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With the amount of festivals in Ireland right now, there's pretty much something for everyone. That being said, it's always possible to improve on existing ideas or find new niches. If you have ever felt like there was something missing, there’s never been a better time to try live that dream. And if you do decide to tackle it, there’s probably a few things you need to know.

Where to start

It’s important to do your research before starting your own festival. Talk to other festival organisers, work at as many festivals as you can so you learn the ins and outs, and the pitfalls. Louise Tangney, Event Director at Vantastival, explains how they started the festival by,  “write down the idea in business plan format and then go to the County Council to discuss it with them. For us we knew very little about licensing laws etc. We also met with other festival organisers and asked for their advice, some of which we took and some we regretfully didn't! We were lucky that we had a lot of contacts in the industry as we had both worked at other festivals for a good few years.”

Mistakes.

In organising a festival, there are sure to be a few pitfalls. Bettine McMahon, Festival Director of Knockanstockan, expresses the importance of being prepared to not make a profit straight away. "I think we have all seen many festivals fail over the last few years and it is extremely difficult to make the first few years of a festival work. You will almost definitely lose money in the first year if not the first few. My advice would be to start small, create a community and a vibe and build on that. I think it's dangerous to start something massive if you haven't got the experience in doing it small first."

Louise Tangney, argued a similar point, warning that you need to reign in your expectations. “The biggest mistake most people (including ourselves) make in the first year is over-estimating the number of tickets they can sell and underestimating the amount the gig is going to cost to put on. My advice for anyone doing for the first time is to seek and listen to advice from people who have done it before. Start small!”

Unsurprisingly the financial side of things is critical, so having a clear understanding of that is key. As Tangney says, “The financial side of it is always going to be the biggest challenge. For Vantastival it's a balancing act between not making the event too corporate but keeping it affordable and keeping the BYOB policy. It would be a lot easier for us to take a big alcohol sponsor on board but it would completely change the festival.”

McMahon also stresses the main challenge being budgetary, and how having a strong team around you is essential. Making sure you’re starting such a big endeavour with a strong team will be one of the pillars upon which your success will be built. “Trying to keep festival costs under control can be tough and they can spiral out of control very easily. It's the only thing that has in the past kept us awake at night with worry. I think when we face challenges, and we have faced many, we all just look to each other and know that we aren't alone. Our friendship is what matters the most and once we have that, we could be millions in the red and still be able to hold each other together. “

This is something that using a platform like Eventbrite for ticket sales can help with. Being able to monitor and control the tickets on sale, while also being able to request advanced payouts of sold tickets to help pay bills ahead of the event can be a massive pressure valve at critical moments in organisation.

Don’t forget we all live in Ireland and the Irish weather has to be factored in! “Weather is always a challenge. You can never predict it and unless you sell out completely in advance, the weather is always going to affect walk up ticket sales either positively or negatively.” added Tangney.

The Music

Although there are a lot of aspects to organising a festival, without a line up to draw an audience in, your battle will be infinitely harder. Tangney explains how Vantastival chooses their line up annually by starting “with a small wish list of bands, a couple of well known names and others that we have noticed rising on the scene. We'll book maybe about 10 or 15 acts that way, the rest come through open submission. Anyone in Ireland who plays their own original music can apply to play at Vantastival. We don't do covers bands. There are very few festivals left who don't outsource their music submissions, but that's the part we love. We might get 500 applications and that means we'll sit down and listen to 500 acts. It takes a long time but we love it.”

Similarly, Knockanstockan also take the approach of taking submissions, dealing with over 1000 acts hoping to be a part of the festival, as McMahon explains, “it is a very well thought out, timely and democratic process. We have a team of eight of us who listen to every submission, usually about 1,000+ of them every year via our website. They are listened to on a shared document in which we each have a say on what we think for each act. It's done using a simple traffic light system. Green is Yes, Orange is "See Live" and Red is No. In order for an act to get picked they need to have the majority of the team agreeing. Each team member has different taste and we all bring different suggestions to the table. Now the scheduling is a whole other challenge!”

So as a startup festival, is it difficult to get bands interested in playing your festival? There are always going to be challenges initially but being prepared and having a well thought out message for your event can help you hit the ground running.

“When [KnockanStockan] began in 2006,” says McMahon, “there were actually very, very few festivals and practically zero that were solely promoting Irish artists. The music industry was in a massive state of flux while record labels seemed to be disappearing every day, so developed the need for a supportive community to help artists ‘Do It Themselves’. We started with an ethos of support, encouragement and hard work. Equality was key here, when we as a crew lost money and struggled, the bands played for free and when we finally were able to float the festival, the artists all get paid. Transparency and honesty is key here and we have always been for passion and not profit. I think people can really belong to that ethos.”

With so many different festivals around these days, starting a small independent festival really becomes all about building a community, “Obviously now it may be harder to get artists loyalty and attention when starting out,” says McMahon. “We consider ourselves lucky that Knockanstockan very quickly became a festival on the calendar that the bands wanted to play. We get a huge amount of interest from all sorts of acts from brand new to very established.  In short my advice would be to 'build it right and they will come'“

Tangney also stresses the importance of making the bands feel welcome and safe, and making sure they have a good time while they’re there. Do that, and word will get around. You want to leave a lasting impression. “Initially we were approached by more bands than we had space for,” Tangney explains. “You'll never have a shortage of musicians in Ireland and festival gigs are much sought after. Whatever about encouraging bands to play, the number one most important thing is that the bands that do play are well treated. I have been told some horror stories by musicians about some of the festivals they have played in Ireland. Musicians need to be treated with respect. They need to know that their equipment will be safe, that their stage will be secure, and that they will have competent stage crew and engineers. These things are usually more important than the size of the crowd that come to see them.”

Promotion and Ticket Sales

The stand out way of promoting festivals these days is with Social Media, using Facebook as the main source of advertisement.

McMahon explains how KnockanStockan were one of the first weekend festivals to use Eventbrite last year. “We were one of the first weekend festivals to use Eventbrite last year and their customer service and integration was one of their USP's. One of the most difficult aspects is floating your event before it begins, Eventbrite gave us payments before the event as ticket sales came in, which is extremely helpful in getting the event over the line. The fact that we can communicate easily with our ticket holders which many ticket agents restrict you from doing. We can integrate with MailChimp for example and send all our ticket holders any important updates or Newsletters. I am forever recommending Eventbrite to artists who are doing gigs even just for its simplicity.”

In the world of organising festivals, time will forever feel like it’s not on your side, so systems that not only save you time but make your life easier are an organizer's dream, “I love the Eventbrite system as I can literally see ticket sales on my phone” says McMahon. “It's very user friendly from creating the event, to scanning from your phone and to generating event reports. The Eventbrite team are always on hand if you get stuck with anything.”

Similarly, Vantastival also vouch for their convenience, after using them for the first time this year, pointing out that their customer service means that any query will be dealt with quickly,  “We will definitely be sticking with them for 2017” says Tangney. “They offered us a better rate than any other company, weekly advance payments into our bank account, and the service was second to none. They were happy to answer the phone at 2am the night before the gig and the set up is really easy to use. I couldn't recommend them enough.”

When budget is such a major factor of organising a festival, having the right tools for the task can save you time and effort and help keep the costs of running the festival down. Having the data easily referenceable anytime, anywhere can help ensure the right decisions are made with an informed opinion even when away from a computer. This, along with the standard of customer service their customers receive means that they are the ideal partner when organising a festival.

So now you’ve heard from the experts with years of experience of organising some of Ireland’s most unique and impressive festivals. Do you have a unique idea for a festival and could you make that idea come to life? Hopefully armed with this information and a great idea, such a dream can become a reality.

If you’d like to learn more about the importance of festival fans to a festival organiser then read Eventbrite’s report, “Understanding Festival Fans”.  You will learn that just 28% of music festival-goers – the ‘Super Fans’ – account for over 50% of annual ticket spend – 3 times as valuable as regular attendees, plus much more.

Article Sponsored By Eventbrite