Operations

5 Things We Absolutely Loved About Atlanta's Dragon Con

-- By Ross Gardiner, Contributor -- Now in its 31st year, Dragon Con in Atlanta is one of the premiere geek, sci-fi and fantasy culture cons in the world. With a focus more honed on the fan experience than its counterpart in San Diego, Dragon Con has developed a beloved and evangelical following in the con world.  Housed in a cluster of hotels and convention centers in Atlanta’s downtown district, Dragon Con completely takes over the city center with its 80,000+ attendees showcasing their outlandish costumes and good-natured vibes to the tune of around $70 million over the weekend. We ...

5 Festivals With Prime Locations For the Total Solar Eclipse

For stargazers, space enthusiasts and sun worshipping hippies alike, the August 21st total solar eclipse is one of the biggest events of the decade. In a 70-mile band stretching across continental America from Oregon to South Carolina, the sky will turn completely dark, the crickets will come out, and the expected millions of revelers will collectively rejoice in what promises to be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Its timing at the height of the summer has turned the eclipse into a major holiday for some, with campsites and hotels in towns across the country being completely booked out and inundated with incomers ...

4 Ways RFID Can Help Horse Racing Modernize and Make More Money

Every live event vertical is developing and adapting to the changing digital landscape. Music festivals have been converting en masse to RFID systems, heralding in the cashless era and fostering a more symbiotic relationship between the customer and the event via rich data. Sports events have also been empowered by this technology, giving them greater control over access and improving the customer experience at every transaction. Most sporting events tend to be rambunctious affairs, with a lot of high-dollar fans spending money on merchandise, food and, of course, beer. But there are few sporting events quite as rowdy as horse ...
improve-event-line-length

Scientists Have a Solution to Improve Event Line Lengths

Belgian scientists Kurt Van Hautegem and Wouter Rogiest of Ghent University have discovered that the answer to improve event line lengths for bathrooms can be solved by redesigning the space in order to make them gender neutral. The scientists found that the average length of time females waited to use the facilities at festivals was an alarming six minutes and 19 seconds, and that mixed restrooms brought that average down to just one minutes and 27 seconds. That’s a 63 percent reduction, while only seeing the wait time at the men’s restroom increase from 11 seconds to 58 seconds. Using ...

MASTERCLASS: Funktion One Founder on Getting the Most Out of Your Festival's Sound System

The indicator of a well-run festival—whether large or small—is good sound. But each stage, each venue, each performing artist comes with their own set of requirements and challenges, and maintaining sound that is both pristine and huge is one of the most pivotal endeavors of a festival enterprise. Having good layout, stage design, mixers, and sound engineers is always important, but when it comes to sound at a festival, all eyes and ears are on the sound system. JBL? Mackie? Void? In the world of electronic music, there is one brand that outranks them all: Funktion One. The ominous angular ...
Wireless Festival, London

London’s Wireless Festival Steps Up Security Due to Recent Terror Attacks

Wireless Festival organizers have increased security at the advice of police, who are on high alert following recent terror attacks in London. “With the backdrop of the current threat level from terrorism, event organisers will have been given the latest protective security advice to keep their event as safe as can be,” says Sergeant Andy Underwood, of the Counter Terrorism Focus Desk at Haringey Police. Tens of thousands of people will converge on Finsbury Park from July 7 to 9 to see high-profile acts including The Weeknd and Chance the Rapper. Perimeter fencing, metal detectors, sniffer dogs, and a ban ...

4 Ways That Boutique Festivals are Bringing Innovation to the Industry

Production While lineups have stayed largely stagnant in many areas of the scene, the production standards have been continuously growing and evolving, transforming the look, feel and vibe of festivals. EDM’s meteoric rise imposed levels of terrifying grandiosity on the audience. These days people are yearning to see something more organic and human. The Do LaB’s iconic stage at Coachella—not to mention their flagship festival Lightning in a Bottle—has been one of the major production projects that has pushed organizers to change their approach. Look at Boom in Portugal, Lost Paradise in Australia, Wonderfruit in Thailand for examples of festivals ...

5 Things Every Festival Could Learn From EDC Las Vegas

Anyone that has ever come through the tunnel and onto the Las Vegas Speedway during Electric Daisy Carnival will attest, there’s no festival in the world that can match it for decadence. With twelve stages, eighteen fairground rides, and about 450,000 people, it’s one of the world’s biggest dance music festivals and celebrated its 21st year in suitably mind-blowing fashion by improving almost every area of the event. The logistics nerds would do well to travel to EDC Las Vegas to get some insight into how this incredibly slick operation goes down. From light design to the management of crowd ...

5 Reasons We Love Chicago Blues Festival

The city of Chicago has one of the most thriving summer festival scenes in the United States. On any given weekend, neighborhoods will be brought together in collective rejoice around eating, drinking, or dancing as they make the most of the city’s few short months of great weather. This past weekend, Chicagoans were spoiled with Green Music Fest, Old Town Art Fair, Ribfest and EDM monolith Spring Awakenings all happening across town, drawing a mixture of locals and tourists. But the biggest event by far was downtown’s annual and longstanding Chicago Blues Festival. Since launching in 1984, one year after ...

5 Ways Lightning in a Bottle is Leading the Way for Sustainable Festivals

Last weekend in central California, Lightning in a Bottle undertook its 12th edition. With approximately 20,000 people attending every year, LIB has become the centerpoint of the “transformational” movement, a worldwide circuit of festivals underpinned by a philosophy that prioritizes alternative lifestyles and independent music. With a teeming calendar of talks and lectures during the day in addition to its 5-stage, 4-night musical line-up, it’s part of the festival’s mission to offer more than just hedonism. LIB organizers The Do LaB—who also put on their own stage at Coachella every year—make it a central part of their mission to imbue ...
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