Implementing Multi-lingual Voice and Visual Guides for Music Festival-goers.

As music festivals increasingly attract more visitors from other countries, there is a need for organisers to provide guidance in multiple languages. Aside from being a great way to enhance the festival-goer experience, translated guidance is also a key part of site safety. What can organisers do to provide clear and timely guidance in a noisy festival environment.

Festival-goer guidance can include both visual and audio options and organisers use these to effectively communicate key event information. This enhances site safety and accessibility for everyone on a site, but delivery of multi-lingual messages can be challenging. Information boards and screens can be overloaded with too many language options and audio delivery can be drowned out in loud noisy environments. Technology solutions require reliable connectivity throughout a site and services frequently experience dead zones. Terminology is not always easily translated, and symbols can have a different meaning in different cultures. What steps can organisers take to overcome these challenges when providing multi-lingual messaging and guidance on a festival site.

Essential Festival Guidance and Messaging.
The most common use of guidance on a festival site is wayfinding which includes signs and maps for directions to stages, exits, toilets, and medical facilities, for example. Messaging for safety alerts are usually made as audio announcements or notifications on a festival app and inform festival-goers about adverse weather, crowd control situations and other emergencies. Information on signs and festival apps provide key instructions for food and beverage ordering and announcements about artist performance schedules.

Communication Channels and Content Considerations.
Most festival sites use physical signs for issuing directions and other important information, but organisers should ensure that these use a consistent design site wide. A combination of internationally recognised standard symbols, colours and text should be used in all cases for signs, festival apps, maps, and on LED screens. A festival app can also integrate multi-lingual audio options for users which gives them a choice of language with cached offline audio for example. To ease translation, organisers should avoid using localised phrases, slang, idioms or culturally unclear terms. This ensures that any translation is kept clear and simple and avoids confusion. Any translation should also be tested with native speakers where possible to ensure accuracy. The tone used in all messaging should be clear, calm, and authoritative.

Translation and Technology.
Emerging technology is making translation easier, and organisers can utilise this when considering their multi-lingual options for attendees. Most festival-goers use a dedicated festival app to obtain critical information about the event. However, as many festival sites can experience intermittent connectivity, an app should cache maps, audio files, and key translations. In order to discover translation usage, it is useful to collect data on language selection rates related to app navigation and common queries, for example. This helps prioritise language options and determine where translation is most in demand and important. Should an emergency occur and organisers need to make announcements on PA systems, they can pre-record them in multiple languages that can be played on a logical loop. In some cases, it's possible to use AI text to speech in multiple languages for dynamic audio updates. Organisers can utilise QR Codes located site wide to provide an on-demand service in a language of choice delivered in audio or text and can be useful for site map overlays, for example. It is now possible to include a multi-lingual chatbot assistant within a festival app, so festival-goers can request directions or performance times in the language of their choice. If events feature dynamic LED screens for messaging, these can incorporate rotating languages for essential important information and updates.

Staff and Volunteer Training.
If organisers are expecting a large number of international visitors to their events, it may be prudent to arrange for specific staff and volunteer training to enhance their translation services. An analysis of ticket sales can easily indicate the country of origin and provides essential data about which languages need to have a focus. Training staff on using the wide variety of translation apps available can enable quick and easy translation services in real time during the live event dates. Some staff and volunteers may have multiple language skills, and organisers should identify them and ensure they can easily be found on a site by anyone who needs assistance in another language.

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 geralt via Pixabay

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