Touring and tour management guides.
Guides for tour managers: first-week documents, budgets, fly-in backline, festivals, customs paperwork, settlement, and day sheets.
A tour manager’s first week: the documents to set up
The documents a new tour manager sets up first: contact sheet, itinerary, advance tracker, budget, and day sheets, and how they fit together.
Building a tour budget that survives the road
How to structure a tour budget: fixed and variable costs, backline and production lines, contingency, and tracking actuals as the run goes on.
Sourcing backline city by city on a fly-in tour
How to source backline in each city when you fly in: one rider for every vendor, consistent substitutions, and keeping quotes comparable across dates.
Festival backline: shared kits, changeovers and riser plans
How festival backline usually works: shared kits, what bands bring, rolling risers, changeover plans, and how to advance with the festival’s team.
Taking gear abroad: carnets and customs basics
An introduction to traveling internationally with equipment: what an ATA carnet is, the inventory it needs, and where to confirm current rules.
Settlement night: what tour managers check
What to have ready for settlement, the figures to check against the contract, and how to keep a clean record of each show’s numbers.
Day sheets people actually read
How to write a day sheet the band and crew will read: what to include, what to leave out, and when to send it.