Festival pitching is one of the trickiest things to do in the music industry. Everyone wants to play a festival but so often it’s so hard to be booked on them. Getting the festival game sorted is a nightmare. If you don’t have a booking agent getting booked is often an uphill battle. However, if you follow a few key steps then being able to book yourself on festivals should become a straightforward and doable process. Again – it’s not always straightforward and is certainly going to require a lot of work, but it’s something that needs to happen.
Just Like Pitching Anything Else
So first and foremost it’s important to remember that festival pitching is like pitching anything else. You need to have a good set of links, a blurb about yourself and a clear introduction. The pitch you make should be similar to a pitch that you make for PR coverage or to get a normal show booked. There are key elements you need to include to make the other person life easy. Once you have that then they aren’t going to feel frustrated working with you moving forward. Remember who has the power – it’s not you, it’s the booker. Also, remember that the booker has a list of bands they want to be pitching too and get on their bill, so if you weren’t asked it’s already an uphill battle.
Focus On Building The Relationship
On top of that, it’s really important to have some sort of connecting to the festival itself. The cold pitch is very hard. You can build a connection though via social media platforms. Instagram is a really good one for this. Just dropping relevant comments and responding to stories can win you wins peoples hearts. Building up those relationships is going to take a while, but if you have a clear pitch then things immediately become more clear. Another key way to help grow access to festivals is to focus on attending festivals. This is a great way to start to get your profile out there. It’s also a great way to meet other bands who you want to play shows within their towns or when they come to you.
Be Ready To Tour There
This is another big thing. People aren’t paying for fly outs anymore. If you assume that people are going to give you a cushy ride to the festival then you are sadly mistaken. Maybe the headliners get to fly out, but even those guys are probably flying economy to the festival. It’s important to make that investment and realize you need to book a tour around the festival. Although that’s the key – you want festivals to see that you have something going on. Sometimes this ends up being the hardest part for a band – they get the tour booking sorted but they don’t know how to make their way out. Nothing is more embarrassing than having to cancel a cool festival slot because you didn’t have the connections to book your way out there.
Make As Many Friends As Possible Upon Arrival
The final key to having a successful festival booking is being at the festival to network. A lot of bands get to the festival and get wasted. They don’t make a point of making friends and trying to meet other people who do cool things in the scene. Festivals are a great place to make friends because that’s where a lot of the relevant people in the scene gravitate. So get there, and then get militant about how you are going to do things. It’s a tricky game to be sure, you don’t want to be obnoxious or in the way, but it’s a key to starting to make friends who can help everyone’s band grow.
MATT BACON
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Matt Bacon is a consultant, A&R man, and journalist specializing in the world of heavy metal. Having worked with everyone from Glam Rock icon Phil Collen of Def Leppard, to post Black Metal titans Alcest, by way of legendary thrashers Exhorder as well as labels including Prophecy Productions and Ripple Music, he has dedicated his life to helping young bands develop. Having started his own blog at the age of 14 he views his career in artist development as ‘a hobby that got out of hand’. In 2015 he formed Dropout Media in order to better support the artists he loves. We sit here now, years later with countless tours booked, records released and deals signed, and loving every minute of it.
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