Doors

The time attendees are let in, stated separately from the time the program starts. “Doors at 6, program at 7” is the standard shape, and the gap between the two is deliberate. It absorbs late arrivals, gives the check-in table a queue it can actually clear, and buys people the unhurried minutes that are the whole point of a connect-first event.

Doors is the hinge of the day. Before it, the room is yours, and anything wrong gets fixed in front of nobody. After it, every fix happens in front of an audience. That makes doors a deadline rather than a milestone, and it is the line every call time on the run of show is measured backwards from.

Source: Standard live-music and live-event usage, carried into event glossaries as the time attendees are admitted, always listed alongside and earlier than the program start. The same convention drives the published planning habit of setting crew and volunteer call times relative to doors rather than to the program.

First used in: 2.6 · The paper stack.