Routing Your First Tour: Anchors, Holds and Drive Times

A first tour is rarely a tour in the sense the word suggests. It is a week or two of shows in cities you can reach, strung together so that each night pays for the drive to the next one — or at least loses less money than staying home would have. Whether it does comes down mostly to routing: which cities, in which order, on which nights, and how far apart. Bands that route well come home with a little money, a list of rooms that want them back and a story worth telling; bands that route badly spend the week driving past the audiences they needed.

The craft is learnable, and it starts long before anyone gets in the van.

Start From the Anchors

Every workable route is built around a few anchor dates — shows strong enough to justify the trip on their own. For a new act those are usually a hometown or release show, a support slot with an act that already draws in another city, a festival or showcase spot, or a friendly scene where you have played before. Book the anchors first, put them on the calendar, and treat every other date as filling the gaps between them.

Then fill outward from each anchor, using the nights around it. Fridays and Saturdays are the strongest nights almost everywhere, so they belong to your best cities; weeknights go to smaller towns, house shows, college towns and listening rooms that are used to a Tuesday crowd. A route that puts its weekend in a city where nobody knows you and its Wednesday in the one city that does has spent its best night on its weakest market.

To find rooms in a city you have never played, look at who books acts your size there: pick the city from the cities directory to see its upcoming listings, and a venue's page in the venue directory lists its upcoming bills, which is the quickest honest answer to "would this room book us?". Festivals with application windows a few months ahead make natural anchors if your timeline is long enough.

Distance Is the Real Budget

The number that decides whether a route works is not the guarantee; it is the hours between shows. Load-in, soundcheck, the set, settlement and load-out already take most of a day, and a long drive on top of that is where tours go wrong — tired drivers, missed load-ins, cancelled shows. Keep most legs to a drive you could do comfortably after a short night's sleep, put the long drives on days off or before a night with a late slot, and look at the map for loops rather than straight lines out and back, so the drive home is not a full day of nothing.

Days off are not wasted. One every four or five shows keeps voices and tempers working, gives a buffer when something breaks, and is often worth more than a weak weeknight that would have cost more in fuel and accommodation than the door brought in.

Holds, Confirmations and Timelines

Clubs and small rooms usually book a few months out; bigger rooms and festivals further ahead. While a route is still taking shape, venues will often put a date on hold — reserved for you, but not yet confirmed. Holds are ranked: a first hold has priority, and if a second act asks for the same night, the venue may ask you to confirm or release it. Treat holds as provisional, confirm or release them promptly, and never leave a venue holding a date you are no longer going to play; bookers remember that longer than they remember the show.

A date is real when the terms are in writing: the date, your set time and length, load-in, the deal and what the venue provides. Once it is confirmed, send the advance as you would for any show — stage plot, input list and timings — and add the routing details only you can know, like when you will actually arrive from the previous city.

Two clauses to understand before you agree to anything:

• Radius clauses. Some venues and promoters ask you not to play within a set distance of their show for a set period before and after it, so your audience is not split. Reasonable ones are normal; ask for the exact terms before you book nearby dates.
• Cancellation terms. What happens if you cancel, and what happens if they do. On a tour, one cancelled anchor can strand the dates around it, so it is worth knowing in advance.

Trade Shows With Other Bands

The most reliable way for a new act to play a city it has never drawn in is a show swap: a band from that city adds you to their bill there, and you do the same for them at home. Their audience becomes yours for a night, they get a hometown crowd in return, and both of you have a better show than either would have booked alone. Most touring acts at this level are routed largely on swaps, introductions and favours; the bands you meet on the road are the booking network you will use for years.

Make the Numbers Visible

Before you confirm the last date, put the whole run in one table: each night's city, venue, deal, expected draw, the distance from the night before, and the costs for that day — fuel, food, accommodation. Add it up. A route that loses money can still be worth doing, as an investment in cities you plan to return to, but that should be a decision you made, not a surprise you discover at the end. The getting-paid page covers the deal structures, and the touring page covers the insurance, paperwork and border questions that come with the van.

Worth Knowing on the Way Out

• Anchor first, fill second — book the shows that justify the trip, then build the nights around them.
• Weekends go to your strongest cities — weeknights to small towns and rooms used to a midweek crowd.
• Drive times are the budget — keep legs short, plan loops, and schedule a day off every few shows.
• Holds are provisional — confirm or release them promptly, and get every confirmed date in writing.
• Swap shows with local bands — their audience for yours is how new cities open up.