A rider is undoubtedly the most important document during the advance process. Some see it as a demands list, but I’d say it’s more of a blueprint that sets the ground for a successful show. If we get the foundations right, then we’ll be good. Indeed, many things can be seen as demands and many are dealbreakers as well, but what I mean is that a rider is your friend, not your enemy.
There’s been an ongoing joke that there are about three original riders in the world and the rest are just modifications of those originals, but nobody knows who wrote the originals. Having created and seen hundreds of riders over the years, it still amazes me how sometimes riders are not done in a proper manner or how they are not up to date. And while it’s important to create a good and easy-to-understand rider, it’s also important to actually read these documents. This really applies both ways: the promoter, venue, or festival has to read the artist rider, while the artist team has to find time to go through the venue/festival specs. It’s not the job of one more than the other.
One of my favourite advances of all time was done in three emails:
The venue sent over their specs and proposed schedule and asked for the artist rider.
The artist team answered with their rider, confirmed the schedule, said it’s all clear on their end, and asked if there were any questions on the venue end.
After reviewing the rider, the venue answered: no questions on our end, all clear, see you on show day.
I admit, there was actually a fourth e-mail as well from the artist side saying see you on show day. It’s extremely rare to have that simple and short of an advance, but that’s totally possible if both the venue specs and artist rider are clear and both sides do their job. It also ended up being one of the simplest show days I’ve worked.
THE STRUCTURE OF A RIDER
The complexity of a rider depends a lot on the size of the production. However, most artists should have a technical rider and a hospitality rider, where the first gives an overview of what’s happening on the technical side of things and the other gives an overview of what’s needed dressing rooms wise to make the artist and their crew feel like home.
Bigger productions can also have separate hotel and ground transportation riders to lay out how the hotel should handle the artist team or what the ground transportation requirements are. The latter two are often either worked into the hospitality rider or covered in advance emails. It’s also an option to have one rider that contains everything, as long as it’s structured well.
The front page of the rider (regardless of technical or hospitality rider) should include:
The artist name
What tour or year this rider applies for (for example, Europe 2027)
When it was last updated
Some production and tour managers also have a version number, but in my opinion, having the date is enough as it’s easier for the reader to evaluate it from the date than from the version number. The front page could also include the contact information of the key advance contact, but that’s also a bit of a matter of taste as long as the contacts are listed in the rider. If you do make updates to the rider, having an update log at the beginning is also very helpful for the locals. That way the local production knows that you’ve, for example, made updates to the power needs, but nothing else in the rider has changed, so they don’t have to waste their time on re-reading the entire 6 pages of a document and can only read that updated section.
I also highly advise using the header/footer functions when building the rider to put the band name there (and maybe even tour name, but definitely the year!) and the page numbers. It’s common for festivals and venues to break the rider into smaller bits, meaning they only share the audio pages with the audio team, etc., and it’s also still common to print riders. Having the name and page numbers helps everyone understand who the rider belongs to and whether they are looking at the whole thing or not. But even if neither happens and the entire file is left open on a computer screen, it makes everyone’s life easier to immediately understand who this rider belongs to without having to scroll up-down all the time.
Personnel, Schedule and Logistics
The rider should begin with contact information and a clear overview of who is in the touring party and who the key contacts are. Indicate clearly that there are, for example, 10 people and what they are all doing (for example: 4 band members, 1 FOH engineer, 1 monitor engineer, 1 tour manager, 1 lights engineer, 1 merchandiser, 1 driver). If someone is joining only for certain dates, highlight that. If the touring party is constantly changing and you don’t have the same people at all times, list the position and say "Name TBC." This gives a clear overview for the other side of who is on tour. If you need local personnel such as stagehands or a FOH engineer because you’re not travelling with your own, then this is a good place to list that requirement.
Explain clearly how you are travelling and what your needs are relating to parking. If you’re travelling by tour bus and need power, make sure it’s marked there clearly. Even better if you’re already able to give the licence plate number, measurements, and a photo of the vehicle. This helps the local production understand if they need to help you arrange permits and whether they are even able to accommodate your tour bus and three trucks. Also make a note in the rider that you expect the local production to arrange the required permits and clearances.
Make sure you also give an overview of how much time you need on the show day, for example:
Minimum 2 hours for load-in
1 hour for soundcheck
45 minutes for a festival/multi-act changeover
75-minute show length
1.5 hours for load-out
Again, this helps the local production understand how to accommodate you and see how these timings may sit against their restrictions or other acts on the bill.
Technical RIDER
Depending on the size of the production, the technical rider can be as simple as a single page listing what you are carrying and what you need them to provide. For the latter, power needs are absolutely crucial for the locals to know and it’s crucial every rider would explain the power needs even if you only need 220v.
In the case of a slightly more complex production, it would be wise to split the technical rider into clear sections: staging, rigging, audio, lights, video, etc. But each section should still continue to follow the format of We Will Bring / We Need You to Provide. This makes it very clear for everyone what is happening. You do not need to list every backline item you’re carrying; it’s enough to say "We are carrying all of our backline on this tour." If you’re carrying a backdrop, make sure you list the weight of it and state clearly that you intend to hang it.
The technical rider should also include the channel list and stage plot. Even if you are carrying everything yourself, including a stage plot and input list gives a clear idea to local production of what you’re doing and shows that you are on top of your things. A stage plot also helps them understand how big the production is and where the local items you’re expecting should be laid out for you. If some bits of the rider are covered in several spots (for example, if there’s a separate section for power, but department power needs are also covered in their own sections), make sure it’s the exact same power requirements across the whole rider.
If you happen to be on the kind of tour where you mix fly-dates and own production dates, have a separate rider for each. It is a bit of a work to create different riders but if you send an own production date rider for a fly-date where you require the local production to provide a lot locally, then it’s not much of help.
Hospitality RIDER
The hospitality rider should give a clear overview of what you need in the dressing room. This is the part of the rider that seems to be the most interesting one for the public, and sometimes promoters do use this part of the rider to market the show by telling the media what you’re asking for. (I have to say, it is beyond me why this is done as I don’t see any marketing value in this, and I also think the artist team isn’t even always aware this is being done.)
List very clearly if there are allergies and/or dietary restrictions. And be mindful about the products you’re requesting. If you’re on an international tour, it’s unlikely the local production will be able to find your favourite yoghurt produced by a small local dairy company back home. It will only trigger an email from local production saying they can’t find it, and your TM/PM will need to deal with confirming the substitution. However, you might as well use it as a "control question" to make sure that the rider has actually been read.
It’s important, regardless of the section of the rider, to say where substitutes are fine and what could be substituted. Meaning, if you need local production to provide a mixing console, give them a few options that would work for you. If you can only make the show happen with one specific console, make it very clear that no substitutes are allowed. Same with hospitality: give options, and if you want substitutes to be confirmed with you beforehand, remind local production to check with you first.
FINAL BITS OF ADVICE
A rider is an important tool, and the quicker you can get it in front of local production, the better. I’ve seen different ways of handling riders over the years: sending over a PDF, sending over a link to Dropbox/Google Drive, or creating a website/app where the rider lives and gets updated.
If your PDF rider lives in a drive, make sure the rider document itself also includes a direct link to that folder with the words: "The latest version of the rider is behind this link." While I like idea of the website/app and have seen brilliant ways of doing it, there needs to be a way to put it into a PDF format for easy sharing. Sometimes we still end up working from locations, where internet connection is limited, so there needs to be a way for the rider to be available offline.
Ultimately, a great rider is all about getting a good head start for a production and the collaboration of the artist crew and the local crew. When you take the time to build a document that is clear, accurate, and up to date, you make that relationship effortless from day one. Local production can do their job properly, your show runs on time, and everyone gets through load-in with a lot less stress. Keep it clear, make sure both sides actually read the page, and you can congratulate yourself on a job well done on a show day.
