A local charity close to my heart is running a fund raiser Festival in July (think local bands in a small marquee) and Ive offered to help out with the PA side.

We have our first meeting mid-week and Im wondering what questions I should be asking about band requirements, this side is all very new to me, DJ setups - not a problem, bands is a new kettle of fish so to speak and the organizers are also new to setting a festival up so everyone is a bit in the dark (and yes with only 7 weeks to sort, im sure its going to be 'fun' getting everything in order) 

Thanks for any assistance 

There's quite a difference between live sound and DJ-only events.

Assuming you've got a reasonable system for DJ use, here's what you'll need:

- More mics

- Lots of mic stands

- Lots of XLR

- Stage monitors (plus amplification)

- A mixing desk with a minimum of 16 inputs, preferably either digital or with a rack of outboard

- Someone that can mix live sound, including monitors.

I don't want to scare you, but I do want to make sure you're being realistic here.

Chris

Gaz - im over in WGC

Currently Ive said I will provide the PA, I haven't mentioned stage management, mixing the band or indeed setting up mics for guitars / drums, I do have an old analogue Berry MX3242X and a snake, but would need to acquire additional mics/stands 

I will be open and honest at the meeting and see what happens.

Watch what they do and slowly start buying the bits you need, then in a few years you can do it alone.

Best of luck :)

You sir are an absolute star, let me see how the meeting goes and I will be in touch 

Keep the stage as tidy as possible.  This will help with the change overs - Use drop boxes (short stage boxes) if you have them with short XLRs.  If you can't do that Label the microphone end of the XLR with what it is miking up with white tape ... Organise your cable runs so they are not in the walk in areas

Try and make sure there is a drum riser... This will also help keep things tidier on stage

I'm assuming you will have some form of PLI Insurance in place...

hey

Yeah can confirm what people have said.

Ideally you'll need 3 people as a stage/sound team to be able to run this (though you could manage with 2 experienced people).

FOH guy to mix the bands (and do monitors, I presume you won't have a separate monitors desk), stage manager to round up unruly band members from the bar and have them at the side of the stage waiting to go on at their allotted time. Changeover guy to help get a band off stage, and move the mics around and sort things for the next band. 

Probably a good idea if the FOH guy is someone experienced, the others can be you/volunteers etc as long as they have at least a basic knowledge of what's going on. 

Make sure when the running order is sorted, you leave 15 mins between each band to get the previous band off stage and get the next one set up and ready. More if you're having to swap drumkits or there is a change of a lot of instruments and things. You'd be shocked at the amount of people that don't consider this. People sometimes program these events with one band playing from 1.30 to 2, then the next band from 2 until 2.30 etc etc, and don't leave time for people to actually get on stage and set up, swap cymbals, tune guitars, find out why their amp is making no noise etc etc. 

You'll want to get stage information from each band so you can see exactly what's needed and how to set it up. Hopefully they'll all be pretty similar 4 or 5 piece rock bands kind of thing, and you wont be massive differences, say going from a 3 piece punk set up to a 10 piece pan pipe band!  (you may laugh, but I've had to deal with far worse, people planning the running order of the stage generally don't consider these things!) 

Once you see what's involved and what you need, and even more so if you can't get info for some of the bands, it might be best to do a "festival patch" which basically means put spare mics all over the stage to cover all eventualities.  Full set of drum mics set up, two guitar mics and a bass guitar DI back left, 2 guitars and a bass di back right, 3 vocal mics across the front, and a few spare mics and DIs set up both on the left or right of the stage that you can just pull in for random keyboards, brass players, backing singers etc. That way everything is all set up and ready to go, and you just use what's needed for each band.

And yeah, defo query power supply at your meeting. Make sure you have adequate power for your stage, and make sure that they're not also planning to hook up tea urns, burger vans, or other random stuff from the same power. 

k

Im compiling a list of questions to take with me tomorrow, as im guessing they also haven't considered this with it being the first festival they have organized. 

This has been a total eye opener for me, a few things I had considered but a hell of a lot I haven't, but at least I am a little more prepared now, my first thing after the meeting is to find someone who knows what they are doing!  

They can get wet but there were strong winds that blew rain in to the mid horns, getting watter on the cones. This wasnt a bit of drizzle, it was a full on thunderstorm.  

The other factor was that the stage was setup on a dried out creek, it didnt stay dry... water was flowing from the dancefloor, under the stage. All the lighting gear etc. was wrecked (we didnt do the lighting thank god). For day two we moved the stage to a large tent (no sleep for us) and it was fine. 

This was like 4 months in to us running a sound system, we learnt a lot, we dont do festivals now unless there is adequate shelter, eg. a tent. 

citizensc wrote: This may sound dumb, especially to you UK folk but have a plan for HEAVY rain. First festival we ever did, we brought some tarps etc. in case it rained, we felt we had it covered. Lack of prep bit us pretty hard.

OP says that gig is in a marque, so that shouldn´t be  a problem.

One (other) thing that happens here all the time, is that the organisation will stick a bar in somewhere, often just where, or close to where you want to put the desk. Worth checking that as well. Last thing you need are punters spilling beer on the desk. 

EDIT: And, of course, get some barriers to put around the desk.