Guide · Hospitality

Hospitality rider: what to include

The hospitality rider covers everything around the band beyond the sound: dressing room, food, drinks and comfort. Here is exactly what to include — with a short example.

What is a hospitality rider?

A hospitality rider is the part of your rider that isn’t about sound, but about the people behind the music: where you get changed, what there is to eat and drink, and how to make the day run smoothly. It usually travels together with your technical rider in one file. The technical part tells the stage how you sound; the hospitality part tells the organisation how to take good care of the band.

It’s often forgotten or treated as an afterthought, but a clear hospitality rider prevents hassle on the day — and helps you arrive rested and on time.

What goes in a hospitality rider?

Dressing room — a lockable space, how many people, a mirror, power sockets, and whether you need a separate room.
Catering & dietary needs — a hot meal or buy-out, the number of people, and clear dietary requirements (vegetarian, vegan, allergies, gluten-free).
Drinks — water on stage is the essential one; beyond that coffee/tea, soft drinks, and optionally beer or wine after the show.
Towels — clean (dark) towels for the stage.
Parking & load-in — room for the van or cars, and a load-in spot close to the stage.
Guest list — how many spots you need.
Buy-out — if no meal is provided, a fixed amount per person to buy your own food.

Build your rider in minutes

With RoboRider you answer a few questions and automatically get a clean input list, stage plot, technical rider and hospitality rider in one professional PDF — free to try.

Start your rider →

Stay realistic

A good hospitality rider asks for what you actually need, not what sounds impressive. Small clubs have smaller budgets than festivals — a reasonable, friendly list reads better and is more often fully met. Feel free to scale your rider to the size of the show.

A short example

A compact hospitality section for a four-piece band might look like this: one lockable dressing room for 4; a hot meal for 4 (2× vegetarian, 1× gluten-free) or a fixed buy-out per person; 8 bottles of water on stage; coffee, tea and soft drinks in the dressing room; 4 clean towels; parking for one van; 4 spots on the guest list.