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Most festival attendees approach their big weekend expecting a perfect utopia of music, friends, food, and absolutely no hassle whatsoever. Rarely does it quite pan out quite so perfectly! As a festival organizer, there are many factors you can control that will influence the mood of your attendees. While it might be more fun to focus on the big items—artists and food, for example—you don’t want to ignore some seemingly “less important” things that can have major consequences later on. Here are some of the top things that everyone hates about festivals, and how you can avoid them at your ...

Alongside awakening giants India, China and Southeast Asia, Brazil is the next major territory for globally inclined festival brands. With a burgeoning homegrown market and audience traveling more and more, the demand for world-class lineups, production and experiences is increasing every year, and a handful of bold international festival brands conquering Brazil. But as with any major new venture into a fresh territory, knowing the nuance of the audience and business landscape is key. “It is extremely important that festival producers do their research before coming here,” said André Bertolucci, Intellitix’s Director of Business Development in Brazil. “The fans here ...

For those living without a disability, the hugely important and complex task of making a major event disability-friendly might go unnoticed. It can be very easy to take accessibility for granted and to remain oblivious to the often subtle difficulties that make many events a challenge for those with disabilities. Cherie Wren is the head of Disability Services at Dragon Con, Atlanta’s premiere pop culture convention which takes place every Labor Day weekend across five connected hotels in the city’s downtown area. Being very busy and vast in size, Dragon Con can be a slog for anyone to move around, ...

-- 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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...