TSE Entertainment is often approached by people who are seeking help with a concert or festival that they are planning to hold. We are happy to help concert or festival promoters because that’s what we do, providing everything from talent booking to full events management.
They are looking for an agency like TSE to take their idea for a concert or festival and turn it into reality. That’s not an outlandish request. TSE has taken a concept for a concert or festival and turned it into a reality for cities and other long-standing organizations or events.
However, far too often we are approached by what I call novice or inexperienced concert or festival promoters or event organizers. They have no experience with organizing a concert or festival. They have a “great” idea for a concert or festival. That idea may stem from their fascination with a particular artist or venue or they have an idea that they could make a lot of money by organizing a festival.
For example, a would-be promoter recently approached TSE to hold an electronic music festival. It seems that he and his family vacationed in a place that he believed would be a great festival venue. Another would-be promoter wanted to organize a concert for his favorite artist in Bank One Arena in Washington, D.C. How hard can that be?
So, they turn to TSE Entertainment to put it together. We go about qualifying them in a way that doesn’t demean their lack of knowledge or experience. We simply explain some of the most important issues with putting on a concert or festival from scratch.
The Three Issues for Any Event Promoter Needs to Understand
- Financial
- Experience and Credibility
- Timelines
Financial Considerations in Putting on a Concert or Festival
The first question we ask them is whether they have a budget in place to hold the event. Their answer usually goes something like this about their budget.
- No, not really. That’s why I’m contacting TSE Entertainment
- Can you tell me what goes into the budget for my event?
- Yes, I want to spend $500,000 on artists with no understanding of the other expenses involved with putting on such an event.
That’s the first clue that screams that you don’t want to do business with this promoter.
The second question is whether they have the financing in place to support their event? Their answers fall into the following categories.
- I’m sure I can get the money once I have the location, dates, and lineup in place.
- How much money do I need?
- I have X dollars, and I will need to raise the rest though sponsorships.
So, here’s what I tell these people in a nice way. You need deep pockets which translates into having funding in place before the real planning takes place for your event. How much do you need? That depends on your budget and whether the event is ticketed or free.
Free Concerts or Festivals
Free concerts or festivals require the organizer to have the full budget plus a contingency margin in place. Fifteen or twenty percent contingency is the most common number we like to see. Most free concerts and festivals are put on by government agencies (election rallies aside) or groups that receive tax revenues, e.g., hotel occupancy taxes, for foster event tourism. Organizers include city offices, parks and recreation departments, or local non-profits. Income for these events is generally limited to vendor/exhibitor and local sponsorship fees.
Since with new events one cannot tell in advance the dollar amount for these fees, so we advise that they not be part of the original budget for the concert of festival. If they do end up as significant, they can be used to add additional experiences to enhance the event.
TSE has worked with many cities to put on concerts and festivals. Aside from bureaucratic decision making, they understand the financing of such events.
Financing Ticketed Events
If you are planning to book a major artist or multiple big-name artists to fill a 17,000-seat arena or bring 50,000 people out to a music festival, then your budget will reflect the big dollars needed. Smaller events require smaller budgets.
Whether the budget is large or small requires that you have financial resources in place to cover most of the expenses before any income is received. I tell would-be organizers that a minimum of sixty to seventy percent of their budget needs to be in the bank and available to fund their event before any income is generated. More is better.
They need to understand that venues, artist agencies, local production companies, and other contractors require a deposit when booking them. Deposits of 50% of the performance fee is standard for booking entertainers, venues and local production. Marketing campaign expenditures will also begin prior to receiving any income for most events as well.
The other issue with would-be concert or festival promoters is that they are naive about the financial risks involved with putting on a concert or festival. They only see profit potential and not the possibility of losing money on their event. New festivals often take years to build their brand and reputation before becoming profitable. That’s another important reason that the promoter or organizer have the financial wherewithal to deal with a loss instead of a profit.
Would-be promoters need to provide evidence of their financial resources to artist agencies, contractors, etc. before they do business with a novice event organizer.
Responses Often Heard from Novice Promoter.
Wait….here it comes. After hearing the above, the response is often.
- Would you consider partnering with me and assuming some of the risk and reward? Otherwise, would TSE consider funding some of the budget? Of course, our answer is a flat NO!
- Can TSE get sponsors to fund the event? We get this question because TSE offers sponsorship development services for qualified entertainment venues and events.
What they ask us is if we can find an underwriter for their event. My answer is that the event must exist, i.e., lineup, date, venue, expected attendance, expected audience data, etc. is known before we get involved with sponsorship development.
I advise them that if they are looking for an underwriter, they need to create a proposal, i.e., a business plan for their event and shop that to potential funders. That business plan would need to contain things like budget, experience, risks, etc.
Which brings me to the second issue I address with them.
Experience Organizing a Concert or Festival
The willingness of an artist’s management and other contractors and vendors to do business with a festival or concert promoter depends on the credibility of the promoter. They will not do business with an entity that has never organized a concert or festival.
To provide that credibility, would-be promoters need to hire a firm with proven experience in putting on concerts and festivals to improve their chances of getting firms to work with them. That firm must have the authority to organize the event in the eyes of agencies and those providing services for the event.
Novice promoters who try on their own to organize an event soon find out that artist agencies won’t deal with them. Venues want to know whether they can organize and sell out an event. Contractors want to know their background.
That’s another reason, would-be concert or festival promoters turn to a agency like TSE Entertainment who has nearly a half century of experience booking artist and providing any of the services required for such events.
Timelines for Organizing a Concert or Festival
Novice concert or festival promoters don’t appreciate the time it takes to organize a major festival or concert. Time is always a critical factor. The time includes
- Planning and Organizing the Event: Major events don’t come together in five or six months. Yet we get approached by someone who already has a date in mind or even a date held by a venue for their proposed big event that is only 4 to 8 months away.
Obviously, the size of the event matters in terms of the lead times necessary to create a first-class event. The bigger the event, the longer it takes to put all the pieces in place. Planning for a major festival can take one to two years.
- Timing Related to Competition: An example of this kind of timing was a recent inquiry from a would-be festival promoter who had a hold for a multi-day festival at a venue in place over the fourth of July holiday. He had no idea how hard it would be to attract major headliners over the fourth of July six months out from his proposed event. The fact that he didn’t have funding either is another matter. We all know the bigger the artist the more time you need to book them. Picking the busiest date of the year to book a major artist on a short timeline doesn’t sound like good planning to me.
Now add the timelines associated with the location of the event. That both includes competitive events taking place in the same area or artist radius clauses which limit their ability to perform either before or after another show in a certain radius. As you can see there are good reasons to advise them of the need for adequate time to plan and book artists for their events.
Conclusion:
When dealing with first time festival or concert organizers that are not credible institutions, I have two refrains.
- Show me the money!
- Show me the contracts! For those who say they have a venue or artist already in the fold.
Actually, I try to be nice when explaining the need to see their financial resources after explaining the issues I described above. After educating them, would-be concert or festival promoters not associated with credible organizations invariably disappear.
Who knows? They may come back sometime with their finances in order. I’m not holding my breath though.
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