How To Put Together A House Concert Party
Imagine a concert in your house with a great singer songwriter, a big group of friends, tons of food, and it doesn’t cost you a dime.
This is a bit of a task to put together. Your networking and planning skills are going to get a real workout if you’ve never done anything like this before. The payoff is, it’ll be the coolest event of the year, and people will remember it for a long time. If you can organize a house concert once or twice a year, people will always be looking forward to the next one.
The real secret is that like most things, once you’ve done it, you’ll see that it’s not that hard to put together at all. You just have to muster up some courage and put a plan together. There are some basic things you have to organize and they all fall into one of three categories: the talent, the audience, and the venue.
The Talent
How are you going to get a multi-platinum recording artist to drop by your house and give you and your friends a free concert? Answer: you’re not, unless Shania Twain is your cousin or something. But every city is full of great little musicians that nobody knows about. Most houses and larger apartments are best suited for a single singer songwriter. If you’ve got a really big place and your neighbors love noise you might consider a whole band but this usually isn’t the best way to go.
Scout out the local coffee bars and clubs to find really great local artists. Read the entertainment papers, drop by cultural centers, and check out the annual folk festivals in your area. This is where you’re going to find the talent.
When you find someone, approach them with your idea. The deal is that they’re going to make a couple hundred bucks to perform at your place. In addition to that, you promise to feed them and of course they’ll get a chance to flog a few CD’s to the audience to make a few extra dollars and get the word out there.
The Audience
Your going to need around 20 people. Tell everyone you know that you’re throwing a concert and tell them a little bit about the artist. Tell everyone that tickets at the door are 10 bucks each and all the money is going to the artist. Also, tell everyone that it’s a potluck event so each person should bring a dish, hor’derve or a platter of finger food. Now you’ve got your artist and everyone else fed.
The key here is to get people to commit so you know how many people are going to show. You need to have enough people to make the whole thing worthwhile or else you’ll have to call it off. Start talking to people about 3 weeks in advance and follow up with them a couple times before the event. If you can’t get enough people then recruit the people you have got to see if they can get some of their friends involved.
The Venue
Clear out the living room or the rec room and make sure you’ve got enough room for the singer to set up and so you can seat everyone. Don’t get too formal with the seating. Couches, chairs, bean bags - beg, borrow or steal extra seating if you need to (okay, don’t actual steal someone’s couch). Arrange all the seating around the ’stage’ and off to the side somewhere set up a table for all the food.
If you think the music is going to intrude on your neighbors, talk to them in advance and let them know what’s going on and that it won’t go too late. Invite them over if you’ve got room for a few extra people.
Make sure you’ve got a time when everyone should show up. Six-thirty or seven o’clock, and then have a start time for the concert around eight. That way everybody’s got some time to mingle and have a bite to eat before the show gets underway.
That’s it! You’ve just put together your first house concert!
