Some people think that when we book a show, we call an entertainer, they show up and play and we pay them and they leave… Oh, if it were that simple!!
The process for booking a show can take a month or two or more than a year to complete! It starts out by us contacting a performer/or them contacting us. We then negotiate a price for the performance, which can be a pain-staking process as we work to get the best price, that way we can offer you the best ticket prices. Once we agree to a price, we must negotiate the rider (a rider is what the performer expects in addition to the payment like hotel, hospitality, amenities, etc). A rider can be between 5 to 25 pages! We’ll go into more detail specifically for contracts and riders in a separate article. Then we must be able to find a show date that works for both of us…this can be anywhere from 6 months out to more than a year away. After all this has been completed and only then, we start promotions of the show…again, this will be a separate article as it is really involved.
After contract/rider negotiations are complete, we find a date for the show, we promote the show and finally we can start preparing for the show. Depending on how big or complex the show is, prep for the show can begin a month to several months ahead of the show. Prep work includes deposit check to book the show and paperwork, hotel accommodations, hospitality, website updates, ticketing, show development, travel accommodations and parking, performer arrival, unloading, set-up and sound check and final payment for the performance.
And finally…we get to have a show!!
The process of booking a show is time consuming, thought provoking, anxiety driven and exhilarating. When we see the excitement on patron’s faces when they watch a performance and get to meet and take photos with the performers there truly is a sense of accomplishment. We take great pride and work really hard to provide the very best entertainers for the Park Theater and we hope some of that is noticed!