What's a 'Pencil' in the live event industry?

Pencils

When a venue receives a hire enquiry from an event organizer or promoter, they may "pencil" the event on one or multiple dates if they're not yet ready to confirm the event. This essentially means that they are reserving the date(s) for the organizer/promoter, but not yet confirming it, for numerous potential factors, for example:

• If the venue already has a request for a particular date, the venue may accept another request, but then employ a ranking system based on numerous factors, such as, date of request, the prior working relationship between the venue and the organizer, the attractiveness of the potential show to the venue and other factors depending on the venue.
• If the date is far enough in the future that the venue wants to see what other enquiries may come in.
• If the organizer/promoter is yet ready to confirm but doesn't want to miss out on the option to hold the show at that venue on that date 

This process differs by venue or promoter/organizer. But in general terms a "pencil" can be thought of as an event that is awaiting confirmation, based on certain factors.

It is important to remember that a venue could have many pencils across numerous dates at any given time. The same applies for promoters, it is common for them to have multiple pencils at multiple venues on multiple dates, sometimes for the same show! Therefore, it is a process that requires rigorous oversight and control, to avoid missing out on potential business, or damaging working relationships in the industry.

Also see our glossary article for "Holds" here, as the two concepts are closely linked.