Festival & Fair Season 2015

[TheRev]

We've got loads on this year:

Cursus cider & music festival
Welsh Perry & cider festival
Weymouth Quayside music festival
Wimborne folk festival
Boomtown fair
Tolpuddle Martyrs fair
Jusassic Rocks festival
OutCider festival
Great Dorset Steam Fair
Last of the summer cider music festival

There's also a handful of little cider festivals, VeeDub, scooter and Harley-Davidson rallies. We're going to be busy boys....

[blue]

[quote name='TheRev' timestamp='1430343534' post='2760592']
We've got loads on this year:

Cursus cider & music festival
Welsh Perry & cider festival
Weymouth Quayside music festival
Wimborne folk festival
Boomtown fair
Tolpuddle Martyrs fair
Jusassic Rocks festival
OutCider festival
Great Dorset Steam Fair
Last of the summer cider music festival

There's also a handful of little cider festivals, VeeDub, scooter and Harley-Davidson rallies. We're going to be busy boys....
[/quote]

We sent out promo kits to all the Harley Davidson dealerships in the Milwaukee area. They host rallies and parties all summer. Were in the process of nailing down the details on one Harley opportunity.

Harley Davidson is Headquartered here in Milwaukee.

Blue

[JTUK]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1430339726' post='2760535']
Your not alone.

We had a couple of fairs that we have played annually ignore us this year. I understand 1 of them is going the route of looking for bands that will perform for free, Good luck with that.

Blue
[/quote]

We've a lost a good one... part of it was our fault, but they changed booker and they wanted to reduce the money for bands.
I expect to get back there next year but I hope it is not picking up the pieces and I hope they realise what they pay for...
Headliners tend to have to be booked by now, but some bills firm up by the next month or so.

[blue]

Just wanted to mention that Church Festivals are huge here in Milwaukee and pay very well. Thing is one or two of the major agencies control all that business.

If your band has no representation, I wouldn't waste your time trying to get in.

Blue

[JTUK]

Most Beer Festivals only want to pay pub money... trying to get party money out of them...well, those gigs are
like gold dust, but the good ones, and therefore bigger ones will do weekend camping and have tent and village
that can hold 1000/2000 or more.
Some towns are in on the act and therefore funded out of local rates, but
only the big stages pay well... so you might be better off doing the pub stages as you get to park and the
bill order is more relaxed as they aren't/can't afford to put 10 bands on...

[BigRedX]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1430321095' post='2760271']
WOW! Nice bookings

Blue
[/quote]

Thanks. It's going to be "interesting". Personally I'm not a big fan of festivals as a punter because IME the British summer weather isn't really suitable for them. Audiences invariably end up with trench foot or occasionally sunstroke. My favourite festival to attend as an audience member was just 10 minutes walk from where I was living at the time so I could go home if the weather or the bands were sh*t!

Organisation at some of them can be a bit too relaxed for my liking. In previous years we have played events where we've had to cut out set short due to bands before us over-running. On one occasion we were left with 20 minutes in which to set up and play before the curfew!

And having done the first festival of the year on a day when it has mostly been raining nothing so far has changed my opinion. The stage and a good deal of the audience are was under cover, but the bit just in front of the stage was open to the elements, so the atmosphere for the bands playing earlier in the day wasn't great. Luckily the rain had stopped before we were on so people were actually down at the from for our set, but it could have been a pretty depressing gig. Lets see how the rest of the "summer" turns out...

[Dom in Dorset]

Small stages at Glastonbury and Beautiful Days, exact details to follow...

[The Admiral]

[quote name='amnesia' timestamp='1430327228' post='2760379']
Paul Henshaw and The Scientific Simpletons are currently booked for...

Rock n Bowl (Market Drayton)
Shrewsbury Food Festival
Staffordshire Bike Show (Stoke City Stadium...carpark! )
Farmer Phils (outside of Shrewsbury)
[/quote]

All in my neck of the woods - when are they?

[Dom in Dorset]

I've just found out Back Before Breakfast are first on at this year's Bruton Packhorse Fair (other acts include LLoyd Grossman!!!!) We should be done and dusted before 12 , leaving plenty of time for cider drinking!!

[edshred]

[quote name='blue' timestamp='1430245315' post='2759494']
Festival & Fair season is right around the corner.

Anyone have anything cool booked you would like to share with us?

Blue
[/quote]
Yeah looking forwards to this summer.. not as many booked as we would have liked, as per usual, the ones we apply for we don't get.

The festivals we usually play are just through contacts/friends as that seems like the only way in... sometimes we actually go to the festival just to make a contact for playing the year after..

We'll be playing Beatherder festival, rest festival, what the? festival and kendal calling this year with my band Rumjig ..

[Grassie]

We're booked at V-Dub Island at the end of July - a weekend of all things Volkswagen, mainly classic vans and beetles. Quite literally a 2 minute walk from my house, so looking forward to strolling up the road with just my bass on my back and not having to worry about setting gear up... 😊

Edited June 24, 2015 by Grassie

[BigRedX]

Here's a tip for bands with merchandise to sell. You are much better off playing on the first day of the festival (or early in the day on single day events) when people still have money to spend on things other than food and alcohol.

[charic]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1435135718' post='2805727']
Here's a tip for bands with merchandise to sell. You are much better off playing on the first day of the festival (or early in the day on single day events) when people still have money to spend on things other than food and alcohol.
[/quote]

That's a bloody good point that I hadn't thought of before!

[amnesia]

[quote name='The Admiral' timestamp='1430780438' post='2764584']
All in my neck of the woods - when are they?
[/quote]

Sorry - missed this post...

Bike show is Sunday July 19th

Farmer Phils is the weekend of 15th August

We have also confirmed:

Occombe Cider Festival, Devon (Sept 5th)
Valleyfest, Bristol (August 28th or 29th)

[Conan]

South Tyneside Festival this Saturday. We're opening up (at lunchtime) so there might not be too many people around, but as someone else said - plenty of time to sample the food and drink!

[BigRedX]

I though it would be good to resurrect this thread and just give an update of our actual experiences at festivals this year:

Firstly my initial views on the suitability of the weather in the UK for festivals has not changed a bit. It rained at all but one of the events we played this year.

So on to the actual gigs themselves:

[b]PuzzleFest: [/b]Heavy rain all day, put rather a damper on this. The outdoor stage was adequately covered as was the majority of the audience area except for the bit just in front of the stage, which meant that most of the bands played to an empty space while the audience huddled around the bar area trying to keep dry and warm. We were the last band on outside (the final band of the evening played in the pub where it was warm and dry) and luckily the rain had stopped during the band before ours' set. However, late running of the previous bands and an outdoor curfew time meant that there wasn't enough time to remove the house bass rig from the stage to make room for mine, and a miscommunication between Mr Venom and the organisers meant that I wan't able to use my amp rack with the supplied cabs, so I had to go without my effects and tuner. It was bitterly cold on stage - our guitarist played with gloves on and I didn't even begin to sweat despite wearing my full leather Terrortone outfit. Despite all of this we had a good turnout and reception. Unfortunately merchandise sales were poor as unsurprisingly everyone disappeared in doors to catch the last band to moment we finished. Cold, wet and rather disappointed.

[b]Strummercamp[/b]: Again more rain. However because we were playing the pre-festival party we were indoors in the hall next to the bar where it was dry and relatively warm. We arrived a little later than we were supposed to, but found that the PA was only just being set up. It seemed to take for ever to as the engineer appeared to be completely stoned. Everything was running massively late, but in the end it didn't really matter. The rain had driven everyone inside so we played to a packed hall and went down really well. Sold loads of merchandise including a whole box of CDs that we'd brought, but no-one wanted to buy any vinyl!

[b]Alice's Wicked Tea Party:[/b] It was off and then it was on, then off again and then back on. By this time most of the decent headlining bands were no longer on the bill. I was going to be out of the country at a wedding and we'd organised a replacement bassist so that the band could do the gig. However because of the uncertainty of it actually happening, coupled with the Terrortone van not being well we decided to cancel. Still don't know if the event went ahead. If it did, I bet it rained! ;-)

[b]Deerstock[/b]: More rain (can you see a pattern forming here?) and a rather serious leak over the stage that the crew were trying to fix as we set our gear up. Overlapping stages and delays while the leaky stage roof was being attended to meant no soundcheck and only the briefest of line-checks before we played. Sound on-stage was fairly poor, but we played through it. The audience looked cold and miserable huddling under their umbrellas or sheltering by the stalls that circled the stage area. By the time we'd loaded the gear back into the van it had all acquired a sheen of rain and mud… Hung about for a bit trying to sell some merch, before cutting our loses and heading for home.

[b]OutCider[/b]: Rain and some sunny intervals. However the sterling organisation of this event coupled with the friendliness of the organisers and crew meant that despite the rain this event was a joy to play. The stage and audience areas were under cover and there was plenty of backstage storage for all the gear so no humping it across wet muddy fields. Excellent on-stage and FoH sound and an appreciative audience. Made a lot of new fans and got a couple of good reviews. IMO it just goes to show what can be done when a festival is properly run and takes into account the fact that much of the time the British weather is simply not going to be very nice. If they will have us we'd love to come back and play again.

[b]Degeneration[/b]: For once the weather was nice and sunny - dare I say it almost hot! Except that this time the concert venue was indoors and as we were playing during the day a lot of the potential audience stayed outside in the sun. Still those that did venture inside were enthusiastic, if sometimes a little scared of Mr Venom's on and off-stage antics. Got another couple of excellent reviews and a bunch of new fans.

Overall?

It is possible to organise a great festival in the UK that takes account of the unpredictability of the British Weather - OutCider is a prime example! However IME too many festival organisers simply stick their heads in the mud and hope that it will be bright and sunny on the day(s) that they have chosen, and other than ensuring that there is some sort of roof over the stage area have made little provision for the inevitability of rain. It doesn't matter how dry the stage area is, if your gear is all wet and muddy by the time you've got it there because there is no adequate back-stage parking.

Also there seems to be an assumption that the audience won't mind getting a bit wet in order to watch the bands. Maybe if it was Download or Glastonbury and the performers in question were massively famous, but most of the bands playing the sorts of events we are doing at the moment have at best a cult following and much of time the audience's priority is to keep dry, especially if they are staying in a tent for the weekend. No matter how awesome your band's performance is, it can be difficult to connect with your audience when they are concentrating on keeping dry rather than down at the front of the stage.

As may be obvious from previous posts, I'm not a massive fan of festivals, but as OutCider and a few others have shown they can be made enjoyable even for a grumpy old cynic like me. Unfortunately unless you are playing one of the very big events, they appear to be the exception rather than the rule.

[blue]

[quote name='BigRedX' timestamp='1449149604' post='2921094']
I though it would be good to resurrect this thread and just give an update of our actual experiences at festivals this year:

Firstly my initial views on the suitability of the weather in the UK for festivals has not changed a bit. It rained at all but one of the events we played this year.

So on to the actual gigs themselves:

[b]PuzzleFest: [/b]Heavy rain all day, put rather a damper on this. The outdoor stage was adequately covered as was the majority of the audience area except for the bit just in front of the stage, which meant that most of the bands played to an empty space while the audience huddled around the bar area trying to keep dry and warm. We were the last band on outside (the final band of the evening played in the pub where it was warm and dry) and luckily the rain had stopped during the band before ours' set. However, late running of the previous bands and an outdoor curfew time meant that there wasn't enough time to remove the house bass rig from the stage to make room for mine, and a miscommunication between Mr Venom and the organisers meant that I wan't able to use my amp rack with the supplied cabs, so I had to go without my effects and tuner. It was bitterly cold on stage - our guitarist played with gloves on and I didn't even begin to sweat despite wearing my full leather Terrortone outfit. Despite all of this we had a good turnout and reception. Unfortunately merchandise sales were poor as unsurprisingly everyone disappeared in doors to catch the last band to moment we finished. Cold, wet and rather disappointed.

[b]Strummercamp[/b]: Again more rain. However because we were playing the pre-festival party we were indoors in the hall next to the bar where it was dry and relatively warm. We arrived a little later than we were supposed to, but found that the PA was only just being set up. It seemed to take for ever to as the engineer appeared to be completely stoned. Everything was running massively late, but in the end it didn't really matter. The rain had driven everyone inside so we played to a packed hall and went down really well. Sold loads of merchandise including a whole box of CDs that we'd brought, but no-one wanted to buy any vinyl!

[b]Alice's Wicked Tea Party:[/b] It was off and then it was on, then off again and then back on. By this time most of the decent headlining bands were no longer on the bill. I was going to be out of the country at a wedding and we'd organised a replacement bassist so that the band could do the gig. However because of the uncertainty of it actually happening, coupled with the Terrortone van not being well we decided to cancel. Still don't know if the event went ahead. If it did, I bet it rained! ;-)

[b]Deerstock[/b]: More rain (can you see a pattern forming here?) and a rather serious leak over the stage that the crew were trying to fix as we set our gear up. Overlapping stages and delays while the leaky stage roof was being attended to meant no soundcheck and only the briefest of line-checks before we played. Sound on-stage was fairly poor, but we played through it. The audience looked cold and miserable huddling under their umbrellas or sheltering by the stalls that circled the stage area. By the time we'd loaded the gear back into the van it had all acquired a sheen of rain and mud… Hung about for a bit trying to sell some merch, before cutting our loses and heading for home.

[b]OutCider[/b]: Rain and some sunny intervals. However the sterling organisation of this event coupled with the friendliness of the organisers and crew meant that despite the rain this event was a joy to play. The stage and audience areas were under cover and there was plenty of backstage storage for all the gear so no humping it across wet muddy fields. Excellent on-stage and FoH sound and an appreciative audience. Made a lot of new fans and got a couple of good reviews. IMO it just goes to show what can be done when a festival is properly run and takes into account the fact that much of the time the British weather is simply not going to be very nice. If they will have us we'd love to come back and play again.

[b]Degeneration[/b]: For once the weather was nice and sunny - dare I say it almost hot! Except that this time the concert venue was indoors and as we were playing during the day a lot of the potential audience stayed outside in the sun. Still those that did venture inside were enthusiastic, if sometimes a little scared of Mr Venom's on and off-stage antics. Got another couple of excellent reviews and a bunch of new fans.

Overall?

It is possible to organise a great festival in the UK that takes account of the unpredictability of the British Weather - OutCider is a prime example! However IME too many festival organisers simply stick their heads in the mud and hope that it will be bright and sunny on the day(s) that they have chosen, and other than ensuring that there is some sort of roof over the stage area have made little provision for the inevitability of rain. It doesn't matter how dry the stage area is, if your gear is all wet and muddy by the time you've got it there because there is no adequate back-stage parking.

Also there seems to be an assumption that the audience won't mind getting a bit wet in order to watch the bands. Maybe if it was Download or Glastonbury and the performers in question were massively famous, but most of the bands playing the sorts of events we are doing at the moment have at best a cult following and much of time the audience's priority is to keep dry, especially if they are staying in a tent for the weekend. No matter how awesome your band's performance is, it can be difficult to connect with your audience when they are concentrating on keeping dry rather than down at the front of the stage.

As may be obvious from previous posts, I'm not a massive fan of festivals, but as OutCider and a few others have shown they can be made enjoyable even for a grumpy old cynic like me. Unfortunately unless you are playing one of the very big events, they appear to be the exception rather than the rule.
[/quote]

Thanks for resurrecting the thread.

Wow, I didn't realize it was so raining in your region in the UK.

You know it wouldn't be fair to compare my fair and festival experience. For one Milwaukee is known as The City Of Festivals and we are the home of The World's largest music fest, SummerFest.

Most of the fairs and festivals we played last year were top notch.

Top Notch, meaning festivals that are established with a history of success. Top Notch also meaning above average pay and only play 1.5 hours instead of 4 hours (the standard for a bar gig).

However in years past we have experience the scams and the poorly planned, poorly organized festival. For those new to festival and fairs, Getting good detail on the event and the sponsor is a must.

How these event's treat the bands is a good benchmark. Things like what accommodations they make for getting the band on stage, a good stage manager, is there a green or hospitality room with food and drink for the band, family and friends?

Beware of festivals where it seems like they are going out of their way to make things difficult for the band.

Blue