With the recent coverage of the #MeToo movement the awareness of unwanted sexual harassment on women has been raised. This harassment is not confined to public figures or the entertainment sector. It is also still prevalent at music festivals around the world. What steps can festival organisers take to mitigate this unacceptable behaviour. 

There can be a distinct contrast between large professionally run music festivals and smaller festivals that may be organised in a more chaotic way. Irrespective of size of event an often-overlooked aspect of any music festival is the customer service provided to event goers. The visitor experience can influence future attendance and social feedback.

Some research suggests that in excess of 50% of music festival event goers take illegal drugs when attending a festival. What measures can festival organisers put in place to control and inform visitors about potential dangers of taking unknown substances and make their events safe and enjoyable for everyone.    

With so many potential visitors to a large music festival it is also inevitable that some security issues will be encountered. There is no reason why the actions of a few people should disrupt the success of a festival and overall enjoyment for all event goers. Having a great security process set up is vital to keeping a festival safe and secure for all.

As UK music festivals hopefully rebound later in 2021 there are the usual issues that still need to be addressed from sustainability to more inclusive audiences. There are millions of music fans and a considerable number of festival goers who are disabled in some way. What can festival organisers do to make their events more inclusive.  

Some time ago in 2019 and early 2020 music festival organisers would have been booking their contractors and suppliers. Having been relatively dormant for a year, music festival organisers confirming dates for late summer will need to double check with all their suppliers that everything can go ahead with their revised dates.  

Irrespective of their size every music festival relies on volunteers to help make their event happen. Even the smallest festivals utilise volunteers but it is the larger festivals that the management of volunteers becomes more of a challenge and the number of volunteers needed to make the event a success goes into the hundreds.

While the current status of many UK music festivals is in flux the next few weeks will be a crucial time for deciding whether or not to go ahead with an event in the late summer months. Aside from the financial considerations it is the logistics planning that could be a major deciding factor on going ahead or postponing yet again.  

With music festivals restarting from May or June it's time for music festival organisers to reactivate their operations and condense planning into three or four months. For festival organisers that put their events team on furlough it's time to bring them back to work and jump on a multitude of tasks that need to be completed quickly.  

After the recent announcement from the UK government that music festivals could resume from late June this year there has been a flurry of activity in the sector. Festival organisers with great preparation plans have been able to reactivate activities quickly with timely announcements and ticketing information. 

Although the usual route of entry to a career in the live events industry is through experience and networking with the right contacts an alternative route may be to get a formal qualification. What options are available in the UK for anyone keen to start a career in the live events industry?

Many music festival organisers are maximising their exposure and customer engagement with social media. However, the music festivals with smaller teams may not be maximising the opportunities available with social media platforms. What are some basic steps festival organisers can take to utilise these tools effectively? 

There are thousands of music festivals that take place around the world every year. They range in size from multi day mega festivals with over 100k visitors to small local specialist festivals on a single day. In the current pandemic climate, the music festival format that is most well equipped to ride the storm may be the touring music festival.

Music festivals evolve over time, many starting as small parties in a large garden with just a few hundred into a commercial event taking place in large venue spaces with thousands of visitors. For many founders and organisers there can come a point where the logistics become overwhelming and the option to outsource logistics needs careful consideration.

There has been a trend in recent years for resorts and hotels in popular tourist destinations to host their own music festival. Many of these have grown organically over the years and in some cases have become sizeable annual events attracting perhaps in excess of 10,0000 visitors. Is this an emerging trend for the future? 

There are hundreds of music festivals around the world that rely on support from their local community and other local establishments to keep going. Without this support many of the smaller and more specialist events would not continue to succeed year on year. What format of support does this usually entail? 

For anyone with an interest in music becoming an Audio Engineer, sometimes referred to as Sound Engineer or Audio Equipment Technician, opens the possibility for an interesting and varied career. What are the best steps to take to get qualified and what opportunities are there for experienced engineers? 

As with any industry sector the importance of diversity in the workplace is vital to ensure an inclusive balanced working environment. The live music events sector should be no different from any other industry however recent studies reveal that there is still much work required to address imbalances 

As the situation regarding the opening up of live events seems to fluctuate from day-to-day music festival organisers have been faced with tough decisions on whether to push ahead with theIr events or postpone for yet another year. How realistic is it to organise and put on a successful event with condensed timescales? 

Everyone has their personal favourite genre of music and key to that is tempo. However, for DJs performing live at music festivals or nightclubs the trend seems to moving ever faster according to some sources. What's the story behind this trend and what is so special about that magic 120bpm tempo?   

Anyone that attends a music festival is sure to find the genre of music that suits their specific tastes. In reality event goers are spoilt for choice when festivals are running as normal but what are the most popular genres for the mega festivals that run over multiple days around the world.

Every music festival has a website presence and along with social media channels this is the perfect shop window to attract ticket buyers, artists, vendors and volunteers. In the current pandemic climate this form of communication has been vital in engaging with and updating all interested parties vital to the festival's future

After most music festivals were cancelled in 2020 many organisers started to make a virtual event offering. Some festival organisers moved faster than others and equally some were very successful other less so. What will the future format of the music festival look like later in 2021 and moving into 2022. 

Given the current status of most countries and the complete lack of live entertainment opportunities the only option is to live stream a performance. Although many performance artists have been doing this already for some it can be a challenge but how easy is it to get up and running with a streamed event. 

For many of the most well-known and prestigious music festivals they can usually trace their roots back decades ago to small informal parties held in a back garden or local farmer's field. Some of these festivals have gone by the wayside, perhaps just getting too big and becoming a financial burden but the best festivals live on getting better each year.

Whether it’s a large indoor concert, tour or music festival organisers rely on the army of volunteers to make thier events happen. As event organisers gear up to the return of live events late in 2021 what are the new challenges faced by those responsible for recruiting, training and managing volunteers. 

The largest music festivals can have a line-up that could include in excess of 1,000 performance artists. Traditionally the artist booking logistics were managed using the artist advance and managed by the artist liaison manager. In coronavirus times there are going to have to be some significant changes to managing artists. 

Looking on with some jealousy music festivals in Australia are already taking place with close to normal visitor numbers. Whilst the reast of the world reels in coronavirus related lockdowns the Australian music festival industry has bounced back from a catastrophic 2020 to make its future look secure. 

With the music festival sector in much of Europe a bit of a crossroads it's likely that some of the larger events will be postponed yet again. This will leave a vastly reduced number of music festivals taking place in 2021. The result of this will be an overall drop in the number of vendor pitches available which means vendor management will be more important than ever. 

As the creation, production and distribution of music has progressed thanks to advances in technology musicians and other performance artists have had to move to live performances to earn revenue form their material. With live performances shut down for now what is the future for performance artists confined to home.