Musicadium Blog

In case you’ve been living under a rock, the Valley Fiesta took over Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley just last weekend, providing Fiesta-goers with some amazing local, inter-state  and international acts via their four main stages and a myriad of satellite events. Add visual art, theater, markets and zombies into the mix, and you’ve got one exciting weekend.

As a member of The Honey Month, I had the amazing opportunity of playing on the Naked All Sorts Mall Stage (with the beautiful condom backdrops), a stage which held host to acts as diverse (and incredibly talented) as Kev Carmody and Bertie Blackman. This was by far our biggest gig to date, and as such it would have been rather difficult not to have learned anything. Below are just a few of the things we discovered, as well as some things that were reinforced.

1. Get there early. This sounds painfully obvious, but it has to be said, especially when playing at festivals. Due to their finely tuned timetables, organizers are far less forgiving of your battle with traffic or your nervous bladder , and you’ll end up either cutting in to your sound check or set time, neither of which is desirable.
2. Don’t pull your instrument lead out without first checking with the sound guy. He won’t like you, and neither will your bandmates.
3. On the topic of sound guys, learn their names! They are responsible for making you sound good, and are generally lovely people to boot, so do them the small courtesy of introducing yourself. You’ll find it goes a long way, especially if you happen to run into them at a future event.
4. Don’t let barriers kill your crowd interaction. As far as I can remember, we haven’t played at a venue with barriers, and it can be a bit disconcerting when you first realise you are seperated from the crowd. Just remember that crowd interaction goes above and beyond a mere hi-5, and to keep the energy and personal interaction going despite the distance.
5. Speaking of energy, it is important to keep your entire festival performance at 110%. Whether this means cutting a particularly slow, long song that works brilliantly in an intimate venue or dancing like a maniac, festivals are the perfect opportunity to catch the eye of a passerby. Remember, there are always other stages and artists to entertain them, so it is up to you to ensure they’re hooked.
6. Get off stage quickly. While signing autographs and getting your picture taken with your legion of adoring fans is no doubt attractive, your primary focus upon finishing your set should be to get out of the way of the next band. The band before us, the wonderful Little Scout (who are, coincidentally, Musicadium artists, check them out on iTunes here ) , virtually vanished into thin air, which meant we had more than enough time to set up and soundcheck.

While this list is by no means comprehensive, it has hopefully provided some things to think about before you jump up on stage for your next festival gig. If you’re yet to play in a festival, I encourage you to do everything in your power to get a slot. They are without a doubt one of the best ways of expanding your fan base, and are also ridiculous amounts of fun!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 28th, 2009 at 3:09 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.