Festival Help

A few comments about doing festivals from a lighting system engineer, band operator, festival operator... And, not all are relevant to all festivals!

If you are the headline act
Try to advance with the festival lighting crew chief as much as possible.
If you can accomodate some of the things that make the lighting crew life harder or easier they will go the extra mile for you when you need it.
Get the patch sorted out by email and do whatever programming you can before you arrive.
Bring your console and plug it in for the show. This is usually better than trying to load & save shows and the festival operator will be able to do some blind programming so you will end up with more programming time.
Make sure the festival lighting crew know about the fixtures you are carrying and that you are bringing a console before you arrive.
A simple light plot for your fixtures, with fixture list, dmx addresses, power consumption and power connector type. Have a few printed copies ready to give the festival lighting crew.


If you aren't the headline act...
Not much point trying to patch the entire system to your console.
You will give the lighting crew a headache that means they aren't likely to be very helpful. This will be crucial to getting them to help patch in your fixtures you are carrying!
An accidental misspatch could mean you don't have the whole rig working for you.
You won't get time to program much, if anything.
Use your own console for your fixtures. Much easier than the lighting crew trying to find addresses and patch into their own universes, which may be getting full due to lots of LED etc.
The festival light operator will have some useable stuff in the house console, at least pallettes & a few position focuses. Be friendly as hell to him/her and they might show you the few funky things they have programmed that they'll let you use!
Most festivals will have a couple of spare dmx lines to FOH, which you can use to patch your own console to the fixtures you are carrying.
Use your own fixtures to make your show stand out, and to make it worthwhile carrying your console to FOH, and make the festival lighting crew think it was worth helping you!
A simple light plot for your fixtures, with fixture list, dmx address, power consumption and power connector type. Have a few printed copies ready to give the festival lighting crew.
Use standardised power and dmx connectors.
Keep your fixtures to a single universe where possible. Carry a dmx splitter if it makes more sense for laying cables.
It can be worth carrying your own dmx & power cables, especially for smaller festival sites. But... make them easily recogniseable as yours. A little bit of colored tape on both ends. Same on every cable!

A few comments about doing festivals from a lighting system engineer, band operator, festival operator... And, not all are relevant to all festivals!

If you are the headline act
Try to advance with the festival lighting crew chief as much as possible.
If you can accomodate some of the things that make the lighting crew life harder or easier they will go the extra mile for you when you need it.
Get the patch sorted out by email and do whatever programming you can before you arrive.
Bring your console and plug it in for the show. This is usually better than trying to load & save shows and the festival operator will be able to do some blind programming so you will end up with more programming time.
Make sure the festival lighting crew know about the fixtures you are carrying and that you are bringing a console before you arrive.
A simple light plot for your fixtures, with fixture list, dmx addresses, power consumption and power connector type. Have a few printed copies ready to give the festival lighting crew.


If you aren't the headline act...
Not much point trying to patch the entire system to your console.
You will give the lighting crew a headache that means they aren't likely to be very helpful. This will be crucial to getting them to help patch in your fixtures you are carrying!
An accidental misspatch could mean you don't have the whole rig working for you.
You won't get time to program much, if anything.
Use your own console for your fixtures. Much easier than the lighting crew trying to find addresses and patch into their own universes, which may be getting full due to lots of LED etc.
The festival light operator will have some useable stuff in the house console, at least pallettes & a few position focuses. Be friendly as hell to him/her and they might show you the few funky things they have programmed that they'll let you use!
Most festivals will have a couple of spare dmx lines to FOH, which you can use to patch your own console to the fixtures you are carrying.
Use your own fixtures to make your show stand out, and to make it worthwhile carrying your console to FOH, and make the festival lighting crew think it was worth helping you!
A simple light plot for your fixtures, with fixture list, dmx address, power consumption and power connector type. Have a few printed copies ready to give the festival lighting crew.
Use standardised power and dmx connectors.
Keep your fixtures to a single universe where possible. Carry a dmx splitter if it makes more sense for laying cables.
It can be worth carrying your own dmx & power cables, especially for smaller festival sites. But... make them easily recogniseable as yours. A little bit of colored tape on both ends. Same on every cable!