What is Festival Production?

Festival production is the planning and delivery of everything needed to run a festival on the ground, from site infrastructure and stages to artists, crew, safety and the final break down. It turns the festival's line-up and plans into a working site.

How festival production works

Festival production runs in phases:

  1. Planning: design the site, choose suppliers and write safety and operational plans.
  2. Advancing: confirm every act's technical, hospitality and travel needs in the advance.
  3. Build: install infrastructure such as power, water, fencing and toilets, then stages, sound and lighting.
  4. Show days: run each stage to its running order and keep the site safe and working.
  5. Break down: load out stages and equipment and return the site to its original state.

Production teams juggle schedules, artists and crew across every stage at once, which is what Crescat Festival is built to handle.

Festival production vs festival programming

Programming decides who plays and when. Production makes it happen: building the stages, advancing the acts and running the shows. The two teams work closely, especially when stage times and changeovers are set.

Key festival production terms

Frequently asked questions

Who is in a festival production team?

A typical team includes a head of production, stage and production managers for each stage, a site manager, an artist liaison team, a safety officer and technical crew. Large festivals add departments for power, traffic, waste and welfare.

How long does a festival site build take?

A small festival in an existing venue may need a day or two. A large greenfield festival can take two to four weeks to build, and one to two weeks to break down.

What is a greenfield festival?

A greenfield festival is held on open land, such as a farm or park, with no permanent venue. Everything from power and water to stages and toilets must be brought in, which makes production much larger than at a venue-based festival.

Related terms