Gig fee benchmarks: weddings, corporates and bars

Every band leader has had the moment: a planner asks "what do you charge?" and you name a number while wondering whether it is half of what the band down the road gets. Fees are rarely published, so most bands price by rumour. This article gives you ranges you can sanity-check against, and the factors that explain why two similar bands can be 3,000 EUR apart.

All figures are in euros and describe the fee for the whole band, not per musician. They vary a lot by country, by city versus countryside, and by how established the band is. Use them as a map, not a rulebook, and read how to price your band for the method behind the numbers.

The ranges

Gig type	Typical line-up	Common fee range (EUR)
Pub or bar, 2 x 45 min	3–4 piece	300–900
Bar or club, with door split	any	0–500 guarantee plus a share
Private party, 2 x 60 min	4–5 piece	1,200–2,800
Wedding, evening only	4–5 piece	1,800–4,500
Wedding, all day (ceremony, drinks, evening)	5–7 piece	3,000–7,000
Wedding, premium 8–12 piece with horns	8–12 piece	6,000–15,000
Corporate dinner and party	5–7 piece	2,500–8,000
Corporate, agency-booked, big brand	7–10 piece	6,000–20,000
Local festival slot, 45–60 min	any	300–1,500
Regional festival, main stage	any	1,500–6,000
Function trio, background music, 3 h	3 piece	900–2,000

In the UK the numbers translate roughly one-to-one into pounds; in the US the wedding and corporate ranges are commonly 30–60% higher in dollars; in southern and eastern Europe the pub and private-party ranges are often lower. If your local market is small, the bottom of each range is where most of the volume is.

Per-musician arithmetic

Behind every band fee there is a per-musician day rate, and it is the fastest way to check whether a quote is sane.

• A wedding is a 10–14 hour day for the musicians: travel, load-in, soundcheck, waiting, three sets, load-out, drive home. Working musicians in most of western Europe expect 250–450 EUR for that day; in a cheaper market 150–250 EUR.
• A pub gig is a 5–6 hour evening. 80–150 EUR per musician is common, and many players accept less for local rooms they enjoy.
• A corporate gig is often shorter on stage but stricter on timing and dress, so rates sit at or above wedding rates.

So a 5-piece wedding band at 300 EUR per head is 1,500 EUR before anything else. Add sound engineer or PA (200–500 EUR), transport (100–400 EUR), rehearsal time, admin, a leader's premium and a margin for the band fund, and you arrive at 2,500–3,500 EUR. If your quote is below the per-head floor, someone is subsidising the client.

What moves the number

Two bands with the same line-up can legitimately be 2,000 EUR apart. The usual reasons:

1. Hours on site. Evening only versus ceremony plus drinks plus evening can double the fee, because it doubles the day.
2. Line-up size. Each extra musician adds their day rate plus a share of transport. Horn sections and extra singers are the classic upsell.
3. Sound and lights. Bringing your own PA and lighting for 150 guests is worth 300–800 EUR on the invoice, and it removes a headache for the client.
4. Day of the week and season. Saturdays in June and September are the peak. Many bands quote 15–25% more for a peak Saturday and 10–20% less for a Friday or a weekday. See raising your prices for how to introduce that.
5. Travel and overnight. Beyond 50–100 km bands add mileage or a flat travel fee; over 200 km, hotel rooms per musician (60–120 EUR each).
6. Agency commission. Agencies typically take 15–25%. Either the client pays more or you earn less; decide which before you list with them.
7. Lead time. A wedding booked 14 months out at a fixed price is worth less to you than the same date booked in March for August. Short-notice bookings can carry a 10–20% premium.
8. Reputation and video. A band with a strong live video and 40 reviews sits in the top third of every range simply because clients are not gambling.

Reading a low offer

Bars and festivals rarely negotiate on your terms. A few rules of thumb:

• A door split with no guarantee is worth doing only if you can bring 60+ paying people or the venue is a genuine showcase. Ask for the venue's average door on your night.
• A festival fee under the per-musician floor is acceptable once or twice a year for exposure that you can actually use: a video, a photo set, a new booker's attention. Write down what you expect to get.
• "We can't pay but there's free food and it's great exposure" is a no unless the exposure has a name and an email address.

Check your own rate this week

1. Write down your last 10 gigs with fee, hours on site, line-up and distance. Divide each fee by musician-hours. If the spread is more than 2x, your pricing is reactive.
2. Find three comparable bands in your region and note their published "from" prices, if they publish any. Wedding directories and agency pages often show a starting price.
3. Set a floor per gig type below which you say no, and a target 25–40% above it.
4. Build packages around the floor and target instead of quoting from scratch each time; your service catalog is the tool for that.
5. Review the floor every January against your last season's numbers.

Where expert.band helps

The fee you agree lives on each gig in expert.band, so at the end of the season you can list every show with its fee and see your real average by gig type. Quotes are built from your service catalog with per-item prices, which keeps your day-rate arithmetic consistent from one client to the next, and the client gets a link rather than a stale PDF. Start free and price your next three enquiries from the same catalog.