Behind the Scenes: What It Takes to Produce the Biggest Summer Festivals

Licenses, Permits, and Legal Considerations

Hosting a medium- or large-scale event requires a range of legal considerations. Your specific considerations will vary based on the specific region and size of your festival, so you’ll need to look into the specific requirements.

The major areas to consider are:

• Permits and other requirements: Securing the necessary permits and understanding local regulations are crucial for festival planning. Make sure you have all the necessary permits to host a large-scale event, from noise ordinances to capacity limits.
• Insurance and liability: With thousands of attendees, the potential for incidents is a reality that organizers must prepare for. Don’t underestimate the importance of comprehensive event insurance and strategies for mitigating risks to keep everyone safe.

Sustainability and Community Impact

Festivals have a significant environmental footprint and have other effects on the local community. You’ll need to keep the following items in mind and include them in your planning:

• Environmental considerations: Festivals have a significant environmental footprint. Explore green initiatives like waste reduction, recycling programs, and efforts to encourage sustainable transportation.
• Engaging with the community: Festivals can have a profound impact on local communities. Engage with the community and convey the benefits and challenges of hosting festivals, such as the positive economic impact, community involvement, and strategies for fostering positive relationships with local residents.

Marketing and Promotion

Even the best music and sound production ever experienced at a music festival will be for nothing if nobody shows up. A few ways to get the word out about your festival include the following:

• Branding: What will you name your festival? What overall mood are you trying to convey? How will everything from font choices to color schemes convey that mood? Branding is critical, challenging, and worth exploring many different options before making firm decisions.
• Marketing strategies: How will you spread the word once you’ve ironed out all the logistics and branding? Leverage digital marketing, social media, and traditional advertising to build hype and sell tickets.
• Sponsorship and partnerships: You can offset the initial costs by securing sponsorships and partnerships. Reach out to companies relevant to your festival's theme and major genres and explore ways to integrate their requirements without negatively impacting attendees' experiences.

Don’t underestimate these efforts — marketing, and promotion are crucial to drawing attendees.

On-site Management and Execution

You’ve done all the preparation and the first day of the festival has arrived. Now, the challenge becomes executing your plan, adapting to problems, and making sure you provide the experience attendees expect.

There’s a lot of moving pieces involved and they’ll vary for every festival. However, we can still go over topics that will give you the best chance of hosting a successful event.

Coordination and Communication

Effective on-site management is vital for a smooth festival experience. On-site management includes the role of event staff and volunteers and the importance of clear communication channels throughout the festival's duration.

Your teams should be able to solve any issues that emerge, from technical issues to medical emergencies. Established lines of communication, such as handheld radios, can help identify and respond to issues.

Crowd Management and Security

Ensuring the safety and security of attendees is paramount. Take plenty of time to create strategies for effective crowd control and security measures. 

You should have teams in place to prevent and respond to incidents to minimize any potential harm. For example, what happens if more people show up than you can accommodate and they find ways to sneak in? This has happened at other festivals and can quickly escalate to serious issues and hefty fines.

Be aware of the potential for harm and take active steps to prevent it, including having the right teams in place to focus on keeping everyone safe.

Post-Festival Activities

Gathering feedback from attendees, artists, and vendors is crucial for continuous improvement if you’re planning on making your festival an annual event. Collect feedback from attendees in the form of a post-festival email, ask artists how their experience went, and communicate with vendors throughout the festival so you’re aware of any issues they experience.

Reflecting on lessons learned and beginning the planning process for the next event is an ongoing cycle. Take insights from the first festival to enhance future events and strive to become a must-attend highlight of the summer festival season.

Get Prepared for Festival Season with Sound Engineering Programs at OIART

Producing a major summer festival is an enormous undertaking that sometimes requires year-round planning, a dedicated team, and a passion for creating unforgettable experiences. If successful, providing a memorable experience and establishing your festival as one of the major festivals of the summer can be fulfilling and rewarding.

One critical skill summer festivals require is expert live sound engineers. Attending a sound engineering school helps prepare you to take on this specialized role to add more value to the festival team.

OIART offers industry-leading audio engineering programs so you can pursue your festival dreams. Ready to take the next step towards earning a formal qualification in the art of live sound engineering or become a music producer? Apply today to kick-start your career.