A recent survey done by Gallup found that 54% of households have someone that plays a musical instrument or sings. If you're one of those people, you might know that this fun hobby can turn into a real passion and a way of expressing yourself with live music. If you want to start your career in the music industry, then a small music festival could be the ideal informal place to do this. It gives you the opportunity to network with other artists in the music scene. There are a plethora of great venues to choose from. You can book a slot on stage or sign up for an open mic session and start playing to an audience that really appreciates your music. 

Practice and submissions

If you want to get a place on one of the smaller stages at a local festival, you will probably have to make a submission to them online. Choose festivals that are a good fit with your music and you are more likely to get in. Practice your stage routine regularly in its entirety and make a decent video of it.

If you love music festivals, art shows, and other outdoor celebrations but you are worried about their environmental impact, the good news is that, like other industries, the festival industry, is becoming more eco-friendly. Events like Glastonbury, for instance, have completely banned the use of single-use plastics. Considering the fact that this festival has hundreds of thousands of attendees, the big reduction in waste is sizable.

Depending on your local health regulations, certain pieces of equipment must be NSF certified for your food truck to pass health inspection. As an example, the countertop in your home kitchen would not typically pass NSF as it can’t be sanitized as effectively as stainless steel.

If you think you want to operate your food truck kitchen without NSF rated equipment and you are caught, you could face huge fines and in some case may even have to remodel and replace the pieces found inadequate. If you need to replace your interior workspaces or appliances this will typically require downtime, and thus you’ll lose revenue and potentially customers if the non-compliance gets publicized.

Using non-NSF certified equipment will also affect your insurance coverage. If you add a piece of restaurant equipment that doesn’t meet commercial guidelines, any accidents, fires, or loss resulting from that item, and in some cases even the presence of that item in your kitchen, can void your insurance policy.

Festival season is one of the best times of the year to diversify your style and delve into alternative fashion and body art. This year, Style Caster is predicting that knitted bucket hats, ombre dresses, denim, and sheer dresses will be all the rage but one staple of festival looks will never be out of trend: henna tattoos. If you are keen to create your own henna looks this season and build up your design abilities with every new festival or outdoor concert, keep the following tips in mind.

Many years ago, a certain art professor showed his portfolio slides to a class I attended, as a sample of how to put together a body of work for presentation. His beautiful ceramic perfume bottles were quite impressive and skillfully made. Along with the images were prices for each item, which averaged in the range of $600 each, which was his example of pricing to the class.

As an event marketing professional, you know that with all of the excitement, creativity, and smiling faces also comes weeks of planning, strategizing, and tying up loose ends.

To make the event promotion process less cumbersome and more actionable, we've created this list of actionable business tips that will help you be a better businessperson and a better event organizer for any of your upcoming events.

1. Meditate More, Stress Less

It is no secret that the pressure event promoters face when planning an event can lead to a lot of extra baggage both mentally and physically. From the moment an event is booked, the clock is ticking, and deadlines, last-minute adjustments, and the strong drive to go above and beyond often hover over organizers.

For event marketers looking to email to get the word out on their event, the question then becomes: How do you stand out?

1. Make your email look great on mobile

It's a mobile world. Given the love affair with all-things-mobile, it's not surprising to learn that more people rely on their phones for everything from checking their email to RSVPing to an event.

Finding success as a food vendor at festivals involves much more than having the best food the grounds have to offer. A lot of what influences a festival-goer’s decision on which food to eat includes things like recognizing booths from prior years, being drawn in by ambiance and experience they’ve created, and finding something that piques their interest.

That’s where branding comes into play.

Branding is a powerful sales and marketing tool that any food business, especially one that wants to be profitable at a festival, should incorporate. If you need to boost productivity at your business and generate more revenue, branding should be at the top of your list, and here is why.

It cannot be stressed enough that fantastic, high quality images are the most important step towards professional success. Do not let the quality of your images eliminate your work from the next juried exhibition, craft show, book or magazine. Always keep in mind that the jury is looking at a photographic representation rather than the actual work. No matter how good your work may be in reality, your photographic image must capture that reality in a dynamic and compelling manner. In a competitive environment, jurors must sort through hundreds of images.

In this day and age, selling online is the rule, not the exception.  Did you know you can use your FestivalNet.com membership to sell through our website?  Click here to learn about your options!  Be sure you have a PayPal account set up before you get started.

In order for your products to sell well, you have to do more than simply upload an image and slap on a price tag!  Check out these suggestions to make your products stand out.

*reminder: accepting applications after each deadline for space or waiting list consideration

Events with March 1st deadline*

Sierra Arts Festival / Reno, NV
Fine Arts & Fine Crafts, June 25 & 26, 2022
Wingfield Park and closed Arlington Avenue. Reno, NV
More information https://pacificfinearts.com/applications/sierra-arts-festival/

Los Altos Arts & Wine Festival
Fine Arts & Fine Crafts, July 9 & 10, 2022
Main and State Streets in Downtown Los Altos Village, Los Altos, CA
More information https://pacificfinearts.com/applications/los-altos-arts-wine-festival/

As a musician, you want to always be trying new ideas for ways to get more fans. Of course, music is subjective and at the end of the day you can begin to feel more like a salesperson and less like an artist. You want your music to be able to speak for itself. Unfortunately, we live in very fickle times, and it can be difficult for even the best musicians to gain any traction.