Young Producers is a new project for young people who have taken part in Making Tracks, supported by the Arts Patron Trust. Nirobi and Paradox are collaborating to put on a gig this month involving other young people and will be blogging about the process.

Our Personal Development Coordinator Lauren caught up with them at the end of day 1:

Lauren: So how have you found your first day in one word?

Paradox: Good, still.

Nirobi: Interesting, started off understanding how to structure an event. We brainstormed ideas for what we’re going to talk about, and then now we’re checking venues, which is awesome. We get to see the kind of venues that are out there and what would be good for this type of event.

Lauren: Getting first-hand experience of what working with venues is like.

Nirobi: Yes exactly.

Lauren: Things don’t always go to plan…

Nirobi: Yes, one of the venues was closed, but luckily I’ve been there before so I know what it looks like downstairs!

Paradox: Probably not going to use it though, because that was disrespectful, they don’t deserve customers.

Nirobi: They don’t deserve our amazing talent and art! But we got this one, this current venue we’re checking out, called The Lighthouse and we’ve been to Hoxton7 as well, nice and intimate – I liked downstairs.

Paradox: Just looked at three or four venues and chatted to the booking agent, to see how many people go there on the daily, having a show and thought about what venue would be best.

Nirobi: We looked at the sizes and how many people we could fit in there… one of them was 300, so we’re looking at it realistically and seeing that we don’t want to have too big of a space and then it might look empty and not be as ‘lit’. Whereas if it’s smaller and intimate… plus, people that are already coming in from the street, so that’s possibly a better idea but we’re still thinking about it.

Lauren: Any learning?

Nirobi: I’ve never really looked at the logistics of how you put on events. I just go and think ‘wow this is amazing’, but actually it’s a lot of work!

Paradox: It’s good to get an idea of, when you see a booking agent, what questions you need to ask.

Nirobi: I want to develop how to promote and get people noticing more.

Don’t miss the gig on 25th July at The Lighthouse (62-68 Rivington Street, London EC2A 3A)!