How to Plan a Successful Outdoor Music Festival Event

Choreographing a multi-day music festival requires proper planning and extreme attention to detail. Though rewarding, even veteran planners and producers find organizing festivals to be logistically demanding. Plus, artists and festivalgoers alike rely on flawless stage setups for a successful event. That’s why safety is the invisible key to enabling top-tier performances that are as memorable as they are impactful. With years of event planning and logistics under our belt, learn how we approach building a festival safely and quickly.

Safe festival setup requires reliable equipment

When organizing outdoor music festivals, we understand that public spaces are only available for a limited time. We thrive in tight deadlines by creating efficiencies with our solutions. Before we begin any project, we take the time to assess and plan your event needs and deliver a solutions-based approach to field the event properly. For festivals, that can include anything from temporary flooring, material handling equipment, or mobile elevating work platforms (MEWPs). With proper assessment and equipment recommendations you can trust, we ensure your time is spent doing what you do best: planning a successful event.

Safety is a part of our culture, and that goes for the festival grounds, too. When we supported Lollapalooza in 2017, we knew that protecting the Grant Park grass was incredibly important to a successful festival. Our industry experience allowed us to properly coordinate entering and exiting the park in such a way to mitigate damage to the grass. We armed our equipment by using turf tires on reach forklifts, ATV’s, & boom lifts. These turf tires enabled crew members to set up each stage without creating ruts or harming any public property. When considering all event logistics, we also recommend ground protection mats because they are durable and protect high-traffic areas from any residual damage.

Power generation strategies can be the key to reducing electricity costs and preventing malfunctions. Backed by a wide variety of distribution panels and generator accessories, our portable event generators are able to support stages of all sizes. With proper planning, they can keep the cooling areas cold, as well as the lights on backstage.

Flawless performances create impactful events

It’s no secret that an exceptional live music festival event is defined by its set lists. Orchestrating the artist goals, festivalgoer needs, and construction capabilities is no easy feat. That’s why we ensure that all equipment needed is locally accessible to build your vision. That leaves the rest of the team ample room to focus on putting on a good experience.

We consider the following factors when recommending outdoor stage setup strategies:

Performance space
Sound quality
Light placement
Timing and reveals
Crowd size
Video needs

Festival Equipment List

We recommend the following equipment for your festival to ensure that all aspects of your event are covered:

We ensure all stage setups not only elevate the artists for the people in the back, but have enough room for fans to get an epic front-of-the-crowd show. For artists with greater stage presence, it’s important to coordinate their performance needs with the equipment to present it. Let us connect with the AV staging teams to apply continuous power generation.

Lossless, flawless sound is vital to successful music festivals. Behind the scenes, we plan for high-quality subwoofers that can disperse sound effectively. Simple ways to gain proper height include ground stacks and poles. That way, the lucky fans at the front of the crowd have a memorable experience themselves.

Whether it’s putting a spotlight on the ballad or putting on a lightshow for an EDM artist, energy-efficient lights are required to put on an impactful show. For stages that serve large crowds, visibility and sound become much more important. Video screens next to the stages ensure that being in the back doesn't mean missing the action. Powering large video displays become more important, as does planning for specific overhead camera setups. Tall poles with speakers and lights are vital to ensuring even people at the back of the crowd have a good show.

One hundred percent customer satisfaction comes from an organized festival

Performances act as both timelines and landmarks for festivalgoers. It’s imperative to have well-lit walkways for when it gets dark at night. We have options to illuminate large areas and lights that are designed for continuous operation. We ensure your team has access to units that are compact and easy to transport anywhere on the festival grounds.

Air conditioning units are vital to keeping festivalgoers and crew members alike cool inside tents and other structures. Designed for mobility and cooling large areas, these temporary cooling units will be precisely placed in the most strategic spots.

For more on how Sunbelt Rentals can support all of your event’s planning and logistics, watch our Lollapalooza video here. To request an equipment rentals quote, tell us your project needs here.

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