ask around at venues, bars, clubs etc. some will let you do a night for free hire if you can convince them that they will make their money on drinks, they might even have a sounds system, one club even gave us 10% of the bar takings because they sold so much booze.
look for new clubs or struggling clubs as they are more likely to go for it rather than somewhere fully booked.
a lot of people will play for free, again if you can convince them that they will be playing to a packed crowd of people who are loving it.
then you’ve just got to get these people you’ve promised to come down. just make black n white flyers, photocopy and hand out as much as you can, get a bit of a buzz going. if it’s a free night people are bound to come. make sure you put a bit of info about the night on the flyer, genres of music, any drinks deals, friendly crowd etc. cause if it’s your first night people will wanna know what to expect.
that should get you going, has always worked for me in the past 😀
