Members backtoblue Posted June 5, 2012 Members Share Posted June 5, 2012 My band had a recent experience getting booked at a VIP room at the House Of Blues here in Dallas. Since it was a "member's only room", anyone who wanted to attend had to be on our guest list. Kind of a weird way to do things, but we ended up handing them a list with 245 names on it (much to the door man's chagrin ) and rocked the place. The problem is they made a ton in liquor sales from us, and we got peanuts. That draw got us thinking that maybe we could handle renting a venue and running our own show so we've decided to put on our own NYE celebration. We found a really cool theater that's affordable (security, manned concessions, and sound are all included). I'm thinking of setting us up to sell tickets for it via showclix.com. We're still crunching numbers regarding how much this is gonna cost us and how much to sell tickets for. Just wondering if anyone else here has had experience with completely DIY shows, and if so any words of wisdom or advice? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jimiv Posted June 5, 2012 Members Share Posted June 5, 2012 We did this two NYE's ago. It went well. It was a bit nerve wracking early on as you take a risk of not meeting your overhead. Once that line is crossed everything calms down. We did not do pre-sales, so we couldn't gage it before the night began. As we saw the door numbers go up our anxiety level correspondingly went down. Pre-sales would be the way to go for sure. Market the crap out of it (I think that was where we could have made even more money) and don't get greedy on the per head charge. You want volume at a fair price. Check out what other venues are charging in the area. Arrange a discount at a local hotel for a block rate and have transportation to the hotel available. (This is a big winner; was for us anyway and didn't really cost us anything) Provide a free Champagne pour at midnight for everybody included in the price...one pour per ticket (not as expensive as you would think; the trick is to get everyone poured inside of five or so minutes...not sure it would be doable for your crowd size,...but maybe). Most importantly, insurance, insurance, insurance; check the venue's insurance and regardless you should get insurance to cover your butt anyway...especially for the bouncer if you're not using a reputable security service. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members backtoblue Posted June 6, 2012 Author Members Share Posted June 6, 2012 I didn't even think about insurance! Good idea about the hotel discounts. Thanks for suggestions, jimiv. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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