Managing Music Festival Permits.

Planning and implementing any music festival always requires various permits to operate and are an essential part of the planning process. Timely applications and proactive involvement of stakeholders can identify risks early on and prevent instances where an event needs to be cancelled or postponed. How can the permit process best be managed by organisers.

Obtaining the correct permits to operate a music festival is non-negotiable and is a legal requirement in most countries. Where a festival entity is late making a permit application due to poor planning or they simply forget (which does happen) the approval process can be delayed. There is often no fast track solution to a permit approval process, as authorities always need a given amount of time. What steps can organisers take to manage their permit applications and avoid unnecessary delays in obtaining approval.

Common Permits Required.
The types of permits required to operate a music festival will vary from country to country, but there are common ones that organisers will have to consider. Permits are usually managed by local government authorities who have responsibility for that local area with a focus on safety and environmental protection. An event permit is usually required that specifies the dates, hours of operation, and nature of the festival; it is usually a temporary one-off permit. Most festivals provide alcohol and food to attendees, and a separate permit is often required that grants permission for the sale of alcohol on a temporary site along with additional food safety compliance requirements. Health and safety approval may not be a formal permit, but a festival site and all its temporary structures will need to be inspected for health and safety compliance including fire prevention measures. In some cases, local authorities may issue noise, and environmental compliance permits which specify limits on noise pollution for the local area plus specific measures organisers must take for waste management. All live music events must also comply with intellectual property rights, often a blanket licence that ensures songwriters and artists are compensated for the public performance of their music.

Timing and Planning.
As early as possible in the planning process, preferably about a year in advance of the proposed event dates, an informal face-to-face meeting with local council officers, police and fire representatives should take place to discuss the proposed festival. This can help to highlight any potential ‘red flags’ along with permits needed, plus the likely processing time. About 6 months prior to the evet dates organisers should start making formal applications for the required permits. Many permit approval processes can take 3 or 4 months, which include several steps like formal site plan inspections and answering questions from those responsible for approving permits. As many festivals are only constructed a week before the live dates, a physical site inspection from fire prevention officials and health and safety representatives are often required before obtaining an official ‘go ahead’. These inspections are usually part of a formal permit approval which may have already been issued but are subject to final satisfactory inspections.

Stakeholders.
Many music festival organisers based in the United States, UK and Europe use a formal Safety Advisory Group (SAG) approach that intends to include all interested parties. This will usually include Local Authorities, the Police, Fire Services, Medical Services, Environmental Protections Officers plus Health and Safety representatives. Each party has an interest in the safety of the proposed event and its impact on the local community and resources. Other stakeholders will usually include local residents who may have concerns about noise and disruption to traffic and the overall impact of so many people concentrated in a small area. Communication and outreach to stakeholders is an essential part of the permit approval process with early discussions to address any objections.

Typical Objections and Overcoming Them.
Noise pollution can be a common objection where limits of decibels emitted from a festival site are specified. Technology can help organisers address these concerns with the use of Cardioid Subwoofer Arrays that can utilise directional audio shifts to create silent zones for residents who live nearby. Managing crowd capacity can be challenging, and those responsible for permit approval may impose limits which can sometimes be negotiated. This requires intelligent site planning where entry and exit gates are increased or repositioned based on computer modelling of crowd control scenarios.

Legal Protection for Permit Delays or Non-Approval.
The delay in issuing a required permit can put the organising entity in a difficult position where uncertainty has a knock-on effect. Organisers want to limit any potential losses but also cannot afford to delay operational and logistical implementation. It is common practice to include a permit contingency clause in contracts with artists, vendors and contractors. This ensures that a Force Majeure clause explicitly includes a local authority action or failure to issue necessary permits. Other clauses may cover scenarios where organisers hold contractor’s backline equipment on-site for an extended period whist any permit issues are resolved for example.

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 TayebMEZAHDIA via Pixabay

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