Hello and welcome to the Making Magic series, where we’ve asked organizers of your favorite wrock shows to let us take a peek behind the curtain and show us how it all happens.

This month we’ve got Michelle Brannon, who organizes legendary shows in the Northern Virginia area.

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Hello Wizrocklopedia! Allow me to introduce myself: my name is Michelle, and I’m a wizard rock fangirl from Northern Virginia. I was asked to write a little “how-to” in hosting wizard rock shows and setting up something local. My experience lies in the house show setup, so that’s what I’ll be speaking to in this post. As with most things, I am just sharing my experiences and what I’ve found works. If you’re not able to do what I’ve outlined, but you’d like to be involved someway, reach out to your local bands! Many of them have played shows before and are happy to work with you to create something fun for everyone!

Without going into too much detail, I got into wizard rock around the “beginning” of the scene, in 2005. My first house show was part of the original “Whomp the House Tour” which took place at an apartment belonging to a person I’d only ever met online (I made great choices while in college). Since then, I’ve hosted nearly a dozen shows personally, and have attended countless more between conventions, Yule Balls, libraries, and festivals.

In my experience, I have found that a successful house party needs 3 main components:

 1. A place to play
2. Bands willing to come
3. An audience to play for

By making sure each of these are in place, you’re bound to put on a fun event for everyone! I’ve broken them down into more detail below.

A Place to Play

What’s the point of a show without a venue? An ideal venue is accessible for everyone, has enough space for your expected crowd, and has things like parking and restrooms available. I currently live in a townhouse with very limited parking. My neighbors are pretty easy going, but there’s no way they were going to be okay with 20-30 people (average house party size) clogging up the roads and taking all the parking.

Because my home wasn’t an option, I found a rental space at a local church that was actually an old house turned into a youth center, so it already had things like parking and wheelchair access and a restroom available. Other options may include checking with your local park, community center, community clubhouse, or even something like an Air BNB during the off season would be good! Just stick to your needs, and stick to a budget. I was able to get the annex building for $50-$100 depending on the time of year. This was something I was willing to put up front and did not look for reimbursement, but if you would like to have this cost covered by admission fees, you’ll need to consider that when planning. Remember that some locations don’t allow you to charge admission based on their bylaws, so read any rental contract through completely and make sure it’s the right fit for you.

You’ll also want to clear up other factors such as if selling merchandise is allowed, if you’re allowed to have amplifiers or acoustic only, and if you’re allowed to have food/drink/alcohol. Make sure any of these rules are given to the bands as well as the guests to keep you in compliance (the last thing you need is alcohol showing up at a party with kids).

Bands Willing to Come

You can’t have a show without wizard rockers! With social media, it is so easy to get a hold of a band you like. Something as simple as “Hey, I’m working on putting together a show in my area sometime. Would you be interested in joining us?” can go a long way. A lot of bands are looking for shows, they just need to know there’s an interest in the area!

When you approach a band, make sure you understand what you’re asking of them. Start with bands that are local to you. If there aren’t many local to you, look a little further, and at bands that are already touring. Many of them are willing to drive a little or make a small detour on their tour to do a house show. You can also ask if they know of any other bands that may be interested. At my first house show, I was surprised to learn how many local bands there were that wanted to come play! What started as a small show turned into a mini music festival with everyone there!

If you’re looking outside of your local area, keep in mind of what you’re asking the bands to do: take a day off work, travel x miles, find food and lodging, etc. If you’re able to help mitigate or eliminate these costs for the bands, they tend to be more willing to make the trip. For my house shows, I had an open invitation to stay at my place overnight. Throw in my now famous morning waffle bar and you’ve got Hotel Wizard!

If you’re unsure you can help with things like lodging and travel, be upfront with the bands when you invite them about the expectations and what you can offer them. They may be able to brainstorm with you to find solutions that work for everyone.

Don’t be upset or offended if the bands say they can’t come, regardless of the reason. Wizard Rockers are people, too, with their own families, jobs, and commitments outside of wizard rock, and it’s important to respect that. Thank them for their time, and try again next time.

An Audience to Play For

Finding an audience tends to be easier than most would think if you put a little thought into spreading the word. Start with communities like Facebook and MeetUp. Is there a local Harry Potter group? Invite them!

No local group you know of? Start some online marketing! A simple Facebook event will get the word out quickly and will spread to people you didn’t know about. I’ve had bands take song requests and announce new merch in the Facebook events, which gets people excited for the show. If you think the show is getting too big for your space, have some contingency plans, such as doing tickets through a site like EventBrite or looking into doing a livestream of the show (make sure the bands are okay with this first!).

Audiences need to know how to get somewhere, where to park, what’s allowed, and if there’s anything special (a theme, after party, etc). Providing things like maps for parking and signs for the building/street are helpful so people know they’re in the right spot. As a person who has anxiety going somewhere new, I cannot stress enough how important it is to have this information up front.

I think that’s it! House Shows are supposed to be a chance for the bands and audience to interact on a much more relaxed level where it’s more like friends getting together for a night and not the strict performer/audience relationship that forms at bigger events. My shows tend to end with a big group going to dinner and simply enjoying being with each other, and it’s fantastic.

I hope once things are safer and gatherings are allowed again, we’ll see more House Shows returning to the fold!