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The Self-Help Guide for Festival Production Managers

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When producing a festival as a Production Manager, it's crucial to master logistics, lead with clarity and deliver unforgettable experiences.

1. Get Grounded in the Big Picture

Before diving into schedules and spreadsheets, build your macro-level plan.

  • Define the scope of your festival: How many days, stages, and venue/areas are you managing?

  • Catalog your programming types: Music, workshops, film screenings, panels—each has different needs.

  • Map your infrastructure: Know your power needs, rigging points, access routes, and backstage zones early.

📌 Crescat’s Festival Production Platform lets you lay out your event’s entire structure—from timelines and areas to artist logistics—in one cohesive system that scales as your event grows.

2. Create a Scheduling Ecosystem, Not Just a Calendar

Juggling hundreds of performances is more than just time slots.

  • Centralise everything: Avoid scattered Google Docs or isolated PDFs.

  • Avoid overlaps and technical conflicts: Be mindful of sound bleed, backline changeovers, and artist turnaround times.

  • Draft schedules early, revise often: Start with placeholders and refine as confirmations roll in.

📌 Crescat’s intuitive scheduling tools allow you to assign performances, rehearsal windows, and changeover times across multiple stages—and instantly visualise conflicts or double-bookings.

3. Manage Artist Bookings Like a Pro

Hundreds of artists = hundreds of contracts, riders, and requests. Stay organised.

  • Standardise info collection: Technical riders, hospitality needs, arrival times, stage plots.

  • Build artist packs early: Communicate clearly what artists can expect and what you need from them.

  • Track confirmations: Who’s in, who’s pending, who canceled?

📌 Crescat centralises all artist data—riders, inputs, contact info, tech specs—into one dashboard, so you’re not digging through emails or Slack messages at 2 a.m.

4. Streamline Communication Across Departments

Your job touches every team: audio, lighting, logistics, security, hospitality.

  • Don’t rely on memory or texts: Use a single source of truth to avoid miscommunication.

  • Give teams only what they need: Stage managers don’t need catering menus; caterers don’t need DMX maps.

📌 With Crescat, each department sees the real-time info that’s relevant to them—from show call sheets to power drops—without overwhelming them with unrelated details.

5. Prepare for Tech-Side Realities

The best production managers plan for the worst and communicate for the best.

  • Overcommunicate your tech needs: Cue sheets, patch diagrams, and mic plots save shows.

  • Build changeover buffers: Not everything runs to the second.

  • Walk your site: Know the terrain, distances, and cable runs before trucks arrive.

Festival Security
📌 Crescat supports production mapping, input lists, and department-specific documents, so your tech leads are never in the dark—whether they’re planning FOH or running patch at midnight.

6. Keep Everyone on Schedule (Without Losing Your Mind)

A production manager isn’t just keeping time—they’re keeping tempo.

  • Use visual scheduling tools: Gantt charts and time blocks help avoid blind spots.

  • Designate stage managers per venue: You can’t be everywhere, and you shouldn’t have to be.

  • Plan a master production run-through: Before opening day, simulate the show flow and solve issues.

📌 Crescat gives you a bird’s-eye view of the full schedule across venues, zones, and teams—letting you delegate confidently and course-correct on the fly.

7. Debrief, Document, Repeat

You didn’t just manage a festival—you created a blueprint for future success.

  • Document issues and wins: Equipment failures, successful fixes, MVPs on your crew.

  • Gather post-event feedback: From techs, artists, vendors, and crew.

  • Use your data: Scheduling patterns, artist satisfaction, team feedback—all improve next year’s show.

📌 Crescat saves your festival’s history, assets, and logistics—so you can duplicate sections, reuse schedules, and scale your next event with far less manual work.

Final Thoughts

As a Festival Production Manager, your role is the invisible glue that holds magic together. You juggle chaos with calm, tech with timing, people with performance. And while no software can replace your instincts, planning, and leadership—Crescat helps you do more with less stress, fewer spreadsheets, and a tighter show.

You're not just producing a festival. You’re producing experiences. Let your tools rise to that same level.