Pirate Party of Canada Forum

Wondering if we have people here with event planning experience. I am thinking a good promotion will be to host a fund raising campaign with several indie musician sympathetic to our cause. We might be able to get artist from outside Canada also. What would Election Canada think about such type of fund raising? Are we capable of organizing such concert?

Elections Canada doesn't have a problem with holding that sort of event. If we charge admission, we can issue tax receipts for tickets.

This actually came up earlier on as well. There has been a little bit around trying to organize something using the bands on CaPT. Harper has his annual BBQ. Other political parties hold gala dinner fundraisers. So holding a concert would work well.

The problem arises with the expenses vs revenue balance of a concert. You have to be certain that you'll make back the money spent on Venue, Liscenses, Food, Beverages, Insurance, Entertainment, Advertising, Collateral, Product Manufacturing, Staff (including the organizer), etc. An immediate rebound is that advertising can be done solely online to reduce costs, but then you end up with 5 attendees (happened last summer in Ottawa). It's also about an 8 - 12 month planning period for a decent concert.

Although The Party needs funds badly, at the present time running a concert fundraiser would be difficult considering the required initial capital to put something like that on. A better move, at present time, would be to become a sponsor for an event, and have a Pirate Party banner setup somewhere visible at the event. A few years down the line, when there's enough coin in the coffers, sure, hire an event manager like myself to setup the event. I've got 95 event managers graduating with me this year, and some of them are looking to get into running concerts, so I can put the party in touch with them, when we can put forth enough starting capital to ensure we'll be able to have a decent ROI.

In other words… you need money to make money.

I've organized 6 raves and about 20ish club events in my life. I have experience in pretty much every step of the organization and promotion of an event. Throwing a party is pretty expensive, but there are ways to save money. If you want to organize a concert, I'd love to help and put my experience to good use. While I wouldn't advise on throwing an all-night rave as a fundraiser for a political party, a daytime concert could be great. It's also a great way for people to hear our message. 

In your experience, how much $$$ are we talking about ?

It all depends on the scale. Renting a small nightclub can be pretty cheap, a lot of them will let you throw your event for free if you'll bring them more people then they usually get. If we want to go bigger, we have to think a few thousand dollars location. I would definitely rent a location that already has a sound system, lights, sound tech, etc. You save a lot of money this way as rental is one of the expensive things. The next thing we have to consider is the artists themselves. This is where contacts come in. As this is a fundraiser, a lot of bands who believe in the cause might play for very cheap, or even for free.

Bottom line is, give me 2000$ and a team of volunteers, you'll get a small, local show. Not that big and the only reason it would make the news is because of the pirate party association. We could probably have one popular local band. At the same time, 10 000$ can get us a much bigger show. Keep in mind that the outrageous amounts we hear about on the news usually involve superstars asking for ridiculous amounts. I definitely think the option is doable, and I would propose forming a committee to organize the event. We can look at an area, discuss the potential there and decide on a scale and budget accordingly.


I've seen things like that happen. Generating hype for an event can be hard, especially if you're unknown as a promoter. The whole debate about using flyers vs promoting online has been raging for years. My opinion on it is that promoting only online will work if you already have people interested in what you do. Sure, flyers are expensive, but if used properly, they work. As for individual expenses, it's possible to save money on most of those and they're really a case by case thing. Usually a lot of them come with the venue.

Oh, and here are some of my best events, so you get an idea of what I've done in the past and know I can at least pretend I know what I'm talking about.   ;D

http://www.rave.ca/en/event/raves_r_us_2/  Raves'r'us 2, probably the best party I've thrown. About 400 people, huge turnout for the Montreal rave scene at the time.

http://www.rave.ca/en/event/time_machine_2_frankie_bones/ Time Machine 2, this one was aimed at a slightly older crowd, as I brought in "oldschool" djs, including Frankie Bones headlining the event. (for those of you who don't know, he's pretty much the one guy who brought raves to north america.) 250-300 ish people showed up.

http://www.rave.ca/en/event/project_mayhem_explosive_kandyfest/ Explosive Kandyfest, last party I threw before my retirement. About 300 people if I remember correctly.