Put on a show without going broke.

The venues are squeezed, the promoters have pulled back, and nobody is coming to book you, so you put the show on yourself. The playing is the easy part. The admin before it is not. Gig Fling is a free tool for the admin.

📱“Are you free?”Messaging ten bands one at a time to find out nobody is free that month.

🔭Finding the actsYou know the same six bands you always play with. The rest of the city is invisible to you.

🧩Filling the billYou need two more acts by Friday, so you are back in the group chat again.

🕵️Venue trawlingChasing hire rates, PA specs and cancel terms across a dozen venue websites, one at a time.

🛑Double bookingsFinding out the room is already taken, after you have told everyone. The calculator checks.

🏟️Tour clashesBooking the night a big tour hits town and takes your crowd. The calculator checks.

The calculator, no loginFree

See the real cost before you commit to anything

Pick a venue and a date. You get the hire, the sound, the fees, the GST, and how many tickets you need to sell to break even.
No account, no email, no sign-up. It works for one band, on day one, with nobody else on the platform.
That is deliberate. A tool that only works once your mates join is no use to you now.
Where the real answer is a range, we show a range. Sound tech is $200 to $500 depending on the night, so the total says $430 to $730 rather than one number we would have to make up.

Getting inAlpha

One code to your inbox. No password to forget.

Enter your email, get a 6-digit code. There is no password to create, forget or reuse.
Google works too. Either way it is the same account.
Gig Fling is invite-only right now. It is a closed alpha with the real Wellington venues loaded and a small number of bands on it.

Double bookings and tour clashesFree

What else is on that night

Pick a room and a date, and it checks two things you would otherwise find out the hard way.
The room is already booked. Another confirmed gig is in Vogelmorn that night, flagged red as YOUR VENUE. Better to know now than after the poster is up.
Something big is on. 5 September is Great Sounds Great Festival across the Cuba Street precinct, and Mel Parsons is at the Opera House. Your crowd is already busy.
It lists the nights either side too, so you can see the whole weekend is loaded rather than just your one date.
These are real listings, pulled from live sources each week. Not a guess about what might be on.
It only shouts when it matters: the room being taken, or a show that splits your crowd. Everything else stays folded away, so a warning still means something when you see one.

Venue trawlingFree

The public hire pack, in one place

The venue’s own published info, gathered so you do not have to trawl a website for it: address, capacity, stage size, curfew, load-in and soundcheck times.
The PA it lists: 2x Wharfedale Kinetic 12A, a 20-channel Allen and Heath desk, SM57 and SM58 mics. It is not permanently installed, so your tech sets it up from scratch. The kind of thing you otherwise learn at 1pm on the day.
Backline, door and merch staffing, wheelchair access, age limits, the BYO rule, and the ticketing the venue prefers.
Late cancel: $50+GST plus the full booking fee. That is the number sitting behind the safe-cancel date.
This is a copy of the venue’s public pack, not a live feed. If theirs is out of date, ours will be too, so we show when we last checked it and say confirm with the venue when that goes stale. Always take the final rate from them.

1. Put your act up

The problem

Every band platform fills up with fakes, dead projects and someone’s covers duo from 2011. Nobody trusts what they are looking at, and the whole thing quietly dies.

Invite codeStep 1

Invite-only, on purpose

Anyone can sign in, but you need a code to put a band up. That is what keeps the deck real while the scene is small.
The code is single-use. It cannot be forwarded round a group chat and reused.
A small real scene is worth more to you than a big fake one.

Your profileStep 2

Your draw, as a range

Name, city, a couple of genres, and how many people you actually pull, as a range. Crimson Alibi put 12 to 42.
That number is never shown as a score or a ranking. It feeds one thing, which is whether the night covers its costs.
Inflating it does not get you anything. It only makes your own break-even maths wrong.
You give one link where you can edit your bio, for the check below, and one way to be reached, either Instagram or Facebook. That is how a band contacts you once you connect.

The Green RoomStep 3

A person checks you by eye

You get a code like GIG-5182. Paste it into your bio on the link you gave us.
Someone opens your page and checks two things. Are you a real local act, and is that code in your bio right now. If both are yes you are approved, usually within a day.
There is no Facebook login, no Spotify API and no algorithm. The code proves you control the account. The person confirms you are a real act.
It is low-tech on purpose, and it is why every card on the deck is a band that actually exists.

2. Find bands who are free when you are

The problem

“Are you free in June?” sent to ten bands, then three weeks of waiting for replies, and half of them were never free anyway. You do this every time.

Your datesStep 1

Say when you're free, once

Pick your city and the window you could actually play. There is a + All Weekends shortcut if that is the honest answer.
This commits you to nothing. It says you could do these dates.
From here you only see bands who are free when you are, so the “are you free?” round trip does not happen.

The deckStep 2

Only bands who could actually say yes

Every card is a vetted band, in your city, free on your dates. Nobody else is shown to you.
You see their draw, whether they want support, co-headline or a straight split, and their music.
YES 👍 or NO 👎. Your answer is private. They never find out you passed.
Filter by genre if you want a particular kind of night.

A band's cardStep 3

Enough to actually decide

Their draw range, what they are looking for, and their dates, next to yours.
“Local · hosts the room” tells you whether they bring a crowd here or are visiting and need one.
A touring band is labelled as touring, rather than shown as if it has a local following.

An open gigStep 3b

Or just take a slot on someone else's show

Some cards are not bands. They are gigs already in motion, with a venue and a date, looking for another act.
Seeking Opener means what it says. Say yes and you have applied. The host takes it from there.
You do not have to organise anything to use this. Sometimes the fastest gig is someone else’s.

3. When it's mutual, you get their details

The problem

Cold-DMing a band you have never met mostly gets ignored. You are asking a stranger for a favour without knowing whether they are interested.

The deciding yesStep 1

They said yes first. You did not know.

Syntax Riot said yes to Crimson Alibi days ago. Crimson was never told.
When Crimson says yes back, that is the connection. Two bands who both want it, with dates that already line up.
Nothing is revealed unless both sides say yes. Nobody gets rejected, because nobody is told.

Contact unlockedStep 2

The introduction is already made

You get their real contact channel, the Instagram or Facebook they actually read.
The conversation happens on your channels, not ours. There is no Gig Fling inbox. You do not need another app to check.
The shared window is on the screen. You are both free 24 May to 18 Jul, so you have something specific to open with.
Start a Gig when you are ready to talk specifics.

4. Start the gig

The problem

Four bands in a group chat, nobody in charge, and the venue never gets booked because everyone assumed someone else was doing it.

The gig, day oneStep 1

One band drives it

Both bands are on the bill. One of you is the host and picks the venue, the date and the price.
Everything starts TBC. This is a shared plan, not a commitment.
The window you agreed is frozen here, so months later nobody argues about what was said.
If the host goes quiet for 3 days, anyone else on the bill can take over, so one person going off the grid does not kill the gig.

5. See the real numbers before you're liable

The problem

You find out what the night cost after it has happened, when the venue invoice lands and the door money does not cover it. Someone quietly eats the difference.

Pick the roomStep 1

Real venues, real rates, GST included

The Wellington venues are loaded from their published hire packs, not guesses.
Vogelmorn quotes its hire plus GST, so the app adds it. $200 becomes $230. Every number on screen includes GST, so a plus-GST room and a community hall can be compared directly.
The chips say what the room gives you. Licensed bar, PA and mixer, bring your own backline, capacity, and the 9:45pm curfew.
Pick your date and it checks the date sits inside the window you both agreed.

The mathsStep 2

What the night needs to sell

Sound tech runs $200 to $500 depending on the night, so the total is $430 to $730, or $215 to $365 each. The range is the honest answer.
Break-even is 22 to 37 tickets at $20. Your combined draw is 47 to 93. That is the two draw ranges you both entered, added up. It is arithmetic, not a prediction.
Safe cancel by Sun 2 May. Cancel before that date and it costs you nothing. After it, you owe the venue.
The $115 poor-promo penalty is listed separately and kept out of the total, because it is a worst case rather than a cost you have agreed to.

6. Fill the bill

The problem

Two bands is often not a night. You need a third, so you are back to asking around, and the ones you know are busy.

Three waysStep 1

Start as a duo, grow when you're ready

A duo is a complete gig. You never have to fill four slots.
When you want more there are three ways. Scout bands who fit, send a private link to people you know, or open it up and let bands apply.
It caps at four bands. Past that nobody gets a proper set and the split stops being worth it.

ScoutStep 2

Only acts who already fit

You are only shown bands free on your date, in your city. The filtering has already happened.
Their draw is on the card, 26 to 36, so you can see what it does to your break-even before you ask.
A nudge is an invitation, not an addition. They still choose.
If they pass, that is final. You cannot nudge them again for this gig.

Invite & applicationsStep 3

When you already know who you want

Private invite. A one-off link you send directly. They join without touching the deck.
Open applications. Your gig shows on the Radar as a card. Bands apply to you, and you accept or decline.
The four-band cap applies to every route in, so the maths on your page always reflects who is actually playing.

7. Lock it in

The problem

Nobody promotes a show they are not sure is happening. Everyone waits, the poster goes up ten days out, and the room is half empty.

BeforeStep 1

One button, once the gig is real

The button only works once there is a venue and a date, so you cannot confirm a gig that does not exist yet.
The host calls it. There is no committee and no round of approvals to wait on.

ConfirmedStep 2

Everyone can start selling it

The gig reads CONFIRMED and the terms lock. Every band on the bill knows it is real and can start promoting now rather than ten days out.
Confirming is a signal to each other, nothing more. There is no public Gig Fling page for your show. You promote on your own channels, to your own people.
Then you play. The money is yours. Sell tickets wherever you like. We never touch it and we take no cut.

The deal

The problem

Most tools that get between bands and their gigs end up taking a cut, holding the money, or quietly owning the audience. That is the thing you are trying to get away from.

×No cutWe take nothing from the door. Sell tickets wherever you like.

×We never hold your moneyThe takings go straight to you, through your own ticketer. We never touch them.

×We don’t book the venueWe run the maths and show the terms. You make the booking, direct with the venue.

×We don’t host your chatsNo Gig Fling inbox. The introduction is made; you talk on your own channels.

Gig Fling does the maths and the introductions. You put the show on.