When should I apply to tour with you?
- Our seasons for hosting events run in Spring (March-May) and Autumn (September-November), we work up to a year ahead to book artists and confirm venues.
- We don’t have a set period in the calendar when we openly call for applications. We welcome conversations and tour packs throughout the year but you need to be clear when you want to tour and give us plenty of notice. Last minute bookings are becoming increasingly rare.
- We are currently looking for artists for our Autumn 2022 season and have not yet confirmed anything on the menu but we are starting to have discussions with artists. We actively encourage applications from Black and Minority Ethnic artists, disabled artists and LGBTQIA+ artists. [Updated November 21]
How should I apply?
- Check out our Company-Information-Form – if your tour pack contains all of this key information then just send us your tour pack! If you’ve filled out a form for another rural touring scheme, don’t waste time doing ours (you’re busy enough!) just send us what you wrote elsewhere.
- We get a lot of applications and at peak times we just don’t have the capacity to reply to everyone, and we’re sorry about that. But please rest assured we are looking, and we are filing them, and if we are interested and we want to know more we will be in touch.
- You might want to consider sending us video clips, links to music, images etc – why not create a dropbox or a shared folder so you’re not sending large files via email, then you can easily add content or make changes and everything is stored in one place.
What is the likelihood I’ll get booked?
- Quick answer – slim but still worth applying
- We are a small rural and library scheme hosting approximately 25 events per season. In order to make a tour work for our artists we try to offer at least 2-3 dates per artist/company. So realistically we can only work with 10-12 artists/companies per season, and remember, from those we need to offer a broad range of artistic genre. We aim to deliver theatre, dance, music, children’s/family work, storytelling, circus, magic (all manner of artistic medium) within a very small scale programme.
- We have a commitment to programme work from RTDI (Rural Touring Dance Initiative), Big Imaginations (children’s theatre consortium for the North) and Inn Crowd (live literature in pub settings) – if you come to us through those partners you stand a higher chance of being booked for those areas because of our existing agreement.
- We also actively encourage applications from Black and Minority Ethnic artists, disabled artists and
LGBTQIA+ artists.
- We don’t shy away from new work and new artists, but we might want to develop a relationship with you and see your work before we book. Better still, talk to us when you’re in development and we’ll offer advice on making work suitable for our venues, hosts and audiences.
Is my show suitable for rural touring?
- Did you create it with touring in mind? If it’s a massive production with technical bells and whistles requiring a pre-rig, a team of technicians in house and a raked stage then ‘nope’. And telling us you can ‘strip it back’ to fit probably isn’t good enough for us.
- The minimum performance space (ie. where you stand) is 3m x 3m with 2m ceiling height – we can get much bigger but as a rule the minimum is a good starting point.
- Be prepped to bring all your own equipment and run it yourself, as very few spaces have any tech/stage/staff.
- We’re not prudes, but if your show has explicit content, swearing or triggering themes you need to be upfront and tell us so we can have an open conversation with our hosts.
- Remember it’s not only your show but the marketing that has to be appropriate to our audiences – we don’t have niche audiences – our audiences are looking for a good night out that challenges, stimulates and entertains, but the work needs to appeal across a broad spectrum.