What DJs will be on your flyer? Getting this right is paramount for a successful event. We delve deeper in today's article...
Now that you’ve set up your promotion company and secured a venue for one or more nights, the important decision has come – the entertainment. In other words, the DJs and/or live acts you might want at your event.
It’s not just as simple as picking yourself and your buddies to play on the decks. Even if the crowd doesn’t care who the DJ is, the choices made in the entertainment line-up will still make or break any night. It doesn’t matter if it’s a trendy night at a posh lounge, or an underground rave.
Lining up a night
The best practice in lining up an evening is to have a proper opener, a headliner, and a closer. I won’t go deeply into what makes a proper opener, simply because it’s been said and done to death. There’s even an article here that can give you better perspective on when you’re seeking an opener. Regardless, it is highly important to not end up with some amateur playing peak time bangers at 9pm.
The headlining spot is the big one, and in many cases this is reserved for a more “known” act. This is the person many came out to hear, and even if he/she isn’t as talented as your other DJs, this person is basically being paid to bring you a crowd.
When booking a headliner, you should think of this as an investment. How much do you have to invest, and how much return will you get for your investment?
When booking a headliner, you should think of this as an investment. How much do you have to invest, and how much return will you get for your investment?
So will the $5,000 DJ make you a profit in a venue that holds 500 people each hopefully paying $20 to enter? The name of the game is finding someone who is popular, can draw out a crowd, plays music that aligns with your goals for the event, is available, reliable, and who you can afford.
The actual process of booking a headliner can also get tricky if you’re trying to score a bigger name. Often times you’ll be dealing with their management, negotiating price, telling in detail what your event is as well as proving you can bring out a crowd for this headliner, and even dealing with transportation costs and any riders required, like having a specific set-up of gear. An example is they’ll want Pioneer CDJ-2000s and an Allen & Heath mixer when you only have a Vestax VCI-100. Always keep these possible new costs in mind when you’re going after bigger names.
You may have to factor in the cost of hiring a couple of these if you're used to DJing on a digital controller but are booking guest DJs.
More likely than not though, your headliners will really just be the bigger local names around your town. In this case it’ll really just be you emailing them off whatever contact information you have, setting up a deal, and making sure you have the gear he/she will need.
Now I mentioned a closer. It’s a DJ set that more or less does the opposite of an opener. While an opening DJ will gradually bring up the energy, a closer will be slowly winding it down.
Sometimes an event will have the headliner play till closing time with two opening DJs, but a better practice is to have a closing DJ. The biggest reason is as the night progresses, the crowd will get drunk, and sometimes even fights will break out for the most ridiculous of reasons.
Having a DJ wind down the crowd will ensure an orderly end of the night with patrons leaving in a good mood, as opposed to fired up. Plus this is a good opportunity for many up-and-coming DJs to gain more exposure with a packed room already made insane by your headliner.
How many acts?
We’ve all seen it… those events where 20 or 30 DJs were booked in one room for a seven-hour evening! I estimate each DJ getting roughly 15-20 minutes on the decks. It’s a terrible practice that rank amateurs still do. The idea is they hope each DJ will bring out a few people, thus filling their venue. The problem is most of those DJs might not show up with anyone but themselves (or not even show up), and the DJ line-up and music changes so quickly and often that the overall flow of the night is a mess. Not to mention how many times you’ll hear a popular tune played over and over again.
I personally think anything less than an hour is both a waste of the DJ’s time and an amateur move on your part.
The best practice is at least two hours for the headliner, and one hour for each additional DJ. Sometimes a night will be longer, thus you can either give DJs more time, or bring out additional DJs. I personally think anything less than an hour is both a waste of the DJ’s time and an amateur move on your part. Some acts will not need as much time, like a turntablist, because they put on specialised performances. However, a normal DJ playing a set should get at least an hour, and each DJ should be able to work off one another, rather than abruptly stopping the music to start a new set.
If you have multiple rooms, then think bigger. Have the big name headliner in the main room, but perhaps have smaller popular locals headline the other rooms. Try also to diversify the music, so if you’re throwing a rave with three rooms, have one be a chill room with chillout DJs, one be the big room with your main headliner, and then have the third room be different. So if it’s dubstep in the main room you have house or trance in the other.
Why you should occasionally hang up the headphones
We’re all DJs here, and when we think about throwing a night and lining up entertainment, it’s easy to think “me!” when you want to set up your line-up. I’m not saying you should never play your own events, but you should be smart about where you place yourself and think again about your goals. Remember in part one I said you should never throw an event because you want a place to play at?
Hang up the headphones and see the bigger picture - only DJ if it is going to benefit your event.
I’ve seen unknown guys throw their own events and place themselves as the headliner, wondering later why they failed. I have to be blunt, but if promoters aren’t booking you, and no-one knows who you are or is into your sound, then why would they come out if you’re headlining? This is even why many acts do better outside of their hometowns than within.
When throwing your own events, the event has to come first. You’re setting up an entertainment line-up that carries a vibe and a style. If you’re booking a great local dubstep / mashup act, then you playing dark trance might not go with that, even as an opener.
Play when you think it’s appropriate, but step away from the booth when you see yourself as a liability to the night as opposed to a benefit. Believe me, successful events will lead you to getting booked by other promoters, so don’t feel like you’re helping everyone else get famous but yourself.
You can’t always be the “good friend”
As a forewarning, when your colleagues all find out you’re throwing or promoting events, you’ll suddenly have a load of “new friends” instantly show up with CDs in their hands. I’ve had plenty of nights where it felt like it was only DJs with demos showing up.
I can’t blame them, since we did talk about networking in the past, but I will tell you as the promoter now that you can’t always be the “nice guy”, or the “good friend”. You have to always think of the event as a whole, and book the people who will bring professionalism and benefit to your efforts. This means the guy who plays insanely obscure music that chases normal people away just might not be the guy you want playing your event, even if he’s your friend.
Don’t feel like you owe anything to any friends of yours unless they’re helping you.
Now if you want to get avant-garde, then go for it, but don’t feel like you owe anything to any friends of yours unless they’re helping you. If it’s the friend who’s designing your flyers for free, or promoting like crazy for you, or he had the hookup to get you a big headliner at a low price… yes, maybe you pay back the good karma, but the friends who just show up with demos? You have to sometimes say “no”. If they can’t bring you people, then see if they’ll work as an opener, or else just be honest. Don’t jeopardise your efforts to make everyone happy, especially if they only see your event as an open DJ booth and nothing more.
Next week…
It’s showtime! We’re winding up to the event and giving a quick mention of promotion, but diving in deeply into running an event. I’ll tell you of all the factors that literally make event night into a work night, and what you should be doing before, during, and after.
Have you ever had to book DJs for and balance the entertainment across a night? Have you fallen victim to the queues of “friends” wanting a piece of the action? What are your triumphs and nightmares when booking music? Let us know your thoughts and experiences in the comments!
Now go to:
How To Promote Events & Throw Your Own Parties: Part 4
How To Promote Events & Throw Your Own Parties: Part 2
5 Reasons Why DJs Should Make Mash-ups (Not Mixtapes) To Get Bookings
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Tags: dj promotion, promoting events, promotion
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[ link ]Good practical advice, D-Jam.
Sometimes it’s also possible to throw all the standard rules out the window, as I did with my wife and a few other people when we put together our event. We broke all sorts of rules—no big name DJs (just me), early hours (7-10pm), no booze (!), and a wide mix of eclectic and underground music. The event is best described as a rave for grownups who like to dance but either don’t like or have outgrown the club scene. There are a *lot* of us out there.
I was skeptical about the lack of alcohol, but my wife pointed out that a bar scene often detracts from the dancing, giving people a place to loiter and watch others without participating. She wanted the event to be focused on dancing. Instead of booze we serve juices and other drinks, along with healthy snacks.
And it worked! The event keeps on growing and attracting a wider audience via word of mouth. Some people want more pop music, disco hits, and the like, but we’ve stuck to our initial musical vision, and we’ve actually created an audience for music that you simply can’t find in our area, even in clubs (and at the same time we’ve given people who like our kind of music a place to dance to it). My goal as the resident DJ is to allow people to dance ecstatically and get out of their bodies and to leave three hours later soaked in sweat, mentally recharged, and uplifted. It’s a tall order, but deep down that’s what everyone wants out of a night of dancing.
So I encourage people to think in very broad terms when it comes to creating events. Don’t be afraid to break the rules if they conflict with your vision. We broke a lot of the rules and created something new, and it has been increasingly successful. Find an audience, develop an interesting concept, and go for it.
[ link ]I agree. I think it’s totally cool to take big chances and break all the rules.
It’s surprising how much one, especially the musically minded, can do outside of the typical clubs at the typical late hours.
Artistic sounds should be done in artistic settings like you did. Great job and thanks for your feedback.
[ link ]sounds interesting…. where is this happening, Michael M.?
[ link ]That, Michael, is a dream event!
When you sidestep competition by tapping into a neglected crowd or running outside traditional hours, then there’s room for the magic of community/scene building.
Do correct me if I’m wrong (as I’d love to know your secrets!) …
I think for this to work out you need 2 key ingredients:
1. To get it started, you need a considerable group of friends. That is, a naturally formed group of people who hang out enough to follow each other as a group and are genuinely interested in the same thing, or trust one or two leaders of the pack. They’ll be excited about getting to have a party for themselves because they’ll enjoy it themselves (catering to themselves, not preoccupied with bringing in masses of strangers for bodies and cash). For example if a group of friends have come to love one of their buddies’ music and they’re happy to hear him/her on better speakers or outside the home. They’ll also still be content on the off nights that are sure to happen once in a while, later, because they’ll have each other and their tradition to enjoy.
This removes a tremendous amount of pressure. It means there’s no such thing as a flop, and because the energy is positive, people feel confident inviting their friends along, and any visiters will love the vibe. People hate to come when they’re needed. They prefer to feel like they’ve discovered something that already works and will love to be a part of it.
Surely as more people come, they’ll bring in different desires for the night, but as long as you’ve got your little founding group and you’ve catered your event to yourselves, then you’ll be able to stick to your guns and thereby educate/induct guests or consistently attract people who want what you’re offering. Glorious!
2. A cooperative venue. Whether it’s a private spot, an off night, an off hour (where the place is willing to open, yet doesn’t have it’s own large or incompatible crowd), an unlikely venue who’s manager happens to love you or your music, or a place that’ll strike a decent deal with you. By cooperative, I mean it doesn’t have high and (above all URGENT) expectations of you. Places that are giving up alternate business to host you, or that have delusions of this, or who are low on cash flow and desperate for quick cash can be a nightmare.
These sorts of organic nights that build from the ground up need time, time, time, to build and flourish. Ultimately, they can be the most powerful nights of all, but they’ll never get there if after 2 quiet nights the venue owner/manager panics and kicks you out. Finding that venue, which also obviously has to be able to offer decent sound, layout, location is hitting event jackpot! I know in Montreal, every event producer and would-be event producer is on the hunt for such a venue.
PS: I think there’s a budding generation of clubbers (not pubbers!) who now have corporate jobs, families, or just don’t want to have to go out so late. An event that starts shortly after work (time to go home and change, or stay out for a couple drinks) and ends before bed time is clever one, my prediction is that we’ll see a trend of these popping up.
Congrats on being a pioneer!
[ link ]@Michael M. Hughes
What sort of venue did you choose to host your events?
[ link ]Also, thanks for this series, D-Jam!
[ link ]I’m very glad I found this as I have been considering getting back into shows / parties in the new area that I have moved to. Though I have found that there isn’t any scene for it here. Most of the bars and “clubs” are pretty bad and most people who want to dance go to DC or Richmond. Being as this will be my first time promoting and not looking at it from the DJ side there is a lot for me to look at. When contracting with a venue what recommendations do you have as far as %’s are concerned?
[ link ]