How to set up concerts in a town without all-age venues?

G

guitarguy101

New member
My friends and I are all in high school. Currently, I'm running a collective between myself and a few other school bands. We wanted to set up gigs to press our music, but we found that literally ALL the bars and restaurants contacted have a 18+ age limit.
So, what are some good places we can play? Also, any advice on how to set up house parties and other home gigs?
 
There are places that don't necessarily serve alcohol...and so the 18+ limit is not as much of an issue.
Private/Club halls...church orgs...and what about your schools, don't they ever do dances and "battle of the bands" kind of events...?
Have you checked out all those places yet?
 
It depends on what other places you have access to.

If there are any community gatherings, festivals etc. it would be a great place to get permission to play.

Other than that, you could even perform at school during a lunch break.
 
Put on your own show/fest by street performing or performing in some empty field by a high traffic area (after contacting the owners of course ;)).

I hope I don't come off sounding like a sarcastic douche, because I'm being serious.
 
recently my band played in our schools battle of the bands, but we had to nag our music teacher lots of times to organise it, (although make sure the tickets are cheaper than £4, big mistake by him because hardly anyone came)
Then the next night played in a village hall. both venues musically were great.

The on in the village hall was a charity one so perhaps you could do that to try and attract more people?
 
In my state if a bar serves food it can legally be considered a "restaurant", so there doesn't have to be an age restriction unless the owner wants one. You may want to look into this...
 
mjbphotos said:
No school dances? They used to be a regular thing in my day!
Click to expand...

They still exist obviously. Unfortunately, techno DJs are common fair at these dances. We have tried getting in, but have only been met by failure.
The bit about doing a street concert might work though
 
There is a venue (licensed for alcohol) in my town that run all ages shows at an earlier time, Saturday afternoon, Sunday afternoon, they close down the bar and lock up all the alcohol to conform to the license arrangements and only serve soft drink and water. The show ends by 7pm so that they can clear the venue for the night time license 18+ show. Quite often a touring act will have an all ages (no alcohol) show in the afternoon and then have a +18 show that night. You should ask around to see if any of the venues would be willing to do this.

The trouble with holding that event in a hall type venue is that the local council may have requirements for security and crowd control so you need to check that out. You also have to hire production, PA and lighting, where by the licensed venue may have an in house system.

Cheers

Alan.
 
Don't know if it would still be feasible, but back when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was in high school, we used to be able to rent small halls like VFW huts and American Legion Halls. Back then a couple of "dads" handled security, a couple of "moms" worked the door and sold soft drinks, and our "groupies" made posters that we put out in our's and nearby towns.

I fear that too many things have changed (for the worse) for you to be able to do that today, but depending upon where you live, you might be able to pull it off...
 
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