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Playing a Festival Experience – What I learnt playing my first festival
Introduction
playing a festival! What is it like? What should you know? Well, a few weekends ago, I got the chance to play a festival with my function band. This was the first festival I have ever played and was very different from any other gig that I had done. It was only a small to mid size festival but still a festival. I thought I would put together a few things that I learnt and that stood out to me in case you have a festival coming up.
As I said, this was my first ever time playing a festival, so I was going into this clueless! I didn’t know what to expect or what it would be like. Of course, I have done plenty of gigs, so I was aware of the basics, but there was so much which was new for me. I was very excited and also a bit nervous! So, let me dive into the first lesson, which was a big one and the one that made me the most nervous: no sound check!
No Sound Check
This could be the biggest thing that throws people out of sync when playing a festival! No sound check! We didn’t get a chance to do any sound checks or playing together before the actual gig. This means there is no time to run any songs you might want to or brush up on any stops and changes. It is set up, line check and go! So my lessons would be to make sure you have rehearsed and know as much as you can before the day!
What you will get is a line check! All this means is that you get on stage, plug your gear in and give them a few sounds so they know they are getting a signal. Once the sound engineer is happy, he will move onto the next person. Then you are done! You will also be up against a short clock for starting (We had 30 minutes to get on stage and get ready). So the sound engineers don’t want to hear all your sounds and how loud you can be! A quick strum and he will move on!
As you don’t get a sound check, you don’t have any time to adjust your rig and sounds. So you have to make sure that you are set up and ready to go with all your sounds and settings. This leads me on to the next sessions, Picking your rig!
Dedicated Monitor Engineer
If you have ever done a function or corporate gig, then you will know how tricky it is to get the sound perfect! Focusing on your monitors or your IEMs, also getting in front of House and the PA and the lights being set up can be quite stressful even with a sound guy.
However, when playing a festival they tend to have a team to help you with sound! So you’ll have a front of house sound engineering. You’ll also have one or two dedicated monitor engineers, and I cannot express how nice this is and how simple it makes set up. Don’t have to worry about anything! No need to worry about mic positions, cabling routine, DI boxes or any of that. You just take a gear on stage set up and tell them what you need, and they will sort it!
I found that having someone out front worrying about the front of house took a huge load off our shoulders, but the main bit was having two monitor engineers on hand to make any adjustments! If you needed any adjustments, then you could look at them and get it sorted! The fact there were two of them was even better!
Picking your Rig
Simple and effective! That is what I would recommend when playing a festival! You don’t want to be on stage with gear issues, particularly when you consider that you don’t have a sound check or any way of testing sounds before you play! This means it will be highly likely that you will have to adjust your sounds on the fly! So picking gear you know how to use and also how it sounds is key!
For me, in the band I played this festival with, I would normally go for a direct rig. Using my Nano Cortex (Review Here) as my amp and going to the desk with IEMs. However, as we didn’t know what the sound situation would be like, we all decided to go old school and bring amps and mics. So I remade my pedalboard, took an amp and a guitar I trusted and that was it! As I said above, I picked gear I knew and could work and adjust on the fly if I needed to (and I did need to).
More on my Rig!
The only curveball was my amp. I recently got a new amp (Review coming soon) and wanted to use it for this gig. This would be the first time I had it running at gig volumes and using it with pedals. Was a bit of a risk but due to the quality (and type) of amp, I knew it would be fine. Pedal-wise I went with what I knew! Blue Driver (Review Here) for my higher gain sounds, J Rockett Archer (Review Here) for my clean and pushed cleans and then some Chorus and delay from the 3rd Dimension (Review Here) and Everlast (Review Here). A very simple and easy board to use and operate!
Picking the best set list
As I mentioned, this band would normally do wedding and function gigs, so we knew we had to alter our set list around not only what songs to pick but also the time! We had 45 minutes and had to make sure to pick songs that we knew well and the crowd would love and dance to. This can be an important decision as this is what you are going to be judged on by the audience, for your playing. Also, judge by the organiser on how well the crowd reacts!
The festival we did was a very generic festival without any theme, so we had to make sure that we had a wide array of songs to play. Covering everything from your classic 80’s tunes, soul and funk numbers and also some modern-day stuff.
What I always find interesting, and this applies to every gig, is playing attention to what songs people love and react to at different weddings! There are some songs that will always go down well and some that only go down well at gigs with a certain demographic. For this festival, we had to take a guess at what people would enjoy. I will admit, we did miss on a few numbers! Nevertheless, you live and learn and next time we can curate the list a bit more.
Lots of waiting
This all depends on what time you are expected or told to get there. However, be prepared to have to kill a lot of time! Once you have unloaded and done all the prep work you can, then you will most likely have to wait around waiting for your set-up time.
We did have the chance to get there just before we were due to get on to set up; however, I felt that this would have stressed me out a bit too much, so I got there 2-3 hours before. As mentioned, I haven’t ever done a festival before, so I didn’t know what to expect. If I was to do a similar kind of show again, then I will get there slightly later! Of course, you have to take travel into consideration and the chances of traffic! For me, it wasn’t too far away, so I got there with plenty of time.
For me, I just wandered around the show, checked out the other bands, and also checked my rig and warmed up a bit. This means that when you are due to set up and go on, then you are as ready as you can be! The festival we did had parking and green rooms all sorted. So you could pull up, park up, and then unload all your stuff.
Very different crowd
I found that the crowd while playing a festival was very different to wedding gigs. At a wedding gig, you are there to almost just provide background music, provide music for people to dance to! The wedding is the main focus; copper this to a festival where people are there to listen to you! You are now the main focus of everyone! So you get a different crowd. You will get people that are into all kinds of music, you get people that will like the songs that you’re playing, and you also get people that just want to dance and have a laugh.
Being that the crowd can be so diverse and so many people, it is almost certain that people will enjoy your set. People will dance and people will engage with you. I feel this shapes a really nice environment and allows you to relax a little bit while playing and just enjoy the atmosphere and event. It changes it from being a job to a hobby and it’s very enjoyable. This leads me on to my final point and one of the main takeaways.
Lot more relaxed
Thanks to the various things I have mentioned above, I found that I was a lot more relaxed! I really enjoyed this gig and it felt so much different than any other gig! That could be to do with the shorter set, the stage help we had, or the fact this was the first gig I have done in a while without IEMs (Article incoming on that).
If you play in a function band, then you are aware of the small amount of pressure that comes with performing at someone’s special day! There wasn’t any of that during this gig! I was free to enjoy! And I certainly did! I think it helped that we prepped more than normal for this gig! Focused on the small details and made sure we were presenting the best version of the band that we could!
Conclusion
That is the lesson that I took home from playing a festival for the first time. I undeniably loved it! It was a great experience, and I am desperate to do more of them! If you ever get the chance for playing a festival, I highly recommend it. It is a great laugh, the crowds are always good, and you make loads of friends backstage talking to the other bands! My only downside is that I was so occupied in the music and performing that I forgot to take photos and videos!
I didn’t actively write any of these lessons down on the day. When I thought of this article, I thought about what stuck out about the day! There are loads of little things that I could mention, but these apply to different kinds of gigs as well. I do have a full article going over them coming soon as well.
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