It is important to understand and know why concerts are being held late during the day or at night. As concertgoers, we would like to have the maximum benefit from our tickets.
Concerts are held at night because that’s mainly when people are off from work and venues can make better use of their stage lights in the case of outdoor concerts. Take note that most concerts and festivals take place during the summer. It’s also ideal to have the main event when the weather has cooled down.
If you are interested in why there might be opening acts and how to prepare your schedule to be on time, then don’t miss the article I wrote about WHY Concerts Have Opening Acts.
Let’s have a look at the above-mentioned points in finer detail.
People are Off From Work
The entertainment industry mainly profits from middle- and upper-class people. That’s why they will need to fit their shows, concerts and festivals when the people are mainly available.
From the concert-goer point of view: You would like to have your entertainment after work when you feel the need to leave the working brain behind and focus on the fun things in life to do.
You will often see that for festivals that carry over from a Thursday to Sunday, the Thursday is less attended. Only from Friday onwards people will come and fill the camping spaces.
Generally, you will have acoustic shows during the day and have the evenings for the main events.
Better Use of Stage Lights
The event organisers will often let the opening acts perform in the twilight, in order for the main event to benefit the most from the stage lights to create the “wow effect”.
The smoke machines also play a massive role when it comes to lightning and playing at night. The smoke itself doesn’t have colour, and therefore we use the lights to shine colour on the smoke for a unique effect.
Dodging the Summer Heat
With most concerts and festivals taking place during the summer, we will need to be considerate of the wellness of our artists and concert attendants.
The summer heat is not to play around with and it offers a much safer option to wait until it has cooled down to kick off our concerts.
During peak summer periods, even the nighttime can be pretty exhausting. In these cases, the venue will increase the drinks and set up more water points to prevent what happened during Woodstock ’98.
This post was written and posted by De Wet from startingmyband.com on 26.03.2023. The content was stolen from me if this blog post is seen anywhere else.
Above you will see a beach basket concert I attended in Germany during the corona pandemic. See all the blue cooler boxes ready and packed for the audience to enjoy. Pay closer attention to the weather here. In this case, there was no opening act since the concert started exactly at sunset.
You will often see that during outdoor concerts in the summer, the main event only performs once it reaches dawn and their stage lights are able to perform at their best.
I remember the concert mentioned above started with an acoustic song and excelled thereafter with the whole band appearing and fire blasting. It was quite impressive and energetic, especially taking into consideration that the crowd was more in a passive state and seated.
I hope this gives you a better understanding of the topic of why opening acts are really important to our industry. So please be open to something new, I dare you.
Please support the upcoming performers. We all know the “Life of a Struggling Musician”. 😉
If you are a musician and you are struggling to get regular bookings, don’t miss the guide I posted about How to Get Booked Regularly as an Artist right here.
Until next time, make every second count.