The timeline for a music show: counting down from D-30 to D+7

The question clients ask first is “how long do we need?”. For a mid-sized outdoor music show, thirty days is a comfortable runway: enough to run the site survey, settle the concept, write a minute-by-minute script and rehearse at least once before the final rehearsal. Tighter schedules still work, but the first thing cut is always rehearsal time — and rehearsal is what decides whether the programme runs smoothly or in fits and starts.

The dates below are illustrative, drawn from experience; the real schedule for any given programme depends on its scale, its venue and the paperwork involved, and is fixed as its own progress table in the contract.

D-30 to D-25 · Taking the brief and the site survey#

The most important job in week one is not the idea. It is putting the brief in writing: the aim of the programme, the message, who the guests are, how many of them, the budget frame, the elements that must appear and the ones that must never appear. Crew and client sign off on the same written brief — the cheapest step in the whole project, and the one that saves the most.

In parallel: a site survey in the show’s own time slot (see ten criteria for a site survey), a review of the licences and permissions to apply for, and a list of the items with long lead times — usually a large LED screen, a special act staged on the water, or a performer with a full diary.

Deliverables: the agreed brief · the site survey report · a first risk list.

D-25 to D-20 · Concept and narrative#

This is the stage we guard most closely. A programme without a narrative is only a row of acts standing side by side: guests leave with nothing to retell. So before anyone discusses stage dimensions, one question has to be answered — what story does tonight tell? How the opening leads in, where the climax sits, what image the closing leaves behind.

The visual line is settled here too: 2D/3D stage renders, the colour palette, the visual style for the LED screen. The client approves a render, not a description — that is what keeps major changes out of the final week.

Deliverables: the concept with its narrative · stage renders · the visual and music direction.

D-20 to D-14 · Minute-by-minute script and production plan#

The script turns from idea into cue list: every time code states who does what, which track plays, how the lighting moves, what the screen shows, which part the host speaks. At the same time the build drawings, the equipment schedule and the crew list are locked so orders can go out.

This is also when the licence applications are completed and the items with legal constraints are signed off — fireworks and pyrotechnics fall under Decree 137/2020/ND-CP, so they go ahead only through a licensed operator, and they have to be settled early because they depend on paperwork.

The job that habitually runs late: the list of media assets needed from the client — vector logos, brand video, speeches, the VIP list, exact names and job titles for the awards segment. One wrong letter in an award recipient’s name is a mistake the whole room reads off the big screen.

Deliverables: the minute-by-minute script · the technical cue list · the crew list · licence applications submitted.

D-14 to D-7 · Production and staging#

Backdrop, props and print go into build; visuals are cut to the script; the acts rehearse with the choreographer; music is recorded and edited if the programme has its own arrangement. For an outdoor stage, this is also the week to settle ground load spreading, ballast and the wind threshold that stops the build.

A practical rule: every item finishes before build day. Unfinished work does not travel to site. Site is where things are assembled, not where they are made.

Deliverables: completed build items · final visuals · an hour-by-hour build schedule · the weather contingency plan in writing.

D-7 to D-1 · Final rehearsal#

The final rehearsal is not a friendly run-through. It is a fault-finding session. Three things have to be run in full: the transitions between acts, the ceremonial segment with real people standing in their real positions, and the contingency branch of the script. The audio crew tunes the system in place, scans frequencies for the wireless microphones, and walks every cue again with the host.

The rehearsal closes with a fault log naming who owns each item and the time it must be cleared by — not a page of general comments.

Deliverables: the rehearsal report · the final cue list issued to every crew · the list of faults cleared.

D-DAY · Show night#

One person calls the show from the cue list; every crew reports on one agreed comms channel. Each situation already has a written answer: power loss, rain, a performer arriving late, a VIP changing their slot. This is why a programme needs one accountable person on show night rather than each contractor deciding its own part.

Easy to overlook: naming who rolls camera on the key moments and who photographs the guest area — the media assets you have afterwards depend entirely on whether anyone was given that job.

Deliverables: a programme that runs to script · an incident log, if there was one, recording how each incident was handled.

D+1 to D+7 · Sign-off and handover#

De-rig, restore the site, sign off with the venue. Then comes what the client takes away: the programme report, an edited set of photos and video, and whatever was measured (livestream views, guests checked in). This material is an asset the brand keeps using in its own communications — so it is handed over with an index, not as a single drive link.

Deliverables: the closing report · the selected photo and video set · the sign-off and site restoration record.

Three jobs that always run late#

1. Media assets from the client (vector logos, job titles, brand video) — set the deadline at D-14, because this is the input the visuals are built from.
2. Rehearsing the contingency branch — the first thing cut when the schedule tightens, and the reason show night falls apart when the weather turns.
3. Naming who records the media assets — if nobody is assigned, there is nothing to retell afterwards.

The six-stage skeleton above is the process we apply to every programme, large or small — see each stage and its deliverables. If you already have a date in mind, send us the brief with the date and the guest numbers, and we will build the schedule backwards from there.