Where does one go to learn the tricks of the trade?

Books?

Learning by doing?

a 1-800 number perhaps?

I need some schoolin'. I don't want to make a career out of it, just wanna maybe organize one show now see how it goes.

Anybody have experience in this field?

be ready to LOSE money...heard crappy shit from GREAT promoters

WHat kind of show? Like, at a club or are you going to rent out a venue?

It's tough and demanding, but it can be really fun and rewarding at the same time. Don't do it for the money, though. The only people who get rich off show promotion are beer/liquor distributors and club owners who charge an arm and a leg for booze.

That said, see what's going on in the all-ages circuit around you. Find out where just-starting bands play and check it out. Go to some shows and pay attention to everything but the bands (since when you're running show you won't get to watch more than 30 seconds at a time anyway); how the soundman and sound system operate, how they handle security (if applicable) and admissions, influx and movement of the crowd, time between sets, etc.
If it's possible to rent the venue, take a chance and reserve the place, book some young bands willing to play for a pittance (but these kids ALWAYS bring their friends and family, who pay), hire a soundman and rope a dozen or so friends into helping out for the night.

I promoted local punk and metal all-ages shows for 5 years starting when I was 17 and it was one of the most enriching things I've done. Learned lots of business and marketing basics, made connections and friends I still have today and had quite a bit of fun, too.
Notice money isn't really mentioned there. Don't do it to get rich. First show I did I made $80 profit. My highest, which was an extreme abberation, was nearly $1,200. Usually it was a couple hundred, though I lost that much a few times as well.

I could go on for a while. PM me w/ your email address if you want to continue this at length.

this is definitely the way to go for right now. i have no idea why anyone would want to do this full-time, but i do know some people who've toiled in it for years and finally been able to make a living from it after working their way up doing terrible shows and losing bundles of money.

do you know any promoters where you live? you may simply want to search them out to express your interest in maybe working with their group at times. now, you'd think the best place to find a promoter would be at a show, but i happen to know a promoter in a major city who leaves the venue before doors open because he really has no interest in being there. these are not the types of promoters to search out.

in la, it's all about who you know - contacts at venues, booking agents, etc. back when i was 18/19, i used to street team just to make a couple of bucks on the side then starting throwing parties... but got out of doing that because i got tired of it, the politics and worrying about paying bills if we lost money from shows.

i'd start with trying to reach out to anyone you know who promotes or books shows.

my suggestion - do NOT make a living out of it unless you have madd connections with the big guys. it's the big guys that make the $ (hate to say) and they are ones who can pay the bills. my friend eddie makes BANK doing this for a living, but he's been doing this since he was 15 and has no probs doing shows in la, vegas & miami. it's very time consuming, so even if you do it on the side - don't forget about all the other logistics: retail, street teaming (but it's never that hard to find a couple of kids willing to pass out flyers just for free tix to a show), networking (you gotta support other promoters too if you want heads to come out), etc.

dsbrucerobertson on here does this. you should pm him but i haven't seen him online in awhile.

I don't know how much he makes, but he got crazily successful as far as acts really really quickly. The Plan started in 2002 I think and by 2003 he was booking Sufjan Stevens, Of Montreal, and more.