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Raves - How to Organize a Rave
BEGINNERS GUIDE TO PARTY ORGANIZATION |
Okay, you either can't get dj gigs because nobody gives you a change or you just want
to setup your own party because you think that way you can make much more money (which is
usually the case). Oooh, here comes my first rule in party organization: The more the
event is based on earning money, the less you care about the scene and usually the worse
you party gets. More about that in the last chapters of this doc. |
MONEY |
This is the first topic, because there's a big misunderstanding about the amount of money
you will have to invest in party organization. If you handle all things like we did with
the first three parties then you don't have to invest anything at all or at least a very
small amount of money.
Like say, only the money to copy the flyers on a normal copying machine. |
LOCATION |
Like with deejaying keep your first events small and gradually work towards bigger goals
if you by then still feel the urge to do so that is. Say for a start a farmers
stables or a small pub with a little room in the back which is normally used for
live music and bands.
If you find a nice location which already did some dance music or other stuff with
sound systems and all that, then the location owner probably got a special settlement with
his standard equipment rental. Either he pays less then what are the normal prices, or he
pays after the event is done with.
If he pays less then what is usual at the rental agency, and he is bragging about it to
you, then try to get him to pay the rental agency at beforehand because its such a small
amount of money .
In exchange for the rental agency investment he'll just get more of the pie when the party
is dealt with.
But watch it, this is always a little difficult point. Some owners of little live act
halls in the back of pubs or other places might even say they just want the money of the
drinks in exchange for the money they pay to the agency. Never speak to soon, and always
act like you are unsatisfied when you are in
negotiations. Only run along with the guy when he gets the idea you guys aren't
professional enough to do a party at his place. Then is the time to give the guy a
little smile. This technique is called the POKERFACE, hehehe. It can either
make you or break you in negotiations, when these are quite important if you want to
make a little money for the next parties you wanna give.
If the owner of the location says he got no regular rental agency then you could either
drop the place from the list, or try to get the rental agency interested in your skills
and let they invest their own equipment in return for money. That way you can do any
location at all and you don't have to
worry about that anymore. On the other hand, most agencies only do this kind of
arrangements when you already did some successful parties using their rented equipment.
There are also places that just play ask money to rent one of their rooms or halls for a
party. I personally think this isn't a good idea when you are just starting to organize
parties, by the way usually the rent price is way too high to invest in the party
anyway. And sometimes there isn't any serving of drinks by the owner, so that you will
have to come up with somebody who got a license for this too. A way to over come
this problem is to buy cans of beverage and beer at wholesale prices using somebody's
chamber of commerce registration, and then just selling these on the party. But still,
this could get you quite a mess. So I don't think its not a good idea to pay for a
location at all, unless you are an experienced organizer of parties.
So what do we have now??? A location that is totally free, and a sound rental that doesn't
cost you any money.
Oooh, a last thing about the location: Remember that if your doing innercity stuff or a
club with neighbors sleeping next to it, that the place either should be isolated enough
to hold back the volume off sound or you should place somebody at the door to look
for the police and tells you to turn down
the volume a little bit till the police have left again either via some intercom system or
via a walkie talkie, hehehe. You can also just ignore the police, but then they will
probably talk the owner of the location into canceling the event or say that he will loose
his license. But if your living in those parts of the world, don't even think about doing
parties in the first place. If there are still problems with the sound level after the
party then you will probably never do a party there anymore, but what the hell. It was
fun. |
POWER SUPPLY |
If you got the sound rental to invest in your parties and you wanna give an illegal party
in a basement, under a bridge or in an old bunker. Then you need an aggregate to get you
the power for the amplifiers and possible hot-air machines. These are pretty cheap
to rent, but are quite noisy and unmovable without a large truck. I personally think if
you got ideas like this you can better wait till your more experienced in organization,
cause these can of events are really top pieces of organization. Mostly because you got
extra problems and the police might cancel your party after all. In some countries you
might even get sued for doing illegal parties.
Just select a place with a steady power source to attach the rented equipment on. |
FLYERS |
Full color flyers and posters are the best advertising method, because it will make you
spot look like its done by absolute pro's. But full color flyers are expensive, and so a
good alternative is to just xerox some flyers and posters. Unless you got access to
a cheap pressing agency of course, or you could also just press black and white posters
with one extra color, which can also get you a quite professional result.
But still, investing isn't a good idea, remember...
Just let somebody design a nice easy to read and eye catching layout on his computer or do
it yourself. Then print the result on an A4, laser printer a few times, and xerox the
original to either A3 or two A3's connected by normal tape. Of course for two A3's you need
two A4's from the laser printer to get
the layout, and it can be quite a pain in the ass to get the layout so that its exactly
connected to each other with out having to cut stuff off... Just be a little inventive.
The normal flyers can either be a different layout xeroxed on two sided A5 or the
same design. But do keep in mind that what works on posters is large images and
little text, the same for flyers but then you sure will have to
do a two sided A5, because you will have to put more info on.
Like I personally think that putting on unknown dj's in huge sized fonts on a poster
is worthless. But on a flyer it might be nice to have some names on there. Also don't
forget to put equipment information on either both the posters and the flyers or on the
flyers only. Some people just need a huge amount of kilowatts of sound to check a
place out.
When you are choosing an image to put on your posters and flyers, make sure its either
from an uncopyrighted library of image or design the images yourself. Look, you can also
put copyrighted material on, but if you wanna keep on using the same image forever then
you might get legal court going for your ass. Or you might end up having to pay for the
image. Pay the original artist that is. By the way its much cooler to do your own images
and logos on the flyers.
And about the black and white xerox: if you think people won't come to your party because
of it, then your wrong. People just want to have excellent music and deejays, and don't
care about the way your flyer looks, unless you are gonna do you stuff in an old 10-16
aged club house for kids or something.
But usually xerox is the underground way to get more money into the sound itself and less
money into the advertising. Look at it like this, you can even do no
advertising at all and still get a full club, either because of regular customers or
because of people spreading around wild rumors about the party. |
EQUIPMENT RENTAL |
If you got the rental agency to invest in your places then its quite easy, most of
the times the rental agency will even put more equipment in for free because they want a
large amount of people on the party too. And don't forget to mention them on the flyer and
say that you mention the equipment on there too, so you need to know what's gonna be there
at beforehand.
If you got the location owner to invest money in the sound system, then you should make it
clear to him that good sound is the most important thing to worry about and so you don't
wanna cut back on that. Ask him what P.A. system he normally uses and how many watts of
sound that is, then try to explain you need twice that amount, hehehe.
No really, if you play one P.A. system to the max. and the sound is average to good, then
putting twice the amount of watts in and not using it well get you an even better sound.
Mostly because some live acts are just distorting their equipment to get a good volume.
Also remember that having 4 boxes in 4 corners is better then 2 pointing to the
dancefloor. 4 boxes will get you a fuller sound even though you might not even use all
power available.
Read more about monitor speakers and the rest of your soundsystem:
- Make sure your turntable setup is rumble free.
- Make sure your monitors match the amount of reverb or reflection coming from the
dancefloor.
- Make sure the stage your playing on is free of unwanted people walking around.
About light fx:
I personally think a few stroboscopes and one or two smoke machines can do a nice
underground kind of gig. But all other extra's are wanted, unless the colored lighting is
coming way over the stroboscope and smoke effect and burn the eyes of the visitors.
Roboscans and Tigerscans are cool equipment for somewhat larger events, they
usually don't work that good on smaller events because they need a high ceiling to move
around their light at the location. And another don't is: "lasers". Look for
under a certain huge amount of money you won't get a nice laser setup, just a beam or two.
And what good is one or two beams in a small party spot? If you really like lasers that
much, you can best point one laser at an old Saturday Night Fever disco ball which got a
motor to spin it in it. This will
get you a nice star like effect, and will only work when the strobes are off, because
laser needs a lot of darkness to really get through.
Some ideas for special events are: bubble machine, soap machine, mist machine.
I say for special events cause these things usually work best in pool parties, because they
can quite mess up a wooden floor or can cost you quite some money to let it clean out by
some cleaning agency.
Bubble machine: This is a nice machine which is one of the cleaner ones listed it doesn't
really mess up your location because the bubbles just drift into the air. But on the other
hand it doesn't have too much effect at larger locations.
Soap machine or cream machine: This is the kind of stuff the Rolling Stones used in one of
their video clips. Like in the video clip this stuff is best kept in some kind of inflated
plastic environment or in a swimming pool. You can cover your crowd with cream like stuff
and get them a hell of a time, but remember there are some downsides to it. For example the amount of injuries as a result of
the slippery floor and bad visibility of the crowd. Never the less I'm still
looking forward to doing a party with a giant cream machine.
Mist machine: This is what I call it at least, but in fact, it is nitrogen or something and
when it comes in contact with hot water it will get you the same smoke as a smoke machine,
but the difference is that it stays down on the floor. It doesn't fly off in the air like
normal smoke, no it stays down on the floor making the crowd lost in smoke till their wastes.
We already had a party spot for a good mist effect, but guess it didn't work out. Like the
idea was to let the mist drift down from the dj who was four meters above the dancefloor
in a special room. This way the smoke would really drift down on the floor, unlike normal
smoke that would just drift off
in the air at the height of four meters, which doesn't give a very nice effect. |
SECURITY |
If you're doing a small party then you will probably only need one or two bouncers. But make
sure they can handle the amount of visitors and make sure they aren't contracted by you.
Because some of them have a tendency to crush bones when people are being unpolite, and if
you contracted them, then you
might have to appear in court too. So try to keep the bouncers under contract of the
location owner, that way you are sure you don't have anything to do with it.
If your doing locations which aren't owned in ways that clubs are then you might have to
hire some security yourself. Then hire people from a decent agency and don't go for the
ex-convicts or Kung Fu hobbyists, this might save you some glass work, maybe some windows
and a lawsuit.
money security:
If you are doing your party at a regular spot, also make sure you got a guy near the door
to count the visitors or to count the visitors and collect the money from them. This is
because some location owners might cheat on you at the point of how many visitors have
paid. So its always wise to have a guy at least counting the visitors. If you care about
the money at all that is.
If you are hiring an decent security service anyway, then you could also place one of them
at the places where people enter the dance floor and count the number of people there, but
of course you can never be sure about it then.
A more indecent service is needed if your sure the location owner is cheating you out of
money.
Then the day after the part it might be time to contact an exconvict incasso
agency, who will get the money off the owner at no time. But this is all stuff to
worry about afterwards, maybe if the owner makes a little joke about him not paying you
your part, then maybe you can tell him you will get some guys to get it from him. If he's
an exconvict with a nice location, then you can move to another city,
he can't.
Drugs Security:
Allow no hard drugs on your part if you wanna do it all legal. You can tell the bouncer to
search anyone, place metal detectors or they can use handheld detectors whatever.
Usually it isn't necessary to really control or search for drugs amongst the
visitors only if you are doing big time events, but if you see somebody dealing what he
calls is XTC then tell the bouncer or owner to kick him out.
In some countries you might be held responsible for people having bad trips and all that,
so try to keep as much on the owners name as possible also for tax reasons.
If your doing somewhat bigger legal events then you should at least have an XTC testing
spot if possible in your country, and a good amount of security against it. Some counties
will even require from you that you have the right amount of licenses to give raves and
will judge the event on its security plan. But this is all only worth worrying about if
you are doing bigger stuff.
Door Security:
Try to get as much people through the door as fast as possible because outside is where it
all happens. Some large raves have a single width door for people to go through and have
themselves searched. This can result in large waiting rows of people and can make your
event a nightmare. |
PARKING SECURITY |
Again this is for bigger events. The main reason why I come with this topic is that some
raves have little or no control over what happens outside the rave. Placing security to
check for car thieves, car audio thieves, drug dealers, muggers and other low lifes is an
absolute minimum. Because most large events I've been to had little or no security on the
parking lot. Guess they thought the police
would keep it save to walk there, but you can forget that if the event lasts all night.
Even with smaller events like in a back room of a pub its easy to keep the
people outside in control too, because again in some countries you are responsible
for everything that happens. Gee, Holland is a nice place for doing parties cause we
aren't responsible for anything! |
REGULAR CLUB GIGS |
If your doing regular gigs at some club or something, try to make every evening a special
one. Using decorations, other music styles, other chillout room decorations, dresscodes or
whatever.
But don't let the club you play in turn into a regular disco joint. Unlike most
normal events you can organize yourself clubs do tend to go into the direction of boring
stuff from now and then. But then again spinning every evening will get you that wanted
routine in your mix. And its way easier
to get a good mix in a small club then on a large event. |
ENTRY FEE (Cover Charge) |
When you go to a real commercial rave, you will find that the entry fee is way higher then
normal parties. This is mostly because of the organization wanting to make big bucks and
the high expenses that come with the number of people working to make the event
happen. The nice big full color flyer that you got at beforehand is paid by you at entry.
In fact everything the organization offers you is paid by you, so in fact you got a right
to complain about anything that didn't work out. Thats why I wanna give a shout to
ID&T here, and say: PLEAZ GUYS, GO MAKE MONEY IN SOME OTHER BUSINESS.
Parties should be about the love for the scene and about you loving to do it, not about
money, although of course you need money to broaden your horizons and make a living, but
some of the best parties ever are non-commercial parties which don't make like millions.
Besides, some of the huge raves might give a wrong impression in the media about what
raving is really about.
Its not about re-doing Woodstock, its about dancing with your coat on in a chilly basement
getting high off the strobe lights. At least it is for me. Try to keep
your entry fee as accessible as possible, do try to earn a few bucks to setup bigger
events if you feel the urge, but never trade money for
music. |
ORIGINALITY |
These are some of my ideas for future party organization. Like most ideas I didn't get to
realize them yet, but maybe on some future event as I plan to stick around for quite some
time.
A large dj video screen:
Like the idea was to do the mixing in some kind of dressing room in a let say average
sized hall. Put two or three cameraman on the job and a steady camera set on the dj which
is spinning and at djs chilling out in the background.
By just projecting this image on a huge wall. The maximum that our regular rental agency
can deliver is 6 meters by 6 meters of video. Then put to other screens on the side
of the main screen with video of the crowd mixed with animations and you got quite a show.
The advantage of mixing in a separate dressing room is that you get no feedback or rumble
from the dancefloor speakers at all and you can still check the crowd by watching the
monitors which are near the turntables.
It also seemed a really relaxed way of doing your mix, just like you are doing at home,
plus the stage would be free for professional dancers and visitors who like to show off.
The headset idea:
An even crazier idea was to get an event sponsored by sony or something and get them to
distribute a large amount of wireless headsets to all visitors. Of course the
problem was to keep the headsets working and control the crowd so that the headsets are
returned when they leave.
The nice extra to the headset idea was that it would give you a kind of virtual reality
idea without having to distribute VR helmets which are way to expensive anyway.
The other idea to it was that if you would do multiple separate rooms with different music
you would have no interference in the music at all. Since in fact all rooms would be quite
without a headset on.
It would also be nice to see everybody dancing when you put off your headset and there is
no music at all in the hall itself. G, I still like this idea but its kind of hard to get
it together so that it will work.
The live techno music idea:
This idea was even crazier. The idea was to get say ten different dance music producers
together and have em on a big stage. Everybody would be working on the tune right away
using all sequencers. Then by directing the musicians via extra headsets it would be
possible to mix some of the sequenced
midi loops onto the dancefloor. And while these are running other material could be loaded
into other musicians equipment which aren't on the dance floor speakers at that moment.
Then one by one extra loops of melodies and extra beats could be added by somebody at the
main mixer controlling what music loops are on.
The idea was to create all music on the event in realtime, so only a few prepared loops
and melodies to start with. Then by signaling the main mix controller a certain dj could
add either a prepared loop or a little riff he wants to do on his keyboard which is based
on the melody on the dancefloor speakers. Then this melody could be mixed live onto the
dancefloor speakers and be removed at some other time.
Even the tempo going up would be easy to direct via the headsets of the musicians. If they
already had some new loops finished then all they would have to do is increase the tempo
to the tempo of the music which is on.
This idea could really workout, but I guess we aren't the kind of organization to do this
kind of stuff. Since it would really ask some a huge amount of organization during the
event itself.
Plus the possibility could arise that all musicians are to slow at writing small loops and
turn each part of the music into 15 minute long loops of 4 bars, which isn't nice to
listen to.
But if all musicians could keep up with the track getting boring then the main mixer
controller could get quite an original mix of songs. We would just have to let a DAT
recorder run through the main mixer and we would have an cd compilation of some of the
best dance musicians doing tracks they never did
before.
If any artistic person or organization wants to setup an event like this send me tickets
to come over and see it. Cause I think it could work, when you put say half a year of
organization in it. |
MAKING MONEY !!! |
- Spread full color flyers and posters
- Say on the flyer you got a huge crowd life act, but then say on the end of the evening
they cancelled the gig or don't even bother to mention it.
- Do the same with big time deejays, put cheap ones instead. Preferably good deejays that
do their first set of gigs for free.
- Use as less money as possible on the sound system and light equipment
- Make the entry fee as high as possible without scaring people away.
- Either use no security or hire only the security you need to keep clear the stage, when
the crowd is getting angry. Preferably get some security guys with high voltage tazers.
(I'm not sure I got this right, but its something like a cattle stick using high voltage,
and illegal in most countries, but useful if the crowd goes insane, because you sold
them the worst party of their life.
- Try to get the drinks as expensive as possible
- Use a really cheap location which doesn't have a bad name YET.
- Keep the time the event lasts as low as possible so you don't need that much free deejays
and free lifeacts.
- Get the thing with the money sorted out in some contract, cause the location owner,
might get money crazy and get you a bad deal after all.
If you play all this right you could either split before the end of the party or stay till
the end and then give all the deejays and lifeacts a little bonus so that they will play
for you next time. But of course in another town. Probably you will end up with a lot
of money in your pocket and don't worry about your organizations name, just change it
everytime you do another gig. I've been to some parties which indeed looked a little like
what I've said here, to those who gave parties like that, I would like to make a little
remark:
GET THE HELL OUT OF THE DANCE SCENE AND START A CHEAP STRIPCLUB, or commit suicide
and leave your money to people who care about the music itself.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
THIS DOCUMENT WAS WRITTEN ON THE 18TH OF JANUARY 1996 BY THE AMP ERROR. THIS ORIGINAL FILE CAME FROM THE DUTCH JUNGLISTIC HQ. HTTP://WWW.DIGIFACE.NL/~AMP
ITS A BEGINNERS GUIDE, SO DON'T EXPECT TOO MUCH IN DEPTH INFO, BUT YOU'LL NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU MIGHT FIND!!!
http://www.digiface.nl/~amp
amp@digiface.nl
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