What are the best ways to network with music festival promoters to get your band booked?

It is very important to clearly understand the background of specific festivals that artists are trying to reach out to for a peformance or billing. Far too often, we see many artists and musicians, talented no doubt, reach out to us but do not really fit into the artistic programming of the festival. Successful music festivals have patterned programming and it is important for the artist's style to fit in. Festival Directors / Programming Managers know their audiences inside out. We also look out for interest levels from the artists, so if you'd like to get on a music festival stage, build and make your case!

Most festivals have an Apply to Play process on their website. Change your application wording to be bespoke for each festival. Invite festival promoters to your gigs, give them a list of where you are performing all over the country as you never know which town may be the most convenient for them. Don't send tracks with long intros, don't send videos with poor sound quality, send tracks that show pace in your potential set. One ballad and one fast song, not two ballads. The promoter will think you cannot hold your audience for a set if you sing songs with the same time tempo each time. Ensure you show some personality in your videos, reassure the promoter you can link your songs with suitable chat that's interesting to a festival audience.

One major mistake I see bands make in their EPK is that they don't focus on their live show. If your primary goal is to get booked in better gigs, you need to showcase what impact you've had in your past gigs. Well-produced live videos are a great choice, particularly with crowd shots in them. Additionally, you can keep a spreadsheet of shows you've played including details like venues, ticket sales, appx. attendees, length of set, etc. Direct screenshots and metrics of social activity spiking during live events is a great way to showcase this as well and something you can easily get. Ask your biggest fans to hype you up on socials during your shows, and have a collection of fan-driven content to share.

Recently the music buzz happens on TikTok or other platform. This kinds of platforms focus on just the song, not the artist. It doesn't lead to be a subscriber and to increase the audience of the concerts or festivals. Of course the organizers check their SNSs. One of the triggers to know them may be TikTok. But they tend to pay attention to live performance on stage. The most important thin to build online presence is not to forget offline presence, and to create the collaboration with offline performance.

In any festivals, fans can see other bands who they didn't know or have never seen their performance. If it's the same genre, the probability to choose the stage is high. Even if it's the different genre, it can be also their good opprotunity to meet new music/artist. The same can be said for solo concert. If the artists are close, the fans feel fun and get interests in the other. It applies both offline and online. To be close to other artists has just a good aspect.

The backyard in most music festivals is a very good place to communicate with various kinds of people in music industry. Artists, event promoters, labels, sponsors,,, Such comversations there lead to the first step for the next projects. But keep in mind , it's not the place for only you. The place is for the festival, the stakeholders including the artists. You must pay due respect to them. You need to ask the people who are between you and your target person, they should be taken care of. If you jump over the wall, it might make a negative impression.

First of all, the band should fit the target festival. And then, if we have the special offer, it's quite effective. Their fans can see the special performance only on the stage. It may be a rare collaboration with other bands. It may be a special goods plan which can contribute to their sales. The special SNS promotion plans are also good. There're various aspects which the organizer can consider.

Basically for the next year, we want to contact the promoters as soon as the festival finished. The festival might be an anniversary year, might increase some days or more stages there. Before any plans for the next year, the name of the band should be in their mind.