r/stagehands

First thing this morning my Union lead dropped a bomb on us, that two people were crushed to death by equipment tipping over at the Las Vegas Speedway today. There’s nothing in the news yet and I can’t reach the people I know on-site. Anybody heard anything? Who was involved? Are there more people injured? What company were they with? This is stressing me out. Any info appreciated.

I would try it with the lower back version they make for mtb, but I don’t want to look like a fuckin nerd

Asking for a friend.

I started doing stagehand work in 2022. I don't really have any specialty. I make most of my income by working arenas, conventions, and theaters in my metro area. I've never done stagehand work anywhere else.
A buddy of mine wants to go on a road trip. I'm thinking it would be a good opportunity to work elsewhere. We don't have any specific plans other than maybe visiting a cabin in Minnesota sometime in the middle of the summer. My friend is similar to me, work-wise. He's also done basic stagehand work only in his metro area.
I've never been one to go to festivals much. It seems like it ought to be not too hard to find work by contacting festival organizers, but I don't really know where to start.
With our plan being so open-ended, what are some events or companies I might try contacting for work in July or maybe August? Will I have better luck by reaching out to IATSE locals, or contacting festival organizers, or should I try applying for national companies? Maybe I should just do all of these things?
I don't use Facebook at all.

Hey everyone. I posted here a little while back asking how people track gigs, hours, rates, invoices, and whether they’ve been paid.

The feedback was super helpful. A lot of people said they already have a system that works, usually some mix of Google Calendar, notes, spreadsheets, Wave, QuickBooks, Trello, call sheet emails, and bank statements.

That helped me narrow down what GigLedger should actually be.

It’s a simple gig tracking app for live event workers. You can add gigs, track call times and actual hours, save rates, notes, expenses, and payment status, then use that record when it’s time to invoice or look back at what happened.

It’s not meant to be payroll, payment processing, accounting software, a CRM, or a job board. It’s really just a cleaner place to keep your own record of the gigs you already have.

The early iPhone version is ready to test through TestFlight now.

I’m looking for a few AV folk who would be willing to try it and tell me what feels useful, what feels pointless, and what still feels slower than a calendar or spreadsheet.

If you want to test it, comment here or message me and I’ll send the TestFlight link.

No pressure. Honest feedback is more useful than polite feedback right now.

I’m a Nashville local, and I’ve recently started trying to get into freelance work. I’ve been networking, and working with multiple companies. I’ve been recording, I built a studio and rehearsal space for local bands, and I’ve worked at a local festival a couple of times as well. I’m a year in on working as a stagehand now, trying to focus on audio.

If there are any resources for a guy like me, or suggestions for what my next steps are to becoming a freelance worker in audio, leave some info in the comments! Thanks yall!

I have a client requesting three different colors of camo gaffe. White, green, blue.

I can find green and tan easily. I have not been able to find anything blue or white – not even clear exactly what white would look like. Does anybody have recommendations? Or someplace with quick turnaround for custom?

I wonder for this since it is considered a trade how is career route towards this as I suppose schooling is not needed for this how does name plate installation and office interior installs or anything similar to window graphic installation is to come by for say 3rd party freelance work or gig , contract work ?

So I'm singing paperwork for a new employer (non-union) and I'm running into a lot of "you can't sue us if you are seriously injured" paperwork. It's everything from "you can't sue us if you get SA/harrassed" to essentially "if our machinery malfunctions and you die, that's your problem".

Do we have any rights not to sign these? I've been working mostly union and for nicer, smaller companies and these are the big boys who are just stagehand mills, throwing bodies at a job.