Music festival

Archive for April, 2011

If you are a live music fan or an aficionado of performance art at all you probably save the concert tickets that gave you entrance to the most memorable experiences. So for you the best concert ticket to a concert or festival would be what? Your first ever festival or rock concert? The Rolling Stones last ever concert before their next last ever concert? My personal all time best concert ticket would be the one I had for a Paul Simon concert during his ‘rhythm of the saints’ tour in 1991 because of the great music and the precious memories that go with it.

But what if I asked you to choose your top concert ticket of all in the history of modern concert tickets. What would you say? I would choose, without hesitation a ticket to that iconic music festival of 1969, Woodstock. But wasn’t it a free concert I hear you ask? How can no ticket be a concert ticket? You are right. It ended up as free ‘festival for peace’ but started out as a paying one and there were 2 types of concert ticket printed. A pure text one and a deluxe picture one.

The 1969 Woodstock concert Ticket! This Woodstock concert ticket was originally meant to be sold for the Festival, but once Woodstock was declared a “Free” concert, all sales stopped.  Many of the single advance sale concert tickets ($7.00 face value) were either taken home as souvenirs or thrown away.  And, most of the sold on site tickets ($8.00 Face Value) were destroyed by the rains or simply discarded as useless because no concert tickets were required. They were also available as 3-day concert tickets covering the whole event. These 3-Day tickets are very rare and with such a concert ticket, you can feel the history.

The best concert ticket of all time would cost you about $350 on the memorabilia market. Concert ticket collectors drool over this item. Are you a baby boomer with one of these babies sitting in your memory box or scrapbook? The Original unused $8.00 ticket set for all three days – Friday, Saturday and Sunday, August 15, 16 & 17th 1969. The full unused concert ticket intact measures about 10″ x 12″. What a line up it describes:

Three-Days of Peace & Music! Friday - Performers were Richie Havens, Joan Baez, Arlo Guthrie, Melanie, Tim Harden, Ravi Shankar, John Sebastian, country Joe mcDonald, Sweetwater, The Incredible String Band and Bert Sommer.

Saturday - Performers were Santana, Canned Heat, Mountain, Janis Joplin, Sly & The Family Stone, The Grateful Dead, Creedance Clearwater Revival, the Who, Quill and Keef Hartley.

Sunday - Performers were Jefferson, Joe Cocker, Country Joe and the Fish, Ten Years After, The Band, Johnny Winter, Blood, Sweat & Tears and Cosby Stills Nash and Young. (Performing after midnight or on Monday morning were the Paul Butterfield Blues Band, Sha-Na-Na and Jimi Hendrix).

Wow! Can you think of an even better concert ticket than the ticket that never was to this incredible concert?

2011 is already looking to be a big year for music and the Surface Festival will be one of the highlights of the year. With over 8,000 applications from bands and musicians from all over the UK and Europe already registered, and still 3 more months until this band competition 2011 begins, industry hype surrounding the festival is spreading.

During this band contest 2011, there will be 500 shows across 14 cities in the UK and Europe. Showcases will take place in London, Portsmouth, Bristol, Cardiff, Swansea, Birmingham, Nottingham, Oxford, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, Barcelona and Budapest. Local industry guests are invited to shows in each area. The International Showcase takes place at the internationally recognized 02 complex in London, at which the best bands of the Festival perform in front of an invited industry panel.

Alex Baker from the Kerrang Radio Unsigned Show, who sits on the panel, explains: “The Surface Festival gives bands a genuine opportunity to get their music in front of people in the industry that can help further their careers. The prizes offered for the winning band and runners up are just fantastic and the experience all the bands gain from playing larger venues is priceless.”

A host of industry guests are listed on the Surface Festival website. Names include Jon Brookes from The Charlatans, Warner Music, Weekender Records and MAS records to name a few.

Steve Stoker from 2010 band Twister describes his experience: “I would like to say that Twister have found the Festival this year as the highlight of their band career so far. We have been able to play at the some of best venues across the country and worked and met with some great people from the Industry.”

Jon Brookes from The Charlatans, who has been involved in the band competition 2011 from its beginnings, recently stated in his blog: “Surface continues to act like a giant music magnet finding exciting ground breaking new acts. It re-energizes the inner cities searching out new talent. The prizes and industry weight of the various associate sponsors shows the level at which this festival is now held in the industry.”

With some amazing venues booked for this band contest 2011, including the 02 in London, globally well-renowned sponsors giving the event credibility, and more prizes than ever on offer, this is an event not to be missed.

There are many factors to consider in the running of a festival. Each aspect is as important as the next, with the failure of one having a knock-on effect on the entire event. Let us start with the site. Obviously the space designated for your festival will be determined by the scale of the event, however, size isn’t everything. An exciting and unique piece of land can make a huge difference on the overall feel of the festival, rather than a rigidly organised amalgamation of flat fields, with miles of wooden board acting as a perimeter.

The sanitation element of any festival has been historically associated with repulsiveness, vulgarity, and the grotesque. Why not take a break from tradition and really go the extra mile to remedy this situation. The scene of overflowing toilets and snaking queues need not be the ubiquitous component of the music festival camp-site as it has been previously.

Just as people demand adequate toilet facilities, they also need a constant supply of food and drink. It is an absolute must to get various traders into the mix. If burger vans and mobile chip shops don’t quite cut it for you, then why not bring in a couple of alternatives. Vegetarian options are available, as are a whole host of International takeaways.

Whilst these aspects are of great significance, what could be more important than the booking of the bands? Ideally, you want to be able to boast a variety of bands who have some level of fame in order to attract the crowds. However, it is also important to use this as a platform to showcase new bands and introduce people to new music.

So far we have talked about the “front of house” elements of a festival, but have neglected the good work that goes on behind the scenes. Without power any festival would never get off the ground. Bands would be playing to a few avid listeners in the front row, whilst the entire place, come nightfall, would be plunged into darkness, and hot food and drinks would have to be sacrificed until Monday morning. So, in order to make everything possible, it is necessary to look into things such as lighting, sound, and generators before you open the flood gates.