In-House vs. Outsourced Festival Operations: Making the Right Call

Balancing Act: What to Handle In-House vs What to Outsource

Organizing a festival is a massive project, and one of the most important planning decisions is choosing which operations to handle with your own team and which to entrust to outside specialists. Every festival – whether a boutique indie music weekend or a mega-event drawing hundreds of thousands – must strike the right balance. Some tasks may be mission-critical to keep in-house, while others are smarter (and safer) to outsource. Making the right call can mean the difference between a smooth, efficient production and a logistical nightmare.

In-house means using your festival’s internal resources – your core staff, volunteers, or owned equipment – to execute a task. Outsourcing means hiring external vendors or specialists to handle it for you. It’s rarely all-or-nothing; most successful festivals use a mix of in-house efforts and outsourced services. The goal is to play to your strengths and bring in help where you need extra expertise or capacity. This guide will walk through how to evaluate each facet of your festival’s operations, with real-world examples of festivals worldwide that have gotten it right (and a few cautionary tales from those that haven’t). By the end, you’ll have a clearer sense of how to distribute your resources for maximum impact and minimal risk.

Key Factors in the In-House vs Outsource Decision

Choosing whether to keep a task in-house or outsource it should be a strategic decision. Consider these critical criteria during your planning and project management process:

Budget and Cost Efficiency

Budget is often the first factor festival producers weigh. In-house work can save money on paper – for example, using volunteers or existing staff instead of paid contractors – but it isn’t always “cheaper” in the long run. Remember to account for hidden costs like equipment purchases, staff training, insurance, and the potential cost of mistakes.

• Economies of Scale: Specialist vendors often serve multiple events and invest in top-tier equipment, which means they can spread those costs and possibly offer better pricing or value. If you try to replicate that in-house, you might face huge upfront expenses. For instance, renting a professional sound system with an experienced crew might cost a chunk of your budget, but buying your own equivalent sound gear and hiring technicians year-round would likely cost far more.
• Volunteer vs Professional Costs: Many smaller festivals rely on volunteers or community staff to reduce labor costs in-house. This works well for roles like hospitality or info booths. However, critical technical roles nearly always justify the expense of outsourcing to pros. One medium-sized festival in New Zealand learned this when shifting from mostly volunteers to a majority paid crew – their operational budget roughly doubled, forcing them to raise ticket prices and find new sponsors (www.ticketfairy.com). The lesson: if you choose a staff-heavy (paid) model or hire many vendors, be sure your revenue can support it. If not, identify which roles truly need professionals and which can be volunteer or in-house to save funds.
• Cost of Mistakes: Be mindful that what looks cheaper in-house can become very costly if done poorly. A volunteer doing electrical wiring improperly might save a fee upfront but could cause a power failure – or an accident – during the show. Paying for a certified electrician or reputable power supplier can be cheap insurance against outages or safety hazards. In short, budget decisions should factor in risk (discussed more below), not just immediate price tags.

Expertise and Quality

Festivals thrive on quality experiences – crisp sound, dazzling lights, safe stages, efficient entry, and so on. Evaluating your team’s expertise honestly is key to deciding if you can deliver that quality in-house or need outside help.

• Specialized Skills: Ask yourself, “Do we have the specialized skills and knowledge on our team for this task?” For example, designing a complex stage or tuning a massive sound system are crafts honed over many events. If the answer is no, outsource to a specialist. Top festivals do this routinely: Tomorrowland in Belgium, famed for mind-blowing stage designs, collaborates with specialist stage design firms. Its 2016 main stage was co-designed in-house but built by an external staging company (Brilliant Stages) to achieve an enchanted 120-meter-wide “forest” complete with a 25m 3D tree (www.tpimagazine.com). Few festival teams have the capacity to build such elaborate sets alone – bringing in experts turned Tomorrowland’s creative vision into reality at a quality level that wowed 400,000 attendees.
• Technical Production: Similarly, high-end audio, lighting and pyrotechnics are usually best handled by professional production vendors. Large music events from Coachella to Glastonbury hire veteran sound companies and lighting designers who tour the world (www.ticketfairy.com). These vendors bring not just gear but also engineers and crew with years of experience. The result is consistent, top-tier production value. If your festival is smaller, you might not need the same level of production, but you should still ensure competent techs are at the helm. One cautionary tale: at an event where an inexperienced in-house team handled electrical setup, a poorly wired generator connection caused a site-wide power outage mid-festival – something a trained electrician would likely have prevented (www.ticketfairy.com). The outage frustrated attendees and required costly last-minute fixes. The takeaway: know your team’s limits. Outsource complex technical roles (sound engineering, rigging, power management, IT systems) unless you have proven pros in-house.
• Quality Control: Maintaining control over quality is a double-edged sword. If a particular operation is core to your festival’s identity, you may want it in-house so you can control every detail. For example, a culinary festival whose brand relies on artisanal food might keep food curation in-house (selecting local vendors that meet quality standards) rather than handing that off to a concession management company. On the flip side, outsourcing can sometimes boost quality by bringing in a specialist who does that one thing exceptionally well. The famous Montreal Jazz Festival outsources certain technical productions to companies that specialize in jazz acoustics, ensuring every performance sounds impeccable. Always ask: will outsourcing this make the festival experience noticeably better? If yes, it’s worth serious consideration.

Risk, Safety, and Liability

Risk management is non-negotiable in festival planning. Here, outsourcing is often the wise choice – especially for anything that impacts health and safety.

• Safety-Critical Roles: If an operation involves attendee safety or heavy compliance requirements, hire certified professionals. Security is a prime example. Large festivals universally work with professional security firms or licensed contractors for crowd control, entry searches, and emergency response. In fact, regulations in many countries require it. In the UK, for instance, security guards must hold an SIA licence; volunteers or untrained staff legally cannot perform duties like bag searches or ejecting unruly guests (www.ticketfairy.com). Even at volunteer-driven events, volunteers might act as additional “eyes and ears”, but never the primary line of defense. Medical services are similar – you might supplement with volunteer first-aiders or med students, but you must have a core of certified paramedics or EMTs on site. The potential consequences of skimping on these areas are dire. The tragic crowd crush at Astroworld Festival in 2021 – where security and medical plans proved fatally insufficient – is a grim reminder that festival organizers and their contractors must be fully prepared for worst-case scenarios (www.axios.com). Lives depend on it.
• Liability and Insurance: Outsourcing can shift or share liability for high-risk operations. Professional vendors typically carry insurance for their activities (e.g. a staging company will have coverage in case a structure fails, a security firm will have liability insurance for incidents). If you keep these functions in-house, ensure you have adequate insurance and risk mitigation plans, because all the responsibility lies with you. For example, if you decide to handle staging internally and something goes wrong, your festival bears the full brunt. By contracting a reputable staging company, you not only get their expertise but also some legal protection through the contract and their insurance. Always vet the safety record of any vendor you hire – ask about their certifications, training programs, and contingency plans. One festival producer recalls hiring an outside cleaning crew that turned out to be understaffed and overwhelmed; mid-event, trash was piling up because the vendor’s team couldn’t cope (www.ticketfairy.com). Festival management had to scramble and deploy emergency volunteers to avoid a sanitation disaster. The lesson: even when outsourcing, due diligence is key. Hire vendors with a strong track record, and have backup plans if they fall short.
• Reputation Risk: Consider how outsourcing vs in-house might impact your festival’s brand reputation. If an outsourced partner fails publicly, attendees will still associate the failure with your festival. A notorious example is the Fyre Festival, which outsourced critical operations to inexperienced partners and ended up with attendees stranded without adequate food, water, or shelter (time.com). The organizers blamed vendors, but the public blamed the festival. On the other hand, a positive vendor partnership can enhance your reputation – for instance, if you hire a top-notch sound company and everyone raves about the audio quality, your festival gets the glory. So manage outsourced teams closely and integrate them into your planning as if they were your own staff.

Control, Culture, and Mission Alignment

Every festival has a unique vision and culture. Some aspects of that culture are best safeguarded by keeping them in-house. Other aspects can be handed to a trusted partner as long as they understand and respect your mission.

• Core Values and Brand Experience: If a task directly shapes the attendee experience or the festival’s ethos, you might lean toward keeping it internal. For example, Burning Man in the USA prizes radical self-reliance and community involvement; accordingly, much of its operation is kept in-house or within its community (with Burners volunteering for roles like Black Rock Rangers, etc.). However, even Burning Man knows its limits – they outsource heavy infrastructure like portable toilets and heavy equipment operation to professionals, because those aren’t areas to experiment with. The key is identifying which operations define your event. A sustainability-focused festival might manage its own green initiatives so it can ensure every decision (from energy use to waste sorting) aligns with its eco goals, while hiring outside companies for standard rentals like tents or fencing. A great example is the UK’s Greenbelt Festival, which weaves its environmental mission into operations: it introduced an in-house reusable cup program and worked closely with food vendors to insist on 100% compostable packaging and food-waste donations to local charities – efforts that earned Greenbelt multiple Greener Festival Awards (www.powerful-thinking.org.uk). They kept those sustainability measures under tight internal oversight, while still collaborating with outside caterers and waste collectors to execute the details.
• Community and Local Engagement: Festivals often play an important role in their local community. Choosing in-house vs outsourced can affect local relationships. Hiring local staff or contractors can boost the local economy and goodwill – for instance, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival famously hires numerous local food vendors and artisans, keeping money in the community. A smaller town music festival might decide to use the town’s local sound company and volunteer labor as much as possible, to show investment in local talent (and to be cost-effective). The trade-off is you may need to provide extra training or accept a more modest production value than a big-city firm would provide. On the other hand, parachuting in a full outside crew can sometimes breed resentment or lose that local touch. Good festival producers find a balance: perhaps you outsource to a professional production company but also recruit and train local volunteers to work alongside them, transferring skills to the community. Or if you bring in an outside vendor, you make sure they engage with local context (e.g. a security firm coordinating with local police and respecting community norms).
• Control vs Delegation: Some organizers simply prefer hands-on control over most aspects – especially if they themselves have relevant expertise. If your core team includes an experienced technical director, you might keep production management in-house and only outsource sub-components (like LED screen rental or specialized riggers) under your TD’s supervision. This way your team orchestrates the show and retains creative control, while vendors execute specific pieces. The risk here is micromanaging a field you’re not truly expert in – it can be more effective to delegate whole operations to a lead contractor for complex areas. A middle ground many festivals use is hiring a few key in-house department heads, who then manage external vendors. For example, you keep a Food & Beverage Manager on staff to curate vendors and manage the dining experience, but you outsource the actual food stalls to vetted vendors. Or you have a Head of Security on your team to liaise with the contracted security company and ensure they understand the crowd vibe and policies. This hybrid approach lets you steer the vision without doing every task yourself.

Scale and Complexity of the Festival

A local one-day festival for 1,000 people has vastly different needs than a multi-stage camping festival for 100,000. The larger and more complex the event, the more likely you’ll need to outsource to handle the scale. Scale affects the decision in several ways:

• Small Festivals: Smaller events often have tighter budgets and may choose in-house solutions out of necessity. You might double up roles (one person acts as stage manager and artist transport, for instance) or use volunteers for non-technical operations. Flexibility and multitasking are the name of the game. Many community festivals around the world operate this way: a passionate in-house team wearing many hats. This can work brilliantly when the scale is manageable and everyone is committed – it breeds a tight-knit “family” atmosphere that attendees can feel. However, even small festivals should consider outsourcing critical elements like professional sound tech or licensed security for certain tasks, at least on the event days. For example, a 500-person indie film festival might use volunteers to run info desks and ushers, but hire a professional projectionist to ensure the films screen without a hitch. It’s about knowing where a pro’s touch is irreplaceable. Also, remember that small events can still tap into vendor services affordably – e.g. renting staging and audio gear for a weekend is possible even on a modest budget, and far safer than jerry-rigging something.
• Large Festivals: As your festival grows, outsourcing often becomes not just advisable but essential. Huge events like Coachella (USA) or Lollapalooza (global editions) rely on a vast network of vendors and contractors. Coachella’s organizers (Goldenvoice), for instance, have their own experienced core production team, but they still hire specialist companies for staging, sound, lighting, ticketing, security, and more (www.ticketfairy.com) (www.ticketfairy.com). It simply wouldn’t be feasible to own enough gear or employ thousands of trained staff directly for a two-weekend show – partnering with companies that rent mega sound systems or provide large crews on demand is both cost-effective and ensures expertise. Large festivals also often engage event production agencies or consultants for certain segments. For example, a major EDM festival in Asia might bring in stage designers from Europe who have done Tomorrowland or EDC, to replicate that world-class production value. Or a big multi-genre festival might outsource its onsite ticketing operations to a specialist team so that tens of thousands of attendees can get their wristbands efficiently each day. The key with large events is robust project management: you might be coordinating dozens of contractors. Having a clear org chart, timelines, and communication plan (daily briefings, radio channels, point people for each vendor) is critical so that your in-house team and all outsourced teams function as one unit. Many large festivals hold multi-agency planning meetings months in advance – bringing together local authorities, emergency services, and key vendors – to run through plans and make sure everyone knows their role. As a festival producer, you or your lieutenants become air traffic controllers, ensuring each outside team (from the staging company to the cleaning crew) is on schedule and meeting your standards. When done well, attendees will never know how many separate companies were involved – it will just feel like everything works seamlessly, which is the ultimate goal.

In-House vs Outsourced: Breakdown by Operations

Let’s examine some major festival operation areas and discuss when to tackle them with your own team versus outsourcing. Real examples from around the globe will illustrate how different festivals approach each aspect:

Staging, Structures and Site Infrastructure

What it involves: Stage construction, lighting trusses, scaffolding, tents, fencing, power generators, and other physical infrastructure that turns an empty field or venue into a festival site.

Outsource when: The structures are large-scale, require engineering, or must adhere to strict safety standards. Building stages and big temporary structures is a science – it involves load calculations, weatherproofing, and often heavy machinery. Most festivals outsource stage and scaffolding construction to professional staging companies. These companies (like Stageco, MEGAFORCE, or Tait Towers, to name a few known globally) have the experience and equipment to build safe stages quickly. For example, Glastonbury Festival (UK) brings in specialist contractors for its iconic Pyramid Stage and other big structures each year, rather than attempting to build them entirely in-house. Glastonbury’s team focuses on design and oversight, but the actual fabrication and rigging is handled by pros who also do stages for touring concerts. Similarly, when Japan’s Fuji Rock Festival moved to its Naeba ski resort location, it relied on outside firms to design sturdy mountain-side staging and walkways that could withstand wind and rain in the Japanese Alps. Anytime your venue is an open field or unconventional space, you’ll likely need powered generators, water and waste systems, and more – festivals often hire companies like Aggreko for power or local scaffolding firms for platforms and viewing towers. These vendors not only provide equipment, they usually also run it and troubleshoot it during the event, which is invaluable.

Keep in-house when: The infrastructure is modest, permanent, or central to your creative vision and you have the expertise. If your festival takes place at a venue with an existing stage (say a park bandstand or an arena), you might handle minor stage extensions or décor in-house because the heavy lifting is already done by the venue. Some smaller festivals actually own a basic stage or tent and use it annually – in such cases you might rely on your team to set it up, especially if it’s a simple 1-2 day stage that they know well. For instance, a small folk festival in New Zealand that has a portable stage might transport and assemble it with trained volunteers to save cost. It can work if the structure is not too complex and your team has done it safely many times. Also, if the look of the stage is a huge part of your brand (e.g. a themed festival that builds artistic installations), you might have an in-house creative team design it, then only outsource specific parts like structural reinforcement. Collaboration is common: your art team dreams it up, a staging company makes sure it’s safe and handles rigging. Always default to safety first – if you’re not 100% sure, bring in a pro engineer. One more element: onsite repairs and maintenance. If you keep staging in-house, plan for how you’ll fix things like a ripped tent or a wobbly barrier during the event. Vendors come with crew who handle that, whereas in-house you need a standby handyman team.

Sound, Lighting and Technical Production

What it involves: Audio systems (speakers, mixers, mics), lighting rigs, video walls, special effects, and the skilled crews to run them. In short, everything that makes the show look and sound awesome.

Outsource when: You want top-notch production or don’t have experienced engineers on staff. Most music festivals hire professional AV (audio-visual) production companies to supply and run the sound and lighting, especially on main stages. These companies bring high-end PA systems (think L-Acoustics, d&b audiotechnik line arrays) and lighting setups with trusses full of moving lights, lasers, etc., plus a crew of specialists for each stage. The difference this makes in quality is huge – festival-goers notice the clear sound and impressive light shows even if they don’t know who provided it. Tomorrowland is a great example: it partners with leading sound companies to ensure its multiple stages deliver flawless audio. The festival even employs separate system engineers, FOH (front-of-house) mixers, and monitor engineers for each stage, often drawn from a pool of international experts (www.ticketfairy.com) (www.ticketfairy.com). At that scale, outsourcing isn’t just about gear; it’s about having enough skilled humans. Even mid-sized festivals usually don’t keep full-time sound engineers year-round – they’ll contract freelancers or a local sound company for the event. The same goes for lighting design: if you want a programmed light show synchronized to music, hire a lighting designer or production company who’s done it for similar events. One festival in California learned the hard way that cutting corners on sound can ruin attendee experience – they tried to use a small in-house setup for a crowd of several thousand, resulting in volume drop-offs and technical glitches that drew complaints. The next year, they brought in an outside audio vendor and a professional festival sound department was established, and the difference was night and day.

Keep in-house when: You have simple production needs or an expert team member who can handle it. If your festival is, say, a daytime cultural fair with just some speeches and acoustic acts on a small stage, you might not need an outside firm – a basic sound system with a competent operator could suffice. Some smaller festivals have relationships with local audio enthusiasts or a DJ who has a sound rig; they might effectively handle sound in-house using that connection. Be careful with this approach: ensure that person truly knows festival sound (mixing live bands is very different from a small club gig) and has backup equipment. It’s wise even for in-house sound to rent critical gear (like extra speakers or a bigger mixing console) if your own kit isn’t up to the task. Also consider scale: if you have multiple stages, in-house becomes exponentially harder. Each stage needs a dedicated audio tech team (www.ticketfairy.com) (www.ticketfairy.com). One experienced festival producer advises that if you have more than two stages or expect over ~1000 attendees, strongly consider outsourcing sound/light to a pro team so you don’t overstretch. You can still keep an Audio Coordinator or Technical Director on your core staff to oversee the vendor and ensure your artistic vision (for example, which stage gets which gear priority) is executed. This internal point person can interface with artists and the vendor crew to keep communication smooth.

Security, Crowd Management and Safety Services

What it involves: Security guards, crowd control staff, ID checkers, bag checkers, emergency response plans, medical teams, health & safety officers.

Outsource when: Almost always for large or public festivals. Security firms bring trained, licensed guards who understand crowd dynamics, entry protocols, and emergency procedures. They also come with the benefit of experience at other events – a good security provider will advise you on how many staff you need at gates, how to set up barricades for safety, etc. Major festivals often hire multiple specialized firms: one for general security, another for stage pit security (catching crowd surfers, etc.), sometimes even separate teams for artist backstage security. For example, when Rock am Ring in Germany grew to tens of thousands of attendees, they contracted a professional security company that handles Bundesliga football matches, because they needed expertise in handling big crowds. Likewise, festivals in countries like India or Indonesia, where crowd densities can be very high, often partner with local law enforcement and private security jointly – an outsourced approach vital for maintaining order. Medical and first aid is another area to outsource to professionals (like the Red Cross, St. John Ambulance, or private event medical teams). They will set up first aid tents, have EMTs on site, and coordinate with hospitals. Trying to do medical “in-house” with just volunteers and a rented ambulance is too risky unless your event is very small. And even then, have at least some certified medics.

Keep in-house when: The event is small, low-risk, or supplemental roles are needed. For a community event of a few hundred people, you might not need an extensive security staff – sometimes off-duty police or a handful of experienced volunteers can manage, especially if alcohol is limited and the vibe is family-friendly. In-house “security” at small events often means volunteer stewards or staff wearing “Event Team” shirts who help direct people and keep an eye out, while any serious issues are handled by on-call police or hired security for that day. Some festivals also develop their own hybrid model: for example, Glastonbury uses volunteer “stewards” from charities like Oxfam to do things like check wristbands and watch over campgrounds (a friendly presence), alongside hired professional security for perimeter and serious incidents (www.ticketfairy.com) (www.ticketfairy.com). If you do use volunteers for minor security roles, train them well and make sure they know exactly when to escalate to the pros. Never put volunteers in positions like being the sole crowd barrier at a main stage or searching bags for weapons – that’s unsafe for them and the attendees. Another angle: some festival organizers keep an in-house Security Coordinator or team lead who is very experienced (perhaps a retired police officer or a seasoned security manager). This person can design the security plan and then hire a vendor for guards, effectively giving you the best of both – you retain strategic control in-house, but outsource the manpower. This approach can work great to ensure the external security firm aligns with your festival’s ethos (e.g., handling attendees with a friendly vibe rather than an aggressive one), because your internal security lead can brief and guide them.

Ticketing, Entry Management and Technology

What it involves: Ticket sales platform, on-site ticket scanning, wristbanding, RFID systems, and the databases that handle buyer info. In short, how people buy tickets and get into the festival.

Outsource when: In most cases, ticketing should be handled by a specialized platform or provider. Building a secure, user-friendly ticketing system from scratch in-house is a massive tech project (think payment processing, fraud prevention, barcode generation, mobile apps, etc.). Established ticketing platforms have already solved these challenges and scaled to handle high demand. For instance, many major festivals use platforms like Ticketmaster, See Tickets, or region-specific providers to sell tens of thousands of tickets reliably. These platforms invest in infrastructure to prevent crashes on on-sale day and often have anti-scalping measures, payment security, customer support, and mobile apps – all things that would be hard for your team to replicate. The Ticket Fairy platform, as an example, not only handles online ticket sales but also provides tools like a free entry scanning app and real-time analytics to optimize your front gate operations. Modern festival ticketing providers can even manage RFID wristband systems for cashless payments and access control if you choose to go high-tech, and they’ll typically offer on-site support staff to ensure the scanners and systems work smoothly on event day. By outsourcing ticketing, you offload the risk of website crashes or PR nightmares around ticket buying. (We’ve all seen headlines when a big tour’s tickets go on sale and sites crash – that’s what you want to avoid!). Additionally, a good ticketing partner can help with marketing your event, via built-in discovery or referral programs, which is a bonus.

Keep in-house when: You have a niche need or want full control of the ticketing experience – and are prepared for the responsibility. A few large festivals with very specific ticketing requirements have developed custom in-house ticketing (or worked with a boutique firm closely) to tailor everything. Burning Man is one example: due to its unique ticket lottery and community-focused distribution, it has a highly customized ticketing process and uses in-house methods as well as external ticketing partners for different sale phases. But even Burning Man has faced issues with demand outstripping technology at times. If your festival is small and local, you could opt for simple solutions like selling physical tickets at local shops or using a basic online form and a Square payment link – that’s an in-house style approach. It might work for a fundraiser picnic or a 300-person community fest, but beyond that scale, the convenience and reliability of a professional platform is usually worth the service fees. One thing to consider is your relationship with your audience: Some festivals choose ticketing partners that align with their values (low fees, no gouging, good support). There’s been backlash in recent years against certain large ticketing companies using dynamic pricing (surge pricing), which angered fans who saw ticket prices skyrocket based on demand (www.reuters.com). Festival organizers understandably want to avoid fan outrage. If maintaining goodwill on ticket prices is crucial, either negotiate those terms with your provider or use a platform (like Ticket Fairy) that guarantees fair pricing without surprise markups. In short, keeping ticketing “in-house” in the modern sense might mean using a self-service ticketing platform where you retain control over pricing, rather than literally coding your own system.

Tech infrastructure: Beyond tickets, consider other tech like your festival website, mobile app, or even on-site Wi-Fi. These can often be outsourced to agencies or specialists. For example, a festival app that shows schedules and an interactive map could be built by a third-party developer (many festivals around the world use white-label festival app services). Only develop custom tech in-house if it’s a core part of your festival experience and you have a competent tech team. And if you do outsource any tech, ensure data security and privacy are addressed in the contract, since you’ll be handling personal information of attendees.

Marketing, Promotion and Media

(While not a “production operation” per se, a quick note on this aspect as it’s vital to success and involves similar in-house vs outsource decisions.)

Outsource when: You need specialized reach or creative muscle your team doesn’t have. Festivals often hire PR agencies to get press coverage or social media marketing firms to run advanced ad campaigns. If you’re targeting an international audience, a local marketing agency in that region might help promote your event more effectively than your in-house team could. For example, a music festival in Mexico looking to draw U.S. tourists might outsource some marketing to a U.S.-based PR firm with festival experience. Also, for design tasks like creating a festival logo, poster art, or aftermovie video production, outsourcing to professional designers or videographers is common to ensure high-quality output.

Keep in-house when: You have a strong internal voice and capability. Many festivals keep their day-to-day social media, community management, and artist relations in-house because they want an authentic voice and direct connection with fans. Your own team can often create engaging content if they deeply understand the festival’s vibe. In-house marketing also means you keep full control over the messaging and can respond faster. A hybrid model is routine here too: perhaps your team handles organic social media posts and fan engagement, but you outsource the technical stuff like SEO optimization or ticket ad retargeting to a specialist. Since marketing is what drives ticket sales (and thus your budget), weigh this one carefully. If sales are lagging and you don’t have the expertise in-house to pivot your marketing strategy, bringing in outside help might pay for itself with a stronger sell-through.

Making the Choice: A Step-by-Step Evaluation

To wrap up the planning process, here’s a quick framework for how to decide in-house vs outsourced for each aspect of your festival:

1. List Out All Key Operations: Write down everything from staging, power, sound, lights, artist hospitality, transportation, ticketing, security, cleaning, food vendors, etc. Use your production schedule or checklist to ensure no area is missed.
2. Assess Internal Resources & Experience: For each item, note if your team has proven experience and capacity to handle it. Be brutally honest. If your entire team has never managed festival parking logistics, that might need outside help or at least consultation. Identify any team members’ special strengths (maybe your co-producer is a certified pyrotechnician – great, that can be in-house supervised by them!).
3. Determine Risk Level: Ask what could go wrong if this is done in-house vs by a pro. High risk (safety issues, major quality impacts) usually tilts to outsourcing. Lower risk (e.g. social media scheduling) might be fine in-house even if imperfect.
4. Get Quotes and Estimates: Often, talking to potential vendors during planning is illuminating. Get a quote from a staging company or a cleaning service. You might find it’s more affordable than assumed – or vice versa. Compare that to what it would cost in-house (materials, labor time, etc.). Also ask vendors questions; they might point out considerations you hadn’t thought of.
5. Consider Hybrid Approaches: Maybe the answer isn’t black or white. For many festivals, a mix is ideal – some tasks partially outsourced, or a vendor provides equipment while your team provides labor. For example, you could rent lighting equipment (outsourced gear) but have your own trusted lighting operator run it (in-house labor). Or you could outsource a core team of security supervisors and supplement them with in-house volunteers for less critical watching roles. Tailor the blend to your needs.
6. Factor in Growth and Legacy: If this is the first year of a festival, you might outsource more to ensure success and learn from the pros. In later years, you might bring more in-house as you gain experience or if it’s cost-effective to invest in your own gear. Conversely, a festival scaling up quickly may reach a point where outsourcing is the only way to handle the growth (you can’t hire and train 100 new staff in a month, but you can contract a company that already has them). Think about the long-term: building an in-house operation is an investment that could pay off over multiple editions, whereas outsourcing is often a one-time cost but can offer flexibility.
7. Align with Mission: Revisit your festival’s core values and priorities. Make sure your plan aligns. If sustainability is a core value, ensure your outsourced partners share that ethos (contract with generator companies that use biofuel, for instance, or require caterers to follow green practices). If community is key, keep roles for locals and volunteers where possible, and use outside help in a way that might train or uplift your community (some festivals require big contractors to host a workshop for local volunteers – a great knowledge transfer idea!).
8. Plan Integration and Oversight: For every outsourced element, assign an internal point person to manage that relationship. For every in-house element, decide who is accountable and what external support is needed (permits, inspections, etc.). In your production timeline, include vendors in key meetings or walk-throughs. Treat them as part of the team. Likewise, brief your in-house crew on how to work alongside vendors smoothly. The better the communication between your staff and outside teams, the more cohesive the operation will be.

Following these steps will help ensure you make informed choices rather than default ones. It can be easy to say “we’ve always done the stage ourselves” or conversely “we always hire Company X for staging” without re-evaluating. Instead, approach it fresh each time: circumstances change, and maybe your team is ready to take on more this year – or maybe the festival has outgrown what you can DIY and it’s time to call in reinforcement. The wisdom from seasoned producers is to leave ego aside and do what’s best for the event’s success and safety. As one veteran put it, “Attendees don’t care who did the work, they care that it’s done well.”

Key Takeaways for Festival Producers

• Prioritize safety and expertise: Outsource critical safety roles (security, medical, complex production) to licensed professionals. In-house teams can support, but don’t gamble on unproven skills for high-stakes tasks.
• Use in-house for core vision: Keep operations that define your festival’s identity, mission or community vibe under your close control. For example, maintain direct oversight of artist curation, on-brand decor, or sustainability initiatives, and let those guide which vendors you choose.
• Weigh cost vs value: Consider the true cost of in-house vs outsourced – not just in dollars, but in time, stress, and quality. Outsourcing can be expensive, but failure or low-quality outputs have their own costs. Make sure any in-house approach doesn’t stretch your team too thin (burnout and mistakes can result), and any outsourced spend delivers clear value (expertise, efficiency, or equipment you can’t otherwise get).
• Check scale and capacity: Match your strategy to your festival’s size. Small festivals can succeed with scrappy in-house solutions and volunteer power (building community and saving money), while large festivals must leverage professional partners to meet scale. If you grow, be ready to pivot methods accordingly.
• Hybrid approaches often win: You don’t have to choose entirely one way. Combine strengths – an internal manager partnered with an external vendor, volunteers supervised by pros, rented gear operated by your team, etc. This can give you control and consistency along with specialist skills. Many festivals find the best results through collaboration between their crew and outside experts.
• Plan vendor integration: When outsourcing, treat vendors as part of the team. Communicate your expectations clearly, involve them in pre-event planning, and ensure contracts cover specifics (deliverables, timelines, insurance). Good coordination prevents the “silo effect” and ensures your in-house and outsourced efforts mesh seamlessly during the event.
• Stay flexible and learn: Every festival edition is a learning opportunity. Conduct a post-event review of what in-house tasks went well and where you struggled, as well as vendor performance. Festivals like Glastonbury hold detailed debriefs each year with feedback for all partners (somerset.moderngov.co.uk) (democracy.somerset.gov.uk). Use those insights to adjust your strategy next time – maybe you bring a task in-house after seeing how a vendor does it, or you outsource something that overwhelmed your staff. Adapting in this way is how great festivals continually improve.
• Choose tools that lighten the load: Leverage technology and platforms to reduce operational headaches. A robust ticketing and event management platform (such as Ticket Fairy) can handle registration, communications, and even volunteer credential tracking (www.ticketfairy.com), freeing your team from re-inventing the wheel. Similarly, using established services for things like cashless payments or inventory management can let your team focus on the creative and human side of the festival.

In the end, making the right call on in-house vs outsourced operations is about knowing your event and knowing yourself as an organizer. Understand your festival’s needs and your team’s abilities. Be humble enough to seek help where needed and confident enough to do things internally when you know you can nail it. By carefully allocating tasks and resources, you set your festival up for a safe, smooth, and spectacular show – one that runs like clockwork and leaves your audience blissfully unaware of the army of staff and partners working behind the scenes to make the magic happen.