Behind every successful festival is a powerhouse crew working tirelessly behind the scenes. Even the most innovative festival plan can fall apart without a competent team to execute it. A festival is, in many ways, only as good as the people running it – from stage riggers and lighting technicians to volunteer staff at the gates. Assembling an experienced and reliable crew well in advance is fundamental to a smooth event, because the best plans still rely on people to carry them out. This article explores strategies for staffing your festival with skilled personnel, drawing on hard-won insights from festivals big and small.
Networking Within the Event Industry
Build your network early: The festival and event industry runs on relationships. Seasoned festival organizers know that finding great crew often starts with who you know. New producers should immerse themselves in the event community – attend industry conferences, join event producer associations, and participate in local meetups or online forums. By engaging with peers and veterans, organizers can get recommendations for reliable stage managers, sound engineers, lighting designers, and other specialists.
Leverage referrals and word-of-mouth: Skilled crew members tend to get booked fast, and many of the best hires come through referrals. For example, a production manager you trust might recommend an excellent rigger they’ve worked with before. These personal recommendations are invaluable, because they come with built-in references about the person’s work ethic and expertise. Networking with other promoters and production professionals can uncover these connections.
Maintain relationships: Once you’ve worked with good crew members, stay in touch and keep a list of trusted contacts. Many top festival teams are built over years, with the same core group coming back event after event. This continuity improves efficiency and trust. However, even newcomers can start developing a “go-to” list of crew by treating people fairly and professionally – a good reputation as an organizer will make skilled personnel eager to work with you again. Conversely, if a festival treats its crew poorly or pays late, word spreads quickly, and the best people will avoid the event. Networking and reputation go hand-in-hand when recruiting an experienced crew.
Working with Crew Agencies and Unions
Specialist roles require qualified experts: Festivals often require specialist crew such as riggers, electricians, sound and lighting technicians, or stage carpenters. If these experts are not already in your network, consider working with professional crew agencies or local unions to find them. For instance, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) is a common union for stagehands in North America, and they can connect you with certified riggers or lighting techs. Hiring through a union hall or reputable staffing agency ensures that the personnel have the training and credentials needed for safety-critical jobs. It can be a lifesaver – literally – to have licensed electricians managing your festival’s power supply and experienced riggers handling heavy overhead equipment. Keep in mind that crew needs vary by festival type: a film festival might require projectionists and audio-visual technicians, a food festival might need extra logistics coordinators and health safety officers, whereas a music festival relies heavily on stage and audio crew. Identify the critical specialist positions for your event’s genre and seek out experienced people to fill them.
Crew agencies vs. DIY hiring: Engaging a crew staffing company can simplify recruitment. These agencies maintain pools of vetted professionals (from forklift drivers to audio engineers) and can fill many positions at once. By outsourcing to one company, you reduce the administrative burden of hiring individually. However, this convenience can come with higher costs and less personal choice over each team member. If the agency’s crew has a weak link, it might be hard to replace them last-minute. On the other hand, sourcing freelancers individually gives you more control to “cherry-pick” the perfect person for each role (for example, bringing in a renowned stage manager you trust). The trade-off is that individual hiring takes more time – expect to spend extra effort on interviews, contract negotiations, and coordinating schedules. Decide which approach fits your event’s size and your own capacity: smaller festivals might handle one-by-one hiring, while massive festivals often turn to established staffing companies for sheer scale.
Know the local labor scene: Always research the local labor requirements of your venue or region. Some cities or venues are strictly unionized, meaning you’ll be required to use union labor for certain roles. In these cases, working cooperatively with the union is essential – meet with the union representatives well ahead of the event to understand how many crew members you’ll need and what the rules are (for example, minimum call times or mandatory breaks). In a non-union setting, you might have more flexibility to bring in your own crew or hire from the open market. Either way, respect the expertise of these professional crews; they often have deep knowledge of the venue and can help prevent costly mistakes. For example, local stagehands might know the quirks of a theater’s rigging points or the best way to run cables on a particular festival grounds, knowledge that saves time and avoids hazards.
Balancing Local Hires with Trusted Traveling Crew
Local talent vs. traveling crew: Festival organizers often face a choice between hiring local staff or bringing in crew they’ve worked with before from other places. Both approaches have advantages, and many successful events use a mix of the two. Local hires can be cost-effective (saving on travel and accommodation) and bring valuable local insight – they know the venue, local suppliers, and regional regulations. Local crew can also help build community goodwill, which is especially important for community-based festivals or events in smaller towns. For example, a city’s local stage crew might have longstanding relationships with the venue’s management and an understanding of local permitting or noise ordinances, smoothing out logistics. Local staff may also better reflect and connect with the festival’s audience (for instance, having crew who speak the local language or understand the community’s culture can enhance attendee experience).
Trusted veterans: On the other hand, bringing in trusted crew members from outside ensures you have people who already understand your event’s culture and standards. These might be department heads or key specialists – a technical director, a lead sound engineer, or a site operations manager whom you’ve seen perform brilliantly at past festivals. Familiarity is a big asset: a team that has worked together before can coordinate efficiently and requires less training on “how we do things.” This is why touring festivals and concerts often carry a core crew city to city, then supplement with local workers at each stop.
Mix and supervise: The ideal solution is often a hybrid approach. Bring in a core leadership team of proven professionals (even if it means flying them in), and hire additional local crew to round out the ranks. That core team can then train and supervise the local hires, combining the best of both worlds. For instance, you might fly in your known production manager and stage technicians, but hire local stagehands, runners, or ticketing staff. This way, crucial roles are handled by people you trust, while locals handle support roles and benefit from their regional knowledge. Keep in mind the scale: at a smaller festival, the “core team” might just be a couple of key people with everyone else from nearby, whereas a large festival could have dozens of crew flown in from around the country. Balance budget constraints with the need for reliability. Always budget for at least a few extra hands beyond what you think you need – having a couple of standby local crew can save the day if someone gets sick or if a task turns out more labor-intensive than expected.
Utilizing Volunteers for Support Roles
The role of volunteers: Volunteers are the unsung heroes of many festivals, contributing their time and energy in exchange for experience and perks. While you wouldn’t use volunteers for highly skilled or hazardous tasks (you’ll want paid professionals for running sound or operating heavy equipment), volunteers are excellent for less specialized duties. This can include things like staffing information booths, handing out wristbands at the entrance, artist check-in, hospitality, merch tables, crowd guidance, or helping keep the grounds tidy. A well-managed volunteer force can significantly extend your staffing capabilities without straining the budget.
Recruiting and managing volunteers: Start recruiting volunteers early – often at the same time you begin ticket sales or promotions. Use your festival’s website and social media to call for volunteers, and consider partnering with local community groups or universities (students in event management or hospitality programs often seek volunteer opportunities). Implement an application process to gauge each volunteer’s interests and reliability, and appoint a Volunteer Coordinator on your team. This coordinator’s job is to communicate with volunteers, assign them to roles/shifts that suit their abilities, and ensure they get necessary training or orientation. Clear communication is key: volunteers should know exactly what is expected, what they’ll receive in return (like free admission on off-days, a t-shirt, meals, or even college credit), and who to report to.
Motivation and reliability: Even though volunteers aren’t paid, they need motivation and oversight to remain reliable. Treat them with respect and as part of the team. Provide volunteers with proper training and supervision – perhaps pair less experienced volunteers with veteran staff for mentoring during the event. Also, offer incentives: a common approach is giving volunteers access to enjoy the festival when they’re off-duty, or other benefits such as exclusive behind-the-scenes experiences. Many major festivals (for example, large music festivals in the UK) partner with charities to bring in hundreds of volunteers, offering donations to the charity in exchange for the manpower. Remember that volunteer labor isn’t “free” – it requires coordination, and there is always a risk of no-shows or dropouts. To mitigate this, maintain a slight surplus in volunteer numbers or have a backup list. Some events require a refundable deposit from volunteers to ensure they fulfill their shifts (they get it back after completing work), which has proven effective in reducing flakiness.
Volunteer programs as a pipeline: When used wisely, volunteer programs can also become recruiting pipelines for future paid staff. Many professionals in the festival world started out as volunteers or interns. Keep an eye out for standout volunteers who show initiative and talent – they could be your next hires for junior crew positions at future events. By investing time in volunteers, you’re not only covering immediate staffing needs but also cultivating passionate individuals who might grow with your festival over the years.
Hiring Early and Building Your Team in Advance
Don’t wait until the last minute: One of the biggest staffing mistakes festival organizers can make is leaving crew hiring to the final weeks before the event. Experienced producers stress the importance of locking in your key personnel well in advance – often many months out. Top-tier sound engineers, lighting designers, and production managers are in high demand, especially during peak festival season, so their calendars fill up fast. As soon as your festival dates and budget are set, start reaching out to those critical team members and get them to commit. This early commitment not only secures their time, but allows them to contribute to pre-production planning. For example, an experienced site operations manager brought on early can help refine the site layout and infrastructure plans, catching potential issues on paper rather than on show day.
Timeline for staffing up: For a large festival, you might begin assembling the core team 6–12 months before the event. Roles like festival director, department heads (production, marketing, operations, safety), and key technical supervisors should be identified and approached first. Medium-sized events might start key hiring at least 4–6 months ahead. Even for a small local festival, begin outreach for critical skilled roles (say, the stage manager or lead sound tech) a few months in advance. This gives you time to scout talent and not settle for whoever’s available last-minute. Once key leaders are on board, work with them to fill out their teams – a production manager, for instance, can help identify how many stagehands or technicians are required and may have contacts to bring in.
Training and orientation: After hiring, don’t assume everyone will magically gel on festival day. Arrange orientation sessions or at least planning meetings (in-person or virtual) where team members can get familiar with the event’s plans, each other, and their specific responsibilities. If possible, conduct a site visit or walkthrough with the crew leaders, especially if the venue is unique or the layout is complex. The better your team understands the event beforehand, the fewer surprises during the festival. Additionally, share detailed schedules, contact lists, and production manuals or run-of-show documents well ahead of time. Preparation isn’t just for the organizers – it’s for every crew member to know the game plan.
Contingencies and backups: Part of advance preparation is planning for the unexpected. People are, after all, people – someone might fall ill or get a conflicting obligation. Prepare a short list of backup crew or cross-train team members where possible. For example, have an assistant stage manager who can step up if the stage manager is unavailable, or ensure your technical team has overlap in skills so one can cover another in a pinch. It’s far easier to have a backup ready than to scramble mid-event to find a replacement. By assembling a deep and well-prepared team, you create resilience against whatever challenges festival day throws your way.
The Human Factor in Festival Success
All the meticulous planning, innovative ideas, and cutting-edge technology behind a festival ultimately depend on human beings to make them work. History has shown that festivals with great plans can stumble due to poor execution if the crew isn’t up to the task. Conversely, a strong crew can save a festival when things go wrong. Consider the cautionary tale of the Fyre Festival: no amount of marketing hype could compensate for the lack of an experienced operations team, resulting in a highly public failure. In contrast, many successful festivals credit their crew as the real heroes — for instance, when sudden weather or technical issues arise, a seasoned team’s quick thinking and teamwork can resolve problems before attendees even notice.
The takeaway is clear: recruiting a competent and reliable crew is not a mere afterthought, but the backbone of festival execution. Every light show that dazzles the crowd, every smooth band changeover on stage, every efficient entry line at the gate — these happen because skilled people are in the right places doing their jobs well. As such, investing time and resources into hiring and retaining quality staff pays off in a safer, smoother, and more enjoyable festival for everyone involved. When the festival crew operates like a well-oiled machine, artists perform on time, attendees are happy, and the organizer can spend more time enhancing the experience rather than putting out fires.
In the end, assembling your festival team is one of the most critical building blocks of the event’s success. Treat the process with as much importance as securing the headline act or the perfect venue, because without a solid crew, even the best-laid plans may falter. By prioritizing people – selecting the right team and preparing them well – you set the stage for a festival that not only runs smoothly but truly shines.
Key Takeaways
- Plan crew recruitment early: Secure key staff (production managers, technical leads, etc.) months in advance so you don’t lose the best people to other events.
- Network to find talent: Use industry contacts, events, and referrals to discover skilled crew. A strong network provides reliable recommendations and helps build a trusted team.
- Mix trusted crew with local hires: Bring in proven team members for critical roles and supplement with local talent who offer regional knowledge and cost savings. A hybrid crew can give you the best of both worlds.
- Use agencies and unions for specialists: For complex technical roles, consider crew staffing agencies or local union halls to source certified specialists like riggers and electricians. Ensure all specialists are qualified for safety.
- Leverage volunteers smartly: Deploy volunteers for low-skill, high-energy tasks (like customer service, runners, or info booths) and manage them well with clear incentives and supervision. Volunteers can reduce costs but still require planning and oversight.
- Invest in crew quality and care: Treat your team well. Fair pay, good communication, proper meals, rest breaks, and appreciation go a long way in keeping crew motivated and coming back. A respected crew is a reliable crew.
- Remember people are the backbone: No matter how perfect your festival plan is on paper, it’s your team that makes it happen. A competent, well-prepared crew will ensure the festival is executed safely and smoothly, turning your vision into reality.
25th August 2025