I hosted an art gallery / techno party at a non-profit organisation I volunteer for. It's a club for alternative cultural events everyone can afford. We're talking 5€ at the door and 1,50€ for a beer, at a 10 hour event with multiple DJs and life bands.
It took 4 weeks of preparation to create a concept, book artists, DJs, techs, a caterer etc.
On Friday after work I drove to the club to prepare it.
We built a video installation, mounted a free-standing vertical canvas to practice graffitti, hung 20 artworks, tested sound and light equipment, etc.
I was back home at midnight.

On Saturday I drove back at noon to finish preparations, then ran the show, which went from 6pm to 4am the next morning.
I was back home at 9am, after working 37h on a weekend.

It was the first time I did any of this, and since my partner was sick, I was doing most of it alone. One of the most exhausting weekends of my life.
But twice as many people showed up as expected, and it was a complete success.
Even though an art exhibit doesn't exactly fit our usual 18-24 year old audience.

[–] Vent@lemm.ee 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

That sounds amazing! Any suggestions on how to find local events like this? How was this marketed?

[–] superkret@feddit.org 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

We primarily market over word of mouth, a self-hosted web forum and Instagram.
I've never seen a club like this anywhere else, that's why I became a member and devote up to 20h a week to keeping it alive.
It's a wonderful oasis in our capitalistic hell-scape.

(There's a pool behind the yellow door 😁)