Spare a Thought for Music Festival Organisers.

In a year of chaos for the live events industry many music festival organising teams have been laid off or at best furloughed there are many organisers desperate to put on their festival in 2021. Due to cost reductions and squeezed schedules music festival organisers are currently working flat out on their planning. 

Whilst the world takes a break over the festive season it appears many organisers are likely to be working hard without a break over this traditional holiday period. Due to financial constraints the festival organising teams are operating with just one or two staff making their workload especially heavy. This has been compounded by time lost with uncertainty over the future of music festivals in 2021 and many organisers have only recently decided to commit to putting on their music festival in 2021. Given the lost planning time this year these skeleton teams are attempting to condense 18 months planning into 12 months or less.

The organisers job is being made more challenging by what has happened in the many support service industries too. Equipment suppliers and construction contractors are temporarily closed so trying to book services for mid 2021 is proving difficult. The same experiences are being felt when trying to make travel arrangements given that international travel is much reduced with airlines unable to confirm flight schedules beyond the next month or so. Despite these challenges the festival organisers are doing their best to get their festival organised in time.

Curating and booking artists however, is probably now one of the easiest aspects primarily because none have performed live for some time, they are jumping on any opportunity to accept a booking for 2021. As evidence of this many festival organisers appear to have already confirmed and announced their line up for 2021.  

Aside from the usual aspects involved with planning a music festival, organisers are now faced with an additional workload with regards to ensuring their event is fully compliant for coronavirus infection prevention measures. Given their current workload it would not be surprising if these particular tasks were outsourced so that it’s one less thing to get involved in. Certainly, the suppliers of cleaning and sanitisation services along with medical facilities suppliers should have already geared up to satisfy any mandatory health and safety guidelines likely to be in place as the festival season approaches in the summer months.

The live music industry and event goers should be thankful for these committed individuals who are determined to get their music festival up and running in 2021 irrespective of the many obstacles they face. Without their determination next summer will look particularly bleak with much reduced numbers of festivals taking place. 

For any music festival organisers planning their 2021 events using a software management platform like Festival Pro gives them all the functionality they need to plan every aspect of their event. 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, vendors, volunteers, sponsors guestlists and ticketing.  

Image by Gustavo Fring via Pexels

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