8 Serious Concert Planning Challenges and Solutions
Concert planning challenges usually affect every concert planner! Have you ever planned a concert and it all seemed to be going great and smooth, you were delighted that you have made the best concert plan that looks flawless! Then, as you go forward with implementing that perfect plan, issues start to take place and you face several challenges.
Well, don’t stress about it so much, because you are not alone in this. Every event planner has faced this several times because planning a concert goes along with many concert planning challenges.
In this blog, Arabian Entertainment House lists the top concert planning challenges and event planning solutions to reduce the effects on the overall implementation of your concert plan.
Concert Planning Challenges
There are a lot of things to consider when planning an event, and even when you handle them in the best way, there will always be some challenges for event organizers. Pre-planning with some event management and solving problems skills will help you to avoid the negative effects of the following concert planning challenges:
1- Overspending
The number one challenge of concert planning is exceeding your budget and overspending, which leads to making no profits out of the concert. Budgeting is usually the main concern of every concert planner, so do not feel like you are alone in this. Usually, overspending happens because of spending miscalculation or because of costs increase during the concert planning period.
There are many recommendations that are proven effective in avoiding overspending:
- Spend quite less than the spending margin of your budget to be able to handle any unexpected expenses that might come up at any stage of your concert planning process.
- Compare your spending rate with the budget of your previous concerts and always make sure you do better calculations for every new concert.
- Avoid costs estimation. Always get a detailed quote for every item you purchase or every service that you hire for the concert.
- Receive quotes in writing.
- Discuss with your vendors the validity period of each price offer.
- Prepare more affordable alternative products and services for almost product and service you hire for the concert.
2- Understaffing
Being short on staff members is a very serious concert planning challenge. Usually, understaffing cannot be obvious until the event takes place, thus you have no time to do anything about it. So, the key is to prevent it from happening by considering it during your planning process, by:
- Setting all the matters that you need staff members for during the concert, i.e., hosts, receptionists, waiters (if your concert includes food and drinks), valet staff, security guards, and others.
- Writing a detailed description of each staff member’s responsibility.
- Calculate the staff members number you would need if only 25% of your audience showed up, then calculate the staff members number you would need if 75% of your audience attended. Finally, hire a median number between both, considering a few staff members to show up if needed.
3- Bad Weather in Outdoor Venues
When you hold a concert in an outdoor venue, there is always a risk of having bad weather on your concert day. No one can accurately predict the weather or keep it from surprisingly changing. So, it is always wise to keep a side of caution by having in mind a backup venue that allows last-minute booking and is located near the original venue to move from an outdoor to a nearby indoor venue quickly.
4- Managing Multiple Events
If you still haven’t managed to multitask, then you’ll need to learn immediately. Most of the time, you will have to plan several concerts at the same time. Most concert planners don’t have the luxury of dedicating their efforts to one concert at a time.
The key to success in managing and planning multiple concerts is organization and time management. This may include having several cellphones to separate the business calls of every concert from another, creating different unique plans for every concert in a way that no two concerts may seem alike, and archiving each concert documents separately, and so on.
5- Responding to the Audience Inquiries
People may have lots of questions about the concert details to determine whether they can attend or not, they could send their inquiries on different platforms, like online websites, social media, phone calls, and more.
Many concert planners ignore most of these inquiries! You must stay focused and organized to respond to all clients at any contact channel. Receiving no reply will kill the client’s desire to attend, and this way, you would lose lots of the concert attendees.
6- Event Cancellation
Sometimes no matter how perfectly you plan your concert, some circumstances may lead to concert cancellation. Many reasons may lead to such conclusion, like a cancellation made by the artist, extreme weather conditions with no alternative indoor venue, legal permits rejections, and many other reasons that would put the concert planner in a huge financial crisis caused by the ticket refunding process.
In this case, risk management policies must be pre-planned. The best way to manage concert cancellation situations and ticket refunding is by having a concert cancellation insurance, which will cover up your refunding expenses when the cancellation reason is beyond your control.
7- Technological Challenges
Sound system and equipment are obviously the most important devices among your appliances. Having an issue with the sound system during the concert is a complete disaster that will certainly lead to postponing your concert. For that reason, never hold a concert without having rehearsals the day before to test that all sound system devices are operating properly with no deficiency and that the sound is covering every corner of the concert venue.
8- Missing Legal Permits
Concert legal permits could sometimes be tiring to receive. One missing legal document will disable you from holding your concert. Therefore, it is always recommended that you apply for legal permits at the earliest stages of your concert planning. In this case, even if your permit request gets rejected, you will have more time to solve the rejection reason and re-apply. More on, if your request gets rejected multiple times, then you will need an expert assistance from a professional concert planning company, like Arabian Entertainment House to handle the rejection reasons.
Since you are now familiar with the main concert planning challenges and their solutions, try to avoid these challenges in the next concert you plan by taking effective actions, or you can ease the effort by cooperating with a professional event planning company, such as Arabian Entertainment House, as it can help you to plan a perfect concert through its live concerts planning and design service. Contact us to start your concert planning process now!