The Music Festival Application Process.

Most participants in music festivals will generally need to make an application, specifically artists, vendors and volunteers. Festival organisers should be organising their application forms and processes at an early stage in the planning process. Having a consistent approach to the application forms used helps to create an efficient event planning process   

Without an efficient application process any event will have a tendency to be disorganised and the fallout will likely be a poor experience for all concerned. From the outset festival organisers should have a system and process in place for issuing and processing applications. 

Artist Applications. 
For a festival with sets available for hundreds of artists the organisers will likely segment these using different categories. To some extent the content curator will work with other event organising teams to select the artists they want to book and the bigger headline acts are likely to bypass the application process. Amongst the lower tier sets available the organisers will want to encourage applications form new unknown artists.  These artists will be required to complete an application form with questions geared to performance experience, genre, influences and ‘fit’ with the overall festival themes. For a few hundred sets available it would not be unusual to receive several thousand applications. As artists are completing the same application form the organisers get a consistent approach to the categories of answers provided making it easier to compare and make the final selection.

Vendor Applications. 
The competition for available pitches at the largest music festivals can be fierce and using the vendor application form may be the only way to differentiate each potential vendor. Vendors will need to provide detailed information about what they offer, the pricing, experience and ‘fit’ with the festival theme. The vendor application form could be quite lengthy if it covers detailed information about compliance with health and safety and insurance for example. Despite a lot of effort being required by each vendor to make their application the organisers may still be overwhelmed by the number of applicants. However, the application form and process ensures that selections are made fairly using a consistent approach.

Volunteer Applications.  
As with artists and vendors the nuber of volunteer applications will exceed the number required. There is usually a preference for volunteers with previous experience and specialist skills like first aid for example. Assuming the festival organiser is well prepared they will already have a good idea of the likely shift patterns and so know how many volunteers are required for specific duties, dates and times. The application form and process can help identify quickly the flexibility and availability of each volunteer, making the selection process somewhat easier. 

Using an events software management platform like FestivalPro music festival organisers get all the functionality they need to manage artist, vendor and volunteer applications. The guys who are responsible for this software have been in the front line of event management for many years and the features are built from that experience and are performance artists themselves. The FestivalPro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features for managing and automating the application process for artists, vendors and volunteers. The system comes with template application forms that can be customised for each specific festival. The completed application form data is stored in one centrally controlled CRM database enabling search criteria to select applicants and send key information using a mail merge system. Applicants get a secure unique login to manage their application.  

Photo by Markus Spiske from Pexels

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