The Ups And Downs Of Running Your Own Events
We’ve spoken with Rob Pursey on these pages before, in an interview covering his career to date. A huge part of that career is built on his choice to run his own events – something that can be a huge benefit to DJs, but which many are nervous to attempt.
I linked up with him to get some pointers on the ups and downs of running his own parties!
How did you first get into running your own events?
It very much happened by accident. I’d been a part of events as a DJ and been involved to a certain extent, but had always taken a more back seat role. We then started our music blog Southern Hospitality and a lot of our events grew out of that and the desire to play music that wasn’t being represented in London clubs at the time. It’s hard to imagine a Hip Hop/R&B club scene that doesn’t play majority ATL rap etc now – but back then we were the only people doing it.
You run multiple club nights – how do you go about balancing those? Are you careful to keep them stylistically separate and spread across various venues, or do things overlap?
Yes that’s crucial and something I’m super conscious about and make a point of trying to match the club event to the venue. For example an event like Players Ball needs that low underground, communal atmosphere it can’t be a table-service affair because we need people to wile out and have fun! Then other events like Rated R, which is an R&B event can be a little more chilled for most of the night and to use an old school phrase can stay ‘bubblin’ for longer, as it’s more about just enjoying the full tunes and not running through records so fast. Hip Hop Karaoke is kind of where everything overlaps, because as well as the performers we have a club night built around it and depending on the crowd that can be an impromptu Players Ball style session, or a more throwback affair – that’s definitely more of a call on the night!
DJing is a pretty precarious job in itself, but running nights takes the risk/reward equation to the next level – what advice do you have for people starting out with events? How do you manage the stresses of risking money – I found it hard to deal with the reality of putting events on that ended up losing money or barely breaking even! And when things are going well, are there things people can do to avoid getting carried away?
Without sounding boring, it really is a case of not getting too gassed. You sell out a few events and make good money and it’s easy to think it will just roll like that forever, but without attention to detail it won’t. I think to start with just put something on that you fully believe in and have a passion for, because that will be communicated to the customer and will more likely encourage loyalty to your event. Losing money can definitely be avoided if you don’t overstretch yourself and just be real about what you’re trying to achieve and slow growth is still growth! The stress is definitely always there in the run up to events, especially ones that aren’t looking as promising as others, but if you just channel that into some sort of action – extra promo – then generally it both de-stresses and adds on to the event itself.
For a typical club event you put on, how many people are involved – from promotion through to the actual night? If it varies, what are the benefits and drawbacks either way?
I run a pretty small team for my events and for larger events bring more people in. On a typical club night it will be myself and a couple of others on the promo, a designer (who does the majority of my artwork) and then door staff and occasionally some street promo staff. The benefits of a small team are obviously larger dividends when the night goes well, but equally I’ve been slightly burnt by cutting a corner and realised I could have made a bit more money or had a busier event with a little help. So it really is a balance.
How important these days is traditional, old fashioned promotion like posters, flyers and word of mouth vs the use of social media?
I think word of mouth is still greater than everything. If people have a banging night, they will come back and bring people. I feel like posters, flyers etc are definitely outdated however when used on the night they can definitely scoop up a few extra people and sometimes just having that visual presence on the streets does sink in subconsciously with people. However in saying all of that, it’s definitely largely social media these days.
How did you end up getting your brand Hip Hop Karaoke on to the festival circuit? Was that something you pursued, or did festivals come to you?
Festivals came to us initially and then it’s really just rolled on from there. We now have good relationships with a lot of the larger festivals and return each year as well as making an effort to play new festivals that arrive. It wasn’t even something I thought about originally but once we did a few it quickly became the favourite part of my job.
One of the common issues for successful promoters is people biting their ideas – you’ve been ahead of the curve on a few things, so how did you react to others following your ideas?
Yeah I’ve definitely been bitten more than a few times ha ha! I won’t mention any names, but I just have to mentally keep it moving and just try and do my event/s to the best of my ability otherwise you end up chasing negative energy. I definitely try my very best not to do it myself however, even unwittingly as I feel we have to respect each other out here. Generally the original promoters last longer and the biters make a quick buck but don’t know where to go next after that one runs its course.
How important are things like the name and artwork of a night?
Crucial. A good name of an event at the right time can really capture the imagination and mood of people and seem like the essential place to go. Equally with the artwork, it has to signify something to the audience you’re trying to attract, whether that’s a key artist, or some sort of design texture. It needs to be authentic.
How do you go about building up and sustaining a following and community around a club night?
Pretty much as I mentioned before, by paying attention to how the night is going and making sure the musical programming isn’t predictable and generic. I also make an effort to be at the door and amongst the people at my events and build relationships with my crowd old school style. People then begin to trust you when you launch new events. It’s not contrived however as that’s just how I am – I like people! The community part is super important to me and if you have that then you’re halfway there to putting on great events as your crowd will do the promotion for you.
If you could go back in time and give yourself one piece of advice before you started putting parties on, what would it be?
I would definitely train people up to run an event in my own image then I could take a few more nights off! Team is everything and I definitely left a lot to chance in the early days and just gave myself too many jobs!
What did you do during lockdown to maintain your events and brands and keep connected with your communities?
With Hip Hop Karaoke we did ‘Quaraoke‘ which was so much fun and I actually found we got people who couldn’t always get to the events performing online which was super satisfying. Also just posting stuff of relevance and keeping the aesthetic and energy of the events online as much as possible.
What have you got going on at the moment, and the coming months?
Well, as things are (slowly) changing, we’re gearing up for our first post quarantine events, which may be a slightly pared down version, but will be great to get back nonetheless! In the meantime I’ve been keeping my hand in by doing some sets online and some at larger open spaces like Boxpark Croydon, so I’m not totally rusty!