Event Review

Deadline Festival, Evaluation

In my opinion this event was good but one that could have been better. There was plenty of really good things going on at the event but some things just let it down. In this evaluation I am going to talk about my own role within the event and my opinion of the whole process. 

The role I was given after filling out a job application form was site marshal, this was great as it was what I originally applied for in the form. This role entailed making sure everything was safe and that everything was as it should be. In preparation to the event I had done a risk assessment and one of my companions Mitch who was also a site marshal had produced some posters highlighting the do’s and dont’s of the venue, this included keeping fire exits clear ect. I carried out my role throughout the day between myself, Andy and Mitch by standing close to exits and making sure there was no one or something blocking them and by making people abide by the rules and regulations of the collage such as trying to stop people smoking where they shouldn’t and people being where there not supposed to be. There was only one major hazard of the whole day really that was the smoke machine setting the fire alarm off which was out of my hands completely and everyone followed collage protocol and went outside to the fire assembly point. I found the job as site marshal quite boring really as there wasn’t that much to de done other than moving people on from places they shouldn’t have been. I am satisfied with the job I did at the end of the day and between myself and Andy in and around the theater I think we did our job well for what had to be done.

Here is a print screen of my risk assessment. Things I would have done differently throughout the event as Site Marshal would be to have more signs telling people before they entered the venue, this would have prevent people being where they shouldn’t have been. If I had planned ahead better these things could have been implemented and the delivery of the methods over the gig could have been a lot better. 

This is a diagram outlining some areas of health and safety to think about when setting up and running a event. 

I am now going to talk about the event its self. The successful part of the event I would say was the time keeping and running order, over the 6 hours that our class had the venue to run we kept to time and finished the event at the specified time of 10.00. What I think could of been better is the management of where the bands would be before they was to go on stage, there was a few times where bands would be in the canteen just before they were supposed to go on stage or one member of the band somewhere else. The way I would have solved this problem is by telling the artists and bands that they should be in the changing rooms to the side of the stage 5 minutes before they where to go on stage and make sure that all bands and artists have a copy of the running order. The outcome of these considerations would result in the artists knowing where to be and what time to be there, this would involve the artist relations officers to have some input into making sure each artist or band had the rite paperwork starting times and places when they turned up.

My analysis of the whole event would be that there was much more planning that needed to be involved with each aspect of the event. For example I have already said that my role of Site Marshal could have been done better with more planning prior to the event. Another aspect was the organization of bands and where they should be like I mentioned above, the major thing for me that I felt could have been done better is the event promotion. My involvement in the promotion side of things was purely down to myself wanting to promote the event as this wasn’t my job role at all. 

Here is a print screen of me promoting the event on Facebook. 

The promotion of this event was very hard to find in my opinion and to make maters worse the event page wasn’t even set up by a student with the role of promotion but that of a external band member. This to me says that the promotions team didn’t do there job properly and as a result of this the event could have been much better. The considerations of if this event was promoted better could have been much more prosperous and have made the day a lot better. If I were have been given the job as promoter I would have given myself an action plan of promotional strategies that could be done. These would include an events page on Facebook, flyers, posters, shout outs on local radio and utilizing the collage system by sending a text to every student member of the collage which I have been told can be done. The result of this would have an impact on the reach of people who would then know about the event and in return maybe attract more attention to the event. 

There was one thing that was a good piece of promotional activity, this was having the event poster streamed to the big TV screen in the atrium throughout the day. I don’t know whether this contributed towards the amount of people at the event or not but it was a good type of promotional activity that was sourced and used to our benefit. Here is a picture of the TV screen and the promotional advert. If I was promoting the gig though I would have tried to have put this on the screen for the week running up to the event and try to generate some interest in the gig. This may or may not have worked but In my opinion would have been worth a try, there are a few hundred people walk through the atrium every day so even if one person a day took some interest in the gig it would be beneficial, as it is not only about the event day it’s self but the run up to the day that counts. 

Running Order for Dans Room, DJ's!

Updated Running Order

23rd Gig Running Order

 

23rd Collage Gig

After sending my application form off for my job role, for the 23rd I have received feedback that I have got the job as (site marshal). This involve what I originally applied for, (health and safety). I am pleased with the outcome of my job application form and am looking forward to the night itself.

 

23rd May Gig Preparation

In preparation to the collage gig we are putting on as a class I have applied to the role as Health and Safety officer. I chose to apply to this role as I have previously done the role of Health and Safety at the Ox jam gig we put on, this means that I have had previous experience In the field and can point out hazards and ways to resolve them.

Here is the list of all jobs that were available for application.

Management:

Chair Person
Director Promotions
Finance Manager

Ticket Admin:

Box Office Man
Finance Artist
Administration

Promotions:

Marketing Finage Officer
Marketing Officer
Marketing Admin
Promotions Team
Press Manager

Relations:

School Liaisons Officer
Public Relations
Artiste Management Lisions
Agent

Event Staff:

Site Manager
Stage Manager
Folt Manager
Health and Safety Officer
Environment Health Officer
Master of Ceremonies
Merchandise Manager

Tech Crew:

FOH Sound Engineer
Monitor Engineer
Stage Tech
Lighting Operations

Evaluation of Revenue

On the revenues side of things for the Mad Ferret gig we did make a loss. This was something that could have been prevented or at least revised so that we got our money back. I lost £25 out of my own pocket, this was to pay our headline band for that nights gig and travel costs. We were relying on some money from the Mad Ferret but in the end this was no to be and we were each left £25 out of pocket. I have to say that we only have ourselves to blame for this happening and have learnt that you should never rely on someone else for you getting your money back without it being set in stone before hand. 

To have prevented making a loss on the night we should have planed to have a fee to enter the gig of around £2.00 as we would have made around £200 as there was around 100 in and out on the night. With hinds sight we should have done this and it would have probably have been a money making gig. This is something that for our next gig we will to  make happen so we at least break even. I understand that if this was a business I was running, this could not happen at any cost as It is commercially un viable to do so. I think that this happened because we didn’t actually have a set person to manage our finances, although we might have said this in our job roles list. This is something that needs to be addressed for our next gig. I have learnt a lot from this gig and how this should and can be done better for the future when I may want to put gigs on, on a regular basis. 

For our next gig we are going to put on we will need to make sure that we break even or make a profit from it. The things I have said above will be put into practice and we will make sure we come out with more or the same money we went into the gig with, to make it a success.  

Mad Ferret, Review

Review of live performance/Review of whole process

As the promoter and organizer of the event I believe that the night was a good achievement and that all the bands were at a good standard for easy listening and something that everyone could appreciate. On the night we had four bands on the bill with “Catfish and the Bottlemen” as our headliners, after a huge struggle trying to find and book the right headline band this is the band we could afford to accommodate and one which was willing to play for us, coming all the way from Wales. In my opinion the band was a grate headliner and put a good show on for the crowd that turned up for them and the support acts. The whole show they put on from the musicality and the sheer vide the front man gave of was positive from start to finish, they were a pleasing band to watch and tried their best to please what I thought was a tough crowd. 

The support band that was on second to last was “Flight of Arrows”, A local band that put a great show on and a band that the local crowd obviously liked, setting them up for the headline act. I thought It was good as unlike some nights I have been to, a good number of the crowd stayed for the headline act and didn’t clear of as is sometimes the case after it get’s past 11:00 and there is the smallest number of people in as there has been all night, but this wasn’t the case and I thought they did a great job of playing and sounded great. 

The band that was on before “Flight of Arrows” was my band “The Escobars”, another Preston based band that I have only just joined in the past few months. Although as a band “The Escobars” hadn’t played a gig in preston for over a year I thought that the new set that we have produced when’t down well with the audience and as the drummer of the band thought we did the best we could for our first gig back from a very long break from the music scene in Preston. The feedback that we have had as a band has been good and we will try to use it to make our sound much more defined and use it for our own good. In my opinion we had a very good slot in the lineup, on second from the start going on before “Flight of Arrows”, the pub was very busy at this point and I feel we had a good reception from our audience. 

This brings me to our opening band of the night “The Smitten Ones” a band based in Southport, these were a great band to open the night up and set a good atmosphere for the rest of the night. In my opinion they were better than I expected them to be after only hearing recordings of them and not seeing them live before so I was pleasantly surprised by them which was a good thing. Although I have previously heard that they was told to cut there set down by the sound man at the Ferret I thought it was good and they played for long enough as It stood. 

Over all I thought that the night was a success, there was plenty of people in the pub, there was a range of good bands on and there was no disruption or trouble from any of our guests that night, although when Satans Slaves walked in during “The Smitten Ones” set I did wonder what was going on for a moment. 

This second page is a review of the whole process leading up the our event and the good point and the bad ones. 

Here is a print screen image of us trying to get a quote or possible booking of the band “Dead Sons”. In the end the band decided that they weren’t touring during the time of our event as couldn’t do the gig so we had to move on trying to book another headliner. 

Here is the next email we sent to a band called “Sound of Guns”, asking if they would be interested in headlining our event, this also turned out to be a no go. 

In the end we got our headline band that was “Catfish and the Bottlemen”, here is an email we sent for the Arc to publish for promotion. 

These are just some of the questions, that Adam put together for the interview in the Arc.

This was the emails sent from Craig Vegas the manager of “Catfish” agreeing a fee for the night. This was our down fall, as we made a loss on the night loosing £25 each. We are still waiting to see wether we will get any money back from the Mad Ferret. Other than that point the lead up to our event was quite stressful at times, trying to book a headliner was the most frustrating bit of the whole project and I am pleased with the band we booked. 

You can see though these screen shots that we put allot of effort into booking headline bands and also the smitten ones. We were keen to put a good gig on with a band that will hopefully please the punters and I feel that we managed to do so. The only regret is not getting our money back, but there is still a possibility of it yet, you can see how we made our loss in our budget forecast. On a whole I think we all played our fair share in putting together a good gig with all our ideas going into each email and conversion that has been evidenced, there was a good team feel about putting this event on and I think we did a good job of it. 

Mad Ferret, Do

What is your own role within the production team and what does this entail?

My roles in the event is Admin and Press. My role as admin is to write up all the notes from all the meetings we have had and collect all the evidence to put into a folder. The role of press is to advertise using sources such as magazine articles and creating press pacs to send to radio stations. It would be my job to right the proposals and articles to send to the magazine or radio stations.

How and why are these roles fulfilled in a live music team?

To fulfill my role as Admin I should be proficient in writing all the notes up each week and submit it to my ongoing folder of work, also to make sure that what is said in my minutes is carried out. My role as press would be carried out by writing a press pack to sell our event to local news papers or magazines.

Critically comment on the importance of the role and what would happen if the role was not tackled professionally.

If my role of press was not fulfilled, it could have a big effect on the possible promotion of the event. There would be more of a chance of the gig being noticed and people coming if it was in a news paper, but if I did not do the job it would not get there and it would be a promotional opportunity lost.

My other roll of Admin is important to fulfill because if I did not write up all the notes and minuet the meetings we would not have any evidence to submit at the end of the assignment and we would forget some of the smaller aspects that we wouldn’t have wrote down if we didn’t have an notes.

Choose another role from within the group and describe what it entails, in addition to how and why this role is fulfilled within a live music team.

Another role is Health & Safety, this role is to weigh up the risks and hazards that the could be in the place of the event and wether you are liable to be sued as a part of someone being hurt during the event. It is important to have a risk assessment so you are coved for any unwanted claim.

How does this role compare with yours and what are the different skills required for each?

The role of Health & Safety compares with my role of Admin in ways of the amount of paperwork and if that paperwork wasn’t done it would be a big deal and they are both extremely important. Different skills that are required are that for Health & Safety you need to use you brain to work out wether something is a hazard and how to make it safe, the role of admin is just writing notes down and copying thing and is only important for evidencing things.

Mad Ferret Gig 2, Plan

• Commercial Considerations  

              Market viability

              Available budget

              Income & Expenditure

Market viability, the viability of the event going ahead is very realistic. We have our venue booked and all the band except the head line band that we are waiting on booking. 

Available budget for the event is flexible for this event, at the moment we do know know how much if any money we will have to put into the event. 

Income and expenditure for the event is yet unknown with not all the bands confirmed with prices if any, and our venue is free. 

• Preparation of venue

              Identify the venue

              Acts booked

              Sound reinforcement and lighting arrangements

The venue we have chosen and booked for our event is “The Mad Ferret”. 

Acts booked for the gig consist of: The Smitten Ones, The Escobars, Flight of Arrows, these are all confirmed bands we are waiting for Sound of Guns to confirm with us. 

Sound reinforcements for the venue are already set up and we have got an in house sound engineer at our chosen venue. The lighting is also is also set up for us already. 

• Organisational Processes & time management

               Schedule of production

               Schedule of rehearsals and meetings

               Production roles

               Marketing and promotion plan & schedule 

Schedule of production: The running order at the moment for our event is The Smitten Ones, The Escobars, Flight of Arrows, Sound of Guns. This running order is probably going to change and the time schedule is not yet confirmed. 

The schedule of meetings is really when ever we get chance to, we usually have two or more a week. Schedule of rehearsals for each band is not known. 

Production roles: Adam: Press, Liaison

                    Max: Finance, Press

                    Dan: Promotion, Health & Safety

These are our main roles and have other ones to do as a group. 

The marketing and promotion side is knot yet known really. We plan to get it promoted on the radio in a local magazine and use flyering and posters as well as a Facebook page to promote the event. This all depend on whether we get our desired head line band, and we cannot do any of this until our line up is confirmed.