any festival mamagers here?

[SomeJo]

Hey everyone,

my name is John and I just signed up here to see if there are any festival managers in this forum? I want to create a new festival and could use some advice

Best, John

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Best of luck John. Try not to get killed in the stampede.

[SomeJo]

Well that sounds real optimistic ;-)

[t8yman]

The festival market is possibly the most over served and under subscribed market in entertainment. The bubble has kind of burst IMHO. Its not an industry I would be looking to invest in, so I'm out!

Not saying its dying on its arse, but a number of festies have gone bust, or had to cancel in recent years due to poor sales, or licensing issues. Neil is exactly the guy you would benefit from the input of, as he sees the whole industry with an overview, whereas many of us users really just concentrate on the 1, 2 or 3 (or more - lucky buggers) festies they attend most years.

Edited June 19, 2014 by t8yman

[eFestivals]

Neil is exactly the guy you would benefit from the input of, as he sees the whole industry with an overview

and this year I'm seeing it falling further than ever - fewer sell-outs, and I'm getting the impression from what comes past my nose that many smaller fests are seeing a significant sales drop-off so far this year.

However ... there was a noticable growing trend of later interest and ticket purchase last year, so currently I'm thinking that trend has probably grown some more this year. Providing the sun keeps shining thru Glastonbury I'm confident of seeing the biggest post-glasto sales bounce for quite a while.

Edited June 19, 2014 by eFestivals

[SomeJo]

I can see you are acutally really into the topic. Well, it sounds quite idiotic to still set up a new festival, but anyhow... in my case it is a university project and we are trying to gather non-professional bands. So far we have 10 different ones who acutally signed up for the project. it was acutally not the crucial part to get the acts, but rather to manage the whole happening... for example when it comes to renting the tent - I am not sure if we really need the big stuff you see all the time, but it is still neccessary to protect all the electronic from getting soaked if the wheather strikes in... so thats why I asked for people who have already been thru the whole planning process...

btw please excuse my mistakes, I am an ERASMUS student from Germany and English is acutally not my mother tongue as you probably guessed before

Edited June 19, 2014 by SomeJo

[eFestivals]

Your English is much better than many who post here.

I've got no experience of putting on festivals myself.

What you really need to find is an experienced festival production manager, but I doubt there's many with spare time at this time of year who might be reading this to help you.

[t8yman]

The smaller, niche market is still quite vibrant I think (neil?)

We have a travelling "tribute band" festival in our small town every year, its usually very well attended. Me and a group of friends go to a uk festival called 2000 trees, which is still very much a personal affair for the organisers. If you read their website, and dig into youtube clips of the organisers speaking, they explain why and how (in vague terms) they decided to do it, and how it grew. but i wouldhazard a guess that thiers is a fairly unique story.

oh btw John - "efestivals" is Neil.

[Guest]

Are you talking about a 'festival', over at least a couple of days, with camping, or just a one day event?

[eFestivals]

The smaller, niche market is still quite vibrant I think (neil?)

I know some are, but the impression i'm getting for the whole small-fests sector is that it's having lower advance sales.

Perhaps i'm wrong. It's not like anyone is explicitly saying this, but there does seem to be a smell of desperation around to some extent in some of the things i'm seeing.

Normally by now a number of fests would be sold out. So very few are this year.

[viberunner]

You know how to end up with small fortune on the festival circuit?

Start with a large one.

[Yoghurt on a Stick]

Well that sounds real optimistic ;-)

[SomeJo]

Thank you all very much for your input! First I have to say I am not doing it all by myself of course and yes, it supposed to be a festival that takes place on a weekend from friday until sunday.

The list you put up is great and it matches the one that I have in many cases. The venue, the marquee, electritians and the whole technique is already hired and set up. We are doing it on campus (can't tell you which one yet).

You are absolutely right that there won't be anybody who knows about all steps of the whole planning process. Maybe I should have started out with one more specific question. For example we are still thinking about medical support. I read about the opportunity of having a doctor right on place and already googled that there are specific solutions for e.g. medical tents (like this). Of course its not cheap to hire a doctor for the whole festival but on the other hand it would come in very handy and may even be cheaper than having the ambulance driving back and forth all the time... What do you guys think about that topic?

[viberunner]

I helped run a small Cult TV festival, we had a guy from St Johns ambulance on at all times. Same guy year in year out, Colin Jones. Lovely guy. Note I was often tripping, hard too, and he'd always pop over, double-check I was hydrated etc., and we'd have a funny chat or two.

Anyway, in 2003 stuntman and writer Frank Maher had a heart attack on stage, during an interview. Colin saved his life, and kept him alive until the ambulance arrived half an hour later. So, you might not need a doctor, but you'll need someone. And St Johns can be good.

Besides, I imagine your insurance will require and demand some form of onsite medical crew...

[the_hedge]

fakefestivals.co.uk is the company who run the traveling tribute bands festivals.

You can buy a franchise off them where you put up the money - say 10k and they will provide everything, the tent the bands the bar, security and licences.

All you have to do is market it and sell tickets. They are really well run festivals but if you don't sell enough tickets you will lose money. The date you pick, the bands and the location are key in my opinion knowing someone who has bought a franchise the last 2 years running.

[the_hedge]

It might be a bit less than 10k but he made around 3k in the first year and he just about broke even this year as he picked a bad weekend( the Froch fight and we live in Nottingham).

Others have made upwards of 10k, some have lost 7.5k.

You just need to make sure the area you have the festival has a big enough population to sell the tickets. Tickets are as low £15 on early bird and up to £25 on the day. Although it's all under cover if you get the weather you can make a lot of money on the day. The weather can make a big difference, the main reason I have never taken the risk of putting one on.

If you can shift 1200 tickets and they drink a lot you can easily make a few quid.

Edited June 24, 2014 by the_hedge