Before you start planning
Are you ready and do you have the necessary experience?
Realistically assess whether you are ready to tour in Denmark. Ideally, you should have some experience, preferably some networking as well, and have made a few productions before embarking on touring.
It's hard for a young, unknown company with no touring experience to sell shows for a longer tour through traditional networks, but maybe you have contacts from touring with others - if so, that will help you.
Get off to a good start
- Use your network: If you have contacts from touring with others. They might be able to help you get an overview of who might be interested in your production.
- Build experience: It might be a good idea to start with a few tour dates and a touring-friendly show, so you have some experience to build on.
- Co-produce: It's also great to co-produce with a theatre that has touring experience and can help you get started - this often happens in children's and youth theatre.
Important to remember
- Remember to start inviting Danish tour organisers in Denmark from an early stage when your show is playing somewhere.
- Also invite theatre critics. If your production has received good reviews, there is a better chance that other theatres will be interested in showing it, which can open doors to the networks that exist in Denmark.
Important networks in Denmark
An effective platform for selling your show and creating networks is the Danish Theatre Associations' annual seminar, the DT seminar, which you can find out more about here.
You can also strengthen your opportunities for a larger and financially sustainable tour if your production is selected for the Turnénetværk Danmark scheme, which you can apply for at the Danish Arts Foundation. Find out more here.
The scheme is administered by Scenit.
Touring Network Denmark provides financial support to its member theatres when they book the network's selected touring shows. This minimises the organiser's financial risk and can therefore encourage greater daring.
Get tour ready
Your show needs to be tour-ready. In other words:
- It should not be too technically/staging/transportation complicated to send around the country.
- It must be realistic in its stage requirements and be able to be set up in a maximum of 6 hours and preferably less.
- It is an advantage if it is technically so simple that you bring all the equipment yourself, including your own touring technician to set up lights and sound and take care of the technical execution of the performance.
- If your show requires a rig, mention it
Pricing and tour budget
It's important that all expenses are included in the tour budget. This means:
- Equipment hire, car hire and travelling expenses
- Accommodation and per diems
- Royalties and salaries
- Any rehearsal expenses such as rehearsal room hire, crew salaries, etc.
- Don't forget to include sales and administration costs as well as printing of PR material for the venues in the calculation.
It's difficult to budget and set a realistic performance price when you don't know the number and geographical location of your bookings yet. Therefore, you need to calculate with a certain number of shows without accommodation and some with. And a certain number of shows with longer travelling, bridge or ferry costs, etc.
Try setting up a budget based on you selling, for example, eight shows, half of which across the Great Belt with accommodation for the team, to get an idea of what your tour actually costs and your average show price will be.
Operating funds and losses
If you don't have any operating funds as a base, you need to be financially prudent as there is no way to cover a deficit.
At the same time, make sure your price is not too high, especially if you work with formats with small audiences. Theatres and theatre associations also have tight budgets to deal with.
If you are covered by the Touring Network Denmark scheme, theatres will receive support to book up to two performances with you, but either way, it's important to set a price that is both realistic for you and fits the market.
For example, you can find out the prices of shows that have a similar profile to yours by looking at the Green Touring Theatre brochure, which is published annually by Denmark's theatre associations, or by looking at Teaterguiden published by Scenit.
Danish theatre associations
Regional theatres
Small metropolitan theatres
Festivals and festivals
Cultural centres
Libraries
Primary schools
High schools
Schools are also buyers of touring shows, and since they book outside the major cities, their shows are often in collaboration with the local theatre association.
Note: Think outside the box and find new buyers!
Set a realistic timeframe for planning, selling and realising your tour. Only the big, well-known players can sell a show before it's produced - so plan for your efforts to sell the tour to generally fall after the premiere and first run.
The vast majority of theatres and all theatre associations schedule their acquisitions of touring shows over the winter months, starting at the Danish Theatre Associations' Theatre Seminar in November and the final contract work around February. This means that if you want to sell a show for touring in season 26/27, your sales efforts must start at the end of 2025.
When does what happen in the performing arts touring calendar?
Calendar for touring in 26/27
If the performance is selected for Tour Network Denmark / Turnénetværk Danmark
- Create the show on the network's sales portal here.
- Create the show as a touring show in Tereba, which automatically transfers the data from the touring shows to The Green Brochure and the Teaterguide, which theatres use to get an overview of the total selection of touring shows and where they retrieve various data for their own application for Dissemination Grants.
- You can read more about Turnénetværk Danmark's structure, timeline and deadlines here.
Be aware of:
Both members of the Danish Theatre Association and other organisers know and like to use the Danish Theatre Association's standard contract. It is up to you as a producer to submit a draft contract, remember to send it in good time according to the timeline above.
Remember to send PR material (text, photo, video as a minimum) to the venues well in advance. Have material for SoMe ready.
Contact the technical manager in advance to make sure everything is in place and make arrangements for arrival.
Remember to keep the organiser informed about everything relevant to the performance. Ask how ticket sales are going and if there is anything you can do about this. Support by doing your own PR for the show's tour. The better the experience and the better the ticket sales, the more likely you are to come back. Be aware that venues talk to each other a lot.
Make sure you have good contact with the staff and volunteers at the venues so that they think it's positive to have you visit.
In UPgrade you'll find more inspiration for good PR material, your branding as a tour operator, and tips on how to establish positive contact with venues. There are also many other technical tips and tricks in this section.
*Please make sure to update the information on Tereba regularly, as data from here will be used to promote the show. Remember to use good photos, newly edited text, good video material etc.
Funding programmes
If you have produced at a publicly funded theatre or have received funding from the Danish Arts Foundation for your performance, it is automatically approved for both ticket purchase and dissemination subsidy schemes and reimbursement for children/youth performances and adult outreach theatre for a certain number of years. Check that your approval is valid for the season in which you are touring.
The performance must be approved for ticketing schemes and dissemination support to have a real chance of touring in Denmark - you can read about this here and apply for approval if you are not automatically approved.
Children's performances and adult outreach performances that are sold directly to municipal actors (high schools, libraries, cultural centres, care centres, etc.) must be approved for reimbursement in order for the finances of a booking to make sense for the organiser. You can read more about requirements and application deadlines here.
Tour Network Denmark / Turnénetværk Danmark now combines the former two touring support schemes Turnénetværket and Garantiordningen.
Being included in Turnénetværk Danmark is advantageous for your sales because it is a seal of approval in terms of quality and because venues minimise their risk through this scheme. Applications are submitted every year around 1 June on the Danish Arts Foundation's application portal here.
- You can read about the criteria and admission of works to the scheme here.
- You can read about the criteria and inclusion of venues in the scheme here.
The scheme is administered by Scenit, and the performances are sold/booked via the Turneteater.dk portal.
You can read more about Turnénetværk Danmark's structure, timeline and deadlines here.