starting a new festival

[jump]

so you mean sell the tickets over a month before the venue but dont send the tickets out til a few weeks before?

If you're expecting around 1k people then you do need to start selling well over a month before the event, if you think you can sell those amount of tixs in 2 weeks then you need to rethink the entire thing.

your 'normal' punters will be pissed off to be having to pay twice what others do, and won't buy as a result.

Your 'normal' punters won't consider a festival full of squaddies as the place they want to be.

Squaddies on a night out do my head in, I went to see Black Sabbath at Hyde Park a few months ago and every 10 mins I had heard a pissed up squaddie going on about how he only paid £3 to get in let alone the few times I've had to stop a drunken squaddie starting a fight.

Edited October 8, 2014 by jump

[panky]

your 'normal' punters will be pissed off to be having to pay twice what others do, and won't buy as a result.

Your 'normal' punters won't consider a festival full of squaddies as the place they want to be.

why would they be so pissed off? from experience of going out in weymouth which has a camp close by the clubs seem to do very well with the mixture of military and civilian?

you think a festival that might generate £10k in sales will only cost a few grand to put on?

Get back to us when you return to planet earth.

I put on a very small show in a hall about ten years back - I lost around £3k on it. That show was very cheap to put on, compared to putting stuff on in a field.

There's a number of reasons for that loss, including the fact that I wasn't too bothered about having that loss - but it was still that loss from an enterprise that was far far smaller than the smallest thing you've suggested you might do, and where the costs of doing that show were MUCH lower.

i am literally going by the research i have done online, and from the advice of previous people that have held events, and for say a thousand people attendance, not including the bands for starters, where exactly are you gunna spend so much money? this is 1 of the main reasons i came to this forum to get advise exactly like this from guys that actually know what they are talking about

licencing

toilets

stage

lighting

sound equipment

generator

security

staff

promoting

i will also be looking into trying to find a sponsor for the venue, but again that is another question i need to find out how exactly to go about doing that,

again this is all in the planning stage, iv not spent a penny just time so far getting my research done

[LondonTom]

Maybe you can seek advice from/ hire one of the many events management students that are around? You would imagine they would learn this kind of thing, than just how to create surveys.

[panky]

Squaddies on a night out do my head in, I went to see Black Sabbath at Hyde Park a few months ago and every 10 mins I had heard a pissed up squaddie going on about how he only paid £3 to get in let alone the few times I've had to stop a drunken squaddie starting a fight.

well being a 'SQUADDIE' myself i can object to that, yes so we have a few perks with the job that gets us discount, same as the most forces such as police or firefighters, you cant hate us for that, its probably the only perk we actually have in the job lol

with the fighting side of thing, yes soldiers do tend to have a bad reputation for being gobby idiots but in fact its a small minority that are actually any trouble, if theres a group of 30 soldiers that go out i guarentee 1-2 only will be fighting, i guarentee if you get 30, 21 year old lads that work for mcdonalds you WILL get the same outcome...

i generally cant remember the last time i had any trouble out drinking...

but this is going way off topic i appologise

[panky]

Maybe you can seek advice from/ hire one of the many events management students that are around? You would imagine they would learn this kind of thing, than just how to create surveys.

thats actually quite a good idea, they would be getting experience needed and id be getting the help needed, i will look into this

[jump]

well being a 'SQUADDIE' myself i can object to that, yes so we have a few perks with the job that gets us discount, same as the most forces such as police or firefighters, you cant hate us for that, its probably the only perk we actually have in the job lol

with the fighting side of thing, yes soldiers do tend to have a bad reputation for being gobby idiots but in fact its a small minority that are actually any trouble, if theres a group of 30 soldiers that go out i guarentee 1-2 only will be fighting, i guarentee if you get 30, 21 year old lads that work for mcdonalds you WILL get the same outcome...

i generally cant remember the last time i had any trouble out drinking...

but this is going way off topic i appologise

I don't hate squaddies because they get perks, I hate drunk twats who can't handle their drinks.

[panky]

I don't hate squaddies because they get perks, I hate drunk twats who can't handle their drinks.

ok well this has gone way off topic so im not going to bother responding properly

[eFestivals]

why would they be so pissed off? from experience of going out in weymouth which has a camp close by the clubs seem to do very well with the mixture of military and civilian?

as it happens, I was brought up in Aldershot. There's a reason why Aldershot is a shithole where fuck all goes on.

So the squaddies go to Guildford, where they think they blend in and aren't noticed.

If you don't understand why squaddies are not a good fit with festival culture, you'll fail with your festival.

i am literally going by the research i have done online, and from the advice of previous people that have held events, and for say a thousand people attendance, not including the bands for starters, where exactly are you gunna spend so much money? this is 1 of the main reasons i came to this forum to get advise exactly like this from guys that actually know what they are talking about

licencing

toilets

stage

lighting

sound equipment

generator

security

staff

promoting

i will also be looking into trying to find a sponsor for the venue, but again that is another question i need to find out how exactly to go about doing that,

again this is all in the planning stage, iv not spent a penny just time so far getting my research done

don't just say it'll cost fuck all, show us the prices you think these things will cost you.

And then triple it, and you might be somewhere near.

Edited October 8, 2014 by eFestivals

[Guest]

well being a 'SQUADDIE' myself i can object to that, yes so we have a few perks with the job that gets us discount, same as the most forces such as police or firefighters, you cant hate us for that, its probably the only perk we actually have in the job lol

with the fighting side of thing, yes soldiers do tend to have a bad reputation for being gobby idiots but in fact its a small minority that are actually any trouble, if theres a group of 30 soldiers that go out i guarentee 1-2 only will be fighting, i guarentee if you get 30, 21 year old lads that work for mcdonalds you WILL get the same outcome...

i generally cant remember the last time i had any trouble out drinking...

but this is going way off topic i appologise

out of 30 squaddies, 1 or 2 will be fighting. It's not exactly a comforting statistic.

I can only imagine what kind of festival you might be trying to put together

I'm not coming

[Guest]

Out of curiosity, for a start, how much do you think it'd cost to put a stage up with lighting and sound system, with the necessary power?

[jump]

out of 30 squaddies, 1 or 2 will be fighting. It's not exactly a comforting statistic.

I can only imagine what kind of festival you might be trying to put together

I'm not coming

And the ones not fighting will be shouting about how they "DEFEND THEIR COUNTRY WHAT DO YOU DO".

[jump]

This didn't need another thread.

What kind of venue is it? What kind of audience does the venue have? Who will you be promoting to? Do the acts correlate? etc You can fit guitar and dj acts together if it's done right and they have synergy with each other and the aduience but randomly putting things together because you like them wont work.

[bunique]

What kind of festival are you expecting to put on? Dance, folk, rock, what?

[t8yman]

squaddies are generally a fucking nightmare on nights out, close to me is Beverley, a small, market town - picture a miniature York. Its now a really nice place to go for a night out (since the "squaddies" from leconsfield stopped using it as a drinking venue). It used to be a fucking nightmare. we would try and organise a night out somewhere other than our main city center, other local villages often got frequented. the minute you mentioned beverley - everyone would say "no- full of squaddies".

dont try and tell me squaddies are just like everyone else - they aren't - they are trained killers, and act like civvies owe them something.

if you want to fill the place with soldiers, you might (possibly) have a decent first year. You definitely won't be having a second year (unless its with more soldiers)

Edited October 8, 2014 by t8yman

[Spindles]

I think you have to take the view that everyone who has ever put a festival on has had the money in the first place to cover the entire cost and be able to afford that loss in their lives. Glastonbury was originally bank rolled by Arabella Churchill and friends, as well as Michael Eavis contributing the land and his own money. Don't take it negatively that people's responses have been that you are being naive in your estimations of cost, return and difficulties.

I've had limited experience of the back ends of festivals and even some that are well established names on the festival circuit can be in more precarious financial situations than you'd think on quite a few years. Many people are working for free and that requires people who can afford to work for a week or more for the love of it who are loyal to your festival/organisation/cause.

Out of curiosity, for a start, how much do you think it'd cost to put a stage up with lighting and sound system, with the necessary power?

This is the way to break it down. How many people does it take to erect a stage? Are they professionals who come with higher wage and insurance costs? How many man hours will this part of the festival take to implement? Apply the same to every aspect (fence erecting, vehicle hire, plant hire, resource provision, etc.) and you'll be amazed how quickly this all adds up.

My personal suggestion would be to try running small indoor events first, get to know people in the locality who are involved and walk before you try to run.

[eFestivals]

This didn't need another thread.

which is why i've now merged them.

[panky]

out of 30 squaddies, 1 or 2 will be fighting. It's not exactly a comforting statistic.

I can only imagine what kind of festival you might be trying to put together

I'm not coming

because civilians dont fight? of course i want no trouble at the venue for the cause of being shut down, iv not been many big venues that trouble doesnt start usually by idiots that think they are harder than they really are 'civilians included' but saying the cause of all drama like a few have said above is through soldiers is abit narrow minded in my opinion...

this topic seems to have moved from helping and advise into a squaddie battering :/

Out of curiosity, for a start, how much do you think it'd cost to put a stage up with lighting and sound system, with the necessary power?

£3-5k? im not entirely sure tbh

What kind of festival are you expecting to put on? Dance, folk, rock, what?

i was going to go with live bands but looking into getting the bands equipment etc. i thought it might be easier/cheaper for dance music with dj's i have more friends in that industry and i prefer that type of music personally i think with the growing number of youths that are going to festivals looking at my friends for example more people are likely to come to a dance festival rather than live music 1

[Guest]

because civilians dont fight? of course i want no trouble at the venue for the cause of being shut down, iv not been many big venues that trouble doesnt start usually by idiots that think they are harder than they really are 'civilians included' but saying the cause of all drama like a few have said above is through soldiers is abit narrow minded in my opinion...

this topic seems to have moved from helping and advise into a squaddie battering :/

Some people are more likely to cause bother than others. Squaddies come higher up the list than most. I don't think anyone has suggested it's only squaddies who cause bother... nor that all squaddies will cause bother.

£3-5k? im not entirely sure tbh

if you haven't even got that far, it's hard to take your quest at organising a festival too seriously

PS, if you do any serious communicating with people who you'd want to take you seriously, I'd get a good proof-reader

Edited October 8, 2014 by tonyblair

[panky]

I think you have to take the view that everyone who has ever put a festival on has had the money in the first place to cover the entire cost and be able to afford that loss in their lives. Glastonbury was originally bank rolled by Arabella Churchill and friends, as well as Michael Eavis contributing the land and his own money. Don't take it negatively that people's responses have been that you are being naive in your estimations of cost, return and difficulties.

I've had limited experience of the back ends of festivals and even some that are well established names on the festival circuit can be in more precarious financial situations than you'd think on quite a few years. Many people are working for free and that requires people who can afford to work for a week or more for the love of it who are loyal to your festival/organisation/cause.

This is the way to break it down. How many people does it take to erect a stage? Are they professionals who come with higher wage and insurance costs? How many man hours will this part of the festival take to implement? Apply the same to every aspect (fence erecting, vehicle hire, plant hire, resource provision, etc.) and you'll be amazed how quickly this all adds up.

My personal suggestion would be to try running small indoor events first, get to know people in the locality who are involved and walk before you try to run.

that is a fair point, tbh on looking at the stage costs etc. i assumed the cost of man power of them errecting would all be in the price... but if i do end up going along with the idea of a few djs rather than bands surely that would cut the cost dramatically?

[panky]

if you haven't even got that far, it's hard to take your quest at organising a festival too seriously

well like i said it is purely in the planning stages... whether i go through with it or not is a different thing, hence why im asking alot of questions to people that have done this before...

[Spindles]

I think that the acts themselves are likely to be one of the smallest costs.

I used to cost jobs in steel fabrication. Once you break something down into it's constituent parts and look at it as a collection of values you come to realise that nothing is as simple as it might look, that if you underestimate how long it takes to do something then it can have major implications on profitability and that there is almost nothing as expensive as man-hours.

If you were serious about marketing to servicemen then maybe you'd have to consider first finding people to help with the huge amount of actual work that's involved for no money at all (this covers the 'working for the love of it' part) and directly targeting that demographic.

[jump]

TBH I wouldn't bother, you seem to be expecting the money from the bar to pay for most things but on those kinds of deals you will need a very high turn out to ensure you get money but from the questions you're asking you don't seem to have the knowledge, connections or business sense to ensure that.

[panky]

I think that the acts themselves are likely to be one of the smallest costs.

I used to cost jobs in steel fabrication. Once you break something down into it's constituent parts and look at it as a collection of values you come to realise that nothing is as simple as it might look, that if you underestimate how long it takes to do something then it can have major implications on profitability and that there is almost nothing as expensive as man-hours.

If you were serious about marketing to servicemen then maybe you'd have to consider first finding people to help with the huge amount of actual work that's involved for no money at all (this covers the 'working for the love of it' part) and directly targeting that demographic.

who would actually work for nothing though :/ what kind of staff do i need? iv got the bar sorted... clean up crew i can pay some friends cash in hand to help with, security, my friend has been in the game for 25 years and said he has some contacts that could come in and help but obviously not for free so that will cost a few hundred £

i kind of assumed that hiring lights, stage etc. the people i hire from would install it aswel :/

[panky]

TBH I wouldn't bother, you seem to be expecting the money from the bar to pay for most things but on those kinds of deals you will need a very high turn out to ensure you get money but from the questions you're asking you don't seem to have the knowledge, connections or business sense to ensure that.

and how do you gain knowledge, connections and business sense if not but by doing it and asking questions...?

[krisskross]

licencing

toilets

stage

lighting

sound equipment

generator

security

staff

promoting

a few off the top of my head.

food outlets - possible profit

health & safety inspectors / local council / police

insurance / legal costs

bar costs / suppliers