Organize your parties – A simple guide
Welcome into the article Organize your parties – A simple Guide. This post concerns all the DJs who wish to organize parties but never took action because of a lack of opportunity, fear, or imposter syndrome. I wrote it after organizing 10+ independent house and techno events on my campus in a Swedish city when I was studying for my Master’s.
I didn’t speak the language, we didn’t really have money, and I had weak DJ skills.
However, we managed to find an opportunity, we caught it, and we figured out it was not as complicated as we thought.
This is why I am sharing it with you right now. We have made a bigger course on it. And also, we have a dedicated Reddit. You won’t have excuses now.
1) Ask people around you
Ask your friends or connections…
…if they want to organize events too. It’s a funny activity, you can eventually start earning money and it makes you a cool/active person.
The first and easiest step to do is to ask among your friends and/or to post a story on social media. “Who would start an organization for making parties” and you would be impressed by the number of people ready to do something.
If your close friends are not really up for that, start asking people around you that can be interested. Maybe at your school, work, university and so on. As this is work as well a passion, you don’t have to be friends with the people you’re organizing something.
Keep in mind that you should at least have compatible tastes for music. Once you have found people, you can start motivating each other.
2) Connect with local artists and local party people.
In this article Organize your parties – A simple guide, we advise to start connecting with local party people to localize opportunities. Send messages to see if you can connect or help them to organize events. If you are ready to work for free to get experience, you will start meeting people. Then, you will make connections and see opportunities everywhere.
Once you start frequenting those people, you will be in the world of party organizing. There, you will understand how everything works. More opportunities will pop up. The people you frequented might even help you organize other things.
DJs and promoters often have tons of ideas and tasks to do. If you help them to accomplish them, they might welcome you. Be careful, do not transform yourself into a slave. If you don’t find your pleasure in helping people, don’t. This is not the point.
The point is to get the contacts for artists, places, experiences, and anything worth taking.
3) Create a “fictive” proper concept
Start ideating a concept or party you want to create. Write it on a piece of paper. Show this to your friends to see if it makes sense and if people would come. Then, find a name generate some beautiful aesthetics. You can create a logo, fonts, colors, and most importantly, a poster.
Finally, create your social media accounts that are useful, the ones where you can spread the word to the people you desire to invite.
You don’t need to be perfect. You need to exist, be understandable, be found, and be accessible. People need to project themselves into your event. Even if it’s not the reality yet.
Here, getting likes is not the goal. The goal is to show people that your thoughts start taking place.
To make it more professional, do not hesitate to generate your visuals with the help of Photoshop or Gimp tutorials. Or find free templates, you’ll find plenty.
4) Find a place to throw your party and negotiate a percentage
There are plenty of restaurants or bars that have sound systems but have a hard time attracting customers. They are craving to make money. Then, organizing an event is a perfect way to do so.
If you know enough artists to perform, If you know how to spread the word to attract enough people then they might be interested in you. (and with social media it can be really easy)
The goal here is to organize an event and take a fee out of it. This fee can be the entrance ticket or a percentage of all the sales during the night.
Why is that better than a simple gig? Because of the purpose, you will create. The hype will be bigger, people will come for the atmosphere you will create and this is where you can do something bigger than the bar/restaurant owner.
Take your concept with you and visit the clubs, bars, and restaurants. Ask them if you can work together. If they reject you, this is normal. Just don’t forget that you need only one “Yes” to organize your first party.
Be smart on the location you’re choosing, not too chic, not too far from people, something that makes sense.
Understand also which kind of place you’re dealing with. Sometimes, they already have people organizing events, and they don’t think you bring that much value.
Sometimes, they regret their ancient time and would love someone to reactivate their old soul. In any case, you need to understand why they want to do business with you. It will let you know how big of a fee you can take.
You’re half way in the article Organize your parties – A simple guide.
5) Manage people and artists
Many local artists and people would love to promote their local scene, which means that you might find people interested in working with you…
…for artists, ask for their mixes and their style. Then, you will be able to understand the type of music they are playing. Depending on their energy, you will determine when they will play.
Understand which kind of energy they can bring depending on the place’s frequency.
Place the less skilled when people are not here and the most experienced when people are here, even if YOU are the least skilled.
For the people working with you, you will have to split the tasks. The best way to do so is to plan AHEAD.
If you’re leading, you will be the one organizing shifts and work. As you’re working with people, don’t forget that they might be late or lazy doing stuff. Prepare in advance and make them have an easy time while accomplishing it.
Understand why people are doing what they are doing. It will help you understand why they act the way they behave.
Someone who wants to become the next David Guetta might tell you the day before he won’t come if he finds a better gig.
Someone who wants to improve the local scene might help your competitors without seeing any problem.
If you understand that, you will avoid problems in the future.
PS: Bring AT LEAST food and drinks to your crew and DJs. It doesn’t have to be fancy, it just needs to show that you have considered.
6) Market your party
To make your event credible, you will need to make several pieces of advertisement. This is what we advise in the article Organize your parties – A simple guide.
You already created a poster, which is good, but come on, you can do better.
Tell your story, make a video, a copy in addition and show people that it’s real. That your event will happen and that they should be hyped for that. It’s their blood boiling before entering the club that will make the difference.
Create a Facebook event and repost it in every group you can (the groups where people who are susceptible to come are part of).
Ask your friends to share the event. The merrier, the better. And mostly, it will make your event more credible.
Pay some Facebook ads as it’s very effective.
Post on Reddit or any social media that can convert people.
Sometimes, people are craving for the type of party that you will organize. They might just don’t know that someone is playing around them. So you’re actually helping more than anything else.
7) Prepare everything
Normally, working with a bar or a restaurant will avoid all the regulations, all the permits, and so on. You won’t need to think of everything. But still, you should always ask for:
Fire = Normally, the owner has it covered if it’s a legal place. (And this is why it’s easier to choose a bar or a restaurant)
Security = Often, the owner pays someone when they have events. Ask in case.
The noise disturbance = Try to avoid cops coming in the middle of the party to shut down everything. Ask the owner.
Handle cash= Find ways to handle cash and be paid surely. Be able to give recipes too. Find a way to have a simple accounting. Depending on your country, you might not need to start something, but it’s better if you keep track of the future.
The wardrobe= Find someone YOU TRUST for the wardrobe. Ask the owner also. He might already work with people.
Understand the sound system of the place. Be ready for any problem and see if your DJs can plug themselves. Come several times the week before your event to be sure that everything is smooth.
Organize meetings with your crew to be on point = It helps people to structure and speak out on the project. The more you let people show implications, the happier they will be.
Come before and stay after the party. Help to organize the room. You will gain credibility. Be careful, do not do someone else’s work.
Be easy to find. Nothing is more frustrating than not finding a party.
PS: here, if you have any other suggestions, I am down for getting them as we are never too careful.
8) Throw your party, enjoy and repeat
I applied this strategy when I was studying in Sweden. I started organizing parties from scratch in a country where I couldn’t even pronounce the alphabet. I also didn’t have good DJ skills by the time. I made lots of connections, got crazy memories with a lot of friends, and found my future wife. If it worked for me, it should work for you too.
I hope that you liked this article Organize your parties – A simple guide. Find all our articles here. Don’t hesitate to comment if you want more content.