How to Pull Off a Small Tour with a Band

By Din (aka F-105)

So, you formed a band, got your show down locally, and now you’re ready to test it out on the road.

An effective strategy is to use a method that some pros refer to as “Anchoring” - you get yourself booked at a festival that will ideally pay for you to get there. If no travel help is officered, but the fest is an officially recognized festival, some grant organizations in Canada offer funding to help with travel costs (Google “Canadian music tour grants”, leading you to water, as it were). In short, apply to very festival you can in your Province (and adjacent ones, or even Canada), and when you get a booking use that money to “anchor” you financially to get there, and from that solid footing, you can now book smaller (perhaps not well-paying gigs) on the way. For ex, if you’re from Southern Ontario, and can get yourself booked at a festival in Northern Ontario you can then book little gigs in places on route (like Barrie, Peterborough, Parry Sound, Sudbury, Sault Ste Marie and North Bay etc.).

Small Canadian towns need touring bands to frankly give people a unique and exciting night out. Not much happens in small towns, so if you're one of 2 or 3 out of town bands playing that night, you’re the hot ticket! Some venues even offer hotels or discounted rates at cheap hotels. And if you have any friends or family that can help to cut costs along, they, that is common part of any young group’s touring strategy.

If you’re an original band, you can throw in covers that suit your sound for more venue opportunities. Remember, the basic idea is that your anchor festival paid a sum that will get you there, and you play the smaller “dive” gigs to make gas, food and hotel money along the way. I’ve pulled off tours with my band’s (F-105, and formerly The Soles) that have gotten to Kenora Ontario without losing a penny with this method – even paying the band a bit! Do this for anywhere in the world too. In 2010, my group The Soles was booked for the Seattle Folklife Festival, but they only offered a “Per Diem” (food). I was at a coffee shop telling a friend I wanted to get the band there, but didn’t know how. The stranger across the table said, “I work at FACTOR in music grants, we have a guaranteed grant for any festival that is classified as an “official international showcase”. Seattle Folklife was as official as it gets, so we got our travel funding! I was able to book us a little tour from Vancouver Island to Seattle around that anchor. I still remember getting an ovation at the Logan’s Pub in Victoria, BC. And we were able to stay with my family there.

Personally, “yes” to things with blind faith that solutions will present themselves. They always do.

Website: www.f105music.com