2021 has been an eventful year for the festival sector with plenty of highs and lows to reflect on. It has been another tough year financially for the industry and anyone who works in it but the festival sector has survived intact. The future looks bright with most festivals looking forward to a good year in 2022.  

A subject that is often ignored and receives little publicity is the impact on hearing that musicians and music festival-goers suffer. Hearing loss can take many forms and can affect people later in life but because of the gradual onset is not taken seriously so what actions can vulnerable people take to protect their hearing.

The democratisation of the music industry has increased since the late 70s and continues to be a fundamental aspect of the industry today. The advancements in technology to help create music combined with distribution over the internet have been the engines behind this process but can the same principles be applied to the music festival industry.

Alcohol sales and music festivals have always been closely connected and the amounts of money spent by the big corporate alcohol brands each year on music festival sponsorship amounts to about $1.5 billion. Getting an alcohol brand to sponsor a music festival is a key requirement for festival organisers and always forms part of their overall sales revenue strategy but are there other ways to benefit from alcohol sales. 

Having poor financial planning and budgetary control has been the downfall of many music festivals no matter how well intended they were. What steps can festival organisers take to ensure that they have robust financial processes and procedure in place to avoid future financial difficulty or event cancellation.

The Government Live Events Reinsurance Scheme (LE Reinsurance Scheme) was introduced in September 2021 as a way to provide some financial backing to insurers for event cancellation due to Covid-related reasons. What is the current status of this scheme and what can festival organisers do to get coverage for their 2022 events?

Organising any music festival is a very risky business where the swings between high profit, break even and big losses can be unpredictable. With the coronavirus pandemic now entering a new Omicron wave globally what is the likely impact on the business of running music festivals in 2022 and beyond. 

The number of factors and time critical activities involved in planning and running a music festival can be huge. How can festival organisers use critical path management to plan and control their festival logistics to ensure that everything happens when it should to deliver a quality event on time and within budget.

Most music festivals produce a significant carbon footprint at each event due to the activities of the organisers, vendors and festival-goers. Festival organisers are doing their utmost to reduce the organisation’s carbon footprint but a high proportion comes from festival-goer activity so it is prudent to encourage visitors to make efforts to reduce their own carbon footprint too.

As the holiday period approaches between Christmas and New Year many music festival organisations let their staff take time off. How can organisers automate customer support during this time when they are operating with a skeleton staff to help potential ticket buyers who need assistance.

This may be one of the most important events to take place in 2022 for anyone working in the underground electronic music sector. The new 5-day event is planned for 13th - 17th April 2022 in the popular resort town of Cancun, Mexico. What will this new event deliver for anyone working in the music festival industry and why should they consider attending?

Although the numbers of adult smokers has fallen significantly over the last 20 years the number of festival-goers who smoke is still unusually high. The issue of smoking can be quite divisive so organisers need to find the right balance between restrictions and provision of facilities for those who wish to indulge. 

The numerous small grass roots music festivals that take place in most countries every year often rely on the efforts of a small group of volunteers and are organised by local societies. They are usually local societies that cater for specialist interests in particular music genres but how do they manage to put on their small music festivals every year.    

Providing a luxury VIP experience is part of almost every music festival where festival-goers pay a premium to get a home form home service. The key element that helps to sell any VIP package is the bathroom facilities provided and this can vary from event to event as organisers have a different interpretation of what a VIP service is.

The holiday festive season around Christmas and New Year is traditionally a quiet period for summer festival organisers with most staff taking time off to be with family and friends. How can organisers of next summer's festivals increase and maximise revenue opportunities in the run up to the end of year holiday season.

Getting the right media coverage for a music festival is great but organisers should ensure they manage journalists and photographers attending. Having a good accreditation process in place will help to manage the number of media people on site and that they are genuine journalists and photographers.

Inclement weather can be disastrous for any music festival with numerous examples of festivals being closed prematurely because of bad weather. What steps can organisers take to be the most prepared for potential problems that bad weather may cause by anticipating the weather forecast prior to the event dates.

The traditional music festival takes place during the summer months with sun and heat which ensures that inclement weather does not impact on the festival organisation. For those keen on experiencing music festivals during the winter months what options are available for festival-goers keen to keep the party going. 

Organisers of music festivals may have long relationships with venue and land owners but sometimes they need to change venue. It may be that their event has outgrown the existing site capacity or for some other reason they are unable to continue, what options are there for securing a new site quickly and without too much hassle.

The muddy music festival field has always been part and parcel of the festival experience but it doesn’t have to be that way. Having a festival site that turns into a quagmire is not pleasant for most festival-goers, doesn’t help with returning the site to nature and can cause sever logistics problems for access and egress to the site.

The VIP packages available at music festivals can vary enormously with some being affordable and others seemingly out of this world. For any festival-goer who is tired of the muddy wet field experience and basic toilet facilities it may be time to consider upgrading that ticket to a VIP package.      

Estimating the number of volunteers to recruit for a music festival can be a bit of a science. Too few volunteers can lead to logistical problems and an excess number can tie up valuable management and training resources. What can organisers do to accurately predict how many volunteers they will need?

Any large music festival site could have several hundred vendors so it takes some meticulous planning to select and accommodate them. What steps should festival organisers take to ensure a good selection of reliable vendors is chosen and that their pitches are fit for purpose to satisfy both festival-goers and vendor owners. 

Corporate sponsorship is big business and globally worth in excess of $63 Billion a year. Aside from sports sponsorship many organisations regularly sponsor music festivals but increasing in popularity is the sponsorship of performance artists. Why are corporations sponsoring artists and musicians and how is this market developing.

The huge volume of activities and tasks it takes to put on any large-scale festival can be difficult to manage. With so many factors at play and critical time paths to deal with it is vital that festival organisers have a great project management process in place and key to this is the automation of notifications.

The objective of organising and running a music festival can vary but whatever the aim of the festival is it is key to understand what factors are being used to measure the success of the event. A full understanding of these factors will determine the success or otherwise of the festival and help to drive decision making for future events.

With recent events the subject of effective crowd management has become very topical for all music festival organisers. What practical steps can organisers take to ensure their staff and volunteers are appropriately trained and that crowds are managed in a way that prevents future disasters from occurring.  

The business of organising any type of festival is becoming more complex and organising teams need to keep up to date with new developments in the industry. One possible route is to attend a relevant conference or exhibition to learn about new technologies and developments that can make their jobs easier and more efficient. 

Once a festival gets to a critical size the manual processes and procedures are just not going to cut it when organising the events. There will come a time when festival organisers need to seriously look at automating their logistics where tracking and engaging with festival-goers becomes key for the profitability and success of the event.

For every successful music festival there are probably and equal number that are poorly run and there are a multitude of reasons why a music festival is either successful or fails. What are the key signs that indicate if a music festival has not been well organised and what remedies can organisers take to rectify this.