How to start a venue

Hey guys, my buddies and I want to start hosting house shows next semester in the Kent area. What do we need to do and have knowledge of before we get into this? What are some of your house rules besides no drinking under 21, respect the house/bands, etc. We want to make this the best experience we possibly can. We have a decent sized basement and a pool deck (sans pool) we can use as an outdoor stage during summer/fall. Any advice would be appreciated.

So, this post is pretty old, but hopefully you'll see this.

If you want to start hosting house shows, just host house shows. No drinking under 21, no drugs, no jerks, etc.

Get to know some local bands and musicians who can play and will help bring people to shows.

Check out dodiy.org and send them a listing for your space. You'll get plenty of bands emailing you looking for shows in no time.

Be flexible enough to do weekday shows. Don't try to do more than two or three shows a month when you're just starting out.

You don't need a PA, but you do need to tell bands if they need to bring one, or if you're in a neighborhood where it needs to stay quiet, specify acoustic shows only.

Have someone collecting donations at the door if there are touring bands, and then before the last band plays, pass a hat for donations for the touring bands. Give ALL of the money to touring bands.

There's not much too it. I wish you'd provided contact info. If you see this, email me at actiontvstar@gmail.com because I'd love to come play a show there.