Evolution of the Music Festival Green Room.

The backstage green room is often perceived as a hidden mysterious space but in essence it's just a waiting room. The music festival green room has evolved over time into a space that caters for every need of a performance artist. How does the modern green room in any sizable music festival differ from those used several decades ago.

The green room is a crucial part of artist care where organisers aim to provide a space close to a stage that allows relaxed preparation before performances. The facilities and services on offer in the green room space have evolved over time to match the ever-increasing demands of headline artists and their riders. The standard of hospitality and services offered by organisers in green room spaces now reflect the event’s brand and professionalism and can be factors considered by well-known artists on agreeing to play at a festival or not. 

Green Room Origins. 
The traditional green room at early music festivals consisted of little more than a makeshift waiting space occasionally with chairs and limited drinks. It was considered a purely functional space where artists could tune instruments and prepare for their performances and was either a simple marquee, tent or other temporary structure. They were often combined with dressing rooms offering little privacy but did provide artists with protection from the sun and rain away from the crowds of festival-goers. 

The Modern Green Room. 
Larger music festivals in the modern era now provide vastly difference experiences for artists with separate spaces for dressing and green rooms which are now incorporated with professional hospitality services. Many green rooms are now bigger up market marquee spaces with comfortable furniture, pleasant relaxing decor with private bathroom facilities. The hospitality services can cater for drinks and food linked to artist’s rider demands and the increased space size means that the green room can allow artist’s crews, entourages, managers and promoters to join them. The artist’s rider has become a key focus of green room facilities and organisers now offer customisable spaces to suit each rider. This may include specialised catering, specific drink brands with additional elements like aroma scents, towels, irons and ironing boards for example. 

Tiered Hospitality. 
Larger music festivals on greenfield sites now plan for sizable backstage zones where they can create the artist's village which may consist of multiple green and dressing rooms to cater for hundreds of artists booked to perform over a number of days. Organisers usually categorise their curated artists depending on popularity and fee amount and the status of each artist may determine the hospitality facilities provided. With multiple green and dressing rooms, this allows organisers to allocate specific green rooms to headline artists, others for support acts and another for other lesser-known talent. The size and level of hospitality services on offer may vary between each dedicated green room with support artists often sharing facilities in a communal green room. 

Technology and Sustainability. 
Expectations have changed considerably over recent years, and certain technology related services are now considered essential. This will include high speed Wi-Fi, multiple power sockets and even streamed TV services. The security of the backstage zone and green rooms has become more important for artists and organisers now incorporate tight accreditation processes linked to RFID scanners for robust access control. Festival organisers now put a high priority of being sustainable and this flows through to the green room spaces they create. Power may come from wind or solar and a ban on single use plastics is becoming the norm plus hospitality services that are more eco-friendly with locally sourced catering for example. Many artists will be more than happy to endorse the sustainability efforts of organisers as they usually have the same concerns about the environment. 

Looking beyond the current green room offerings festival organisers are considering more facilities that cater for the wellbeing of artists. This may include more healthy options for catering along with quiet zones for decompression and mental health support. The future may also see organisers offering artists access to physiotherapists, vocal coaches, and even on-site counsellors or psychologists for example. 

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.

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