Get on the crew.Concerts, festivals, and corporate work across the Twin Cities. No experience needed to start.
American Horse Labor Company (AHLC) is a Minneapolis event production labor company. We put crews into the rooms where shows actually happen — US Bank Stadium, Target Center, Xcel Energy Center, The Armory, festival grounds, convention halls, and casino showrooms across Minnesota and the upper Midwest.
We hire year round. The roster runs 200+ people and it turns over — students graduate, musicians go on tour, people move. There is almost always room for someone who shows up on time and works.
What the job actually is
We'd rather you know this before you apply than find out at 6am on a Tuesday.
What we do is a physical job. You'll push heavy cases, carry gear, climb stairs, and stand for most of a shift. The hours are odd. Load ins can start early, load outs often run past midnight, and the work concentrates on nights and weekends because that's when shows happen. It's call-based — you get offered shifts, you take the ones you can work. Some weeks are busy, some are quiet, summer is busier than February, and every season is different and exciting.
What you get back: you're paid to be inside the show. You'll stand on stages most people pay to see from a distance. You'll learn how a production is actually built, from people who've done it for decades. And you'll build a schedule around your life instead of the other way around. We want to see you grow and succeed and are here to build that relationship.
Who this tends to suit. Students. Working musicians and artists. People with a day job who want extra income on weekends. People between things who want to be useful and get paid. Anyone who'd rather move around a building all day than sit still. Plenty of our crew came in knowing nothing about production and now run departments, or even full tours.
Open crew roles
Our core horsepower. The way most people start. You'll assist load in and load out of production equipment, support the audio, lighting, video, and staging departments, run spotlights, help with set changeovers, build stages, set rooms for corporate events, and more. We train on the job, fast and efficient. Show up on time, listen, and don't be precious about hard work — because it's what we do best.
What you need
- Reliable transportation and a phone you answer
- Ability to lift and move equipment over 50 lbs
- Availability for nights and weekends
- 18 or older
- Production blacks and steel toed shoes
For people who can walk onto a call and work a department without a walkthrough. Speaker hangs, monitor world, FOH support and patching; truss builds, dimmer world, fixture focus, cable management; LED wall builds, camera support, and more.
What you need
- Real working experience in at least one department
- Comfort taking direction from touring and venue department heads
- Production blacks and steel toed shoes
- Your own basic hand tools
You run the call. That means directing and managing the crew on site, interfacing with the touring production and the venue, tracking hours, and reporting back honestly. Most of our Crew Leads came up through the roster starting simply as a stagehand — but if you've led calls elsewhere, tell us and we'll get you into the driver's seat.
What you need
- Significant stagehand and production experience across multiple departments and venue types
- The ability to lead a crew with positivity, work ethic, and professionalism
- Judgement under time pressure, and the honesty to report what actually happens on site
Truck flips, long pushes, freight, and dock management on concerts, festivals, conventions, and trade shows. If you've run a forklift in a warehouse and want the same skill in a more interesting building, this transfers directly.
What you need
- Current forklift certification
- Experience working a live dock and moving freight under time pressure
- Availability for early load ins and late load outs
For people who have extensive experience working within their department discipline. We're looking at you A2, L2, and V2s.
What you need
- Extensive experience in at least one department of preference
- Comfort taking direction from touring and venue department heads
- Production blacks and steel toed shoes
- Your own basic hand tools
Those who have a deep passion and knowledge in their department's disciplines. From FOH and PA hangs to truss hangs and lighting deployments. You're the tech on the job keeping the quality high.
What you need
- Deep passion, knowledge, and experience in at least one department of preference
- Comfort delegating tasks to assistant support and managing labor help
- Production blacks and steel toed shoes
- Your own basic hand tools
Pay and benefits. AHLC crew are W-2 employees, not 1099 contractors — you fill out a W-4 when you start and we issue a W-2 at year end. We do not offer health or retirement benefits. Crew are paid bi-weekly at the rates above.
How the schedule works
This is the question everybody asks, so here's the plain answer.
Work is call-based. When a show needs crew, we send out the call with the venue, the date, and the report time. You take the ones that work for you. You are not penalised for turning down a call — but the people who take calls consistently, and show up on time when they do, get offered more of them. That's how the call list works, and it's the only real currency here.
Most calls run somewhere between four and twelve hours. A big arena load in can be longer. Multi-day festivals mean several long days in a row. Availability for nights and weekends matters more than availability during the workweek.
How to become a stagehand with no experience
People search this constantly, so: you apply, and then you show up. There is no certificate, no degree, and no school you need first. Nearly everyone on our roster started with zero production experience.
What actually gets you established, in order:
- Take the calls nobody wants. Early load ins, holiday weekends, the February corporate gig. This is the fastest route to being known as reliable.
- Show up early and ready. Boots, gloves, blacks, water. Being ten minutes early is worth more here than almost any skill.
- Watch the department you want. If lighting interests you, work near lighting and ask questions at the right moments — not during a focus.
- Learn the vocabulary. Knowing what a truss, a deck, a spot, and a flip are makes you useful faster.
- Don't disappear. The most common way people fail here isn't incompetence, it's stopping answering the phone.
Do that for a season and you'll be getting calls in a department. Do it for a few years and you could be running them.
What we look for
- Reliability above everything. A skilled hand who might show up is worth less than a green hand who always does.
- Working well with people. You'll be on someone else's floor, alongside venue and touring staff. We integrate; we don't make it weird.
- Honesty. If something got dropped, broken, or missed, we need to hear it from you first.
- Willingness to be trained. Nobody arrives knowing this job.
Apply to join the roster
Fill this out and it goes straight to the people who build the crew list. If you're a fit, we'll be in touch about getting you onto your first call.
Application in.
We'll review it and reach out if there's a fit. Keep an eye on your phone — that's how calls go out.