Draft an artist advance email, a per-act checklist and one plain access question from your own festival details

Between confirming an act and the day, someone has to get arrival times, soundcheck details, technical needs, hospitality and a day-of contact from each act, usually by email and usually through an agent. One Welsh festival describes a typical festival-season day as starting with checking ticket sales, answering artist emails, confirming sound checks and sorting out the day’s logistics. A missing answer is better found early than on the day. One email that asks for the same things in the same order, and a checklist with one row per act, makes the gaps visible early. The email also carries one plain, optional question about whether the act or crew need anything arranged; a guide for promoters from a charity and Independent Venue Week quotes a solo artist saying asking about access should be as simple as asking for dietary requirements. AI lays out the blank email and checklist only: you decide what the festival can offer, the budget holder confirms anything that costs money, and access answers go to one named person and stay out of the AI tool.

An AI chat tool you already use

Steps

1. In your own document, write what the festival has actually agreed to give every act: load-in window, how soundchecks are arranged, the stage and backline that exist, hospitality, travel or accommodation if any, and the advance deadline. Write TO BE CONFIRMED beside anything not decided. Type no act, agent or fee detail.
2. Choose the one person who will read access answers (a role and a name in your own notes) and where answers are kept: your own records, not a shared inbox and not the AI tool. Write down what the festival can really provide for access, copied from your own access information, so a reply can be answered truthfully.
3. Run the prompt below with its brackets left as they are. Do not type an artist, agent, crew or access detail into the AI tool. You get back an email and an empty tracking table.
4. In your own email, fill in the brackets from step 1. Ask the budget holder to confirm every line about hospitality, travel or accommodation before it goes out, and read the access question once more to check it asks nothing about any specific condition.
5. Send the email through your usual route, and update the checklist row for that act as replies come in: done, chase or TO BE CONFIRMED. When an access answer arrives, pass it only to the named person; in the checklist record only “answer received: yes or no”.

The exact prompt

Write two things for a music or arts festival programmer.
1. A short advance email (under 220 words) from [PROGRAMMER NAME] at [FESTIVAL] to [AGENT OR ARTIST CONTACT] about [ARTIST], who plays on [DATE] at [STAGE]. It asks them to reply by [ADVANCE DEADLINE] with: arrival and load-in details, the number of people travelling, technical needs or a link to their rider, and the best contact on the day. It gives only these facts from the festival, in this order: load-in window [LOAD-IN WINDOW]; soundcheck [SOUNDCHECK ARRANGEMENT]; stage and backline [STAGE AND BACKLINE DETAILS]; hospitality [AS AGREED, OR TO BE CONFIRMED]; travel and accommodation [AS AGREED, OR TO BE CONFIRMED]; contact on the day [ROLE AND PHONE: FOR THE PROGRAMMER TO COMPLETE].
Near the end, include one plain, optional question asking whether there is anything the artist or their team would like the festival to know or arrange to make their visit easier. Say the answer is optional and that replies go to [NAMED PERSON, ROLE] only. Do not mention, suggest or ask about any specific condition, disability or health matter.
Do not mention fees, contract terms or payment, and do not add any other fact or promise.
2. A blank tracking table with one row per act and these columns: act, date and stage, advance sent (date), reply received (date), arrival details, technical needs, hospitality confirmed (yes, no or TBC), travel and accommodation confirmed (yes, no or TBC), access answer received (yes or no only), contact on the day confirmed, chased on (date), notes. Leave ten empty rows.
RULES FOR THIS CHAT: I will give you only my own festival wording, headings and dates that I have typed in. I will not give you, and you must not ask for, any artist, agent, manager, volunteer, sponsor, funder or ticket-buyer name, email address, phone number or address, any fee, deposit or contract term, any access need or health detail, or any ticket-sale figure. Use the blanks in square brackets exactly as I give them. Do not invent fees, dates, availability, terms, facts about any act, or claims such as “sold out”, and do not say what is standard, usual or legal. Do not give legal, licensing, safety, safeguarding or access advice. Where something is missing write [FOR THE PROGRAMMER TO COMPLETE]. Everything you write is a draft that a named person will check before anything is sent.