The Work Behind our Favorite Festivals

            For many young adults, including myself, music festivals are an incredible experience, and often the best part of the year. The music festival business continues to grow at exponential rates in the entertainment industry. The world’s favorite festivals such as Coachella, Lollapalooza, and Electric Daisy Carnival require much more work than it may seem. To plan one weekend of music can take up to two years of planning coordinated by the festival director. 

            The directors work behind the scenes and take care of everything from talking to city officials to making sure ice gets delivered. The director manages the location and the employees, oversees setup and breakdown, deals with contractors, and handles details such as ensuring maps and signs get placed around the festival grounds. They also keep in contact with executives to monitor financial stability and ensure that insurance covers every possible risk. This job requires so much, including a diverse skill set, to be successful. Many people acquire these skills by simply gaining experience in the field. Because of this, festival directors often come from many different backgrounds and degrees, ranging anywhere from a business degree to a communications degree. I have always been interested by this job. Since I was young, I have had a love for festivals and the experience I have every time I go, and I would love nothing more than to be able to give that same experience to others. We would not be able to have weekends like Coachella without those passionate people who love music and the festival experience, and the imperative role of festival director.

            As I spoke to Mr. David Addison, the festival director of Flambeau Festival, we discussed the details of his specific responsibilities of the job titled as festival producer. As festival producer, Mr. Addison, along with his three colleagues, manages the entire festival from start to finish. This includes booking talent, managing the festival grounds, employing on-site workers, dealing with legal and finances, talking to city officials, and much more. However, as the festival director, Mr. Addison provides the festival goers with an experience. “A festival is not putting up a stage and a concert for people to go to. A festival is putting on an experience that makes people go, ‘Wow, we had a great time.’ Has nothing to do with the music, has nothing to do with the food. They get lost in the experience.” Mr. Addison and his three colleagues essentially own the festivals they produce, therefore, anything they say goes. We then discussed job growth in the industry, and the experience of working in a such a competitive field. Due to the popularity of music festivals such as Bonnaroo, Lollapolooza, and Voodoo Fest among today’s teens and young adults, many new faces turn up in the industry hoping to take on this career path. I asked Mr. Addison what he would say to someone trying to work in this field and he said, “You have to love it. You have to love music, because it’s a lot of work. Working in it is different than investing in it.” As I interviewed Mr. Addison, it was automatically clear to me that he did love his work. I asked him what the most rewarding part of his job was, and he said, “That’s a good question. I’ve been involved in live music, particularly from a performance standpoint since I was young, but just watching people enjoy themselves. People are relaxed, people enjoy themselves, people have fun. Especially with the younger generation, the millennials, it’s experience driven. It’s fun to watch people have fun.” He made it clear he was not putting on these festivals for himself; he was putting on these festivals for others. However, while he does love his job, he says that festival directing definitely has a few obvious downsides.   First, I wanted to ask about pay, and its relation to festival turnout. In most cases, the success of the festival weekend directly determines the profit of the festival management. He said, “The way I’m paid is this: we have a yearly salary, and we make fifty one percent of the profit from the festival. So, we could make a couple million or nothing at all.” Mr. Addison said, “Either people walk in the door, or they don’t.” Since so much work goes into festival production, I asked Mr. Addison if he found his job to be overly time-consuming, or if it pulls him away from his family. He said, “No, actually I don’t during most of the year. There are set strict deadlines and a certain number of things that need to be done, and they get done. But, when the event gets closer, I could be out of the office by four, or I’m up until three in the morning trying to figure out how to replace a band that just dropped. It really just depends.” We also began to discuss job stagnation, and how it affects his work. Since music festivals make up such a large part of the festival industry, many young people would prefer Bonnaroo as opposed to Sundance Film Festival, or French Quarter Fest. “Just like any job in the entertainment industry, it’s important to know your audience. Personally, I know the general demographic, and the people that are targeted for festivals are teenage and young adult females, particularly college students. They’re the decision makers; they’re the ones that will have the most fun and tell their friends to go,” Mr. Addison says.

Because young people make up the majority of the demographic of the people attending music festivals, heritage festivals become less and less popular, limiting the number of jobs in this field. However, just because of the low job availability within these specific heritage festivals by no means implies there are less job types in the field. Many people with a music business degree choose not to go into festival direction, but have occupations such as event coordinators, talent management, and talent buyers. All of these careers stay generally in the same field, but consist of a wide variety of responsibilities and demands. Working in the entertainment business, specifically in festivals, can be a huge part of personal experiences that the festival goers get to take home with them. They help create memories of a lifetime. Without people with the jobs like David Addison has, the festivals simply would not be happening. The hard work and dedication of the employees provide these production companies with enough to put on these huge events, and without them, we would not be able to experience the fun we get to experience at festivals all over the world. 

Let the record show that I got an A on this paper, BTW.