Booking Touring Crew: Holds, Availability and Confirmations

Tours book crew in stages. First you ask people whether they're available for a set of dates, then they put a hold on those dates for you, and finally you confirm the booking with agreed rates and terms. Holds are tentative and usually ranked, so a crew member can hold the same dates for more than one client as a first hold and a second hold, and a confirmation is what turns a hold into a job.

That's the short version. The details are where tours and freelancers often misunderstand each other, so it's worth going through how it typically works. Practices vary by country, by part of the industry and by person, so treat this as the common pattern rather than a rulebook.

Who books the crew

On most tours, the production manager books the technical crew (audio, lighting, video, backline, stage management, riggers), while the tour manager looks after the overall touring party and often handles roles like merch, security or assistants. On smaller tours one person does both. Some crew are booked directly by the artist's management, and some through a production company or vendor that supplies both kit and people.

The touring crew roles post explains who does what on a typical crew. For booking, the important thing is that one person owns each role's booking, so a freelancer never gets two conflicting messages from the same tour.

Crew booking also depends on the tour's shape. You can't confirm anyone until dates are reasonably firm, and you can't agree terms until you know roughly what the tour budget can carry.

Checking availability

The first step is simple: ask whether someone is free.

A good availability request includes:

• The dates. Either the specific show dates, or an in date and out date (when they join and when they finish), which includes rehearsals, travel and off days in between.
• The role. "FOH engineer", "LD and programmer", "backline tech for guitars and bass".
• The shape of the tour. Territory, bus or fly dates, rough number of shows. Someone may be free but not want six weeks on a bus.
• Any prep or rehearsal days. Production rehearsals, programming days or shop prep before the first show.
• Whether it's firm or speculative. If the tour hasn't been confirmed by the promoters yet, say so.

Asking by show dates works for one-offs and short runs. In/out dates are better for longer tours, since the person is effectively committed for the whole period. Be accurate about both: a freelancer will plan the rest of their year around what you tell them.

Send the request early. Good crew are often booked months in advance, especially in busy seasons, and the tour planning timeline should leave room for it.

First holds, second holds and challenges

When a crew member says they're available, they'll usually offer to put a hold on the dates. A hold is a tentative reservation: they're keeping the dates for you, but neither side is committed yet.

How ranked holds work

Freelancers often get more than one enquiry for the same dates. A common way to handle that is to rank them:

• First hold. The first client to ask, who has first claim on the dates.
• Second hold. A later client who'd like the dates if the first one falls through. Some people go to a third hold and beyond.

A freelancer who's holding dates for you as a first hold shouldn't confirm the same dates with someone else without coming back to you first.

Challenging a hold

If the second-hold client is ready to confirm, the crew member typically goes back to the first-hold client and challenges the hold: "I've had a firm offer for those dates. Can you confirm, or release me?" The first client then usually has an agreed window to decide. If they confirm, the job is theirs. If they release, or don't answer in time, the second-hold client can book.

This is why it matters to be honest about where your tour stands. If you're holding someone for dates you know are unlikely to happen, release them early. It's a small industry, and people remember who held them for months and then disappeared.

Partial holds

Sometimes a crew member can do only part of a run: free for the first two weeks, not the third. Say whether that works for you. Some roles can be split between two people with a clear handover date; others really need one person for the whole tour.

Confirming a booking

A confirmation turns the hold into a job. It should be clear and in writing, even if it's a short email or message. Typically it covers:

Bigger productions usually follow up with a formal contract. Smaller tours often rely on a written confirmation. Either way, both sides should be able to point to what was agreed.

Day rates and how days are paid

Crew pay varies widely by role, experience, territory and tour level, so there's no single standard figure. What's useful is understanding the structure.

• Day rate. A fee per working day. Common for one-offs, short runs and festival work.
• Weekly rate. A fee per week, common for longer tours where the person is away the whole time.
• Show days, travel days and off days. Some tours pay every day at the same rate; others pay a reduced rate for travel or off days. Agree which before confirming.
• Prep and rehearsal days. Often paid, sometimes at a different rate. Make it explicit.
• Per diems. A daily allowance for meals and incidentals, usually paid on top of the rate for every day on the road, though some tours treat days with full catering differently.
• Buyouts. Cash paid in place of a meal or other item, such as a meal buyout when there's no catering.
• Overtime and long days. Some crew, particularly local or union crew in certain places, have rules about maximum hours or overtime. Check what applies.

For tax, employment status and union rules, check with an accountant or the relevant organization in each territory, as these differ and change.

When dates change after confirming

Tours move. Shows get added, dropped, rescheduled or canceled, and crew are often the last to hear. Handling changes well protects your reputation and your crew's livelihood.

• Tell people quickly. As soon as you know dates are moving, let the crew know, even if you don't have the full answer yet.
• Added dates. Ask, don't assume. Someone confirmed for March may have booked other work for April.
• Shortened or canceled tours. This is where the cancellation terms in the confirmation matter. Common approaches include paying for a notice period or a share of the canceled days, but it depends entirely on what was agreed.
• Swapped dates. Moving a show by a day can clash with another job the person has. Treat it as a new availability request for that date.
• Put changes in writing. Update the confirmation with the new dates and resend it.

If someone can't make a revised date, help find a replacement and arrange a handover rather than leaving them to sort it out.

Keeping track of holds across a crew

On a small tour, a notes app or spreadsheet is enough. Once you have a full crew, several tours in planning and dates that keep shifting, it becomes easy to lose track of who's on first hold, who's waiting on a challenge and who has actually confirmed. A clear record per person, per date range, with each status and when it changed, saves a lot of awkward phone calls.

Some teams use shared spreadsheets; others use dedicated tools. Conductour, for example, lets you send availability requests by show dates or by in/out dates, which crew answer from a private link. Whatever you use, the principles are the same: ask clearly, hold honestly, confirm in writing, and tell people early when things change.