Hosting a small music festival?

BigGuitars

BigGuitars

Active member
Hey guys, I’m curious to hear your thoughts on this…

Someone I know who is a musician pitched the idea of having a small music festival at my place for this community we both belong to. I’ve got a large farm, which is in rural location, so I guess it would be similar to a tiny little woodstock.

My friend says he has all the live gear needed to run a outdoor festival, so we’ve got that covered

My thinking was that I would rent a good sized tent (if you can rent them) so we could have it rain or shine.

My guess is that there’ll be 10- 15 acts/bands (idk really tbh). I would like to hold it all in one day.

I figured I’d make it simple by just selling tickets then paying for everything with the ticket revenue. I thought I could possibly cut the artists in on percentage of the ticket sales. I don’t really care about making money, as long as I can cover my expensesI’m good.

So what should I figure budgeting for, and what sorts of other things should I consider?

EDIT: There’s not much lodging near me, just a couple dinky motels. I live in small rural town, so thats why I was thinking we’d just make it one day. Thought camping could also be a option.
 
Better have insurance for your event in case someone breaks a leg on your property. Not sure if regular homeowners would cover it.

Also, do you think you can handle watching me throw my trash on the ground of your nice farm? Your place will be a mess after. Who's gonna clean it up? Who is gonna be security when someone gets a lil to carried away with the booze?
 
Parking, security, clean up, local ordinances and zoning/permits, insurance, back up plans for things that could go wrong. Possibly check to see if there are event companies in your area as they often offer all of this at less headaches and sometimes lower costs and you do little else but enjoy. Being rural, it's really probably your call, but a lawsuit from someone who tripped over something can cause you problems.
 
NowYou'rePlayingWithPower said:
Parking, security, clean up, local ordinances and zoning/permits, insurance, back up plans for things that could go wrong. Possibly check to see if there are event companies in your area as they often offer all of this at less headaches and sometimes lower costs and you do little else but enjoy. Being rural, it's really probably your call, but a lawsuit from someone who tripped over something can cause you problems.
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Thats all good tips. I’ll look into event companies, though I’m trying to keep the budget down. This is going to be fairly small. More closer to a backyard party than anything tbh. Somewhere in between that and a actual festival. I’d like to possibly have some food trucks/vendors perhaps. Not sure what that all would cost me.
 
Half you budget could be advertising.

You need to consider if you can make enough to break even. Let alone pay the band's.

You need to consider what other events are happening local. Do it at a time you are not competing with other events....stuff beyond music. A friend of mine did one last summer same weekend as a local fishing event and blues festival happened. Because of this less than 100 people showed up.

You need to consider food and lodging. Selling merchandise, etc.

You need to consider if you need a permit to do all of these things. Do you have a license to sell food ?
 
What kind of draw do these bands have and how are you going to promote the show? Pretty easy to end up with a big circle jerk of bands if you don’t have the fan base and promotion in check. I’ve seen this happen, same setup with a festival on rural acreage, guy running it did jack shit to promote it and none of the bands had a ton of notoriety anyway so it’s not like people were flocking in from the city for the show. Some of the bands were pissed at the “promoter”.

Do any of these bands have a guarantee? What if it ends up being low turnout, are these bands gonna be cool with getting paid little to nothing?

I’ve been to shows like you’re describing where there was an assault, and another one with arson. You prepared to deal that level of bullshit on your property? These were extreme metal bands though, so maybe if it’s, like, a Dave Mathews cover band it will be more peaceful. Until they realize there’s no where to charge their Prius.
 
BigGuitars said:
Thats all good tips. I’ll look into event companies, though I’m trying to keep the budget down. This is going to be fairly small. More closer to a backyard party than anything tbh. Somewhere in between that and a actual festival. I’d like to possibly have some food trucks/vendors perhaps. Not sure what that all would cost me.
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Really depends on the size of your expected turnout. Event insurance can range from $50-$Ks. You can also sometimes have separate alcohol insurance coverage. Food/vendors will probably need local health inspection for the area as well as bathroom/portapotty rental. If you had 500-1,000 people, I would probably expect a cost of $10-15k in my less rural location, for example. Your costs generally diminish substantially per person above that. I would call a few event companies and get quotes. It may very well be half or less of those costs in your area. Most vendors give up around half their gross sales to the event holder, ime. It's the main reason everything is so expensive when you go to... well, events. There's a lot of little other things, but if you want to go the cheapest diy, take a trip to city hall and ask.
 
So… This festival (or gathering if you want to call it that) would not be open to the public. Its for a community I belong to, I’ll just leave it at that. We want to do a little festival featuring artists in our community. The audience is built in, sort of like a church community. So much of the normal concerns about people showing up due to other events in the area wouldn’t apply. (Nothing happens near me anyway)
 
"Tiny Little Woodstock" may have thrown people bro :LOL:

Spaceboy said:
I’m a show promoter and not in a million years would I touch organizing a full-fledged fest, especially on my own property.
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This probably says it all :yes:

I'm not an expert whatsoever but insurance and permits, as stated, would be top of mind - especially if you are serving food/drinks.

I had a band play at my house last year at our annual Fall Party. It was just friends, but what we did was cook up a bunch of chili, and then tell everyone BYOB. We put out a tip jar at the front of the stage and 'highly encouraged' our friends to tip. The band pulled in $800 in tips.
 
BigGuitars said:
So… This festival (or gathering if you want to call it that) would not be open to the public. Its for a community I belong to, I’ll just leave it at that. We want to do a little festival featuring artists in our community. The audience is built in, sort of like a church community. So much of the normal concerns about people showing up due to other events in the area wouldn’t apply. (Nothing happens near me anyway)
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I would go thru the community. It reminds me if my HOA had something. I'd just ask them what you can do, etc. If you play it down, it really isn't that different than food truck rallies, yard sales, etc.
 
romanianreaper said:
I would go thru the community. It reminds me if my HOA had something. I'd just ask them what you can do, etc. If you play it down, it really isn't that different than food truck rallies, yard sales, etc.
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Thats about what I was thinking. It would be more of a shindig or backyard party, or like I said, somewhere in between that and a festival
 
BigGuitars said:
So… This festival (or gathering if you want to call it that) would not be open to the public. Its for a community I belong to, I’ll just leave it at that. We want to do a little festival featuring artists in our community. The audience is built in, sort of like a church community. So much of the normal concerns about people showing up due to other events in the area wouldn’t apply. (Nothing happens near me anyway)
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Friend of mine used to do something similar; he has a Pole 'barn' that he uses to store his toys; Muscle cars, boats, Bikes, Snowmobiles etc. He would clear all that out, have the bands play in the back and in front peeps could dance or mosh/whatever. He'd roast 2 pigs, have a beer truck and people that came would 'donate' to a 'tip' box. So it was basically a big party with food and beverages that you'd give 10$ per person to the box. A few hundred usually attended, with 5-6 bands from Noon to midnight. Some would camp in tents or campers..he was out in the country a bit but still went to his neighbors and made sure they were cool with it.
Having it 'less formal' like ^^^ he did would keep the legal issues down a bit; but there could still be some issues if injuries/drunken fights/accidents etc happened.
 
VonBonfire said:
Better have insurance for your event in case someone breaks a leg on your property. Not sure if regular homeowners would cover it.

Also, do you think you can handle watching me throw my trash on the ground of your nice farm? Your place will be a mess after. Who's gonna clean it up? Who is gonna be security when someone gets a lil to carried away with the booze?
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That’s my thought. Permits, Fire Marshall Inspection, hire Security. Sounds like a money pit.
 
Racerxrated said:
Friend of mine used to do something similar; he has a Pole 'barn' that he uses to store his toys; Muscle cars, boats, Bikes, Snowmobiles etc. He would clear all that out, have the bands play in the back and in front peeps could dance or mosh/whatever. He'd roast 2 pigs, have a beer truck and people that came would 'donate' to a 'tip' box. So it was basically a big party with food and beverages that you'd give 10$ per person to the box. A few hundred usually attended, with 5-6 bands from Noon to midnight. Some would camp in tents or campers..he was out in the country a bit but still went to his neighbors and made sure they were cool with it.
Having it 'less formal' like ^^^ he did would keep the legal issues down a bit; but there could still be some issues if injuries/drunken fights/accidents etc happened.
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My kind of party :yes:
 
Make sure you've got adequate parking, bathrooms, food & drink, etc. It usually isn't hard to find a local food truck who's looking for places to set up for a day or two. It's not expensive to rent a couple of porta johns. Also, make sure you can safely run electricity that'll be reliable. If you'll have alcohol at all, try to get someone to check ID's and give out wrist bands.

I know a few people locally who've done similar events, and played at a few of them. The smaller ones seem to be a lot of fun, and they turn ugly after a year or two when they try to make it a larger event.
 
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boltzthrower said:
What kind of draw do these bands have and how are you going to promote the show? Pretty easy to end up with a big circle jerk of bands if you don’t have the fan base and promotion in check. I’ve seen this happen, same setup with a festival on rural acreage, guy running it did jack shit to promote it and none of the bands had a ton of notoriety anyway so it’s not like people were flocking in from the city for the show. Some of the bands were pissed at the “promoter”.

Do any of these bands have a guarantee? What if it ends up being low turnout, are these bands gonna be cool with getting paid little to nothing?

I’ve been to shows like you’re describing where there was an assault, and another one with arson. You prepared to deal that level of bullshit on your property? These were extreme metal bands though, so maybe if it’s, like, a Dave Mathews cover band it will be more peaceful. Until they realize there’s no where to charge their Prius.
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"so maybe if it’s, like, a Dave Mathews cover band it will be more peaceful. Until they realize there’s no where to charge their Prius." LMFAO!!!!!! That was Effin great!! :LOL:
 
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