Life-Work Balance How to Run a Music Festival/Competition: Organization & Checklists

Deborah H. How

MTNA Business Digest, Volume 4, Issue 1

October 2024


Running a music festival or competition, while seemingly daunting, can be both personally rewarding and professionally fulfilling—so long as you are well-organized and have a clear strategic and financial plan.

Borrowing principles from corporate risk management strategies has been my golden ticket to success for more than 250 events in the past 35 years, from small local competitions to large festivals in the United States and overseas, both in person and online.

Determining a festival/competition’s viability should be your top priority, whether you are taking over as the chair for an existing festival/competition or launching a new endeavor. Spending months planning an event only to see your hard work go up in flames because of an irreconcilable artistic vision with the board of directors (if there is one) or an unexpected lack of funding is heartbreaking.


What is Risk Management?

Risk Management is planning ahead for things that can go wrong. According to RiskOptics:

“Risk management is the set of steps an organization takes to prevent unwanted events from happening, or at least to reduce the damage of those events when they do happen. Put another way: risk management is a system for dealing with risks before they evolve into immediate and direct harm” (RiskOptics 2022).

Kate Gibson (2023), writing for Harvard Business School Online, gives four reasons risk management is important: 1) Protects Organization’s Reputation, 2) Minimizes Losses, 3) Encourages Innovation and Growth and 4) Enhances Decision-Making. There are two fundamental approaches to risk management: proactive and reactive (ZenGRC 2024). I take the proactive approach to mitigating risks, but organizations should consider both strategies to see which strategy, or a combination of both strategies, best fits your festival/competition’s organizational structure.


Organization & Checklists

Once you have determined that the festival/competition is viable and you have both an artistic vision and a working budget, creating checklists with task completion dates is good way to stay on top of event organization. I have five main checklists: 1) Overall Event Planning, 2) Registration, 3) Judges, 4) Competitors/Participants, 5) Day of Festival/Competition. After you run a few festivals/competitions, you may end up merging checklists or creating new ones! These days, I have all the checklists in one Excel workbook, with each checklist in a separate worksheet tab.


Checklist Example: Overall Event Planning

Recommendation: start planning at least one year in advance

  1. Artistic Vision
    1. Mission & Purpose
    2. Goal of Festival/Competition
    3. Target Audience
  2. Budget
    1. Expected Income vs. Expected Expenses
      1. Will this Festival be profitable or at least break even?
      2. Where will the financing come from?
        1. Fundraising/Sponsors/Ad Sales
        2. Registration Fees/Ticket Sales
        3. Organization Savings/Investments
        4. Grants
  3. Event Date
    1. Check local calendar for potential conflicts
      1. Competing festivals/competitions/concerts
      2. Potential traffic issues
        1. For example, Los Angeles Marathon street closures
        2. For example, Memorial Day Weekend holiday traffic
  4. Event Venue (BOOK EARLY!)
    1. Date Reservation & Deposit
    2. Confirmation
    3. Re-confirmation
  5. Event/Liability Insurance or Certificate of Insurance (COI)
    1. Find out if the venue has any specific requirements
      1. For example, is Live Scan fingerprinting required for all adjudicators/volunteers?
      2. Is Sexual Abuse & Molestation (SAM) insurance required?
  6. Publicity/Marketing
    1. Festival/Competition Website
    2. Print Media (flyers, postcards)
    3. Social Media
    4. Email & Text Announcements
  7. Registration Deadline
    1. Timeline for announcements & reminders
      1. 1 year before
      2. 9 months before, 6 months before, 3 months before, 1 month before
      3. 2 weeks before, 1 week before
      4. 3 days before, 1 day before, etc.
  8. Pianos, Piano Benches, Piano Tuning
    1. If the venue has a piano, play the piano in advance and schedule a tuning
    2. If the venue does not have a piano, make arrangements to rent a piano and schedule a tuning
      1. Does the venue have delivery time windows?
      2. Will there be an extra cost to bring in a piano?
  9. Music Stands
  10. Tables/Chairs
  11. Hospitality
    1. Does the venue allow for outside hospitality?
    2. Is there an additional fee to bring in food/drink?
  12. Videographer
    1. Will you be video recording the festival/competition?
      1. Is a professional videographer and/or audio engineer needed?

An Overall Event Planning checklist may seem obvious, but I once ran a two-day event with 12 audition rooms; we rented a dozen grand pianos, but they were delivered WITHOUT piano benches. (It was a mad scramble trying to find a dozen piano benches that we could use on a Saturday morning and keep for the rest of the weekend.) A colleague of mine once showed up at a festival where he was engaged to be the collaborative pianist; when he showed up for the event, the organizer asked him if he brought his piano since they didn’t have one… Another facility forgot to unlock the 50 music stands needed for the gala orchestra concert.

A Registration checklist would include all the information you need to contact participants, e.g., parent and teacher contact information, any necessary proof-of-age documents and consent waivers.

A Judges checklist would include all the documents you need to give to your adjudicators, e.g., festival rules and guidelines, audition schedule, comment sheets, pencils/pens, scratch paper, calculators, blank W-9 forms, payments, driving directions and parking information.

A Competitors/Participants checklist would include all the information students/parents/teachers need, e.g., festival rules and guidelines, audition schedule, dress code, accepted music scores (no photocopies/copyright), driving directions and parking information.

A Day of Festival/Competition checklist would include everything you need on the festival day, e.g., audition schedule, participant/competitor/teacher email addresses and cell phone numbers, adjudicator comments sheets, signs to direct foot traffic, refreshments for judges, cell phone/charger, laptop/charger, extension cords and final payments for the venue, piano movers and piano technician.

Being proactive and organized will ensure your festival/competition runs smoothly and is a credit to the event’s name and reputation. Excellent user experience is the best word-of-mouth advertising for the continued success of a program. It is never too early to start planning a festival/competition. Because there is usually a large facility rental involved, imagine yourself as a wedding planner—the more detailed you are, the better the event will be!


References

RiskOptics. ZenGRC, “What Does Risk Management Involve?” November 29, 2022. https://reciprocity.com/resources/what-does-risk-management-involve/.

Kate Gibson. Harvard Business School Online, “What is Risk Management & Why is it Important?” October 24, 2023. https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/risk-management.

ZenGRC, “Proactive vs. Reactive Risk Management Strategies.” May 11, 2024. https://reciprocity.com/resources/proactive-vs-reactive-risk-management-strategies/.


Deborah How

 

Deborah H. How, PhD, MBA, is a connection builder/fundraising architect for nonprofit music organizations. She is the owner of Westside Music Conservatory, CEO of Musical Etudes and member of the MTNA Business Resource Network.

 

 

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