Bar deals, door splits and bar minimums, explained

Every venue conversation is a negotiation about who carries the risk. The venue wants a predictable night. You want to not owe money if it rains. The four standard deal shapes are just four different answers to that question, and knowing which one you are being offered is most of the skill.

The four shapes

Flat hire

You pay a fee for the room. You keep the door. The venue usually keeps the bar.

All the risk is yours, and you pay it before you know how the night went. It suits an established night with a predictable headcount, and it is the worst possible structure for a first event.

Bar minimum

The room is free. If the bar takes less than an agreed figure, you pay the difference.

The most common deal for small and mid-size nights, and the one most often misunderstood. The minimum is a liability, not a target, and it needs to sit in your budget as a fixed cost until the bar clears it.

The maths: divide the minimum by realistic spend per head. Spend per head varies enormously by city, crowd and event type, so use your own numbers where you have them, and something in the range of 15 to 30 as a starting estimate where you do not. A 2,000 minimum at 20 a head needs 100 drinking attendees. If your realistic headcount is 90 and a quarter of them do not drink, you are exposed.

Two things move that risk. Negotiate the minimum down in exchange for a midweek slot, and negotiate a sliding version where the minimum falls if you hit an agreed headcount.

Door split

You split the door with the venue on an agreed percentage. The venue keeps the bar.

Risk is shared, which makes it the friendliest structure for a new promoter. Splits of 70/30 or 80/20 in the promoter's favour are common when the venue is taking the bar, because the bar is where their money is.

Watch the details. Does the split apply to advance sales or only the door? Are platform fees deducted before or after the split? Who counts?

Straight bar deal

Venue takes the bar, you take the door, no fee and no minimum.

The best deal available to someone with no money, and usually offered on a night the venue would otherwise not open, or to a promoter whose crowd is known to drink.

The questions to ask before you agree

• What exactly does the venue take? Door, bar and cloakroom are three separate revenue lines. Get a position on each.
• Who pays for security, and how much? Often the largest variable cost, and often quietly assumed to be yours.
• What is included? Sound engineer, in-house PA, lights, bar staff, cleaning. "The room" can mean an empty room.
• What is the curfew, and what is the sound curfew? They are frequently different, and the second one is what stops the music.
• What are the load-in and soundcheck windows? A 10pm load-in when your artist arrives at 9 is a problem you want to find now.
• Who holds the licence and what does it cover? Ticketed entry, late hours and capacity all sit under the venue's licence.
• What happens if it underperforms? Ask directly. A venue that will renegotiate a minimum on a bad night is telling you something good about working with them.

What is actually negotiable

More than new promoters assume, especially midweek. In rough order of how often venues move:

1. The night. Tuesday is almost always cheaper than Saturday, and often free.
2. The minimum. Especially for a series, where the venue is buying regularity.
3. The split percentage. Particularly once you have proved a headcount.
4. Included staff. Getting the in-house engineer included is worth real money.
5. The end time. An extra hour is an extra hour of bar.

What rarely moves: capacity, licensing conditions, and security requirements, because those are legal obligations rather than commercial preferences.

Get it in writing

An email that lists the date, the deal shape, the numbers, what is included, the times and who pays for what is enough. It is not about distrust. It is that the person you agreed with may not be working the night, and the person who is needs to know what was promised.

Build the relationship, not the one-off

The best terms go to promoters who are easy to work with. Turn up when you said, respect the curfew, leave the room clean, settle immediately, and tell the venue honestly how it went. Venues talk to each other, and a promoter with a reputation for a clean settle and a well-behaved crowd gets offers rather than making requests.