Performers talk to each other about clients, and the complaints are remarkably consistent. Almost none of them are about money. They are about a locked venue at the agreed load-in time, a security desk with no name on the list, a sound check cancelled because the room was still being decorated, and nobody answering the phone.
All of it is preventable with a single page written a week early. Here is what goes on it.
One Named Person, Reachable
The most valuable line on the whole document. One person, named, with a phone number that will be answered, who has the authority to make a decision on the day. Not a committee, and not the host — at a wedding the family is unreachable by definition, and at a company event the person who booked the act is usually on stage or hosting.
Give that name and number to the performers when the booking is confirmed, not on the morning. And tell the person that they are it.
Build the Schedule Backwards From the Downbeat
Start at the moment the music has to begin and work back. A realistic sequence for a live act looks like this, and every item needs a clock time rather than an ordering:
- Load-in. The vehicle arrives and the venue is open, with someone there who knows they are coming.
- Setup. Rigging, cabling, patching. Longer than clients expect and shorter than performers fear.
- Sound check. Every input, every monitor, at performance volume.
- Doors. The hard boundary. Sound check finishes before guests arrive, not while they do.
- The set, or the sets, with the break between them.
- Changeover, if a second act follows.
- Load-out, and the time the venue actually needs the room clear.
The most commonly compressed item on this list is the sound check, because it is the last thing before guests arrive and the room is always behind schedule. Compressing it is a false economy — everything it would have caught will now be caught during the performance, in public.
The Access Details Nobody Checks
Unglamorous and responsible for more delayed starts than any technical fault:
- Which entrance, and whether it is the same one guests use.
- Where the vehicle parks, whether it can stay, and what it costs. Someone will be asked to pay it.
- The distance from the vehicle to the stage, and whether there are stairs. A flight of stairs turns a twenty-minute load-in into an hour.
- Whether there is a lift, and whether it fits a double bass, a drum case or a subwoofer.
- Who at the venue holds the keys, and what time they are actually on site — which is often not the time the venue told you.
- Security, and whether the performers' names are on a list. This one costs nothing and is forgotten constantly.
Somewhere to Wait
A green room is a nice phrase for a room with a door. It does not have to be luxurious — a storeroom with chairs and a lock is a completely adequate answer — but there needs to be somewhere for performers to change, leave cases, and not stand in a corridor for three hours in stage clothes.
Add water at the stage position, and a meal if the call runs long. A two-hour performance is routinely a nine-hour day once travel, setup and waiting are counted, and a performer who has not eaten since noon is not going to be at their best at ten at night.
When the Schedule Slips
It will. Ceremonies overrun, speeches double in length, dinner service is late. The question is not whether to plan for it but who decides what gives, and the answer must be settled before the day.
Two rules that make this survivable. Tell the performers as soon as you know — not fifteen minutes before they were due on, when they are already changed and waiting. And decide in advance whether a delay shortens the set or extends the booking, because those have different costs and the middle of the evening is a terrible time to negotiate one. That decision belongs in the booking, alongside everything else that should be in writing before you pay.
The Two Sentences Before They Go On
Somebody should introduce the act. Two sentences — who they are, what they are about to play, and why you chose them — measurably changes how a room receives a performance, and it costs nothing. This matters most for anything an audience has not encountered before: a classical form, a regional tradition, an instrument most guests cannot name.
It matters at company events too, where an unintroduced act competes with the conversation it interrupted.
Payment, and the Last Hour
If a balance is due on the day, decide in advance who is handing it over and when. The end of the night is chaotic and the person with the envelope is frequently the person who has gone home.
Load-out is the forgotten half of the schedule. The venue wants the room cleared, guests are still in it, and the performers are carrying equipment through them. Ten minutes of thought here — a route, a time, and a door that is still unlocked — ends the evening well.
The Page Itself
Times for every item above. One name and number. The venue address with the load-in entrance. Who supplies what equipment. Where to park. Where to wait. Where to eat. Who introduces the act. Who pays, and when.
Send it to the performers at least a week out, in the booking thread so it is attached to the engagement, and ask them to tell you what is missing. Most professionals will reply with the two things you forgot — and if they have sent you a rider, half of the technical section is already written for you. How much sound a room needs covers the rest of the equipment questions, whether you are running a wedding function or a company evening.