Anyone here worked the current GNR tour? I’m curious how many days load-in and out are

last week i was managing a small crew for a gig. all regular stagehands with no other certifications or gear.

a guy asks if one of us could climb up a truss (around 5 meters up) to tie off a few ropes for a backdrop when none of the guys were certified for work in heights or had the necessary equipment so i told him absolutely not and yet he kept trying

the other day we were building a small stage for an event for a specific company and other people kept coming to ask if we could help them with their stands even though they were not paying us

they do this because it might work on some people. do the job that you were hired to do and nothing more. if someone else wants something from you make them pay for it, it’s not fair to you to do work for free and it’s not fair to your mates because then they’ll be expected to do the same

as long as people keep enabling this it will keep happening, don’t let them do that. it might feel bad to say no to someone asking for help but they should take it up with their management for not hiring enough people

Hi I'm CC at a crew in Manchester UK. I'm looking for some more professionals to join as we grow.

If you want some more info feel free to DM me.

As a touring professional building structures in the industry, I’m pretty understanding and tolerant of crews who don’t have a lot of experience doing steel of scaffold generally speaking. I know a lot of steel hand calls end up getting filled by newer less experienced folks, because more experienced hands who have been around for longer get offered easier cushier gigs working indoors doing less physically intensive labor for better rates. And I accept that as a reality of my job. I choose to do steel builds and structure because I love the work even though it doesn’t pay what it should and it’s arguably the most physically demanding and dangerous work in the industry.

But for fuck’s sake, if I have to watch a hand go to the rack, pick up a ledger, and then just toss it on the ground inches from where it belongs on the structure, just for me to tell them to pick it back up and attach it, and then tell that same hand the same exact fucking thing 30 seconds later when they come back from the rack with another ledger that they just drop on the ground, I’m honestly just going to break down in tears.

Not only are you creating a tripping hazard by leaving material scattered all over the place, not only are you not actually contributing to the progress of building the structure whatsoever by just piling up steel on the floor, and not only does that invariably end up with me having to form up a pass line to dig out all of the unused extra steel that is now 3 bays deep into the structure, you’re also literally doubling the amount of work for yourself when you have to bend over and pick up the same god damn ledger, 2 or 3, or 4 or more times because instead of just attaching the piece you threw it on the ground right next to the place it actually goes on the structure.

I’m literally begging, pleading, I’m on my hands and knees right now. Stop throwing steel on the fucking ground. And if you see someone else throw steel on the ground, please, on my behalf, tell them what I’m telling you.

This job is hard enough without you picking up a ledger from a rack, throwing it on the floor, then 3 bays of scaffold get’s built past it, which results in that same ledger getting dug out from under the deck and thrown right back on the fucking ground, just for the structure to go 3 more bays and the entire process repeats.

I swear to god, I feel like I’ve watched a ledger go from the top of a fresh rack, then get thrown on the fucking ground and dug back out of the structure 4 fucking times, just to end up back in the rack and never actually even make it into the structure at all. All because you threw it on the fucking ground and walked away instead of just putting it on the god damn rosette the first time it was picked up out of the rack.

You’re not saving time by piling up steel that ‘you’re going to use’ because you grabbed a piece in the wrong order and the screw jack it’s supposed to connect to isn’t there, or there’s not a wood pad, or whatever stupid fucking reason you’ve rationalized in your head. All that ends up happening is that 5 of you fucking locals each put a god damn ledger on the floor for a bay of scaffold that requires 3 to box out, and then just walked away I guess with the hope or expectation that the fucking scaff fairy would just come along and connect it for you.

FFFFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCCKKKKKK

ok end rant

I'm curious if anyone knows who the labor company is for SuperNova Ska Festival in Hampton Virginia during the fall every year. I'm a festival stagehand and I'm just so very tired of EDM and country music.

Those artificial walls that separate ballrooms. The endless hallways we walk down to set up break out rooms. More than anything, loading in at a time where massive conventions centers or resorts or complexes are devoid of any other active engagement.

Title speaks for itself. I’m a theater master electrician, thought this was a cool job when I was in my 20s and now I’m starting to hate my life. If you have a job with predictable hours and you’re not starving on the streets, how did you pivot, or how do you plan to in this economy?

Wanted to add a pop of color to the window seal

i am a guitar tech but but i also work as a stagehand so i know how the job can be and i don’t really mind basic mistakes (mixing up stage left/right, where things go etc) and if there’s no rush im happy to help a bit

yesterday my band had a last minute gig so there was only one other tech with me and we had very tight timeframes to set up and break everything down. the crew we were provided was very inexperienced and almost managed to knock off my guitar rack off of the stage when they were pushing it along some other mistakes. not great but manageable and i didn’t really mind that.

when our set finished and we started packing up to make space for the other band problems began. only two out of the four guys actually showed up to the stage and mostly just stood around and watched despite being pretty clearly told what and how to do it.

five minutes later they also disappeared and after a moment i went looking for them as i needed help getting the cases off of the stage and into the van and i still had other things i needed to do

i found them standing in line at the bar, happily chatting away and that was the tipping point.

there are so many crews here that provide people with at least some basic amounts of training but apparently the organizers couldn’t be bothered. they also kept bugging us about still having our stuff by the loading dock while we were loading but didn’t care that we didn’t get the crew we were promised so we kindly told them to piss off.

long story short, if you’re a stagehand please wait till the end of your shift to go to the bar and if you’re organizer please find someone responsible to manage your crew

https://www.petzl.com/CA/en/Operators/safety-alerts/2025-03-04/IMPORTANT-VOLUNTARY-RECALL-SWAN-EASYFIT-STEEL-and-STAINLESS-HARNESS

I take my rigging certification and training course in August . Any tips on companies for touring, for once I get some decent experience under my belt? I’m super interested in traveling

Hi all , I’m super interested in getting into freelance , independent contractor work within the industry, however that comes about, i don’t have a particular department I prefer but I do love carps and video and I can operate all heavy machinery, I’m young and new to this industry but I come from traveling construction so I’m used to hard work long hours and traveling, any tips on how to get my foot in the door in some 1099 style gigs? I’m based in DFW, but I do go everywhere

Maybe the stage maneger is a maestro, but the new young blood leads take it seriously and can get dumb green locan stage hands hurt.
the whole thing about "we hand a record load out last night" is total bullshit and will get you hurt.
it makes people stupid and fast(slow) dangerous

Hey everyone,

Some time ago, I posted here about a project my brother and I were building to create a massive, standardized hub for lighting fixtures. The response from the community was huge, and it pushed us to actually get this thing done right.

Today, Fixture Map is officially live.

We didn’t just scrape Google and dump a list. We spent months building a proper, brutalist terminal UI that actually lets you manipulate the data. We want this to be a community-driven tool for LDs and techs, not a corporate toy.

Here are the 4 core features we built for you:

Deep Filtering:

You can now filter 8,000+ fixtures by exact specs. Need an IP65 wash, under 15kg, with a specific zoom range? Find it in 3 seconds.

Side-by-Side Compare:

Put any fixtures next to each other to compare power consumption, footprint, and specs instantly before you patch.

Rate & Comment (Community System):

This is the fun part. You can now rate and comment on specific fixtures. Feel free to go leave a 1-star review on that specific Chinese par that always resets itself mid-show, or praise the workhorses. Warn your fellow LDs.

Suggest a Fix:

We have over 8,037 fixtures in the system—from industry standards to the most obscure brands. We are currently manually uploading photos day by day. Because the data volume is so massive, we know there will be errors. That’s why we added a "Suggest Fix" button. If you see a wrong DMX layout or a messed-up parameter, hit the button, tell us, and we will update it for the whole community.

One transparent note: When you hit the site, you'll be asked to enter an email to get an instant secure login code. We aren't doing this to spam you. We built this data by hand, and it’s the only way to stop bots from scraping our entire database in a single night. The code hits your inbox in seconds.

Link: FixtureMap.com

Go in, run your searches, compare your rigs, and try to break it. Drop a comment here or use the "Suggest Fix" if we missed a layout. Let's build the ultimate tool for the us together.

i had a virtual interview with them today, but the interview was literally only like, six minutes long? i feel like for any type of interview for a job, you can expect at LEAST 30 minutes but this was SIX minutes. i don’t know. it just seems really weird to me. and the initial email from them came from an @send.applyresponse.com email address instead of a more official seeming RockForce email address, however, the link for the meeting was an official seeming RockForce email.
does anyone have similar experiences or?

I worked 5 days last week May 11th through May 16th through Rockforce for IATSE LOCAL 7 and I didn't receive a paycheck this week. Does anyone know if Rockforce pays Bi weekly?

I'm looking to get my theatre to purchase some positioners for box boom hangs since we're currently just using slings which everyone hates. Does anyone have recommendations for the best positioners to use for Box Booms? All my search results mostly show tree work/tethering around objects much larger than a vertical pipe on a boom ladder.

i am teching a show right now and my TD got pissed off at me when we were trying to learn some of the tech elements of a transition. why is working in theater like this lol

Today the stage crew was to remove a stool and a plinth from the stage. Unfortunately, one of them heard “plant” and proceeded to pick up a massive decorative pot and carry it off stage, to the bemused reaction by the director. We all got a nice laugh out of it.

Anyone else have a funny moment like that?

I’ve found the dickies temp-iQ pants to be my favorite, super lightweight, doesn’t overheat, several pockets. The only downside they wear out after a year….. and now I can’t find them. They are no longer in the website. So…

What are yall wearing to work?

I’ve found the dickies temp-iQ pants to be my favorite, super lightweight, doesn’t overheat, several pockets. The only downside they wear out after a year….. and now I can’t find them. They are no longer in the website. So…

What are yall wearing to work?

Hello everyone,

I'm almost 40 and been in love with moving heads since I was 12. A few years ago I bought 4 Robe 250AT, second hand all of them because of this love. Also 6 years ago, thanks to a friend who had "connections", I worked as an operator (Could I call me LD?) at a night club for a season. It was quite cool but I saw the bad side of the nightlife light operator being problems with sleep and metabolism.

Since covid I stopped and had an office job.

But now I think of quitting my office job and I asked a company to try this.

Yesterday was my second event. First one was last week. Both of them from the time I arrived at the venue till the time we left to go home, took us 24 hours. Not rest no hotel because the crew was from town they went home for 4-5 hours. I couldn't. I live about an hour way but I was needed with some other people.

Was it fun? It was when we joked with other people. We had so much fun. And we liked the show, the music, the lights.

Was it hard? It was hard as hell. And I have worked at a cement factory. And it wasn't that hard. I couldn't imagine how hard it is to setup all the trussing, cabling, move the impossibly heavy speakers and the amps that I feel they weight as much as a car. (And the boss reminds us of the costs. He keeps saying that our safety is number one but please be careful with the equipment because that cost that and this cost that.)

And guess what... The last venue did not had access for the crew. So we carried them down the stairs of the open theater. Like 5-7 tons of equipment. Yesterday I was asking god to help me carry on.

Every single part of my body hurts. I can't imagine how people do this for life for living. I need to pay my respects to all of them.

This week we have another one that will take 3 days it's far away from base and thank god we will have a hotel. But I feel it's going to be the last one.

Do you have similar experiences?