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Festival Planning - Soup To Nuts ...

by ThomasL

The Annual Last-Ever Eurostyle JuggleFest in Bloomington is history and I've organized my notes. I am now willing to share the secrets of our success. (Actually; the short answer is that we provide free pizza!) Here's an E-Z list of pointers to assist you in planning a festival. These are things I learned from experience, from planning our own festival, and through attending lots of other fests. Reading this primer before you plan your festival should save you approximately 3.6 bottles of pain reliever and a week's worth of sleep, both of which you will need during the final stages of preparation.

So you want to have a party and invite 200 of your closest friends?

Festival organization is a thankless task if done well, because, like most good tricks, it seems effortless, and no one realizes the time and effort you put into it. You do get the satisfaction of hosting a crowd of like-minded and talented friends trading tricks, gossip, showing off and loitering about.

I love to go to festivals, so I encourage you to have one, and maybe I will go to it!

Who's Queen?

The first rule is to get everything in writing, and keep all receipts. These are the fundamentals of organization.

This is second nature for the person who has naturally selected into the position of supreme power and accountability, or they would have ended long ago, but a sad fossil washed up on the shores of hastily-forgotten history. The second rule is knowing that some things cannot be negotiated ahead of time, and you just have to go for it. Stay loose, but quick of wit and light of foot! It is all just a bunch of details.

When you are negotiating for favors, pleasant and easy to get along with is good, but please do not forget that you are providing a valuable service, not only in the form of novelty, but also, bottom-line, by importing a bunch of users of goods and services. So long as you minimize negative impact, this is a powerful card to hold, and organizations of all sizes will roll over and do all sorts of pleasing tricks for you, IF you play your cards right. A well-run festival leaves everyone feeling good and eager to do it again. As organizer, your job is to make sure everyone feels good, and you have to do it mostly without drugs.

A Cunning Plan

Fest planning can be fun if you have a loyal and motivated cadre of like-minded pals. People are differently-abled, so the more people you have helping, the better your fest will be. Much like running a small and impoverished nation, the key to efficacious festival organization is benign dictatorship coupled with judicious delegation, while espousing the values of democratic participation.

Just as Kasparov knows how to maximally utilize pawns while strategically positioning the horsies and the castles, a good festival organizer knows how to utilize the skills of their graphic-design friends, their show people, their shmooze officers, and the computer-dweeb. Even a scarf juggler or five-ball widow can be worth their weight in beanbags tending a registration table, getting in early to set up, or staying after to tear down. You must coldly and calculatingly assess everyone's strengths and weaknesses, and cunningly play to the former, while minimizing the repercussions of the latter.

Actually, just letting people choose what tasks they want to do accomplishes pretty much the same thing. You, as organizer, will be stuck with the nasty details that remain. Do not hesitate to conscript a slacker to do these chores. That way they get to participate, too! Giving people impressive titles is highly motivating, and more fun for everyone involved. Fun is the desired result.