Why I quit being a promoter

“This night is the BIGGEST Oxford has ever seen”- something I said, heard and wrote too many times.

You all know one. The guy with a cap to go with every outfit and more Canada Goose jackets than the city or Toronto.

His number is in your phone and you’re not sure how it got there. But your number is probably saved in his phone as “Blond girl” or “49”.

Before you buy a ticket from them you’re their best friend. But once they see you in the club they suddenly have no idea who you are.

This is the promoter, and uni life wouldn’t be the same without them.

didn’t even pay to get backstage

I was a promoter for my first year at uni like many others before me. And I loved it. However, when second year hit I realised going out seven nights a week wasn’t the best idea, and knocking on doors becomes so much harder when no one lives in halls any more.

I knocked on all of these doors like 10 times

When you become a promoter you sign up to a life style that is singularly unique in you have to be prepared for a night out every night yet be expected to get a “big crowd” down without fail. All of this without appearing to being too samey or predictable.

This act is possible to keep up for about a year but when you hit your second year, you hit a junction. You either keep it up and realise that uni isn’t that important to you anyway, or you can take a difficult choice and focus on what will make a difference to your life after uni.

standard

I’m not saying that no one should ever be a promoter after second year. Some people do suit the role and can balance the rest of their life around it.

I am not one of these people.

Being a promoter can be a lot of fun and you can get to know a lot of people, but there comes a point when having to fake a smile to 50 people in between Clive Booth and JHB gets too much.

Don’t get me wrong, some of the perks of being a promoter were great. I’ve never queued up for a night out, and never paid full price for entry.

walked straight past the plebs

But it took me until second year to realise that even though I was saving money on the night I was still losing money every single time.

And now I can go out and not have to text 30 different people to sell enough tickets and have to run round to everyone’s houses because you ‘always deliver’.

My life has been better since I quit, and stress free.