selling tickets

London Roundhouse

This is a mid size venue with around 3000 capacity. It has a mixture of standing and seating, and puts on a full range of acts from all genres. It also hosts events that aren’t just music, with dance and poetry events having been held there in the past.

Because it is a bigger venue to the Craufurd it has a bigger PA system with monitoring, with more than one stack of speakers on each size. Also due to the size of the venue and its higher ceiling, some of the PA speakers are suspended above the ground and curved to reach more of the audience. They also have more of a professional and bigger lighting rig which gives more of an added effect to a stage performance. Acts that play here can be well established such as the recent performances from artists like Mogwai, The Jesus and Mary Chain and Public Enemy, so will likely bring a lot of their own equipment and crew and not be as reliant on venue promotion. At the same time, less established acts like Savages and Mac DeMarco also play here, so will rely more upon house equipment and crew as well as need help promoting the gig from promotion crew at the venue.

In terms of staff, the Roundhouse has security and door staff, bar staff for the bar in the venue, sound and lighting engineers, stagehands and ushers for the seating section. Promoters at the venue will help try and sell tickets, which is needed more for the smaller acts who might not have as much of a following.

National Bowl

This is a very large venue with a capacity of around 65,000 people and is outdoors with a grassy surface and is an all standing venue. Due to this it usually only hosts events in the summer months when the weather is more reliable. It has acts from all genres, and in the past has played host to dance music festivals, rock concerts like Pearl Jam and private events.

It has an extremely big PA system which is required due to the size of the venue and it being outdoors. There are several main speaker rigs near the stage, as well as further suspended rigs all around the venue to make sure everyone can hear. There are also big screens which are required to give people all around the arena a good view as the people at the back are so far away from the stage. They also have a large professional lighting rig to make every show as entertaining as possible. Due to the fact that the acts playing at this venue are bigger and more established, they may bring more of their own equipment like lighting, and a lot more of their own road crew such as sound engineers and lighting technicians who will work with the staff at the venue.

The staff at the National Bowl will include a lot of security and door staff to deal with all of the people attending, sound and lighting technicians, stage assistants, film crew for the big screens and catering staff due to the venue selling food and drink. More staff in general are needed all round to help deal with the higher number of fans, and the bigger stage and sound system requires more assistants that are more professional. The venue doesn’t need to promote its concerts very much because all of the acts that play here are very famous and high profile like Queen, Green Day and the Foo Fighters and will therefore be able to bring a crowd of their own fans to the venue without help from other promoters.

#unit11 #MusicEventManagement