Making a scene: how DIY gigs happen (and other stuff too) with Han and Joel
This workshop is for anyone interested in organising gigs or events, or in releasing music and zines, no previous experience required. Drawing on their deep roots in Glasgow’s DIY scene, Han and Joel will introduce the practical steps involved in putting on shows: how to book a venue, find acts, ask the right questions, promote your event, and what to look out for when working with artists.
They’ll also share their experience releasing music and zines through GLARC and Events Research Programme, as well as their involvement in setting up the Communal Leisure listings platform, developing a DIY ticketing system, and starting to investigate forming a workers’ co-op. Their collaborative approach offers a useful starting point for anyone wanting to get involved in the practical, community-focused side of music organising.
The session will take place at Glasgow Autonomous Space, a fully accessible venue.
Please email us via music.space.projects@gmail.com with any questions.
We reimburse all participants travel costs, we can discuss this with you once your place is confirmed.
Venue Information (Glasgow Autonomous Space)
We have a warm, bright, cosy ground floor space split into two main rooms, the larger of which has a double door opening onto the secure car park and a carpeted mezzanine space with a library. We have an accessible toilet, kitchen and plenty of chairs and tables. This is a space for gathering to cook and eat community meals, organise, fundraise, make banners, host workshops, hold meetings, watch films and build power to resist oppression together.
Han aka Boosterhooch is an experimental musician, sound artist and healthcare worker based in Glasgow. She runs Events Research Programme, contributes to Communal Leisure, and makes strange industrial music about everyday things, with releases on GLARC and The Trilogy Tapes. She has facilitated workshops with Strange Field, GLOSS, Radio Buena Vida and Music Broth, and tutors with The Sound Lab. Joel White is a writer and researcher based in Glasgow. He is involved with groups in the city that organise around mutual aid, migrant solidarity, prison abolition and anti-racism. His writing has appeared in Guardian, Wire, Tribune and the LRB blog. He co-runs the record label GLARC. As of September 2025, Joel is a Wellcome Trust Early Careers Fellow at Edinburgh University, working on a project entitled: Archives of Care: Histories of Mental Health & Immigration Control in Scotland. In June 2025 Joel released Friends in Common: Radical Friendship and Everday Solidarity, co-authored with Laura C Forster and published by Pluto Press.
Glasgow Autonomous Space
Unit 9, Hollybrook Place, Glasgow, G42 7HB
