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Managing Media Accreditation for Music Festivals.

Andy Robertson

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.


Having people on a festival site can be a liability, particularly if they have access to all areas including the back stage area. Festival organisation logistics can be complex and involve many people and having undocumented journalists roaming freely can disrupt operations and lead to unfavourable coverage.

Accreditation Process. 
Large music festivals will usually have someone responsible for managing media which probably includes a fully resourced media centre, as well as approving journalist and photographer attendance. Most festivals have a process for accepting applications which need scrutiny by the festival's media team. There will be a limit on the number of people who can be accepted and the decision-making process will involve checking the applicant's credentials. The applications in most cases will need to come directly from recognised media outlets and include their proposed coverage plans. Once approved the festival’s media team can issue a formal accreditation to verified journalists and photographers. Invariably the larger more well-known media organisations will get preferential treatment rather than independent freelance journalists for example. Once an approved list is finalised the media team can issue appropriate access passes in advance of the event dates.

Types of Accreditation.
Journalists and photographers may work directly for national or international media outlets but there are often local press representatives and artist’s official photographers that may be considered too. Each news organisation will need to make an official application on behalf of their personnel that will detail their scope and plans for coverage and these are considered by the festival organisers when accepting or rejecting an application for accreditation. Freelance journalists can be accepted where they are being sent on assignment by a recognised media outlet. Private individuals, analysts, market researchers, marketing/advertising firms, brand content producers, consultants, media coaches, educators, filmmakers, influencers, YouTubers will often not be accepted.

By controlling which media outlets are issued with accreditation and having a coverage plan can assist in managing the media content released. This also ensures that any coverage is of an acceptable level of accuracy and quality with no rogue bloggers writing questionable articles. There is no standard accreditation process for music festivals and each organisation manages the process in a slightly different way. Large commercial music festivals will have tight control of the accreditation process and limit access to recognised media outlets only. Smaller festivals may be more lenient and have a more relaxed process for accreditation by accepting local media and freelance journalists.

For festival organisers planning their events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics including the accreditation process. 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 Festival Pro platform is easy to use and has comprehensive features with specific modules for managing artists, contractors, venues/stages, vendors, volunteers, sponsors, guestlists, ticketing, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Photo by freestocks.org from Pexels

Andy Robertson
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