Music Festival Site Signage and Dressing.

A greenfield music festival site can be brought to life with great dressing and signage that creates a cohesive brand experience for all festival-goers. What are the key considerations for design, production and placement of dressing and signage that provides a practical convenient guide to navigate a site maximising safety whilst conveying the event’s brand identity.

Navigating a large festival site can be challenging even with the aid of dedicated festival apps that incorporate site maps. The physical placement of signage that provides easy to read directions to key facilities can enhance the overall experience that doesn't rely on a mobile device. Signage also plays a key role in providing critical health a safety information and directions for emergency exits for example. Dressing of a site helps festival-goers feel immersed in the festival with design and branding elements brought to life that they previously only saw as images on a screen. The dressing should convey the festival's theme in a creative presentation whilst allowing sponsors to get involved by integration of their branding too.

Signage Objectives.
The signage used on a festival site should form a key part of the site layout planning and be considered a key element of the overall site infrastructure implementation. Signage should make it easy for festival-goers to quickly find their way around a site in a safe and hassle free way. Typically, signage is used for stages, campsites, parking, toilets and vendor pitches. In addition, there are health and safety compliance considerations where signage should clearly indicate exists, medical facilities, high voltage warnings, smoking restrictions and emergency evacuation procedures. Additional information boards are often used to display performance schedules and local transport timetables. All signage can be available to sponsors who get the opportunity to embellish signs with their branding.

Production and Placement.
The most common production materials used for signage are weatherproof materials like vinyl mesh banners or durable boards like corflute, PVC-free recyclable boards or aluminium composite panels which can withstand outdoor conditions (sun, rain, wind). Colours can be used to define specific zones on a site and should be used in a logical way with easy-to-read fonts and design elements or symbols. When placing signage, the visibility should be a consideration so that they can be read from a distance and placed high enough to be seen over a crowd. The rigging of signs should be secure and able to withstand adverse weather and accidental knocks by festival-goers. For some organisers with larger budgets the incorporation of technology into their signage can make usage more flexible with digital LED screens able to display bespoke messages as required. Whatever signage production and placement methods are used sustainability is a key consideration for the future with reusable and recyclable materials being a key focus.

Site Dressing and Sponsor Branding.
The dressing of a festival site helps to convey the event’s creative themes with visual elements which can add to the overall atmosphere. Organisers will have selected their theme and visual look for the festival at an early stage in the planning process and these are used in all promotional materials and online presence. The on-site dressing should reflect this with a flow through of the same design elements, colours and typography. The dressing being used is increasingly high tech with media walls more common and strategic placement of Instagrammable high impact visual locations throughout a site. The festival branded dressing should also be carried through to the stages, perimeter fencing and other temporary structures to transform the overall look and feel. Organisers can incorporate sponsor branding on all signage and dressing elements and can form a key part of selling sponsor branding packages. Parts of the site that are intended to be highly photographed areas can be incorporated with sponsor’s branding giving them greater visibility for social media channel amplification.

Accessibility Considerations.
Organisers should carefully consider the accessibility requirements and needs for all on-site signage. This would typically include specific signage indicating disabled toilets, wheelchair friendly routes and assistance point locations. Where possible organisers should avoid using design elements that are difficult for everyone to read. Text must be legible with sans-serif fonts that use high contrast design with lettering that is large enough to read.

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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