How to start a music festival

If you love music and are looking for a business opportunity, you may consider learning how to start a music festival. Music festivals allow people to get together, relax and enjoy seeing lots of bands at one outing and enjoy meeting lots of fellow music lovers. Starting a music festival will allow you to be creative in a business venture. You can tailor the festival to attract the most money or your favorite type of music. Follow these steps to get started on this fun endeavor.

1.Create a business plan. A music festival will be a business. You need to research how other music festivals succeeded. Learn the secrets behind Coachella. Then, research your own chosen niche. It's best to go with something that hasn't been done before or hasn't been done on a grand level. For example, if you are doing a rap music festival, make sure to make your festival unique. What will make the average listener and fan want to come to your festival? Think long-term and short-term in your business plan.
2.Go to the Small Business Association. They have mentorship programs, grant programs and loan programs that will help you. Be specific on what you need in order to make your music festival a reality. Submit a copy of your business plan as well.


3.Set up a Website. All businesses and music festivals need a web presence. This is how many people will find your music festival. You'll also want to establish a Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networking set ups that are official for your music festival. You'll also need an ad person, because you'll need someone who is going to get the word out about your music festival.
4.Decide on the rules for your music festival. If you want to not allow alcohol, that should be clear to concert goers before they purchase ticket's some musical festival goers are there to party. You don't want to seem like you are bombarding your potential attendees with rules, but they should be clearly stated on your festival's Website.
5.Choose a location for your music festival. Once you have a plan and idea of the realistic financing that you'll be able to acquire, you want to start looking at venues. Be creative. Woodstock was held in a field. Any place could be a potential locale. It's best to choose a location that matches the genre and type of artists that will be coming. If you want to get more performers, you'll also want to hold it in a location that's central to the type of music you're hosting. For example, a country music festival held near Nashville is ideal.
6.Make sure that you have someone who can get in touch with musical artists. You'll need a PR person or other representation to play up your venue. You need to have something clear to offer them. Play up the space that you have to sell the band's merchandise, which can be a really lucrative way for the band to make money. If you are hoping for big names for your start-up music festival, you need to make it clear that you have something special to offer the artists. Also, which certain artists are signed, you can use those bands to lure other bands who may admire them or trust those bands' decisions.
7.Set up for the music festival. This includes checking acoustics and installing (or using what's already there) high quality equipment. You'll need chairs and seating areas. If it's only a temporary festival location, this will be a lot more work.
8.Sell concessions at your festival. This can be a great way to make money. Set up concessions alongside the stand where band merchandise is sold.
9.Personally meet with the bands as they come; make sure staff members cater to their needs. If a band member has a problem, make sure that his needs are addressed and met. It's best to extend your hand more than you wanted than to leave a big band feeling angry about your festival.

A Guide to Starting your Own Music Festival


Over the past 10 years, the popularity of the music festival has gone from strength to strength. From the heady days of Woodstock to the gargantuan gatherings of the world's biggest music festival – Summerfest – which annually attracts up to 1 million people there's nothing to stop you getting in on the action as well. All music festivals need to start off somewhere be it the backyard of someone's house to a local park. Keeping your ideas realistic, affordable and achievable will guarantee the popularity and success of your music festival to grow.

When planning your first music festival there are a number of very important factors you need to consider; the first of which being your location. If you are planning a small music festival with a handful of bands and a local audience you may wish to consider using a large back garden or area of community parkland. Getting permission of those who own the land is essential, if you fail to do so you could find yourself arrested! Being aware of the noise involved is also important and you should be completely honest with yourself, those involved and local people about what the festival will entail.

Once you've found a suitable location for your music festival the next factor to consider is technical requirements. Sponsorship is a great way to save money, especially if you can get support from companies or organisations that are willing to lend speakers, staging or even volunteers to organise and police your event. Power supply is a particularly important topic and considerable time should be given to investigating safe and affordable generators. Running your festival 'off the mains' simply isn't a practical option so investigating the power options available is on top, if not near the top, of your agenda.

Once you have your location and technical requirements prepared, it's now time for the fun part – booking your bands and advertising. Cutting costs by finding bands that are happy to play for free and support an up and coming music event is a must for any first time festival organiser. Roping in friends and family to poster and flyer is also another good idea given the cost of promotional staff can quickly push your overheads up. If you're looking to cut costs even further, there's also the option to advertise online via social networking sites instead of buying posters and flyers which can often become costly once design, printing and postage is included.

Finally, the most important part of organising your own music festival is your budget. Starting off with big ideas might provide you with something to aim for but can prove extremely costly with plenty of promoters willing to testify about the risks of starting your own festival. Essentially a music festival is a business venture and any business should be supported by a firm financial plan. Visiting your local enterprise centre and doing plenty of research on any eventuality will allow you to kick back and enjoy when everything comes neatly together.



http://www.livenation.com/