Riders
What is a technical rider?
A technical rider is the document that tells a venue what your show needs technically: who is on stage, what they play, what has to be provided, and what you bring yourself. This guide explains what goes in it and how much detail is useful.
The short answer
A technical rider is the technical half of a performance agreement. It answers one question for the people building the show: what do we have to provide, and what are you bringing? Everything in it exists to make that answer unambiguous before the day of the show.
It is not a wish list and it is not a contract negotiation. It is a working document read under time pressure by a production manager, a sound engineer and a stage crew.
Who actually reads it
The production manager
Checks feasibility: stage size, power, riser needs, schedule. Usually the first person to see it, often days or weeks ahead.
The front-of-house engineer
Reads the input list and the channel count, and works out how the show is patched and mixed.
The monitor engineer
Reads the monitor section: how many mixes, wedges or in-ears, and who hears what.
The stage crew
Works from the stage plot to build the stage before you arrive.
What a technical rider contains
- Contacts: tour manager, front-of-house and monitor engineers, production contact
- Stage plot: the scaled top-down drawing of positions, backline and monitors
- Input list: numbered channels with source, microphone or DI, stand and notes
- Monitoring: number of mixes, wedges or in-ears, and who listens to each
- Backline and equipment: what you carry, what the venue supplies, acceptable alternatives
- PA, power and stage requirements: system expectations, power drops, stage size, risers
- Schedule: load-in, soundcheck, doors, set length
How detailed should it be?
Detail is worth including when it changes what someone has to do. "We need three monitor mixes" changes the setup; "we prefer a warm mix" does not. A rider that states only what changes the outcome tends to be read; one padded with preferences tends to be skimmed.
Scale to the show as well. A club with a 200 capacity and a festival with a twenty-minute changeover need the same facts but tolerate very different lengths. Mark what is essential and what is merely preferred, so a venue that cannot meet everything can still tell you what they can do.
Technical rider versus hospitality rider
The technical rider covers the show. The hospitality rider covers the people: dressing rooms, catering, parking, accommodation, guest list. They are read by different people at the venue, which is exactly why they belong in one document with a clear split rather than in two files that get separated in an email thread.
Keeping it current
Most riders go wrong between shows rather than on paper. Somebody swaps a keyboard, adds a backing-track channel or drops an amp, and the stage plot, the input list and the PDF already sent to three promoters stop agreeing with each other.
In ArtistRider the rider is structured data rather than a layout: the stage plot, channels, equipment and hospitality requirements live in one document, PDF export is generated from it, and a share link always shows the current version instead of an attachment named after a version number.