How to advance a club show

Advancing a club show means agreeing every detail of it in writing before the day, from the fee and the flights to the pickup times, the booth setup and the names at the door. It starts with the signed contract and ends after the show, when the money is in. When it’s done properly, the night itself holds no surprises: the driver already has the flight number and the door already has the names.

This guide follows one show from the contract, about six weeks out, to the money afterwards. A compact checklist is at the end.

What advancing is, and why a DJ show is different

Advancing collects everything both sides agreed, and everything still open, in one place, usually an advance sheet, and gets the promoter to confirm it. In the last week it turns into the day sheet: the show day in time order.

Most advancing advice is written for bands on tour, with load-in times, stage plots and a production manager on each side. A DJ show is smaller and moves faster, and the risk sits somewhere else.

So the advance of a club show is mostly about travel and time. One person has to get from an airport to a hotel to a booth at 01:00 and back, often across a time zone, often with a second show the same weekend. The tech rider is short, but every line of it matters, because there is no soundcheck to find out what’s missing.

The timeline

The weeks below assume a contract signed six weeks before the show. With less time, the order stays the same and the steps move closer together.

Two to three weeks before the show is the usual deadline for a complete advance, because travel can still move then. A week out, changing a flight gets expensive; two days out, it may not be possible at all.

Deal and payment

Start the advance by restating the deal exactly as the contract has it: the fee, the deal type and what the fee includes. On a landed deal the fee covers the artist’s travel, so the artist side books and pays the flights. On a fee plus deal, the promoter pays travel on top. That decides who books what, so it goes first. Deal types explained: landed, fee plus, flat guarantee goes through the variants with numbers.

Then write down who is responsible for each cost and task:

• flights or trains
• hotel
• rides between airport, hotel and venue
• per diems
• visa and work permits
• equipment beyond the house setup
• catering
• local taxes and fees

Each line gets one party: promoter, artist, agency, or not applicable. “TBC” is not a party. A line that still has no owner at the deadline usually means nobody booked it, and the artist finds out at arrivals.

For payment, note the amounts and dates: the deposit (often 50% on signing), the balance and when it’s due, and the promoter’s exact billing details, meaning company name, billing address and VAT ID. The VAT ID decides whether the invoice goes out with reverse charge. If the artist is based abroad, check the withholding tax before the show, not when the balance is paid. Booking artists from abroad in Austria: tax and invoices covers the Austrian side.

Travel and hotel

Whoever books travel needs the artist’s name exactly as in their passport, the home airport or station, the luggage and the preferences: aisle or window, train where it’s as fast. A full record bag is heavier than most cabin allowances and needs a checked bag or a paid allowance; a DJ who plays from USB often travels with hand luggage only.

What usually holds when travel gets booked:

• Land early. On a direct flight, aim to land at least three to four hours before the set; with a connection, more. Under 90 minutes is a problem to solve now; under 60, look for another flight. Know the last flight of the day that would still work, as a fallback.
• Fly home after sleeping. The first flight out after a set that ends at 04:00 is cheap and leaves no sleep. An early-afternoon flight that costs, say, €80 more is usually worth it. If the artist does want the early one, they agree to it before it’s booked.
• Check the routing. If the artist plays somewhere else the night before, the inbound travel starts there, not at home.
• Book the hotel around the set. About 15 minutes from the venue, a quiet room, the booking in the artist’s name, check-in early enough to rest before the show, and a late checkout (13:00 or later) after a late set. With an afternoon flight home, a standard 11:00 checkout means hours in a lobby.

Write every time in the local time of its place. How to write a day sheet in local time explains why and walks through a full example day.

Ground transport

Ground transport for a club show is usually four rides: airport to hotel, hotel to venue, venue to hotel, hotel to airport. For each, the advance needs the pickup time and place, the destination, the driver’s name and mobile number, and the vehicle.

• Plan the airport pickup after the landing plus luggage time: about 30 minutes with hand luggage inside Schengen, 45–60 minutes with checked bags or passport control, in London for example.
• Give the driver the flight number, so a delay moves the pickup instead of leaving someone waiting at the wrong time.
• Name the meeting point: arrivals hall, which exit, a sign with the artist’s name.
• The driver is sober and on duty. The promoter’s friend after a long night is not ground transport.
• Agree a fallback: if nobody is there after 15 minutes, the artist takes a taxi and the promoter pays it back against the receipt.

If a ride the promoter provides still has no driver phone number three days before the show, chase it then. Waiting for the day sheet leaves too little time to fix it.

Schedule and set times

The set time is the start and end of the artist’s set, in local time at the venue, on the day it actually happens. A set at 01:00 after Saturday’s doors happens on Sunday, and that’s how it goes on the sheet: “Sun 01:00–03:00”.

Ask for the whole timetable as well as the artist’s slot: doors, every act before and after, the changeover, and the closing time or curfew. The act before decides what state the floor is in when the artist starts. The act after decides whether a back-to-back is possible or the booth has to be clear on the minute.

Many promoters only fix the timetable one or two weeks before the show. That’s fine if the advance names a window (“between 00:00 and 03:00, at least 90 minutes”) and a date by which the final time comes. Live acts need setup time: 15–30 minutes next to the booth or on the stage while the previous act plays, and a line check before doors if the setup is complex.

At the venue, the artist arrives 30–45 minutes before the set, and the on-site contact meets them at the artist entrance.

Tech

The tech rider goes out with the first advance, in its current version. For a DJ it’s short: the players and their model, the mixer, booth monitors, a stable table, sometimes turntables. For a live act it adds inputs, power, table size and position.

The promoter confirms the rider or writes down what differs, before the day. “Different mixer than on the rider” is a conversation for three weeks out, when the artist can prepare or the promoter can hire the right one. At the booth on the night, nobody can solve it. If the venue has backline the artist doesn’t usually play on, ask the artist whether it works for them.

Check the details that break shows: player firmware and link cables, USB or SD support, a booth monitor the artist can actually hear at the decks, turntables isolated from the bass, and a free power socket for the artist’s own gear.

Hospitality

The hospitality rider covers a green room or at least a safe place for a bag, drinks in the booth, a meal or a buyout, and something to eat after the set. Keep it fair and specific, and agree a meal buyout in euros if the venue has no kitchen. The promoter confirms what they provide, or what differs. A fair hospitality rider: what’s normal, what’s not goes into the details.

Guest list and promo

The guest list is a number of spots, agreed in the advance, and names, sent by a deadline: for example Friday 18:00 for a Saturday show. A +1 uses a spot. Names go on exactly as on the guest’s ID, and the advance says until when the door honours the list.

Promo needs the exact billing: the name as it’s written, with or without “live”, “all night long” or “b2b”. Logos, press photos with their photo credit and a short biography come from the press kit. If there is an announcement embargo, agree the announcement date, and ask to see the flyer before it goes to print. A misspelt name on 2,000 flyers is the one promo mistake nobody can fix later.

Show day

On the day, everyone works from the same day sheet. Two people carry it: the promoter’s day-of contact, who answers the phone from the landing until the artist is back at the hotel, and someone on the artist side who knows the plan.

A normal show day:

1. Morning: check the flight status. If the flight is late, move the pickup; the set time stays.
2. Landing: the artist messages the driver and the day-of contact.
3. Hotel: check-in, rest, dinner.
4. Venue: arrival 30–45 minutes before the set, the day-of contact at the door, a booth check during the changeover.
5. After the set: payment or the door count, if either happens on the night, with a receipt. Then the ride back, and a message that the artist is at the hotel.

Anything that changed since the advance was confirmed goes on the sheet with the old and the new value. A change that only lives in a group chat gets missed by whoever muted the chat.

After the show

The advance ends with the settlement. On a flat fee that’s the balance invoice. On a door deal or a versus deal it’s the night’s numbers: tickets sold, the gross and the agreed costs, confirmed by both sides. Receipts for costs the artist paid, like the taxi when the driver didn’t come, go to whoever was responsible for that cost.

Write down what you learned while it’s fresh: the booth monitor that was too quiet, the hotel that was too far out, the driver who was excellent. Keep the notes with the venue, where whoever advances the next show there will look first.

The checklist

The printable version, with ticks that stay in your browser, is the advance checklist.