Please take a moment to read information about us, our venues, and how we operate below.
Thank you for your interest in booking a show with us! The venues that make up Raleigh Queer Venue Initiative (The Night Rider, Ruby Deluxe, The Wicked Witch) look forward to helping you have a successful show.
Here are some things you should know about us:
We’re here in Raleigh and we’re queer in Raleigh: our venues promote tolerance. If that doesn’t sound like it jives with you or your audience it will be difficult for us to work together.
The Night Rider (“TNR”) is a small bar with a stage that hosts low production/DIY type shows. We have a PA suited for vocals & 1 or 2 direct lines & bands run their own sound from the stage. The Night Rider’s Capacity is 35 & shows are for tips/suggested donation. No production cost taken by the club.
- Shows at TNR start at 7:00 P.M. and end by 9:00. The bar opens at 5:00 Wednesday – Sunday
Ruby Deluxe can do the same sort of DIY type shows as TNR for audiences of less than 40 or “medium production” shows (I’ll explain) for bands expecting to draw 41-150 people. Ruby is open weekly Wednesday – Saturday nights, although we occasionally have shows on Sunday, Monday, or Tuesday evenings.
- DIY shows have $0 production cost. We do not do DIY shows on Fridays or Saturdays.
- For the medium production shows, Ruby Deluxe & the artists split the first $300 evenly (50/50) and artists receive 100% of ticket/door sales after $300. Basically, production cost is $150, but we still want artists to be able to make money from the first dollar.
- 8 channels are available for each artist.
- We have 4 vocal mics with stands, one bass drum mic, and up to 6 DI channels
- we typically do not mic amps or drums (other than the kick).
- We use Qu-Pac software for mixing which offers a wide selection of delays & reverbs
- Our bar staff also mixes the show (they’re trained to do so no need to panic)
- The minimum ticket price at Ruby is $10.
- On Fri/Sat at Ruby we prefer that shows are over by 9:30 and the stage is clear by 10. A typical schedule:
- Load-in at 5:00 P.M.
- sound check(s) 5:30 – 7:00
- doors 7:00
- opener at 7:30, headliner at 8:30 (40 minute sets)
- for 3 acts shows bands/artists perform 30 minute sets
The Wicked Witch (“WW”) is our full production event venue & has a capacity of 200. WW typically charges a production fee of $300 per show, after which artists receive 100% of ticket and door sales.
- We prefer a minimum ticket price of $12 in advance and $15 day of show.
- Because of the production cost, we think Wicked Witch is best for shows that will draw at least 75 attendees.
- WW has a show room and a bar room that are somewhat separated & also hosts DJs in our lounge/bar room at times. If this interests you, please get in touch with us; we do not charge nearly the same production cost for these shows.
- Typical schedule:
- Load in at 4:30 P.M
- Sound check(s) 5:00 – 7:00
- Doors at 7:00
- music starts at 8:00 for 2 act bills; 7:30 for 3 acts
- music ends by 10:00 and the stage is clear by 10:30
- bands are loaded out by 11:00 P.M.
- Staff is paid until 4 hours after doors. If you need folks to stay longer we can arrange this for an additional $50 per each half hour or part.
Through the booking process we will need some things from you:
- A short bio/description for each performing artist. This should be no less than 100 characters long. If you don’t have this and our requirement makes you anxious perhaps it will ease your mind to know that the first 2 sentences of this bullet point were exactly 100 characters.
- Social media sites / handles
- 2 (or preferably 3) photos of each artist. Content is king! We’ll use this to promote your show.
- A poster/image to use for promotion. If we have not received this by 50 days prior to your show we will make something simple using our template
- Name, email, and phone contact for each performing artist.
We will send you a link to a form that lets you upload the above information.
EMAIL US AT BOOKMEINRALEIGH@GMAIL.COM