A festival differs from a concert in length and scale. It runs for hours or days, on several stages, and visitors choose where to go. So organising a festival is closer to running a small town for a day: stages, food, toilets, security, signage, programme.
We have worked at festivals as partners and contractors, for example at PARI Fest and SummerSound. Below are the stages, costs and how to build the programme.
Stages of organising a festival
- Concept. Format (music, food, youth, sports, children’s), audience, scale
- Site and date. An open field, park, embankment or indoor complex. For open air, plan for the weather early
- Budget and funding. Tickets, sponsors, grants, city budget
- Line-up and programme. Headliners, other artists, activities between sets
- Approvals. Administration, police, fire service, medics, a separate workstream for mass events
- Infrastructure. Stages, sound, light, screens, food court, toilets, signage, chill zones
- Sales and marketing. Tickets, social media, bloggers, outdoor
- Delivery and load-out. The on-site team, cleaning, a report to partners
Festival costs
The big lines: artist fees, stage and equipment, site rent, security and medics, infrastructure (barriers, toilets, signage), marketing, crew and volunteers. Open-air events add weather insurance in the form of canopies and a backup plan. More on budgets and risks in budget, contract and risks.
Revenue usually comes from tickets, sponsors and the food court. For free city and youth festivals the base is the city budget and partners, so the sponsorship package matters more than the box office. How to build one, in how to attract sponsors.
What to build the programme from
- Daytime. Local artists, workshops, a kids’ zone, sports activities, talks
- Towards evening. Stronger acts, contests for visitors with partner prizes
- The headliner. Once it is dark and the crowd is biggest
- The finale. A shared moment for the whole site that everyone films
There are always changeover gaps between sets. They are filled with a host, prize draws, partner videos on the screens.
A finale the whole site takes part in
A festival has thousands of people with phones. We turn them into one light picture: a QR code on the screen, visitors open the page, and the whole site’s flashlights flash to the headliner’s song. Commands travel via ultrasound through the stage sound, so neither an overloaded mobile network nor loud music gets in the way.
What we learned at festivals: the show announcement must come at least a minute and a half ahead, ideally from the artist. At PARI Fest the host announced it too quickly and about 30 people joined. Two weeks later at SummerSound the band made the announcement, and the site lit up.
After the show a festival partner page opens in visitors’ browsers, one more sponsorship package item with measurable clicks. The price depends on the number of viewers, see the calculator.
FAQ
How early to start organising a festival? For a first festival of several thousand people, 6–9 months ahead: headliners are booked early and approvals take time.
Does the show suit a children’s or sports festival? Yes, if there is sound across the site and a screen or print with the QR code. At children’s festivals we use smooth modes without sharp flashes.
Formats for concerts on the concert light show page, for city celebrations on the city day show page.