When people mention the word festival, it conjures up images of Glastonbury, Reading and other well-known events. They have become excellent past time events during the summer that draw in huge crowds of people to watch famous musicians perform in front of a live audience. A festival can be a great way to get people together to enjoy music, or participate in smaller events dotted around the site. While it can be fun, there is a lot of organising needed to pull off a successful event. To help with planning a festival, we have given a few tips you should look at.
Decide the concept
With your festival committee, you should brainstorm how you want to the festival to be laid out, how many stages of music? Projectors? Fireworks? You should also decide what festival it will be, whether it will be music, literature or comedy festival. This will give you an indication of the entertainment and acts you want within the event.
Choice of venue
The venue will be one of the biggest choices you have to make when organising a festival. What you will need to consider is;
- Outside or inside?
- Weather forecasts?
- How will guests get to the festival? Parking? Transportation?
- Adequate electrical points?
Most festivals have enough area for camping equipment, if that is the case with yours, you will need to find a venue large enough to accommodate this. If catering is something you do not want to organise, then you should choose a location that will allow your guests to leave the site to go get food and drink nearby.
Logistics
It’s not easy to transport equipment to your location by yourself. A logistics company can help in transporting the necessities to you as well as providing additional services such as onsite attendance, toilets, safety and security. They can also provide a power generator in rural location with no easy access to power. In the event that you feel you need to take your festival on tour, they can also help in transporting your equipment and gear from one location to another. It is always worth seeing what each logistic company can offer for your event.
Entertainment
As well as the main stage event, you might want to include smaller tents with other events. A Silent Disco is considered a good alternative if you want to keep going into the early hours without getting into trouble. Guests can choose between two stations of music and listen through a set of headphones, so any genre of music can be listened to without disturbing other people. For the main stage, you should consider finding local bands who will perform for free, as they will be getting advertising from it. You might want to include photo exhibitions from
Local Photographers and Artists.
With precise organisation, you could have an event that will be remembered for years! Ensure that you have looked into promoting the festival. Without good marketing, you might have a lack of guests attending. Just be sure you get permission from the local council beforehand, otherwise you may find you have trouble on your hands before it has even started! They could also provide some advice with regard to entertainment, food and security!
Bill Turner enjoys spending time with his family and dogs. He is a free-lance writer and enjoys the great outdoors.
