The Sensitive Subject of Politics for Music Festival Organisers.

In the modern era politics have become very divisive and for many are an incredibly sensitive topic. Music festivals exist to bring excellent and memorable music performances to large audiences creating a community of like-minded individuals. How can organisers deal with situations when politics become an issue at their events.

Given the potential divisive nature of politics music festival organisers need to take a stance that is broadly neutral. Organisers need to maintain an awareness of current issues that could impact any aspect of their event. Whether it’s artists, sponsors, vendors or festival-goers they can all potentially introduce politics into the festival environment with or without the organiser’s prior knowledge. There are a number of steps that organisers can take to minimise the impact that politics may have on their operations and reputation. 

Policies, Guidelines and Values. 
Every music festival strives to have a core values expressed in their mission statements and these can be summarised in their publicly transparent polices. Policies for the event can include statements on political neutrality along with specific guidelines on what constitutes acceptable behaviour by everyone on a festival site. It is not unusual to also include policies on inclusivity, diversity and human rights without aligning to a political cause for example. The guidelines and codes of conduct will apply to festival-goers, sponsors, vendors and artists and may be an express condition of any agreements or contracts. All policies and guidelines issued should comply with prevailing local laws which may cover protests, defamation and hate speech for example. If organisers do wish to support a cause they should be cautious that any stance remains apolitical so support of generic causes like anti-racism are perfectly acceptable. 

Vendors and Sponsors. 
Organisers should ensure that contractors and vendors are aware of their responsibilities to adhere to the festival's core values and guidelines on any political statements. Sponsors can be more difficult to vet because of complex business arrangements they may have. Organisers can conduct a due diligence exercise to check that a sponsor business does not have links to controversial government policies for example. 

Festival-Goers. 
The audience of any large-scale music festival will have a demographic range that will probably include the full spectrum of political views. The terms and conditions of ticket purchase should express compliance with the organiser’s policies and codes of conduct expected of all festival-goers. The consequences of breaching these conditions can result in ejection from the festival site or involvement of the police in extreme cases of hate speech or harassment for example. Organisers could use software tools to monitor social media in the case of unwanted political statements by festival-goers related to the event. Organisers can prepare appropriate statements to counter any politically driven comments about the event. 

Artists. 
Although artists will sign agreements or contracts that include political expression clauses plus adherence to the organiser’s policies on political neutrality, they can sometimes go rouge. There have been cases or artists making controversial political statements on a stage during a performance or in their social media channels before, during or after the festival. As with views expressed by festival-goers the organisers need to prepare statements that reaffirm their political neutrality whilst supporting free speech within acceptable boundaries. 

Remaining politically neural and having clear policies, guidelines and codes of conduct the festival organiser can protect their brand and reputation. This can help secure future ticket sales as the event has a clear stance on inclusivity irrespective of anyone's political persuasion. 

For festival organisers planning their next event using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need manage every aspect of their event logistics. 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, site planning, cashless payments and contactless ordering.

Image by ThoseWhoDream via Pixabay

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