Live Engineers/Stagehands/LD's, how do you deal with the offseason.

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

I'm going into my 3rd year of doing live audio/stagehand/lighting work. But the winters by me just die down so much. In the summer I'm working almost 7 days a week, every week. Then come september, 3 days is a good week. I'm probably gonna file for some form of unemployment, but I'm not the type of person who can just sit around and not work.

I def need to get my AE skills better which I'm well aware of. I was also just thinking of shopping myself around to some local bars and shit just to make a few extra bucks, plus it'll keep me on a board more frequently so I can get better. The whole lighting design stuff isn't really my thing, I get bored real quick with it and I just love audio wayyyy more. Plus out of the 3, the lighting is probably my weakest skill anyway. I can program some decent drums. But everyone and there dog can do that nowadays so I doubt I can make anything off of doing that. If any of you guys have an offseason how do you handle making any form of side income?

 

[Sloan]

Are you doing it freelance or with a company?
Being able to do it 7 days a week is rad as hell, but I would think a company would be able to find work all year, just think of all the holiday events that city's put on etc...

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

I work for 2 different companies. During christmas time it picks up a little bit. But I still have october, mid of jan. feb. march april. Then it picks back up mid to late may and i'll be flooded with work again. I just cant sit around for the few months that it slows down.

I'm thinking about trying to start a backline company to maybe make some side income during the off season. Plus both companies dont do backline so it would be an added benifit for them. I just gotta do my research on all of that still.

 

[egan.]

Theater work thrives in the winter and if you can get on with an AV company doing corporate work it pays well and is steady in the fall and spring.
Backline is an expensive game and you have serious competition in the tri-state area. Enter cautiously.

 

[Dalinkwent48@aim.com]

Theater work thrives in the winter and if you can get on with an AV company doing corporate work it pays well and is steady in the fall and spring.
Backline is an expensive game and you have serious competition in the tri-state area. Enter cautiously.

Thats what my holiday gigs are, all the christmas plays and other theater stuff. Never thought about looking into the AV work though so big thanks for that i'll check into it.

And as far as the backline stuff, the only research I have done is with the 2 companies I work with and the venues we work at. Most of them deal with companies in NY and hate having to travel there for all the stuff so they are in a sense waiting on me to get started and then they'll deal with me. I also have a guy who is basically going to act as a bank for me and buy all the gear provided I give him a percentage, which in my eyes would be the right thing to do anyway.

 

[kvoid]

I work for a rental company in the Middle East (Arab Gulf to be specific). Our off season here is summer. We do 90% of the work during October, November and early December. I highly suggest you look into freelancing for companies in our area