Block Booking for Artists
General Information
The BC Touring Council (BCTC) provides and operates a block booking program for its members. The block booking process allows our members to experience the power of collective buying – it increases the potential to purchase shows that might normally be out of reach for individual theatres, arts and cultural centres, or festivals, and to buy shows that may not always be considered for smaller markets.
The block booking process ensures that communities have access to a greater number of artistic experiences. Through block booking, BCTC addresses the need of our presenters to bring amazing cultural experiences to their communities, regardless of the size and location.
The block booking program is administered by the Block-booking Coordinator who operates the block booking online program; the Arts Touring Connector (ATC).
About the Process
The Arts Touring Connector is a tool available to Presenters within subscribed Presenting Networks. Block Booking is a PRESENTER-DRIVEN activity. This means that the Presenters determine which Artists they are interested in pursuing for Shows, and thus which Artists are added to the system.
What the Coordinator does is help streamline the actual Booking process. The Coordinator does not decide who Tours and who doesn’t. And the Coordinator does not determine which Artists will play at which venues. The Coordinator takes the expressed interests of the Presenters and tries to make it happen. This online service is the means by which the Coordinator processes the Tour Requests and gets Tours to the contract stage.
Once sufficient interest is available for a Show, the Coordinator gives Arts Touring Connector (ATC) access to the Artist’s Representative to update any Tour information and have a view into the process as the Tour is created, worked, and then finalized.
The site is designed to give you a view into how the Presenting Organizations are moving towards Block Booking of your Shows.
The time of engagement will vary depending on the Presenting Network but will almost always be when a Show enters a stage where the Presenters have made a collective decision to present an offer of multiple Shows.
Once a Network of Presenters has engaged in development of a Tour, the status of the Tour can be made available to you, and any tasks assigned will be visible in the dashboard of the ATC. These tasks can include requests from the Network coordinators for documents, general request for more info on a Show, and LOI review and sign-off.
The Block Booking Coordinator and the ATC are not here to replace the Artist/Agent connections with the Presenters, but to assist in streamlining the negotiation process and effort to access smaller markets in an affordable way.