Glossary › Advance
Advance
Confirming every detail of a show with the venue or promoter before the day.
To advance a show is to confirm everything about it with the venue, promoter or festival before you arrive: schedule, production, power, parking, hospitality, guest list policy, merch terms and settlement. The "advance" is also the name for the information you collect, as in "the advance says load-in is at 2."
Advancing usually starts two to three weeks out and finishes a few days before the show. The tour manager or production manager emails the venue's production contact with the band's tech rider, stage plot and input list, then works through a list of questions until nothing is left unanswered.
Example
Ten days out, the TM emails the promoter rep: "Confirming 2pm load-in, 5pm soundcheck, doors 7, our set 9:15 to 10:30, hard curfew 11. Can you send the parking info and the merch split?" The answers go straight into the day sheet.
Why it matters
Almost every show-day problem (no parking for the trailer, wrong mic count, a curfew nobody mentioned) is an advance question that wasn't asked.