19The paperwork

The short version: Every show is negotiated in advance and documented on paper. The advance confirms what everyone is bringing; the rider says what the artist needs; the stage plot and input list tell the crew where everything goes and how it connects; the day sheet runs the day; and the settlement reconciles the money afterward. No standards body governs any of it, but good practice is consistent.

The advance

The advance is "the planning conversation that happens before the event", in which artist, venue, promoter and production confirm the details⁴³⁶. A tour manager's advance confirms the rider, contacts, load-in and soundcheck times, set times, support acts and curfews, and the results go into a tour book⁴³⁵. A club-level checklist runs: contacts with phone numbers; load-in, soundcheck and backline (send the plot and input list, and agree what the venue supplies); promotion; tickets and door; and payment - who pays, and when⁴⁴⁴.

The documents

• Technical rider. The artist's production requirements: PA, monitors, DJ booth gear and layout, lighting, power, stage size. For a DJ, usually the exact player and mixer models (trade definition).
• Hospitality rider. Food, drink, dressing rooms, hotels and ground transport (trade definition).
• Stage plot. "A visual map of where everyone and everything goes on stage"⁴³⁶.
• Input list. "The technical companion to the stage plot", telling audio what connects to what; the two must match⁴³⁶. Good practice: keep them as separate documents in large block text readable under stage light, share them as PDFs rather than cloud documents behind a login, date them, and put a contact on every page⁴⁴⁵.
• Day sheet. The one-page schedule for the day, which the tour manager prepares the day before⁴³⁵.
• Run of show. The minute-by-minute show-time cue sheet (trade definition).
• Credentials. Passes and laminates, handled by the tour manager⁴³⁵.
• Settlement. The post-show money reconciliation between tour manager and promoter: the TM settles the fee and collects anything owed⁴³⁵. The usual structure - gross ticket sales minus taxes, fees and agreed expenses, then the artist's guarantee against a percentage - is trade knowledge we could not source to a published template.
• The emergency plan. Paperwork too, and the one most likely to matter. Astroworld's 56-page operations plan covered shootings, bomb threats and severe weather, but not crowd surges⁴⁴⁶.

A show day

A typical festival or arena day runs: riggers mark and hang points first; then truss, lighting, video and PA fly in; power is distributed and checked; systems are tested, the PA is tuned, and lighting is focused; line check and soundcheck; changeovers between acts, where "beginners often underestimate transitions"⁴³⁶; the show; and then load-out, "the process of breaking down gear and clearing the venue after the show"⁴³⁶. The order is common practice; every venue's day sheet is the real schedule.

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