Music Festival Artist Expenses Management. 

During the planning phase for any music festival the curation of performance artists involves fee negotiation along with advancing and riders. Artists may make claims for additional expenses incurred during the event and the management of these is critical to budgetary control for festival organisers.

The margins made by operating a music festival can be very small and tight budgetary control is essential to avoiding a loss. Organisers will have a good idea of the fees they are expecting to pay to secure their desired artist line-up with perhaps some flexibility. Unexpected expense claims by artists post event can disrupt any previous financial forecasting for the event. What steps can organisers take to manage and minimise potential expenses claims whilst being fair to the artist. 

Fee Negotiation and Contracts.
Most festival organisers will have a standard contract and fee structure as this makes it easier to manage rather than a plethora of very different contracts. The fees negotiated will form part of the contract and should specify exactly what is and it not included. If possible, avoid having vague terms like ‘reimburse reasonable expenses’ as this can be open to interpretation and lead to a flood of post event invoices. Artists will have different commercial arrangements either operating as a limited company or as self-employed and this will affect how services are invoiced often driven by how they manage their tax affairs. A self-employed artist may prefer to invoice expenses separately as they can sometimes claim back the tax. Organisers may allow invoices for additional expenses but it is wise to set a monetary limit or agree a fixed sum outside of any invoice for the actual performance.

Rider Management. 
Specifications for riders can easily get out of hand with some artists demanding expensive and extravagant food, drink or other items. It is essential to manage the artist’s expectations of what organisers can provide and exactly what will be at the artist’s own expense. Some organisers will standardise riders and offer artists a menu of items they can choose from with a set list of food and drink for example. Riders will form part of the advancing process and anything requested outside of this agreement should be at the artist’s own expense.

Invoicing for Expenses and Avoiding Disputes. 
It is fair and reasonable for artists to seek reimbursement of travel and transport expenses and even pay for crew and engineers. However, the artist's management team should specify in the contract how any invoicing will be made, especially if expenses are to be invoiced separately. As long as the contracting and advancing are agreed by both parties before the festival with detailed instructions on invoicing and payment there should be little room for any disagreement. However, organisers should be wary of verbal agreements made on-site in the heat of the event which are later disputed.

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 a dedicated artist management module. 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.

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