Dealing with Headline Artist Bidding Wars for Music Festivals.

Having a popular headline artist in a music festival line-up is key to generating ticket sales for forthcoming events. With many summer music festivals taking place over a handful of weekends the competition to secure a headline act can be fierce. What steps can organisers take to ensure they secure the artist they want without breaking the bank.

The curation process for a music festival can start up to a year in advance and the curation team will have budgets allocated to secure a mixture of headline artists and support acts. It is essential that those responsible for the curation process have the necessary experience and resources to secure deals in a timely manner. Getting into a bidding war with other festival organisers can blow budgets and lead to animosity between organising entities and artist management teams. 

Timely Curation Planning. 
The curation team will no doubt have a hit list of potential artists they would like to book for their event and artist popularity and availability is the primary driver in pursuing an artist. If they have touring commitments and exclusive contracts, it may be wise to immediately discount that artist. The best line-ups usually come from a balanced curation process where a mixture of established support acts and up and coming artists can still attract festival-goers. A larger number of mid-level artists may still appeal over a single sought after headline artist for example. On occasions negotiations with an artist's management team can be prolonged so having a backup plan of alternative acts is a sensible move. If the desired act agrees terms late in the planning stage, then organisers can use this as a PR stunt by announcing a ‘special guest’. At all times it is vital that budgets are controlled and obtaining early appearance confirmation can help to meet financial targets. 

Networking and Relationships. 
The curation team must have excellent networking and relationship management skills to ensure they maintain close links to artist’s managers, producers and promoters. This can help to expand their knowledge of artists rising in popularity and demand along with availability and smoothing out negotiations. These relationships should not just be limited to the curation process but exist year-round. 

Managing and Avoiding Bidding Wars. 
With so many music festivals taking place on the same summer weekends the demand for certain headline artists can intensify and lead to a bidding war between organising entities. For organisers who are working with fixed budgets they need to get creative when making an offer which goes beyond just the appearance fee. An emphasis on high quality production and stage set ups plus VIP accommodation and a strong social media presence can sometimes sway an artist’s decision. In addition, the targeted artist may have an interest in sustainability issues so if the organisers can demonstrate their credentials, they may be more inclined to view the festival favourably. Curators should stand firm on their fee limit and avoid being dragged into a bidding war as this will inflate the artist’s value unrealistically. In some cases, a direct dialogue with competing festival organisers can help resolve curation challenges and prevent a bidding war. 

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 via Pixabay

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