Sharing is the very definition of a multi-act music festival, though some shares are bigger than others.
Various performing artists or groups take turns with a venue’s audience and stage, as well as its sound, lights and video production.
Multi-act festivals provide more entertainment than the usual concert headliner with one or two support acts, using two or more festival stages to ensure continuous live music.
A festival’s added draw allows headliners to perform before larger crowds and openers to play for audiences that otherwise might never hear them. And each group saves the expense of mounting the entire production themselves, making these events a great way to get lots of exposure without spending a lot.
Some bands choose to spend an entire season in “festival mode,” filling in their schedules between festivals and state fair appearances with dates in full-production clubs and theaters.
Planes, Buses, Trailers…
The amount of equipment carried by a festival band and its crew ranges from headphones and a few guitars all the way up to headliners carrying several semi trailers with contributions from every department – backline, sound, lights, video, rigging, pyro, risers and a thrust – to add to the production du jour.
Between these extremes are buses hauling trailers of various sizes that include little more than backline, consoles and t-shirts, though “floor packages” of lights or video walls are increasingly common in larger double-axle condo trailers.
While a tour bus can carry up to 12 people and pull a trailer, a Sprinter van is less than half the cost, at the expense of carrying half as many people and less equipment, depending on how it’s fitted out with seats, bunks or cargo space. The Sprinter’s rear compartment is often walled off to create a space that’s five feet tall and wide by three to five feet deep, enough room for a modest backline and a console.
“Fly-in” shows are characterized by groups that tour primarily by air, allowing them to travel long distances between shows and sleep in the comfort of hotel rooms by carrying very little equipment. The grind of commercial flights often dictates that performers favor later flights or pre-show naps in their hotel rooms over sound checks, so the start of each show is often nerve-wracking for the first song. It’s said that you can never really cancel sound check, only postpone it.
Sound Check Alternatives
Bands can ease the nerves of “throw-and-go” by incorporating a “festival sound check” song into the top of their set lists, borrowed from the old days of analog consoles at festivals. Joe Cocker MD Mitch Chakour introduced this concept at The Sunderland Rusty Nail decades ago, explaining there wouldn’t be a sound check prior to doors, but the first set would begin with a song that started with kick, then hi-hat, then snare drum, adding in one at a time tom fills, electric bass, rhythm guitar, keyboards, and finally vocals. By the end of the song everything is settled at front of house, while the monitor engineer gets his tweaks in on stage.
While this approach may be too drastic for some, starting with the same song every day regardless of how the rest of the set is reorganized daily makes the beginning of each show comforting to band and crew alike. And if by chance there is a sound check, the best way to end it is always with that same song that starts the set.
