Re: L5-30 wire for 220V?
I was in a similar place a little while ago, and my solution has been two-fold. Learning and understanding power can help you get the most out of what's available. This can be anything from troubleshooting, learning how to meter effectively and understanding why one must sometimes refuse to use provided power that is unsafe or unsuitable for your equipment and having confidence in your refusal (Ie loose neutrals, no ground, inappropriate OCPD, etc).
The second part has been to built an efficient rig that can be run of a few 20 amp outlets where needed for small shows. For example, I was bidding on a show at a university where my competitor, using conventional lighting and heaps of bridged XTI amps with an SRX rig, needed to pay an electrician to do his tie-in with a 100 amp three phase distro. My smaller rig was going to be perfectly fine using the range plug available, and in a pinch, wall power. Efficient amplifiers, speakers and LED lighting make it so. Of course this only works up to a point, but for the smaller local stuff it can really help. For me as a business, this is also defines the limits of what I do. I partner up with a larger local provider when the next level is needed because this is as large as I want to be. It's a nice humble boundary for unwise expansion.
Regarding using a generator - I can run just about any small show I do off my 6500 watt Honda generator, but I can assure you that 95% of the time its use would be unacceptable to both the venue and client. I operate almost exclusively in the downtown core of the 3.7 million person greater Montreal area, and setting up a generator outside just wouldn't be feasible, nor would there be any way to get feeder to the generator. As a provider, I'm all about providing solutions to problems, not coming up with additional problems. Sometimes the generator is just right, but it's far from being a one-size-fits-all solution to my power issues. YMMV depending on the location.
