A festival advance requires a slightly different approach when compared to advancing other types of shows.
The basic principles are the same in the sense that you are reaching out before show day to make sure all of your bases are covered.
How a festival will distribute and collect information will vary depending on the scale of the festival and its production.
On a major festival, there can often be more than 100 different artists performing across multiple days and stages.
Having a clear understanding of what to expect is going to be critical for a successful day of show for both the tour and the festival.
In this article, we will explore what goes into a festival advance along with tips for making sure everything runs smoothly.
What is an Artist Welcome Letter?
An artist welcome letter is a document that provides a high-level overview of how the festival will operate.
A good artist welcome letter will include information that provides a good starting off point for the advance.
It will also provide contact information for departments that require more nuanced follow-up.
This letter will cover a range of topics, including but not limited to production, parking, scheduling, hotels, hospitality, credentials, comp tickets, artist transportation, merchandise, and settlement.
The letter will include deadlines for different departments, along with a form requesting information from the tour.
You can get a sense of how prepared the festival is based on this initial communication.
Who Do You Advance a Festival With?
Generally, an artist relations team will reach out to begin the festival-advancing process.
They will provide an artist welcome letter and a request for artist-specific information.
On a major festival, each stage usually has a dedicated stage manager and artist relations team, along with many other roles that fan out from there.
Advancing a festival is like building a world within a world.
For example, there is Coachella, but within that, there is Coachella Main Stage, Outdoor Theater, Sahara, Mojave, Gobi, and Sonora stages.
All of these different parts come together to produce one cohesive festival.
Advancing Festivals: Fillable Forms
Producing a large event requires a good information management system.
Most festivals will employ some type of questionnaire or fillable form to gather this information.
This helps to reduce transposition errors and helps to populate advancing spreadsheets that are shared internally with different teams.
This makes it even more important for the tour to pay attention to detail as data gets entered. Bad info in, equals bad info out.
Creating a system that streamlines data collection is helpful for both the tour and festival when it comes to staying organized.
Festival Deadlines: Important Dates
There are certain deadlines to pay attention to when advancing a festival.
These will normally be highlighted by the artist relations team in their initial email.
Some examples include backline requests, artist credentials, guest lists, catering and hospitality requests, parking needs, and any cash requests.
A good artist relations team will be sure to remind you if you have not submitted something, but it is ultimately the responsibility of the tour manager to make sure this information is provided in a timely manner.
Ensuring you are making these deadlines will help both the festival staff, along with the touring team.
Stage & Performance Times
This seems like such a simple thing, but it’s imperative to reconfirm the stage, set time, and set length before getting too deep in your festival advance.
Sometimes artists are dropped or added from a festival billing for a multitude of reasons, and schedules often end up shifting.
Advancing bad information can oftentimes create an unforeseen ripple effect of logistics in other departments.
Band & Crew Hotels
The mantra for festival hotel booking is to start early.
When you are looking over a proposed tour itinerary, and you notice a festival play, go ahead and highlight it on your hotel spreadsheet.
There can sometimes be an added layer of complexity when booking hotels for festivals due to location, limited availability, and price point.
Normally, at larger festivals, there will be a dedicated hotel liaison whose entire job is to help facilitate the hotel booking process.
They have access to hotel blocks that have been held that the general public does not have access to.
If you’re looking to book outside of that, contact your travel agent to see what is possible.
Artist Transportation
Artist transportation is another department that most major festivals have.
They are a team of logistics specialists that are pros at moving people on and off-site, along with internal moves around the festival grounds.
Coordinating transportation on and off a festival site for band and crew can often be a complicated affair due to layers of credentialing, security, and logistics.
The artist transportation team is there to support you along your journey.
They’ll send out a detailed manifest where you can request transport, vehicle type, number of passengers, and so on and so forth.
Festival Credentials
Your tour laminate is of no use to you in the festival environment.
Artist relations will provide you with a spreadsheet to fill out requesting credentials for the band and crew.
Normally, this includes fields for the person’s name, their role on the tour, and what packet their credential should be assigned to.
For example, the crew will often come onsite prior to the band arriving. The crew may be assigned to packet 1, while the band is assigned to packet 2.
This allows for staggered credential distribution, if necessary.
Artist check-in is often located off-site from the festival grounds, so how this works in real life will depend on the festival you’re performing at.
Submitting one cohesive list yields better results versus tacking on names.
Guest List
The number of festival guests you are allotted is usually listed on your deal memo.
Normally, artist relations will reconfirm that in their initial e-mail, but it’s good to double-check that the numbers are accurate.
Some artists are very guest-heavy, so this can be a tricky area of balancing everyone’s requests.
It’s good to set expectations up front to avoid any potential issues later on.
Media & Press
If you’re traveling with a tour photographer or videographer, make sure to request media passes for them.
There are often additional clearances and paperwork involved in capturing festival performances.
It’s important to run their media credentials through the proper channels so they can gain access to necessary areas.
Regarding coordinating interviews, there is usually a dedicated press area where you can bring your artist and do any press back to back in a circuit.
Dressing Rooms
What you are able to advance in regard to dressing room needs will largely depend on artist billing and the size of your touring operation.
Generally, you are assigned to a portable trailer or RV that will have bathroom access a short walk away.
Each trailer normally comes with some form of seating, lighting, mirror, and Wi-Fi access.
It’s fairly bare bones, so if your artist needs anything in particular, be sure to discuss it with artist relations in advance of your arrival.
Every festival is configured differently, but most festival backstages will include catering and a lounge area.
Many festivals have limited backstage real estate.
In these scenarios, if you are with an artist performing earlier in the day, you will often lose access to your trailer at a predetermined time.
This is to accommodate larger camps coming in later in the day.
Hospitality & Catering
Festivals do not shop for specific hospitality riders and instead provide festival-style hospitality.
Usually, festival-style dressing room hospitality includes a mixture of water, soda, and snacks based on the sponsor of the festival.
With that said, the hospitality coordinator will ask what your three must-have items are and provide those.
In terms of meals, most major festivals will typically offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner that will be able to accommodate a variety of different dietary restrictions.
Be sure to take a look at the timing of when meals are available.
Sometimes it is not possible for crews to make it to catering due to their work schedule, so it is important that someone gathers some to-go boxes for them.
Some festivals still use physical meal tickets, but many opt to load meals onto artist credentials.
Festival Production
Advancing festival production is usually done with a stage-specific production or stage manager.
The festival will provide a detailed tech pack and request technical riders from the artist.
The tech pack will include venue information, a site plan, festival contacts, scheduling, stage renderings, roof specs, audio specs, lighting plots, video specs, pixel maps, and other information.
Some examples of elements covered in a festival production advance include parking needs, backline requirements, wireless frequencies, deliveries, permits, use of consoles, soundchecks, riser requests, power needs, pre-vis suites, and more.
Crossloading
Sometimes it is impossible to take buses and trucks onto a festival site due to the lack of infrastructure or uneven terrain.
This creates the need for cross-loading gear from a large vehicle into a smaller vehicle that can access the site.
It’s a time-consuming process but it is sometimes necessary.
Festival Maps
Festival sites can be quite expansive, so it’s a good idea to provide festival maps to the touring party.
Highlighting key areas such as dressing rooms, catering, and the stage will be useful to the band and crew.
This can easily be shared via a Google Drive link.
It’s good to get this out before arriving on site because sometimes cell signal can become limited when on site.
Festival Parking
Festival parking can be segmented into production vehicles and personal vehicles.
Parking requests are typically made through the festival’s online portal.
Where vehicles can park, along with how long they can stay, is totally dependent on the festival site and requirements of that show day.
The basic principle remains the same. Have a vehicle coming in? Let someone know about it to see what is possible in regard to parking.
Requested parking passes are generally distributed in artist credential packets.
Make sure your drivers have a detailed site plan and know how everything is supposed to flow on show day.
Merchandise
Festival merchandise is usually shipped in and shipped out by the merch vendor.
Trying to check in merchandise on show day can be quite cumbersome unless you have a dedicated touring merch rep.
Even in that scenario, we still advise shipping in for the duration of the festival to capture sales you might otherwise miss.
Most artists are limited in the number of items they can sell, and festivals will take a hefty percentage after taxes are taken off the top.
Settlement
Festival settlements are relatively straightforward.
You’ll want to find out who you’re settling with, and where the settlement office is located.
With festival settlements, you’re normally collecting a healthy flat fee.
Depending on what you’ve advanced this could be a check, a wire, or some form of cash.
Normally, a deposit has been sent to the booking agent.
State withholding may occur depending on where the festival is taking place.
There may be additional withholding depending on other factors that are specific to your artist.
Immigration
If you are crossing an international border to perform at a festival, make sure the proper immigration paperwork has been started well in advance.
This includes double-checking that everyone in the touring party has an up-to-date passport and no border crossing issues.
This could also include coordinating visas, ATA carnets, and receiving the artist invitation letter.
Conclusion
In conclusion, successfully advancing a festival as a tour manager involves careful planning and coordination across numerous departments.
From ensuring smooth communication with festival organizers to managing logistics such as transportation and accommodation, attention to detail is paramount.
By adhering to deadlines, staying organized, and being proactive in addressing potential challenges, tour managers can help create an unforgettable festival experience for both the artist and the audience.