Guides
How to deal with competitors who call the cops
A rival collective called the cops on our free events because we were drawing crowds across the street from their...
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Guides
A rival collective called the cops on our free events because we were drawing crowds across the street from their...
Guides
SLIST started in Mexico City before it existed in New York. The expansion from CDMX to NYC — and the...
Guides
Co-promotions are the fastest way to scale an event beyond what your budget and audience can reach alone. They’re also...
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At the 37th event, two hours in, NYPD and FDNY shut it down. Arrested alongside a staff member who was...
Guides
Selling alcohol at raves without a liquor license is the single biggest legal exposure for event promoters. Every workaround has...
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Curation is not a playlist. It’s a product discipline. The lineup is the product. The brand is the trust that...
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The flyer is the first impression of your event. In underground culture, it’s also a statement of intent. A bad...
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Every underground lineup in NYC looks the same: eight DJs playing CDJs for an hour each. The programming blurs together....
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Events that offer only music are leaving money on the table. Adding vendors — clothing, art, tattoos, food — transforms...
Guides
Digital marketing is the default. Everyone runs Instagram ads, everyone has an SMS list, everyone is optimizing their Meta pixel....
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Most event marketing is built on manufactured urgency. Countdown timers. “Selling out fast” overlays. Tier pricing designed to create panic....
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Bar revenue is the number that determines whether a venue invites you back. Not ticket sales, not Instagram impressions, not...
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DM outreach is the highest-conversion marketing channel for underground events, and also the one most promoters execute poorly. The difference...
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Door staff is the first and last impression of your event. A bad door experience — slow lines, rude bouncers,...
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Five cancel campaigns in two years. Discord servers dedicated to destroying the brand. Memes of the founder on the floor...
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We donate 5% of ticket profits after $1,500 in ad spend to SafeRaveNYC, a harm reduction nonprofit. We have also...
Guides
Every venue negotiation I’ve done started from a position of having nothing. No track record at the venue. No guaranteed...
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If you’ve never been to a techno event, the unknown is the hardest part. Not the music, not the crowd,...
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Thursday events do not make money. That is by design. We run them at a loss because the strategic value...
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The SMS list started at zero in early 2024. By January 2026, it was over 9,000 contacts — past attendees,...
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Payment processing issues will hit you at the worst possible time. Not when business is slow and you can absorb...
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Guest lists are not freebies. They’re the most effective growth mechanism in event promotion — if you structure them as...
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Running an event brand on WordPress sounds like bringing a knife to a gunfight. Every other promoter is on Squarespace,...
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We have used four ticketing platforms across 37+ events. Each one taught us something about conversion rates, data ownership, audience...
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DJ fees are the most opaque part of event budgets. Every promoter guesses, every DJ inflates, and nobody publishes actual...
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WhatsApp communities were the foundation of everything we built in Mexico City. At peak, we managed a 1,800-person announcement group,...
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Your competitors have audiences that already care about the same music you promote. Those people are pre-qualified — they attend...
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Nobody in the underground scene wants to talk about gender ratio on the dancefloor. It sounds like nightclub marketing from...
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Nobody wants to play for a promoter with zero events, zero followers, and zero budget. This is the cold start...
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A venue can make or destroy an event before the first DJ plugs in. After running shows at warehouses, hotel...
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Dark culture is not a genre. It is a mood constraint that allows genre flexibility while maintaining identity coherence. We...
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Instagram followers is the worst metric to obsess over. We learned this the hard way when Meta permanently suspended our...
Guides
Every venue deal I’ve signed started from a position of weakness. No track record, no guarantee, no leverage. The venues...
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Most event promoters run one ad, point it at a broad audience, and hope the algorithm figures it out. That...
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Most event promoters name their events whatever sounds cool in the moment. That is a mistake. The name of your...
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Ticket pricing is not a math problem. It is a psychology problem with math consequences. Every pricing decision sends a...
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SLIST didn’t start as an event brand. It started as a WhatsApp group in Mexico City for sharing rave flyers....
Guides
Most event promoters have no idea where their money goes. They throw a party, hope it works out, and either...
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Most event promoters treat merch as an afterthought. A box of leftover t-shirts under the DJ booth, sold between sets...
Guides
Programming a 12-hour event is not the same as programming a 4-hour club night stretched out. The energy arc, the...
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SMS is the cheapest acquisition channel in event marketing. Not email. Not Instagram ads. Not influencer posts. A text message...
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Event organizing might be the loneliest profession in the world. Surrounded by 800 people every weekend, and completely isolated in...
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A weekly event series is the single highest-leverage move an underground promoter can make. It is also the fastest way...
Guides
In March 2024, we threw our third event in a SoHo loft with $2,500 total — most of it borrowed,...
Guides
Every city’s nightlife scene has a political layer that nobody talks about publicly but everyone navigates privately. NYC’s underground electronic...
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You’re not just selling tickets — you’re shaping the future of the rave scene.SLIST promoters aren’t background players. You’re community...
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Why? I think I can offer a bunch of practical tips to my fellow ravers and help them avoid a...
Guides
I currently use my stories to share most upcoming events. I then sort each story/flyer by date and into highlights....