Advancing

Advancing is the process of communicating with the promoter and venue before arriving, to ensure a smooth show day. People usually in charge of advancing include tour managers, production managers, security, and merchandise representatives. Importantly, different roles do different advances — the tour manager does a certain advance (hospitality, travel, schedule, settlement), but the head of security does a completely different advance focused on safety and access. The production manager does a production advance covering all technical requirements. These happen in parallel. It's the tour manager's primary tool for preventing surprises on show day — and if you've ever walked into a venue to find the wrong PA system, no dressing room, and a promoter who "didn't get the rider," you understand why it exists.

What gets advanced

Everything. Production specs (PA, lighting, power, stage plot confirmation, rigging points), the full schedule (load-in, soundcheck, doors, set times, curfew), hospitality (catering, dressing rooms, day rooms, showers), travel logistics (loading dock access, bus parking, nearby hotels, ground transport), settlement details (ticket pricing, capacity, deal terms, merch split, comp tickets), security and credential distribution, and local crew numbers and call times.

When it happens

Advance timelines vary by tour size. Arena and stadium tours might start four to six weeks out. Club tours advance a week or two ahead. Festivals have their own advance process through production coordinators. The key is giving both sides time to address issues before they become show-day emergencies.

The advance as quality control

A thorough advance reveals problems while there's still time to fix them: the venue doesn't have enough power for your rig, the promoter forgot about the meet & greet, the loading dock can't fit a 53-foot trailer. Every issue caught in the advance is one that doesn't blow up at 8am on show day.