Managing festival production services can be overwhelming for many who are involved in the production of festivals. Writer and filmmaker, Siddharth Katragadda, once said that “the greatness of a culture can be found in its festivals”, and while it’s a simple and appealing quote, it’s also very true. Whether it is strictly a music festival, or an all-encompassing festival for a geographic community, festivals feature the best of traditions, community enjoyment, and music.
However, even though festivals are a popular and timeless form of celebration and entertainment, that does not mean they are always a success. It takes much planning, preparation, creativity, and teamwork to make a festival a success.
If you are planning an upcoming festival and are feeling overwhelmed with everything that needs to be done, have no fear. Fortunately, there are festival production companies that can help you with that process. A great festival production company will help you plan every detail and pull all the working pieces together so that your festival is an overwhelming success.
But with so many festival production companies out there, how do you know you’re hiring the right company for the job? Below you will find five tips to help you on your search.
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Determine What Services You Need from a Festival Production Agency
Do you need assistance all the way from planning to managing your festival, or do you just need a company to help you produce the festival you have planned?
Just like with any other industry, the entertainment industry is full of companies that offer a wide variety of the services. Some festival and event production companies will offer production, but not management, and some may offer production and management, but not event marketing. Even when a company labels themselves as “full-service” it’s important to determine exactly what services they can provide.
Unless you can perform any services yourself, for a large-scale festival you will need production, management, and marketing. If you plan on marketing your own festival, then obviously you won’t need a production company that offers this service. However, it’s important to remember that whatever services you don’t obtain from the festival production company, you will have to either hire out or perform yourself.
Because TSE Entertainment is a full service booking, production and event management company we are able to handle everything from planning, to booking, to producing, to marketing.
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Look for Creative Planning and Problem Solving
There are hundreds of annual festivals in the United States each year. If you are looking for help in the planning phase, and your goal is to host a festival that offers something new and exciting, it’s important to hire a festival production company that can offer creative, out-of-the-box ideas. No matter what type of festival you are planning, you want to make sure that it is a success year after year regardless of what artist is performing. A helpful festival production company can achieve this by helping you improve your concept. It shouldn’t be afraid to tackle new and exciting ideas and projects.
Even if you aren’t looking for a production company to help with your festival concept, it’s important that they are able to offer creative solutions to problems that inevitably will arise.
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Ask About Festival Sponsorship Acquisition Services
If your goal is to produce a bigger community event and festival than your local budget can afford, you should really consider using a production company that can help your event acquire outside sponsors. Even if your team has a history of getting sponsors and already have sponsors lined up, it’s always great to get experienced sponsorship sales help for taking your festival to the next level.
While sponsorship sales fees come into play, the increased revenue they generate for your festival can make a local festival into a regional festival powerhouse.
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Responsive Communication is Vital
Communication is a key component when working towards any goal, but it’s especially valuable when your goal is a large festival or music event that will host hundreds if not thousands of people.
Festivals take months to plan because there is so much to do, and so many moving parts. You must worry about permits, insurance, security, vendors, etc. Keeping track of the logistics of so many moving parts is time consuming. With today’s pandemic environment, it’s also critical that the festival production company have a Coronavirus mitigation plan and know local and CDC guidelines for holding such events.
It is paramount that you hire a festival production company that can and will always be available to answer your questions and address any issues that may arise. You need a company that can become an extension of your team. Communicating and working with them on issues should be as easy as turning to your team member sitting in the space next to you. Okay, maybe a little exaggeration here. But timely, responsive communication should be an important consideration in choosing who you work with.
You can see a list of all our reviews by visiting our testimonials page.
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Experienced with Solving Event Production Problems
When dealing with big festivals and events, it’s important that you have professional people that can deal with issues and put out fires. This kind of professionalism and skill to handle any obstacle comes through experience. If it’s important to you that your festival is as stress-free as humanly possible, hiring a festival production company with many years of experience is a great way to make that happen.
There are a number of ways to judge the experience of festival production companies.
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- Length of time in business
- Track record of being asked back, i.e., continuing relationships
- Testimonials and references.
The longer a company has been in business doing festivals, the more likely they have already seen any issue that may arise during the planning and execution of any festival event.
If they have clients that continue to use them year after year that also tells you a lot about how well they perform and work with their clients
Finally look to their testimonials/reviews. If they have plenty of good reviews, that’s always a great sign.
You can always ask for references as well.
If you follow these suggestions when hiring a festival production company for your event, chances are you will end up with a wonderful festival and a lot of satisfied festival goers.
It should also be noted that these same tips can be applied to other venue types as well. TSE Entertainment like to work with festivals and help them solve problems.
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