Pre-Tour Checklist: 40 Tasks to Complete Before Rehearsals

The first show should not be the first full test of your touring operation. A disciplined pre-tour checklist moves uncertainty into pre-production, where there is still time to solve it without a truck waiting at the dock.

Use these 40 tasks as a baseline and assign an owner and deadline to every item.

Routing and Dates

1. Confirm every show, travel day, off day, rehearsal, and hold.
2. Verify venue names, cities, addresses, and timezones.
3. Calculate realistic drive times with loading, stops, and traffic buffers.
4. Review overnight drives and driver-hour constraints.
5. Identify borders, ferries, tolls, low-emission zones, and permits.
6. Flag dates with tight turnarounds or no recovery margin.

Crew and Responsibilities

7. Confirm the final touring party and department structure.
8. Record current phone, email, emergency, and dietary information.
9. Assign show-day, travel-day, and emergency responsibilities.
10. Confirm freelancers' dates, rates, invoicing, and payment terms.
11. Share conduct, communication, and safety expectations.
12. Complete onboarding before rehearsals begin.

Production

13. Freeze the current technical rider and stage plot.
14. Confirm carried versus locally supplied equipment.
15. Advance audio, lighting, backline, power, rigging, and staging.
16. Inspect, service, label, and inventory touring equipment.
17. Confirm spares, adapters, consumables, and repair contacts.
18. Build standard production and schedule templates.
19. Test the real load-in and pack order during rehearsals.

Travel and Accommodation

20. Confirm vehicles, drivers, parking, and access requirements.
21. Collect flight, train, ferry, or rental confirmations.
22. Verify hotel dates, room types, names, parking, and late arrival.
23. Build rooming lists and handle accessibility requirements.
24. Plan airport transfers and equipment movement separately.
25. Publish lobby calls and departure expectations.

Documents and Compliance

26. Check passports, visas, work permits, and expiry dates.
27. Prepare carnets or equipment customs paperwork where required.
28. Confirm insurance certificates and emergency numbers.
29. Store contracts, riders, maps, confirmations, and permits centrally.
30. Restrict access to personal and financial documents.

Financial Preparation

31. Build the tour budget and event forecasts.
32. Confirm guarantees, deposits, settlement terms, and merch deals.
33. Set currencies, VAT assumptions, per diems, and cash procedures.
34. Decide how receipts and expenses will be captured on the road.
35. Confirm approval limits and who can authorize unplanned spend.

Communication and Show-Day Readiness

36. Define where the current schedule and documents live.
37. Separate routine updates from urgent escalation channels.
38. Publish a test day sheet or digital tour book.
39. Ask one crew member to find key information from a phone.
40. Run a tabletop exercise for a delayed vehicle, missing gear, venue change, or medical incident.

Turn the Checklist Into Ownership

A checklist without owners becomes a list of assumptions. Track each task as not started, in progress, blocked, or complete. Add the person responsible, the dependency, and the date by which the decision becomes expensive.

Review blockers at fixed pre-production checkpoints. Do not wait for a long weekly meeting to discover that a visa, hotel block, or equipment rental has no owner.

Create the Operational Record Early

The system your crew will use on tour should be populated during pre-production. Build the tour timeline, crew list, schedules, production templates, documents, hotels, and contacts before rehearsals so the team can test the actual workflow.

tour-flow keeps these pieces connected from planning through show day, turning this pre-tour checklist into one shared operation. Set up your next tour in tour-flow