Even the most prestigious festivals can suffer embarrassing technical glitches. The Cannes Film Festival once had to apologise after technical problems and audience unrest marred a high-profile screening (Bong Joon Ho’s Okja) (www.theguardian.com). Incidents like these underscore how crucial it is to have the right people and processes in place to prevent and handle technical issues. A well-staffed booth with clear escalation procedures can be the difference between a momentary blip and a show-stopping disaster. This guide lays out veteran festival strategies for booth staffing and escalation so that new and seasoned festival organisers alike can keep their events running flawlessly.
Trained Operators in Every Booth
Every festival venue — whether it’s a cinema screening room, an outdoor stage, or a conference hall — should have a skilled operator at the controls. Why a trained operator? A trained festival booth operator knows the equipment inside and out. They can thread projectors or cue digital files correctly, mix audio levels on the fly, and quickly troubleshoot routine hiccups. This ensures each screening or performance starts on time and looks and sounds as intended.
Relying on untrained volunteers or leaving a booth unmanned is inviting trouble. For example, a rookie projectionist might not notice a focus issue or might accidentally switch inputs at the wrong time. In contrast, professional projection teams at events like the Toronto International Film Festival and BFI London Film Festival are famous for their technical excellence — screenings at these festivals are smooth in large part because every booth is staffed by an experienced operator who has been vetted and trained.
To implement this:
– Hire or Train Dedicated Staff: Budget for at least one qualified tech operator per booth or stage. If using volunteers or student staff (as smaller festivals often do), invest time in training them thoroughly on the specific gear they’ll use. Some festivals run training sessions weeks in advance so that every operator is comfortable with the setup.
– Standardise Procedures: Each operator should follow a checklist (equipment power-on sequence, sound check, picture alignment, subtitle check, etc.) to catch issues before the audience arrives. Over time, these routine checks become second nature, reducing the risk of errors during the show.
– Empower Decision-Making: Your booth operators are the first line of defence. Encourage them to make quick decisions — like pausing a screening if a problem is damaging the presentation — without waiting for permission. It’s better to take a brief pause and fix a problem than to let a bad playback continue and frustrate the audience.
Roving Senior Technicians as Backup
Even with a great operator in each booth, things can go wrong that require deeper expertise or an extra pair of hands. That’s where a roving senior technician comes in. This is a highly experienced tech guru who isn’t tied to one booth, but rather floats between multiple venues or stages, ready to jump in when a problem exceeds the operator’s ability or when two issues happen at once.
Think of the roving tech as the field commander of your technical team. Many large festivals employ this approach. At a multi-screen festival like Sundance or TIFF, you’ll often have a technical director or senior engineers assigned to cover a cluster of venues. For instance, a senior tech might be monitoring radio calls and can sprint over to Theater 5 when the projector in Theater 5 suddenly won’t read a hard drive, or if the audio console in Hall B is glitching. Because they have broad experience, they can diagnose complex issues quickly or make the call to switch to backup systems.
One famous example: the Telluride Film Festival entrusts its projection quality to experts like Chapin Cutler, co-founder of Boston Light & Sound. Cutler oversees the projection of all films during Telluride (hollywood-elsewhere.com), effectively acting as a roving maestro who ensures each screen maintains top quality. While not every event can bring in a legend like Cutler, the principle holds — having a go-to senior technician can save the day.
Key benefits of a roving tech:
– Rapid Troubleshooting: They’ve likely seen it all — from a sudden lamp failure to a software crash — and can often fix issues in minutes. Their broader perspective can identify if an issue is isolated or part of a bigger systems problem affecting multiple areas.
– Mentorship: Roving seniors can also mentor junior operators on the spot. If an operator is unsure how to handle a minor glitch, the senior tech can guide them, turning a crisis into a learning opportunity.
– Flexibility: One senior tech can back up several booths, which is cost-effective. Instead of placing two experts in every location, you have one roamer who can support multiple operators. For medium-sized festivals, this is a smart compromise that adds a safety net without huge staffing costs.
To make this work, schedule your senior tech’s rounds and communications. They should have a clear routine to check in on each booth periodically, even if just by radio, and be reachable at a moment’s notice (more on that “red phone” in a moment). Ensure they have quick transport if venues are far apart (golf carts, dedicated car, or at least a festival scooter!).
The “Red Phone” Escalation Path for Immediate Issues
In live events, time is of the essence when something goes wrong. “Red phone” escalation means establishing a clear, immediate line of communication for critical technical problems. The term “red phone” comes from the idea of an emergency hotline — imagine a phone that rings straight to the person who can fix the issue, with no intermediaries.
For a festival setup, define exactly how an operator escalates a serious problem and to whom. There should be no confusion about whom to call when a projector freezes, the power goes out in a tent, or a microphone dies during an on-stage Q&A. Some best practices:
– Dedicated Emergency Channel: Use a specific radio channel or hotline number reserved only for urgent tech issues. All relevant senior staff should monitor this channel whenever the festival is live. For example, a festival might say, “Channel 1 on the walkie-talkie is the emergency tech channel,” and everyone from the technical director to the venue managers will be listening in.
– Chain of Command: Establish a chain so that if the first point of contact doesn’t respond within one minute, there’s a backup contact. The escalation path could be: Booth operator calls the roving senior tech first; if they’re not immediately available, the operator then calls the Head of Production or Technical Director directly. Provide all operators with a printed card of these contacts and steps.
– Red Phone at Each Booth: In critical booths (say, the main stage or the largest cinema), consider installing a literal red phone or a direct line (could be an app or intercom) linked to the tech war room. This gives operators instant access to help. At major international festivals, technical teams often sit in a central hub monitoring all venues; a direct line from booth to hub can shave off precious minutes in response time.
Real-world insight: In many professional theatres and festivals, the moment a serious glitch occurs, you’ll hear code words crackling over the radio. Everyone knows it’s an all-hands alert. The faster the right people know about an issue, the faster it can be resolved or a backup initiated. The goal of a red-phone system is to eliminate delay and confusion. It turns a potentially chaotic situation into a coordinated response.
Spare Equipment Within Arm’s Reach
A hallmark of a well-prepared festival booth is a stash of critical spare equipment within arm’s reach of the operator. When a component fails, having a replacement on hand can mean the difference between a 30-second hiccup and a canceled show. Here’s what a typical booth emergency kit should include:
– Projector Lamp or Bulb: If you’re using digital cinema projectors or even older 35mm projectors, lamps can burn out unexpectedly. Savvy festivals keep a spare bulb (pre-aligned, if possible) right there. Replacing a projector lamp can sometimes be done in a couple of minutes if a spare is handy – some high-end projectors even have dual-lamp systems to seamlessly take over if one fails.
– Cables and Connectors: Keep extra HDMI, SDI, XLR, power cables, and adapters (like HDMI-to-DVI, 3.5mm-to-XLR, etc.) coiled and ready. Taping a few backups under the tech desk or in a clearly marked box can save frantic scrambles. For instance, if the primary audio cable gets crackly, the operator can swap it out on the spot. At music festivals, many stage crews pre-run a backup microphone and cable taped to the main one — if the main mic dies, the artist just grabs the secondary mic, and the show continues almost seamlessly.
– Spare Audio Gear: Consider backup microphones, an extra DI box, or spare headphones for the projectionist. If a translator is doing live interpretation or a presenter needs a mic, always have one more than needed ready to go.
– Laptop/Playback Device: If your festival uses laptops for presentations or backup content, have an extra one logged in and queued up. In film festivals, if a DCP (Digital Cinema Package) server fails, sometimes a Blu-ray or digital file backup can be played; having that backup source on standby (and tested) in the booth can rescue the screening.
The idea is to create redundancy at the booth level. Festivals such as the Berlin International Film Festival and Sundance are known to have not just one, but sometimes two of every crucial item on site. It’s an upfront expense, but it provides immense peace of mind. Think of it as an insurance policy: a $50 spare cable can save a $50,000 event from getting derailed.
One lesson learned frequently in the field is to place spares smartly. Don’t bury them in a locked cabinet across the venue; have them literally within arm’s reach of the booth operator. If a projector lamp blows mid-screening and the spare is right there, the operator can pop it in and resume the show in minutes. If they have to run to a storage room or call someone to fetch it, the audience could be sitting idle much longer. Audiences might forgive a brief pause with an apology, but long delays risk frustration and social media chatter about festival “technical incompetence.”
Rewarding Catches That Prevent Show-Stops
Great festivals not only fix problems fast — they also encourage their team to prevent problems from happening in the first place. Cultivating a culture of vigilance and rewarding those who catch issues early is key to continuous improvement. In the high-pressure world of events, recognition can go a long way in motivating staff to stay alert.
What does rewarding “catches” look like in practice? Here are some ideas:
– Public Shout-Outs: Start each morning’s crew briefing by mentioning any team member who spotted and solved a potential issue the day before. “Yesterday, the projector in Screen 2 nearly overheated, but Alex noticed the warning light and switched it off to cool during intermission — kudos to Alex for preventing a show-stop!” This lets everyone know that management values proactive thinking.
– Incentives: Some festivals implement small incentive programs — maybe a gift card or a free dinner for every week of incident-free operations, or for the person who makes the most valuable save of the day. It doesn’t have to be monetary; even a custom badge or “Tech Hero” award can boost morale.
– Learning Reports: When a near-miss or a quick save happens, treat it as a learning opportunity, not something to sweep under the rug. For example, if a power strip started smoking but was replaced before it knocked out the sound, celebrate the catch and then openly discuss how to avoid even the near-miss next time (maybe by upgrading equipment or doing more frequent checks). This approach removes the stigma of “almost failures” and instead frames them as successes that everyone can learn from.
By rewarding preventive action, you send a clear message: it’s not just fixing problems that’s valued, but anticipating and avoiding them. Festival teams that internalise this become more resilient and less likely to be caught off guard. Attendees will never know about the crisis that almost happened — and that’s exactly the point. Your event gets a reputation for flawless execution, while behind the scenes your crew takes pride in their professionalism.
Adapting to Scale: Small vs. Large Festivals
The principles of booth staffing and escalation apply to events of all sizes, but how you implement them can vary with scale:
Intimate Festivals: Smaller or boutique festivals (perhaps a single-screen film festival in a small town, or a one-stage music event) might have a lean crew. Here, one person might wear multiple hats. You might not have a separate roving tech because the venues are limited — in this case, the festival producer or the venue manager might themselves act as the on-call troubleshooter. The key is still to designate that role clearly (e.g., “If anything goes wrong and you need help, radio John, our technical coordinator, immediately”). Even on a small scale, have spare essentials on-site. In a tiny venue, it could be as basic as a box under the seat labeled “spare cables and bulbs”.
Major Festivals: Huge international festivals with dozens of venues (like Cannes, Berlin, or SXSW) will have hierarchical tech teams. There may be an entire department for technical operations. In these cases, booth staffing means possibly two operators per booth (for example, one running projection and another handling sound). Roving techs might be assigned by zone or expertise (one for projection issues, another for IT/network issues if streaming is involved, etc.). The “red phone” might actually be a staffed 24/7 operations centre that dispatches the right personnel instantly. Big festivals often also have formal incident reporting systems — any show stop or near-miss gets documented and reviewed in daily production meetings so it can be fixed by the next day.
No matter the scale, the mindset is the same: be prepared, have a plan, and take care of your crew who take care of your show. Technical glitches don’t discriminate by festival size, but well-prepared teams can turn potential nightmares into minor footnotes.
Conclusion
In the end, festival success isn’t just about the talents on stage or the films on screen — it’s also about the invisible performance of your technical crew. By staffing every booth with capable operators, giving them backup in the form of roving experts, establishing a rapid escalation protocol, arming them with spare tools, and fostering a culture that celebrates problem prevention, festival organisers can dramatically reduce downtime and drama.
These measures might require extra effort and budget, but consider them an investment in your event’s reputation. Audiences remember the magic of a movie or concert, not the fact that a projector bulb was changed in thirty seconds flat — and that’s exactly the way you want it. If the crowd hardly notices how smoothly everything ran, you’ve done your job right.
Key Takeaways
- Always have a trained operator in each booth or control area to handle equipment and catch issues early — never leave a critical station unstaffed.
- Employ a roving senior technician or technical director who can assist multiple booths and tackle advanced problems, providing an essential safety net across your event.
- Establish a “red phone” style escalation system for urgent technical issues, so staff know exactly how to summon immediate help and resolve crises without delay.
- Keep critical spare equipment at arm’s reach in every booth (lamps, cables, adapters, etc.), enabling quick fixes that can prevent cancellations or long delays.
- Promote a proactive, blameless culture by rewarding team members for spotting and addressing potential problems before they escalate, ensuring a smoother festival for everyone.
16th September 2025