me and a few friends are looking to put between 10 and 15 artists (be they musical, poetic, or theatrical) on in an evening spot sometime either this summer or autumn

Looking at venues it seems the blind centre or the merlin theatre seem good places - I believe the prices are
blind centre - £150 / evening
merlin theatre - £160/evening
Firstly - does anyone know the capacity of these venues?

Secondly - We will need PA hire - we have sketchy knowledge on size / quality - so any help with that would be well recieved -

Thirdly - promotion

I assume flyers are a good start - so printing companies would be great to know about - along with price/reliability

And if anybody can give me a bit of info about "raffling" alcohol - and the legalities?

And last, but not least - if anybody is or knows any performers who would be interested in playing a 10 to 20 minute slot and is between the ages of 16 and 19 contact me either by posting here with details, PMing me, or emailing me at a.j.w.sheffo [at] gmail [dot] com - with details on your age, act, etc. (we could arrange a demo to listen to or whatever,) -

this may be asking a lot, but I have faith in you sheffield forumers!

Cheers a lot
alasdair

Blind centre is about 200, sat round tables. You could probably squeeze more in if people were just sat in rows but dunno what it's got license for. Cheap and cheerful, good venue if you want a dj after and a bit o' dancing. Does need a bit of decor to give it atmosphere

Merlin can take about 400 people (going by a rough count of seats!) and is a good upmarket venue. Might get a bit school performanceish tho'.

Are you thinking of doing this as a fundraiser for charity? You'd be more likely to get hold of stuff like p/a's cheap. And given you should raise a bit I'd think it'd be a good fundraiser anyways.

There was a thread about cheap printing, as I'm still a newb I can't link to it :mad: but I recommend Juma anyways - 0114-272 0915 - cos they is good and cheap and friendly.


And you can give away what you want with raffles, well I hope you can anyways:D

if it was for a charity it'd be nice for it to be a good local one.


I'm not really sure what sort of direction it would take - nor how much it would charge.


10 artists doing 15 minute slots with an allowance of 5 minutes inbetwen would equate to about 3 hours, with a break somewhere, 3 and a half hours

does that sound realistic or is my head planted firmly in the clouds here?

Originally posted by Carl_Malibu
if it was for a charity it'd be nice for it to be a good local one.
Plenty of them, there was talk on the forum of doing something for the local samaritans. Generally I think it's best to give to a small charity as the money goes furthest. I would recommed Heeley City Farm cos it's a lovely place and Sheffield Assist as they can't get funding any other way.

I'm not really sure what sort of direction it would take - nor how much it would charge.
Something like a variety show would be popular, £10 a head would make money and be reasonable, would need good publicity tho'.

10 artists doing 15 minute slots with an allowance of 5 minutes inbetwen would equate to about 3 hours, with a break somewhere, 3 and a half hours
That's a lot of changes! Depends on the acts but bear in mind any decent band will need a soundcheck and set up. 15 minutes would be pretty long for a comedian, but not very long for a singer. And a band takes a while to set up. You'd want someone with experience to handle the stage with this many different things going on.

does that sound realistic or is my head planted firmly in the clouds here?
Well everything is realistic if you get enough people involved, that being the hardest trick...