When booking your entertainment for your festival/event you need to really keep your theme, goals and objectives.
Many years ago I was the entertainment provider for a Fifties Festival. My client and I would brainstorm ideas for entertainment that would fit in with their theme. Everything from the bands, kid’s acts and walk around entertainers had a 50’s flair to what they did. They even required volunteers and staff to dress the in stylings from that decade.
Because of this attention to detail, attendees and participants actually felt as if they stepped back a few decades. People used to come from all over the USA and Canada to be part of this experience.
Because of the strength of the brand there was not a need to pay high dollar for national acts. Many of the head lining acts were local or from neighboring states keeping the cost down to fit within the budget.
Unfortunately new people joined the board with different thoughts, different ideas and took away the uniqueness of the event. The attention to the theme was abandoned and this eventually brought an end to the festival and all the family fun.
If you want to have a successful event that sponsors will be happy to be part of, you should create a theme and stick to it. Walt Disney after all his success beyond Mickey Mouse warned his board that “We should never forget about the Mouse.” Every festival has a Mouse or a key component that brings your attendees back again and again. It could be a cheeseburger, a potato or a special decade. This should be the foundation on which your festival/event is built.
Richard Paul CEO Carey and Paul Group