First Festival - what to expect?

[lanark]

Okay, my band (Mambo con Rumbo) are opening the Arts Barge stage at the Galtres Festival in Easingwold, nr York. The following weekend we're closing teh One World stage at York's Peace Festival in Rowntree Park.

We're not getting much info back from the organisers about what to expect equipment-wise. So I'm wondering - should I take my own monitor to each gig, just in case, or should backline be supplied?

I don't fancy lugging a 15" combi across a field unnecessarily and I can't imagine that a two-day festival is really going to be wanting every act to be taking it's own gear on and off stage between sets?

Anyway - I'm a festival virgin, so I'm hoping some of you more experienced guys and gals can fill me in on what I should do. Just bring my bass and music or the whole shebang?

[Gust0o]

I was all ready with some helpful advice from the perspective of the audience (what to expect? Mud and poppers), but then I noted this is from a [i]playing[/i] perspective, and something I cannot help you with at all.

Best of luck though.

[WalMan]

Probably not a lot of help, [u]and for the definitive you'll need to speak to the organisers[/u], but for Littlehampton Pebbles this last weekend there was backline (guitar & bass) and a kit, but drummers were expected to provide breakables - snare & cymbals.

For Bognor Rox in the past there has certainly been a bass rig, and if I recall a selection of guitar amps.

[woodyratm]

When i played a festival up here a few years back I only needed my bass and pedals.
Full backline provided. Minus cyms and snare of course.

DEFO contact the organizers!

[Cat Burrito]

I've found sometimes / usually there is a backline for bass but occasionally you have to bring your own. You usually get an all expenses paid A4 photocopy Access All Areas Artiste pass to stick in your car when lugging the gear and usually just a line check rather than a formal soundcheck. All good fun though

[Jigster]

yeah bound to be a line check - we played one last month locally and bass rig was shared - to keep it to time they'll unlikely want people hauling their own rig on each time

[hillbilly deluxe]

All the festivals that i've played have had backline supplied,just need bass,lead,tuner.Is there any way that you can find out who's supplying the P.A ?

[Bassassin]

My band organised live music for a small festival in Edinburgh for 5 years - backline was provided and we had a strict 30 min running time for each band & a 15-minute changeover.

We did make sure we got each band's equipment & setup requirements off them well in advance so the sound guys knew what they were dealing with. Bands, sound crew & organisers all knew exactly how it was (hopefully) going to work beforehand, and on the whole everything went pretty smoothly.

Realistically the best you can do is assume backline is provided unless you're told otherwise, and let the organisers know your specific requirements (no. & type of amps, no. of mics/DI etc). Make sure your set is brief unless you're told otherwise & drummer brings his own breakables.

Jon.

[algmusic]

on the backline front.. if you have a sansamp, mxr DI or EBS Micro Bass.. bring it.. if you don't don't worry. I've found bass amp at festivals go from great to awful, at least if you have that you'll know the sound to the FOH will be better and on stage..

[thisnameistaken]

Do you know which stage you're playing on? I've got loads of information here and contacts emails and phone numbers for both the guy who's running the music end of Arts Barge and one of the two guys who's booking the wider festival. Send me a PM and I should be able to help.

The two larger stages (Dukes, Oxman) have backline listed in PDF format I've got them here on my desktop if you need it, the Arts Barge setup is less clear but I'm about to nudge them for more info myself since I've just found out I'm playing two slots with them over the course of the weekend.

[BigRedX]

I haven't played any festivals since the 80s when we always had to bring all our own gear. However there was a good number of very efficient stage crew to help get the bands changed over with the minimum amount of fuss.

Of course most of this this was in the days of my synth rock band so backline was of no interest to me!

[thisnameistaken]

It looks like you're on the Oxman stage at 12:30pm on Saturday. Backline bass amp will be a Hughes & Kettner 300w head and an Ashdown 2x10 cab. I was thinking about bringing my own backline but tbh for a half hour slot I don't know if I'll bother, but I need to find out what they've got on the other stage we're playing on first...

Edit: To answer your questions in the other thread: They request that you arrive 2 hours before you're due on, at Gate 4, and that your whole act arrives at the same time. The main contact in your band should've received all this info by now but I can email it all to you if you PM your address (can't find a way to attach files to a PM).

Edited August 23, 2010 by thisnameistaken

[lanark]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='933710' date='Aug 23 2010, 02:31 PM']It looks like you're on the Oxman stage at 12:30pm on Saturday. Backline bass amp will be a Hughes & Kettner 300w head and an Ashdown 2x10 cab. I was thinking about bringing my own backline but tbh for a half hour slot I don't know if I'll bother, but I need to find out what they've got on the other stage we're playing on first...

Edit: To answer your questions in the other thread: They request that you arrive 2 hours before you're due on, at Gate 4, and that your whole act arrives at the same time. The main contact in your band should've received all this info by now but I can email it all to you if you PM your address (can't find a way to attach files to a PM).[/quote]

Cheers for all that info, TNIT: I guess I just need my bass and bits then. I'm sure Steve's got it but has yet to pass it all on. Which is your band and when / where are you playing?

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='lanark' post='933787' date='Aug 23 2010, 03:40 PM']Cheers for all that info, TNIT: I guess I just need my bass and bits then. I'm sure Steve's got it but has yet to pass it all on. Which is your band and when / where are you playing?[/quote]

Yeah I'm just taking bass, pedals, etc. because I've got to get my double bass, my girlfriend and camping gear in the car too. Normally I'd take my amp and leave the girlfriend at home but she does the face when I say stuff like that.

I'm playing with a rock/reggae band (Copasetics) on the Sunday on the Oxman stage and then we're doing an unplugged set in the Cabaret tent that evening, I'm also doing some stuff with the Arts Barge guys on the Saturday, some collaborative stuff with a couple of other bands, not sure what time, they've got me bowing my DB so that should be fairly disastrous. That's probably the sort of thing they wanted to get you guys involved with if you were available.

[steantval]

[quote name='hillbilly deluxe' post='933572' date='Aug 23 2010, 01:03 PM']All the festivals that i've played have had backline supplied,just need bass,lead,tuner.Is there any way that you can find out who's supplying the P.A ?[/quote]

I have played many festivals and all the bands including ours have brought along our own backline amps and full drum kit, its always a mad rush to get the gear on and off stage between bands and don't expect a sound check, that's usually sorted while you are playing your first song of the set.

Certainly, our guitarist, drummer and myself would not want to play through/on other equipment, it's our gear that gives us [u]our[/u] sound, we have invested some serious money into our gear, so why play through something that may sound inferior.

It's good fun, enjoy it.

Edited August 23, 2010 by steantval

[algmusic]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='933710' date='Aug 23 2010, 02:31 PM']It looks like you're on the Oxman stage at 12:30pm on Saturday. Backline bass amp will be a Hughes & Kettner 300w head and an Ashdown 2x10 cab. I was thinking about bringing my own backline but tbh for a half hour slot I don't know if I'll bother, but I need to find out what they've got on the other stage we're playing on first...

Edit: To answer your questions in the other thread: They request that you arrive 2 hours before you're due on, at Gate 4, and that your whole act arrives at the same time. The main contact in your band should've received all this info by now but I can email it all to you if you PM your address (can't find a way to attach files to a PM).[/quote]

Will you organise my gigs :-)

[thisnameistaken]

Just a bump to say I really enjoyed your set on Saturday, hope you had fun. And how mad was that Peavey bass head with the seperate fuzz channel? I want one!

[lanark]

[quote name='thisnameistaken' post='939877' date='Aug 30 2010, 11:56 AM']Just a bump to say I really enjoyed your set on Saturday, hope you had fun. And how mad was that Peavey bass head with the seperate fuzz channel? I want one![/quote]

Awww thanks a lot, that means a lot (we're used to playing to salsa dancers, that was the first time we've played to a sit-down audience). We had a great time - (fighting against the wind, but at least not the rain, which came later!) - and personally I thought that the sound guys did a brilliant job, it was probably the clearest we've ever sounded. The head was great - didn't have time to check out all the array on the Peavey, but I loved the homemade cab.

Afraid that I didn't get chance to catch your set, because I had to get off at about 4pm sadly, but when I popped my head into the arts barge tent I saw you bowing your bass, with two other Dble Bassists. Hope it all went well and you had a great time.

[thisnameistaken]

[quote name='lanark' post='940296' date='Aug 30 2010, 08:08 PM']Awww thanks a lot, that means a lot (we're used to playing to salsa dancers, that was the first time we've played to a sit-down audience). We had a great time - (fighting against the wind, but at least not the rain, which came later!) - and personally I thought that the sound guys did a brilliant job, it was probably the clearest we've ever sounded. The head was great - didn't have time to check out all the array on the Peavey, but I loved the homemade cab.[/quote]

Yeah the sound guys were really good for us too, really refreshing compared to the miserable old know-it-all pub rockers we usually get. I remember the wind was up a bit during your set but you should've seen it on Sunday morning - they had to take all the rain covers off the main stage to stop it blowing away it was crazy.

But yeah your band was really different compared to every other act on there. They should've put you on Sunday instead when everybody's ears were suffering some acoustic guitar fatigue, you would've been a massive breath of fresh air. Incidentally your bass sounded massive out front.

[quote name='lanark' post='940296' date='Aug 30 2010, 08:08 PM']Afraid that I didn't get chance to catch your set, because I had to get off at about 4pm sadly, but when I popped my head into the arts barge tent I saw you bowing your bass, with two other Dble Bassists. Hope it all went well and you had a great time.[/quote]

Yeah my band wasn't on until the Sunday. I did do a quick thing on the DB later on Saturday which it sounds like you saw us having a quick practice for (I didn't think any other bassists would hear that!) but your brass guys were the main draw in that act.

Anyway yeah, good weekend all told, three nights in a tent has taken its toll on me though, I think I'm off to bed...!