How To Start a Club Night Without it Being Shit

It’s shallow but true: the most important thing about being a student is having money to survive. Freshers week is approaching, everyone is trying to reinvent themselves, and the common belief is that the DJs are the ones with the money and reputation. But it's actually promoters that have the most dosh and street cred. Putting on a club-night shows you have taste, know how to take control, and are in charge of the free beer.

Putting on a night is great for several reasons. Not only do you have something to do between watching everything on NovaMov and picking Dorito crumbs out of your belly-button, you get to choose where, when, and who you're partying with and you're bound to make a shed-load of new mates. Sure, they're likely to be acquaintances you later mass-invite to Facebook events rather than the sort of friend that'll calm you down after you've attempted to physically assault the library's printer in three years time. But who cares? Nobody stays friends with the people they meet in Freshers Week. You may as well widen the net and scoop up as many humans as you can.

We spoke to Amrou Al-Kadhi, who ran a drag night called Denim in Cambridge, and Louis Greenwood, who promoted nights in Leeds, about how to put on a student club night and make sure that it isn't shit. Here are some handy tips on exactly how to do that.

You want somewhere that isn’t too big. A venue that holds 1000 people will forever be empty when you’re trying to lure in the rare vapourwave fans of Coventry on a Tuesday night. Instead, always go for the smaller option. Does the venue resemble an abandoned garage? Can you fit a lorry inside? No? Perfect. Sold-out nights create a buzz. This is the key to selling out every night; all you need to remember is that most students are sheep but dressed in bucket-hats and Nike Roche Runs.

Amrou: I wanted somewhere that felt hidden and special, somewhere that would make the first night feel as if no one knew what was going on inside if they weren’t there. As if everyone in there were the only ones in the know.

Louis: Our first venue was an old social centre. It wasn't meant for club nights and the fact that it felt like we weren't supposed to be there was great. But things got a bit ropey when the capacity reached almost double what it was supposed to.

After spending three years subsisting solely on microwave pizza and the free samples at Sainsbury's hot food counter, you'll graduate. Once this happens you have to find a job, you'll begin speaking and thinking in business abbreviations, so why not get an early start right now? Club nights need a USP (Unique Selling Point) to stand out from the mass of 2-4-1 nights and Pound-a-pints. Find a gap in the market and exploit it. As Kanye put it: “Pop a wheelie on the zeitgeist”. Basically, don't put on traffic light, lock'n'key, or throwback to the 90s parties because even the people that willingly go to them spend most of the evening regretfully refreshing their feeds. Instead, think about the things you enjoy, the things you would want to happen at the party you're hosting. You've got a student loan for a reason; use it to splash out on night you dream about before leaving the house every Friday evening.

Amrou: I wanted to offer people a chance to explore something they otherwise might not get to explore elsewhere. Cambridge can get quite pressured and repressed, so I think we provided a much-needed release every term.

Louis: I think every promoter wants to believe that their club night is 'different' and I don't think this is something that just magically happens, you have to put a lot of work into it.

Running a club night is basically a business. Sure, it may be like one of those fake businesses on The Apprentice where it doesn’t really matter if you fuck up and when you run out of money you can run back home - but it’s still a business. You have to make money, cover your costs, or be willing to say goodbye to any living expenses until the next time your student loan rolls in. But that doesn't mean you can be greedy. Everyone else can barely afford the bus into town so your best bet is to make sure your night is free. Get a good deal with the venue and you'll be able to take a share from the bar - which should be populated with people looking to spend their entry price on drinks anyway.

Louis: Our intention was to shake things up a bit and highlight exactly how extortionate some of the promoters in our city were being. I remember when we put on Benji B, Wookie and MJ Cole and charged £5.

This seems obvious, and it is, but here's a reminder that the internet is the best tool at your disposal. The flyers that are handed out on the street ultimately get thrown in the bin, but invite someone to your Facebook event, and you can beam up-to-the-minute information about your event to their location in real-time. There's still a few rules, of course. No one wants a notification every two hours - so don't update your event every time you have a little-panic and want to change the phrasing in the description. There's also unlimited scope for views, online campaigns, etc.

Old guerrilla marketing methods are still useful, however. Stickers and tags around your university campus work best. They remind everyone stumbling in, wearing last night's clothes, searching for a glass of orange juice, where they went last night.

Amrou: I think it’s important now to find innovative ways to create an aura for each event – one of our most successful ploys was a hilarious advert which we spread online for weeks.

Louis: From walking around the park with a speaker in a buggy to crafting 'ticket packs' which included personalised lighters, sweeties and handmade rizla packets which took us a stupid amount of time to make - I’m sure there were people that thought it was weird but hopefully it made us stand out in some way.

Even if you take this guide as gospel, there’ll probably be a few nights where you’re stuck watching an Italian exchange student gum ket on an empty dancefloor, while you frantically text all your mates with offers of £2.50 cheap list. Learn from your mistakes and move forward.

Louis: Looking back there weren't so many slip-ups just some extremely embarrassing examples of being bad promoters. I remember when our headliner turned up to a broken CDJ. When he asked us to sort it we kinda just said drunkenly, "ahhh mate. Don't worry. It'll be alright".

This isn’t 2006.

Follow Luke on Twitter: @lkmrgnbrttn