Venue

Calendar & holds

Calendar & holds is your venue's diary: holds ranked per space and date (H1, H2, H3...), confirmed shows, private events, dark days and maintenance. Confirming a hold creates the event sheet for the night and releases the other holds on that date. In the left menu, under Venue, choose Calendar & holds. It belongs to VenueOps. Create your venue on Venue profile first; until then the page says "Create the venue first". Owners, admins, managers, ops and coordinators can change the calendar; other seats read it.

How do I read the calendar?

Pick the space at the top (All spaces, or one room). With several venues, the first dropdown switches venue, and All venues shows every venue on one grid (pick one venue to add holds).
Choose Month, Year or Holds for the view. Use the arrows and Today to move.
Colours follow the legend: Confirmed, Hold, Private and Dark. A hold chip shows its rank, such as H1. A dashed red hold is under challenge.
A day with more than three items shows how many more (for example "+2 more"). A weekday closed by a dark-day rule reads "Dark by rule".

In Year, click a month or a day to open that month.

How do I filter the calendar?

Under the toolbar, the Show row ticks which kinds of entry appear: Shows (confirmed events), Holds, Rentals and private (private events) and Internal (dark days, maintenance and weekly dark rules). The dropdown beside them shows one promoter's entries only (Every promoter shows all). Show everything clears the filters. The month grid, the year grid and the counts under the grid follow the filters, and the line under the grid says "(filtered)" while one is on. The Holds view follows the promoter you pick but always lists every hold. Your filters are remembered for you in this browser, so the calendar opens the way you left it.

How do I add a hold?

Click a day on the month grid, or choose Add hold.
Check the Type is Hold and pick the Space (or All spaces to hold every room).
Set the Start date and, for a run, the End date.
Fill in Artist / act or Event title (one of them is required), and optionally Promoter, Agent, Agent email, Agent phone, Expires in (days) and Notes.
Choose Place hold.

The hold is ranked automatically behind any hold already on those dates for that space, and the toast tells you its rank. A hold cannot go on a date that is confirmed, private, dark or under maintenance for that space, or on a weekday that is dark by rule.

How does the hold ladder work?

Each space and date has its own ladder: the first hold is H1, the next H2, and so on. Hold rules sets how deep it goes (see below); with a depth set, ranks read "H2 of 3". When a hold is released, expires or loses a challenge, every hold below it moves up one rank. If a hold has an Agent email, that address is emailed when its rank moves and when it is challenged. The Holds view lists every open hold with its Date, Space, Rank, Act, Promoter / agent and Expires, with Open, Challenge and Confirm buttons.

How do hold expiry dates work?

In Expires in (days), enter how many days the hold lasts. Leave it empty to use your venue's default, which the field shows as a placeholder ("never" when there is none). When a hold passes its expiry, it is released automatically and the holds below move up. The event view shows "Hold expires" with the time.

How do I challenge a hold?

A lower hold can challenge the hold directly above it on the same space and dates, when both are active.

In the Holds view, choose Challenge H1 (or whichever rank is above) on the lower hold's row, or open the lower hold and choose the same button.
Confirm. The message says how many hours the holder gets (48 by default).

The challenged hold turns dashed red with "answer by" and its deadline. Its agent gets an email and your admins get a notification. The holder must confirm or release before the deadline; if they do neither, the hold is released automatically and the challenger moves up. A hold can be under only one challenge at a time. Hold rules changes the challenge window.

How do I set the hold rules?

Choose Hold rules.
Set Holds per date: how deep the ladder goes on one date in one space (H1 to Hn, up to 20). Leave it empty for no limit, which is how every venue starts.
Set the Challenge window (hours) (48 to start) and Holds expire after (days) (empty is never).
Choose Save.

The rules cover every hold: the ones you place, the ones tours request and the ones from your public page. Once a date's ladder is full, the next hold on it is refused with "The hold ladder ... is full", moving a hold onto it is refused too, and your open-dates page and tour searches show that date as taken. Holds already placed keep their rank when you lower the depth.

How do I confirm a hold?

Open the hold (click its chip, or Open in the Holds view).
Choose Confirm, and confirm the message.

Every other hold on those dates for that space is released (their agents are emailed), an event sheet is created for the night, and the house crew call is added from your call templates (the one for the event's Show type and room, else the default). If the hold is linked to a booking, the booking becomes Confirmed, the tour or buyer is told, and the confirmed-tier tech pack (wifi) opens to them. You can also add a confirmed event directly: choose Add event and set Type to Confirmed.

How do I edit or release a hold?

Open the hold, change Artist / act, Event title, Show type, Start, End, Space, Load in, Doors, Show, Curfew, Promoter, Agent, Agent email, Agent phone or Notes, and choose Save. Moving a hold to other dates or another space re-ranks it there. To let the date go, choose Release hold and confirm. Holds below it move up. If the hold was linked to a booking, the booking is cancelled and the other side is told. History in the event view lists every change, release, promotion, challenge and confirm.

How do I add a private event, dark day or maintenance?

Choose Add event. The Add to calendar window opens on Private event.
Keep Private event, or set Type to Dark, Maintenance or Confirmed.
Pick the Space, Start date and End date, and fill in Artist / act, Event title and Notes as needed.
Choose Add.

Holds cannot be placed on these dates. To remove one, open it and choose Delete.

How do I set weekly dark days?

Choose Dark days.
Tick the Weekdays the room never books.
Pick the Space (or All spaces) and an optional Label, such as "Closed Mondays".
Choose Add rule.

Those weekdays show as dark, and a hold on one is refused. Choose Remove beside a rule to delete it. For a one-off dark day, add a Dark event instead.

How do I cancel a confirmed event?

Open the event and choose Cancel event, then confirm. The event sheet is kept and marked cancelled. If the event was linked to a booking, the booking is cancelled and the other side is told. A confirmed event cannot be deleted; cancel it instead.

What else can I do from a confirmed event?

Open event sheet opens the show created for the night.
House crew call opens the house crew call (private events have one too): each position with its times and who is on it. Add a position with its dept, count, call and end time and choose Add, or pick Apply a template… and Apply. Choose Schedule crew to put people on the positions. The tour or buyer sees this call on the booking once the date is confirmed.
Show type (Club night, Seated show, Wedding) picks which call template the event gets. An event confirmed without one, for example from a tour's booking, gets its call when you set the type, if it has none yet.
Announce date and On-sale date sit under the times once the date is confirmed. They are saved on the event's show, and the calendar chip's tooltip shows them.
Email sends one of your venue emails about the night (see below).
Link to a tour sends a booking request to the tour manager or promoter by their GigOps email (see Bookings). Open booking appears once it is linked.

Choose Subscribe.
Choose Copy link to copy the Subscribe (webcal) link, or copy the HTTPS link.
Add it to your calendar app as a subscribed calendar.

The feed has confirmed events, holds (as tentative), private events and dark days, and stays live. Anyone with the link can read it. If it leaks, choose Rotate for a new link, or Revoke to turn it off.

With more than one space, the window also lists One space only: a feed per space with only that room's entries, for someone who runs one room. Choose Create link beside a space, then Copy link. Each space feed has its own Rotate and Revoke, separate from the venue feed and from each other.

How do I bring in events from another calendar?

Choose Import.
Paste the calendar's iCal / webcal link (Google, Outlook or iCloud).
Add a Label, pick the Space, and choose whether it Shows as Private event or Dark day.
Choose Add and sync.

The calendar refreshes every hour. In the list, Sync now refreshes it at once, Pause and Resume stop and restart it, and Remove deletes the subscription and the events it brought in.

Why was my hold refused?

The message names the reason: the space is already confirmed, private, dark or under maintenance on that date, the date is a dark day by rule, or the date's hold ladder is full under your Hold rules. Pick another date or space, or release the blocking item first. Adding or editing holds also needs an owner, admin, manager, ops or coordinator seat.

How do I email a promoter or agent about a hold or an event?

Open the hold or the event on the calendar and choose Email.
Pick the Email: Hold confirmation (a live hold), Proposal (with your standard fees), Deposit reminder or Date confirmed (a confirmed event).
To starts with the agent's email, else the promoter's from your directory. For a deposit reminder, add the Amount due and the Due date.
Add a Note if you like; it fills the {note} placeholder.
Check the preview and choose Send.

The words come from Venue profile > Emails, and replies go to your own email address. The email is kept on the event (its Emails list), on the show, and on the contact's History in Vendors > Promoters and buyers. When email is not set up on GigOps the email is kept but not sent, and it says so.

Which emails go out by themselves?

When a hold above another is released, the hold that moves up hears it (Hold moved up). When a hold is challenged, its holder hears the deadline (Hold challenged). When a date is confirmed to another event, the other holds on it hear they were released (Hold released). Each goes to the hold's agent email, in your words from Venue profile > Emails, and is kept on the event and the contact like the ones you send.