Most people choose a venue based on how it looks in photos. They then book their entertainment and spend the next couple of months hoping everything will work out. This is the wrong order. The technical requirements of entertainment should drive the search for space and not the other way around.
Get the Technical Rider before you start seeing spaces
Every professional performer worth their salt, whether they’re a band, comic, illusionist or lecturer, has a technical rider. A technical rider is a complete summary of exactly what it takes to showcase his act. Before you head out to see the grounds, you should have this rider in your hands.
Two things to watch out for in particular: power and ceilings. A live band with full lighting equipment may require three-phase power. Most converted historic sites do not have three-phase power, and if the artist’s equipment requires it, it is difficult. Aerial performers need a minimum ceiling height, and if the building’s low beams don’t provide that, it’s tough.
These are not preferences. These are limits.
The same goes for audiovisuals. The more AV of any type (be it sound system, projector, or whatever) is already installed in the building, the less you will pay to bring in outside rent and sales staff. The fewer such items there are in the building, the more you become a de facto general contractor while building a high-tech temporary manufacturing plant inside someone else’s building.
The location sets limits to what entertainment is still possible
City areas are subject to noise ordinances. Many city center venues operate outside the curfew regulations set by their licence, meaning volume levels and closing times are already limited for you. That venue that says you can play until midnight on a piece of paper might have a noise level cap that would make you sound like a piano.
This is especially important when considering character-rich spaces in city locations. Event space hire in Bristolfor example, it shows how a venue can offer both local atmosphere and professional technical infrastructure, but it also shows why it’s worth asking venue managers directly about their live performance noise policy, not just their general licence.
What you can say in any case is that wrestling with the details of allowable away decibels after the contract is signed is cheaper than a lawyer. Don’t be shy. go ahead and ask how loud the band can get on the acoustic stage and when the sound meter starts to take off at night.
Acoustics are not a decoration problem
The sound quality of the room plays an essential role in whether your audience can really enjoy the show you’re spending money on. This is something that people often fail to consider when choosing a venue.
If a room is made of hard surfaces, stone walls, concrete floors, bare ceilings, it produces echoes and reverberation. A decent DJ can handle it. A guest speaker or stand-up comic will be killed by it. The punch that takes 1.2 seconds to bounce off the far wall lands and the audience doesn’t laugh, it cringes.
Choose a space that has soft furnishings, drapes, carpet, or even better, acoustical lining built right into the room. If none of these are going to be available, at least see if the space will allow you to do some temporary hearing therapy. Some will. Many will not.
The floor plan shapes the visitor experience more than the decoration
A poorly laid out beautiful room can make even great entertainment feel flat. The floor plan should create a focal point, and that focal point should remain dominant when the show begins.
The bar and the buffet are the two biggest enemies of artists’ attention. If guests can see a free bar from their seat during the main show, some of them will leave. When viewing venues, naturally stand where the stage will be and look at where the food and drink are placed. If they are in direct line of sight, ask if the service can be paused or if the stations can be repositioned.
The viewpoints from every seat to the stage are also important. Pillars are a real problem. A room that appears symmetrical in a floor plan photo may have structural columns that block the view for a third of the room.
Performer Logistics affects the quality of the performance
Where you let your artists park, how they load their kit, where they hang out before the show and how they let it all inform whether they walk through the door calm and ready to perform or stressed and late.
Loading input is something different than visitor input really helps too. Everything goes to keep the magic alive. If the guests arrive for the magic show and the first thing they see is the magician pulling a bunch of rabbits out of a delivery truck, the magic won’t last long in that room.
The same goes for one green room. Artists need a private space to change, warm up and be in a good place. If the performers are expected to change in the restrooms while the bar food order is shouted over the venue manager, that’s probably not a great environment.
Check if the venue has public liability insurance that covers outside entertainers and make sure your act is theirs. It’s rare that this is a problem until it’s a big problem, but it’s a really big problem.
The Room Serves the Show
A visually stunning venue that cannot support your entertainment is not a good venue for your event, it is an expensive venue. When lighting blows a fuse halfway through the front page, no one remembers the exposed brickwork. They remember the silence. First choose the room that makes performance possible. Aesthetics can follow.
