Back to the 80ies - How not to go about organizing a party...

Let me tell you a short story about a small concert hall/cafe that ran into trouble about two years ago. No, let's not do that: it's getting more and more stale and boring. Let's talk a bit about what they're doing now, under new and 'professional management'.


Suffice it to say that I was asked to organize an 80ies retro party. My mates and me had done that before and we always managed to get between 180 and 250 people in on the night with a one-time record of around 350 visitors. Not bad if you consider that we're talking about 80ies music...

Of course those attendance numbers did not just come about by themselves. We used to put up posters, we would absolutely plaster our own neighbourhood with flyers, and we would not stop talking about it to people so they'd know what we were up to.

So after almost two years we were asked to organize a retro-thingy once more. No problem, we like doing it, and apparently the organization is much better now than it was before... 

The trouble however, started about three to four weeks before the night in question. One fine day I received a phone call from one of the people working for the venue(who is responsible for the programming) who asked me where the 'artwork' was for the party. Now in the old days this venue had a complete promotional team that included everyone; from art-designers to distributors. HELL! We even bought an Apple G4 with all the bells and whistles. Those days are apparently gone for good. O.k.... perhaps I should have know earlier in the game, like maybe I could have been told what was expected of us, but whatever : the same day I put together a very simple poster/flyer. Nothing special, I lack many basic GIMP-/Photoshop-skills, but it was printable and it was promotion. These posters and flyers would now be printed at an official print-shop, after which we could distribute the things ourselves and just as importantly : hang the posters inside and outside the venue. That way all visitors would still see our announcement for several weeks.

To our surprise and dismay these posters/flyers did not come in. To have at least some promotional activity I printed about 10 posters at A4-size, walked through minus 10 degrees celsius to the joint and hung them on the walls.

The same evening - as it turned out - after I had left the building, these posters were ripped from the walls by what has to have been the crew manning the cafe that night. Why they did it : no idea. Am I certain it was that team? Wel... I did not witness it, but the rolls of remaining posters I had left behind the bar was also gone. So either these people thought it would be funny to remove my work behind my back, or they let unauthorized people behind their bar(and next to their money-till). Suffice to say that I will keep an eye on these people because if I see them do something like this again I will personally glue their balls to the wall.

Then again : in the meantime I received word that the posters would be hung up a day later. Rejoice Rejoice!! We would still have about two weeks of promotion. Hurrah! One day later I checked the walls but there was nothing there, no posters, no flyers, no nothing...

After asking/complaining about this, I was told that 'the server was down so we could not print/order/whatever the materials'. Lord Mother Of God! Is that an excuse to organize a party without anyone knowing about it? How come I think that this was just a bloody excuse to hide the inactivity of the organization? Perhaps because in the same time, the whole venue had been literally wall-papered with HuGe posters announcing the Valentine Day party in February?


So : No promotional materials made at all, the efforts of the party-organizers thwarted by some assholes who tore our stuff down behind our backs, etcetera etcetera.

For the record : a party like an 80ies Retro Party should be advertised to the hilt. It should be "Completely In Your Face". The target audience for a party like that does not usually visit a concert hall that often so it has to be made aware of a special activity that is very much aimed at them. Posters should be hanging on every wall in every shopping mall!


In the end the party was a complete failure as far as the attendance goes. We had several very well-known guest DJ's, there was a video wall, etcetera etcetera. And the only thing that went fine was that small cafe, which was pretty much filled up.


Ok, so that was one more bad experience although I should have known this was going to happen. We may do this one more time, with the emphasis on 'may'... Only if we do, this time we will be completely in charge. From the design of the promo-material, via the actual production of the posters up to and including the distribution of said materials.


Retro parties come and go, and it is obviously very well possible that the 80ies retro-wave is about over. But the only way to know that for sure is to do everything right. If people then still don't show up you have to seriously ask yourself if you should go and find something else to do.

A lot of people gave up their free evening to come and help out behind the bar, the wardrobe, you name it, all volunteers. Two security guys were hired(a standard procedure) and had to be paid quite a lot of money.

And in the meantime no one knows how many people could have been there last saturday.  And that sucks for everyone involved.



(Names and specific places have been 'obscured'. This blog-entry is not meant to hurt anyone in particular. If I want to start an ad hominem attack I know a couple of forums that are much better suited to do so.)