Key Points:
- Look for flexible space in the library environment to stage the show
- Don't consign your hot act to an annexed style, "out of the way" meeting room
- Visualize the transformed space and let it motivate you
The first step to take when you have opted to get involved with Get It Loud in Libraries is to figure out just which part of your library to stage the gig. With GILIL the landscape and backdrop of the space - books - is crucial and it's what your band is buying into and signing up for - to play a genuine public library. Consigning your act to a meeting room to perform, or some faceless space is simply not an option.
A finely maintained balance of expectations and ambition is the key to identifying the right space and visualizing it filled with 50-200 people having the time of their lives in your library.
An example of this is how shows are staged at Lancaster Library in the old music department. During normal working hours with so much CD shelving shrinking the visual sense of the room, it is hard to visualize the space that can be unlocked once those shelves are relocated and desks are removed.
The beauty of the project happening in that kind of scenario is that in a blink of an eye, once the show is over and the crowd has dispersed, and the room is back to normal again. Like an adult fairytale, it allows libraries to be magical places again.
Defining your space
You are looking for a flexible, public, book-lined space within your traditional library walls with the following criteria:
- Book lined room to aid acoustics and ambience
- A sense of amphitheatre and drama
- Movable stacks or shelving units (if you are getting new bookshelf systems do ensure they are on casters)
- Reasonable open oblong, square or circular space to accommodate staging, lighting equipment and audience
- Reasonable space for small assembly seating plan
- Ample electrical sockets
- Ample fire exits and fire exit signage
- Toilet facilities
- Reasonable access from your artist's " green room" to the stage
- A clear flow from the entrance of the building to the performance area
Let's remember we are staging gigs in libraries; it's meant to be quirky and offbeat; it's not intended to be Kylie at the O2 Arena. It's OK for the space to be retro, or bohemian or to have seen better days. Once the doors open, the house lights dim, the amps are lit, the show lights flare and the band take to the stage all this will only enhance the atmosphere and make your show what it is.
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Photo credit: Frances Ross