How to Host Your Own Music Festival

by Sabrina Ward

Summer is rapidly approaching and while there are many great music festivals that you could go to, why not be a little more adventurous and try running a music festival of your own?

Venue

It's at this point that having a reasonable size garden comes in handy. If you haven't got much outdoor space, trying co-organising with a friend that has. Or, failing that, just make it an indoor thing.

Music

Use people you know - if you have friends in bands or anyone with any musical talent now is the time to flush them out. You could always insist that everyone has to perform something, you never know what hidden talents might emerge. Sure, it will make your event a little more karaoke than most music festivals but at least it will only be in front of people you know.

Entrance Fee

I'm assuming you're not actually going to charge your friends or family but how about some kind of donation to charity? If you went for something like Oxfam gifts you could commemorate your festival with a charitable group purchase.

We do the shoebox appeal for Operation Christmas Child so we usually get people to bring something for that.

Catering

There are various ways you could organise the catering so the burden doesn't fall all on you. You could get everyone to bring a different dish, get people to bring their own picnics or even provide some disposable barbecues and get everyone to bring their own meat/veggie burgers.

Accommodation

Most people don't mind roughing it a bit at a festival - opt for tents in the garden or sleeping bags on fl

oors (if there's room). Contact local B&B's for those willing to pay for a comfy bed.

Naming your festival

Before you send out your invitations, you're going to need a catchy name to get people's interest. I always think a title with the words "annual" and/or "international" sound very impressive - ours was " The Annual Carter's Clay International Music Festival" - but you can call yours whatever you like.

Have a great music festival!

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