How specialist travel biz Stage & Screen is helping the industry to get live music back on the road

For over 25 years, Stage & Screen has been doing more than putting thousands of Australian and international acts on the road.

The largest company of its kind, Stage & Screen has made an imprint in other ways.

These include pioneering deals with airlines (including free and extended baggage allowances), hotel chains and car hire firms to make it easier for musicians on the road.

Stage & Screen has also been a major sponsor of the annual BIGSOUND conference.

“We’re looking at the future of the music industry by showcasing new talent coming through, not just the here and now whom everyone wants to cash in on,” general manager Adam Moon says.

Right now, Stage & Screen is getting ready for its busiest year in 2022 as it prepares for a record 400 tours, while sourcing more experienced staff to total up to 140.

A dedicated product manager is also sourcing new deals for the biz to lock in by year’s end.

“It’s our understanding of all the little things that allow us to tie an entire tour together,” Moon explains. “We start working with a band at the very beginning, in the planning stages. Sometimes we might even help shape the tour. We know the time frame that everything must be locked in.

“Time and time again bands have come to us to rescue a tour because they have left it with another agency which simply didn’t understand where something had to be locked in.”

Pictured:Stage & Screen GM, Adam Moon

A dedicated finance manager works with clients to keep costs down, deliver transparency, and accountability and enhanced data, with a range of payment options based on their billing cycle.

A previous tour by one of the biggest acts on the planet, for instance, needed 200 cars in each city. Stage & Screen had to ensure they were available months ahead of their hyped arrival in Australia.

Before they arrived, Moon flew to Miami to discuss with the star their luxury accommodation and private homes, and the downtime activities with their child.

Any tour involves moving a large number of people from airport to hotel to venue seamlessly while dealing with special requests, flexible check-ins and check-outs, extra security, artist privacy, and reviews on fine-tuning future tours.

Major concert tours are actually three tours in one, all travelling parallel to each other.

Party A is the star and immediate entourage, Moon explains. Party B includes the dancers and backup singers who also need spaces to rehearse and chill out in and have day trips on days off.

Party C is the crew, which travels ahead, and needs features like blackened windows as they’re sleeping through the day, and for whom the hotel bar will be open outside of usual trading hours.

“A normal travel agent wouldn’t see itself involved in an artist’s rider,” he tells TMN.  “But if special water must be flown in from another country, then Stage & Screen will take care of it.

“No matter how planned out a tour is, something will go wrong or have to be changed.”

Sometimes it could be a natural disaster, more common now, a COVID-19 outbreak.

Stage & Screen’s technology allows it to locate, track and alert travellers in such an event. Additional staff are brought in, and alternative travel bookings are made with minimal disruption.

The company’s “extra services” also include other kinds of crisis management.

These include providing lookalike decoys of the star to foil the paparazzi or having a standby hotel booking if the paparazzi are already waiting at the first hotel.

Stage & Screen’s long-term relationship with a leading freight operator ensures specialised handling services for equipment to be moved from venue to venue, door to door, and that it always arrives on time.

Ready to hit the road? Connect with an experienced travel manager at Stage & Screen today.