Ideas for Organising and Promoting Gigs

~ Please try them! ~

Copyright ©2000 Howard Coleman

I am offering here some ideas that have helped me with the acoustic gigs I organise. To me, success is drawing a decent audience and having good quality musicians, including professionals, happy to come and play for nothing. Your aims and ambitions might be different but I think it would be worth considering the following ideas.

Admission charge and promoting
If you do not charge there is a danger of the gig appearing amateurish and failing to draw an audience of reasonable size. However, if you have several performers or acts it would be an insult to split the takings and pay them "peanuts".  I found the best idea is to collect money for charity at the door - a very reasonable £3 (£1.50 concessions). Oxfam handle all this for me, which is good as people can see that it is genuine.  It has a number of other big advantages too. 

• Oxfam are very helpful in promoting the gigs. They send out press releases to the local newspapers and get the gigs mentioned on local radio stations. I have tried my hand at doing all this myself and can say that Oxfam do it better.  The media can see from the start that it is for charity and that opens doors. 
• People feel good about giving to charity. Audiences get value for money and appreciate musicians giving their time.
• This may sound like self-praising but it is true nevertheless - that charity work is a credit to you.
• Oxfam are ideal as they are well organised. (They also happen to be my favourite charity for reasons given at the bottom of the page.)
• As well as the poverty-stricken being helped directly, Oxfam's image is helped by their association with these gigs so it has a double benefit for Oxfam. Most music lovers in the UK know of Oxfam's involvement with the Glastonbury Festival but might not know that they are keen to increase their association with music.

Why not try them yourself? I contacted their local Campaigns Office through their websites (Oxfam International and Oxfam UK) and they immediately offered volunteer helpers to collect the money and promote the gigs.

No hidden extras
I keep the charity aspect very low-key. After the admission charge there are no collection boxes, raffles or speeches to interrupt the music and no-one feels pressurised to give more.

Good venue
I use the large function room of a pub. It is spacious, plush and warm - better than the frozen skittle alleys sometimes used in the UK by music clubs.  I don't pay anything for the room as the pub is happy to sell more beer etc. 

Good PA
Performers want to feel comfortable. They need to hear themselves and be confident in the quality of the front-of-house sound.  See Acoustic PA Solution.

Atmosphere
At the gigs I organise there is a very wide age range and a liberal attitude to different styles of music and instruments. I introduce the performers to the audience in a light-hearted fashion but keep intoductions to a bare minimum so that no-one appears favoured. Their names are most important.

We all have our own personal favourite charity. Mine is Oxfam because I firmly believe that everyone is equal. We are lucky; others are less fortunate and deserve help. While we moan about our health service not being able to afford the most expensive treatments, countless infants in the third world die of diarrhoea simply due to a lack of clean drinking water. Oxfam are reputable and I trust them to use donations wisely. They are working with poor people to achieve these ten basic human rights: enough to eat, clean water, a livelihood, a home, an education, healthcare, a safe environment, protection from violence, equality of opportunity and a say in their own future.

Comments... Howard<AT SIGN>acousticnotes.org.uk

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Last revised: June 24, 2007.