How To Organise a Drum & Bass Event

Find your speciality 

The tapestry of drum & bass is very, very rich. After all, the genre has been running for over 20 years, and in that time, producers have developed the genre in several ways. From liquid to jump up and beyond, there is a wide variety of sounds to get your ears around.

If you’ve stumbled upon this article, you’ll likely know drum & bass pretty well. But it helps to think about your speciality before you start any club night.

So, what’s the next step? Look at the drum & bass club nights in your area and go from there. Maybe everybody is booking jump-up DJs, but you prefer neurofunk. 

Or, perhaps you really love liquid. Taking a different approach to the club nights in your area will be tricky at first, but you’ll stand out in the long run. 

Get the right venue

Your venue choice can make and break your night. Here, you’ll want to consider size, location, sound quality and atmosphere. For example, you’re unlikely to achieve your dreams of sold-out nights if your drum & bass event takes place down the church parish club. 

If you can partner with a venue that shares your ethos, that’s great. The venue’s reputation will help your event and the venue will likely have a top-notch sound system. For a drum & bass night, great sound is crucial. You want the bass sounds to rumble the foundations of the body and the rhythms to sound crisp. So, put soundsystem quality at the top of your list. 

Alternatively, you could pick spaces that aren’t traditionally used to hold club nights. We’re thinking of warehouses and other unusual venues, which will inevitably help you stand out from the crowd. A word of warning, though: this approach will take time, care, thorough planning and relationship building. 

Book smart  

A quality booking policy will give your event a fantastic reputation. 

It’s not all about booking the biggest names, either. Of course, you’ll need a headliner to help sell tickets, and it’s always exciting to bag that dream booking, but paying attention to the acts lower down on the bill is crucial. 

You’ll likely be running the night alongside some friends. If all of you are DJs, it makes sense to take one of the resident slots. This way, you each have a regular spot to perform and develop your craft. 

It’s up to you how you program this. It might be that you and your friends take each resident spot or rotate each month, filling the other spots with local talent and your headliner. 

Have fun with promotion

The idea of shouting about your event can be daunting, but there are ways you can make it fun. 

For this section, we’d like to show you how Rory Bramford, one of our Senior Account Support Representatives, promotes his drum & bass club night, Mukes. 

In the videos below, the Mukes team use humour and a tongue-in-cheek approach to promote their event. It’s a great way to catch the eye of potential new attendees, make people laugh and hopefully encourage them to buy tickets to your event.  

Use a reputable ticketing platform

Your drum & bass event should now be starting to take shape. You’ve got an idea of the styles of D&B you want to showcase, a set of residents, a list of potential headliners, a great venue and a promotion strategy.

Why not sign up with Skiddle?

You’ll open the door to many benefits. Our flagship software, The Promotion Centre is free to use, giving you control over the listing process. You can set the ticket allocation, create multiple ticket types, analyse your event with our in-house data tools and create bespoke discount codes for your attendees.

And if you get stuck, no problem. Our knowledgeable Account Support team are on hand via phone, email and webchat five days a week, while out-of-hours support comes courtesy of our FAQ pages and How-To videos. That’s five ways of support.  

Tap the button to get an in-depth look at how we can help you organise your drum & bass event. Click here for our FAQ pages and here for our How-To videos.