The Logistical Challenges of Organising a Multi Venue Month Long Festival.

Whilst most large-scale festivals may run for two or three days at a single venue location there are number of festivals that run for longer periods of up to month across multiple venues. What type of event suits this format and how do organisers tackle the unique set of challenges in planning and running such a long festival.

Organising a three-day music festival is challenging enough but the complexities multiply considerably when a festival runs for an extended period using multiple venue locations. This format of festival generally only suits certain event types and requires great planning and implementation to make them successful. 

Types of Events Suitable for Extended Running Periods. 
The most common long running festivals are usually associated with specific local cultural and artistic themes with involvement from government sponsored arts organisations and local authorities. Their remit is wider with increased local economic activity being a key driving force and are often located in urban areas and cities featuring arts and cultural themes like theatre, dance, literacy and unique music genres for example. Venues will typically consist of theatres, community centres and pubs bringing in a wide audience from the local area and beyond. These long running festivals are popular for music genres like jazz, folk and indie music which attract smaller audiences. In addition, film and literacy festivals suit this long running format because of the vast content available which cannot be squeezed into a short timeframe. 

Venue Management. 
Coordinating multiple venues over a month for a variety of performances can be challenging because of the differences in audience capacities, varying audio-visual capabilities, transport infrastructure and travel times. Performance artists will have riders that need to be considered, and suitable venues selected to match requirements. Organisers may choose to have roaming stage managers, producers and technical support teams to perform sound checks and equipment set up. Using a sophisticated event management software solution like Festival Pro can help to process multiple venues linked to artists and staff making the festival run more smoothly. 

Curation. 
Any festival running for up to a month could involve hundreds of performance artists and will require the services of a very experienced Artistic Director capable of curating the best talent within limited budgets. Assigning venues will requires careful planning taking into account the facilities and size of each location giving popular artists larger capacity venues close to transport links. The curation of these types of events will usually include a heavy emphasis on local talent and the Artistic Director will need to carefully balance this with more popular artists. 

Travel and Accommodation. 
The month-long festival will often be located in a city or urban environment and organisers may expect significant audience numbers to enter the area, so it is essential that consideration is given to local transport infrastructure and accommodation availability. During the planning phase organisers would typically pre-book accommodation for artists and crew as it is not uncommon for it to be sold out for the festival period. Artists should be placed in accommodation that is close to the venue location they are scheduled to perform at. 

Crew and Volunteers. 
A large number of volunteer workers may be required for a month-long festival and whilst organisers would not expect them to be available for the entire festival period they will need to recruit enough to cover the entire event. This will need significant coordination of volunteer availability and scheduling of duties and using appropriate software can make this easier to manage. 

Marketing. 
With so many artists and venues to consider the marketing of the event can be challenging as organisers need to focus on a main theme without getting into too much detail about specific performances. These festivals are typically organised in close cooperation with local authorities, and they can be used to leverage key messages and brand presentation to the local community helping to create demand for tickets and attendance. In necessary targeted marketing campaigns can focus on highlighted popular artists to generate interest and early ticket sales. 

For festival organisers planning their next events 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 Matheus Bertelli via Pexels
 

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