Dance Tips: Organising

How Earthly Delights can help you: we can help you to promote your event by asisting with wording for publicity and press releases and advise you on venues. John Garden leads the band, and besides playing as a musician, will teach and call dances if they are a part of your function. He can also arrange for the Bordonian Heritage Dancers to come in costume and help demonstrate the dances and join-in with the audience to help make the dances flow. John can advise you of his fees when you phone him on (02) 62811098. The band have full public-liability cover and are registered with an ABN.

Work out what sort of event you want to organise - a dance, school event, bush dance, fun day, party, dinner dance, etc.
Work out your budget.
Hire your musicians and sign a contract with them.
Contact your chosen venue to rent or reserve the space.
Have a venue contract signed at least 4 months in advance of your chosen date.
Build a web page for your event.
Write an article to send to newsletters and a press release to send to newspapers and radio stations.

Name of Event: It is important that it conveys what your event is all about.
Date and Time of Event: Most fundraising events are held on the weekend. If your event goes later into the evening a Saturday is best, day events work well on Sundays. Check that it does not conflict with other major events that your potential audience might be going to.
Location: The web is a great place to start looking for a location, this is where wedding websites can be useful. Ask your friends as well. Parks are always great, just be sure to check if you have to have a permit. Write down the name of the location, address and city. If you're in Canberra you can always give us a call on (02) 62811098 and John can let you know his experience with many venues.
Parking and Public Transport Information: Find out what kind of parking is nearby your venue. It might be metered or free street parking. Is your venue on a bus or train route?
Dress: Is it casual or formal? Movie or historical theme? A bush dance or colonial ball?
Deadline to Purchase Tickets: The deadline to purchase tickets depends on when you can cancel the event without losing any money. If you are hiring musicians you need to know what their cancellation policy is. Note: if you're selling tickets at the door you don't need a deadline.
Can People Purchase Tickets at the Door: If you choose to sell tickets you will have to set up a little table or some kind of entrance to capture those people who have not already paid. Make sure the doorperson is provided with a list of all those who have pre-paid so they can be checked off.
Minimum Number of Attendees required by venue: the number you choose as your minimum is the base you use to make sure you can meet all your costs.
Maximum Number of Attendees: this is usually determined by the size of your venue and by what the attendees will be wearing. ie. a hall will fit less people for a colonial ball than a bush dance.
Contracts: you will usually have a contract from your venue. If you are having musicians playing and are paying them you must have a contract. It can be as simple as the date, how many musicians, who to make the check out to, how much the payment is. How many breaks will they take? Do they expect to be fed as part of their contract? If we cancel the event will we still owe them all the money or is there a cut-off date we can cancel and not owe anything?
Food: Unless you are providing food for everyone you need to let participants know (via the website and flyers) they should bring their own supper contribution. You should provide tea, coffee and cold water at dances as a matter of course.
Entertainment: Hiring professional musicians or entertainers will add value to your event and justify a ticket price. It will also help to make a success of your event. You might also choose to have some other short activity or speeches during the musicians breaks.
Food for Musicians & Dance Displayers: We suggest a simple table with cheese, crackers, meats, sandwiches, cookies and plenty of cold water. If tea, coffee or juice are part of the function it is polite to offer it to the musicians as well.
Tickets: Work out the price for printing tickets and the price for postage. Remember, it adds to your overall price!
Decorations: Work out your decoration budget.
Site Rental: Cost for renting the site.
Volunteers: Try to encourage dancers, musicians and callers, experienced and inexperienced alike, to mix socially, to accept that tastes and abilities will vary and to treat every get-together as an opportunity for everyone to learn something new. Try to encourage everyone likely to participate to contribute in some way (distributing publicity, bringing refreshments, helping set up chairs or P.A., sitting at the door etc).