How to organise a choir tour of Britain and Ireland

Who this guide is for

You sing in a choir, or you direct one, and somebody has decided the choir should tour Britain or Ireland. Then somebody decided you were the person to organise it. You are probably the secretary, the treasurer or the director of music, and you have never put a tour together before.

This guide is written for you rather than for a travel agent. It covers what actually has to be booked, the order to do it in, and the questions people will ask you at the next rehearsal. It applies whether you are a parish choir of twenty, a university chamber choir, a community choral society or a school choir travelling with parents.

It assumes a singing tour rather than a sightseeing trip with one concert bolted on. The difference matters. A singing tour is planned around the venues and the service times, and everything else fits around those.

The timeline, 12 to 18 months out to departure

Cathedrals and larger churches work a long way ahead, and the summer weeks that choirs want are the weeks that go first. If you are hoping for a residency in a well known cathedral in July or August, eighteen months is not early. Twelve months is workable for most other things.

Choosing venues: cathedrals, churches and concert halls

There are three broad kinds of venue and they behave very differently.

Cathedrals

Most cathedrals in Britain and Ireland welcome visiting choirs, usually to sing the daily services while the resident choir is away. This is why the summer holidays and the weeks around Easter and Christmas are the busiest periods. Approaches go to the cathedral office or to the director of music, and the process is formal: they will want to know your size, your voice parts, your standard, who is directing, and what you propose to sing. Lead times are long and the answer often depends on a rota agreed a year or more in advance. Some cathedrals make no charge for a visiting choir, some ask for a contribution towards costs, and some will offer a retiring collection. Ask early and get it in writing.

Parish churches and abbeys

Smaller churches are more flexible and much quicker to answer, and they are often the warmest audiences on the tour. Bookings usually go through the incumbent or the churchwardens. Practical questions matter more here: is there an organ and is it in tune, is there room for your numbers in the chancel, is there anywhere to robe, and is there parking for a coach nearby. Many will ask for a share of the collection rather than a fee.

Concert halls and secular venues

Halls are a commercial booking with a hire fee, a technical rider and a contract. They make sense if you are selling tickets, promoting the concert yourself, or performing with an orchestra or a local choir. They are the most expensive option and the one that most needs local promotion to fill, so most touring choirs use one hall at most and sing everything else in churches.

Repertoire and performance permissions

Two separate things get confused here. The first is what the venue will allow. If you are singing services, the cathedral or church will normally set or approve the music, and there may be house conventions on settings, psalms and responses. Send your proposed lists early and expect to be asked to change something.

The second is copyright. Anything still in copyright needs the right performing and copying permissions, and the responsibility usually sits with the promoter of the concert rather than with the choir. Where you are performing in someone else’s venue, ask them directly who holds the licence and what they need from you. Photocopied music is the most common problem on tour, so plan to travel with legal copies.

Practical repertoire advice from choirs who have done it: keep the touring programme short enough to be secure from memory of the building rather than the page, carry one unaccompanied piece in case the organ is unusable, and have something local ready. A Scottish or Irish piece sung in a Scottish or Irish church will get more from the congregation than anything else on the programme.

Group size, coaches and accommodation

Most touring choirs sit between twenty five and sixty singers, and the number drives everything else. Below about twenty five you can move in minibuses and stay in smaller hotels and guest houses. Above about fifty you are into two coaches or a full size coach, and you need hotels that can take the whole group in one building, which pushes you towards larger properties or slightly out of the city centre.

• Count your travelling party, not your singing party. Partners, parents, a conductor, an accompanist and any chaperones all need seats and beds.
• Coaches in Britain and Ireland are subject to driver hours rules. A day with a long drive, an afternoon rehearsal and an evening concert can breach them, so build the driving into the schedule rather than adding it afterwards.
• Historic city centres are hard for coaches. Check where the coach can actually set down near each venue, and how far the walk is in robes.
• Ask hotels for a rooming plan in advance. Choirs are usually a mix of twins, singles and a few couples, and sorting it on arrival is the fastest way to lose an evening.
• Book somewhere the choir can warm up. A function room at the hotel for half an hour before departure is worth more than a better view.

Costs to budget for

Every tour is priced differently, so rather than quote figures that will be wrong for your group, here are the categories to put in your spreadsheet. Price each one for your actual dates and numbers before you tell the choir what the tour will cost.

Two lines choirs forget. The first is the cost of carrying people who cannot pay, if your choir subsidises members. The second is the exchange rate, if you are raising money in one currency and spending it in another over a year.

Paperwork

Visas for groups travelling from the United States and elsewhere

Requirements change, so check the current position on the official UK and Irish government sites well before you book flights. For most short visits by US citizens no visa is needed, but there are electronic travel authorisations to obtain in advance and they are applied for individually by each traveller, not by you in bulk. Britain and Ireland are separate jurisdictions with separate rules, so a tour that crosses between them needs both checked. Give the choir a deadline for producing passport details and completed authorisations, and make it earlier than you think you need.

Insurance

Group travel insurance should cover medical cover abroad, cancellation, and instruments and equipment. Read what it says about a member dropping out for medical reasons, because that is the claim choirs actually make. If you are performing in public, ask whether your choir’s own public liability cover extends to overseas performances, and whether the venue requires evidence of it.

Risk assessments for youth choirs

If anyone in the party is under eighteen, you will need a written risk assessment, a stated supervision ratio, parental consent and medical forms, and safeguarding arrangements that satisfy your school, diocese or trust. Venues and accommodation may ask to see your policy. Agree who is the responsible adult on each day, in writing, before you travel, and check whether the organisation you sing for requires background checks for the accompanying adults.

What a DMC does, and what you can do yourself

Plenty of choirs organise their own tours and do it well. It is worth being honest about which parts are straightforward and which parts take up your evenings for a year.

A sensible middle path is common. Many choirs keep the musical side entirely to themselves, the venue relationships and the repertoire, and hand over transport, accommodation and the day to day running of the tour.