7 tips for choosing the perfect venue to celebrate your festival

Sev­er­al fac­tors must be con­sid­ered when look­ing for the per­fect venue for a fes­ti­val. A poor­ly cho­sen venue could ruin your audi­ence’s expe­ri­ence. On the con­trary, a venue that meets your tar­get audi­ence’s expec­ta­tions guar­an­tees you’ll attract more atten­dees and meet their expec­ta­tions once they’re there.

To make the right choice, you must con­sid­er the size and capac­i­ty need­ed to accom­mo­date the expect­ed num­ber of atten­dees in good con­di­tions. Loca­tion, acces­si­bil­i­ty, ser­vices and facil­i­ties are deci­sive ele­ments in your choice. Final­ly, you must con­sid­er the venue’s cost and ensure it fits your bud­get.

Dis­cov­er our 7 tips for choos­ing the per­fect venue to cel­e­brate your fes­ti­val in this arti­cle!

1. Choosing a venue of the right size for your festival

a) Number of attendees

First, esti­mate the expect­ed num­ber of atten­dees to find the right size for your fes­ti­val venue. The place you choose must be able to accom­mo­date all the atten­dees com­fort­ably and safe­ly.

b) Required space

In addi­tion to the expect­ed num­ber of atten­dees, con­sid­er the space need­ed to set up the facil­i­ties. Stages, cater­ing areas, camp­ing, bath­rooms, park­ing spaces, tech­ni­cal instal­la­tions… Every­thing has to fit on or near the fes­ti­val site.

Con­sid­er­ing all of these ele­ments, you should be able to cal­cu­late the right size for your fes­ti­val venue.

2. The importance of location when choosing the venue for a festival

a) Location

The next step is to think about the loca­tion of your fes­ti­val: a cru­cial ele­ment when choos­ing a venue for your fes­ti­val. Choos­ing a strate­gic loca­tion can help attract a larg­er audi­ence and ensure the even­t’s suc­cess.

b) Accessibility

The acces­si­bil­i­ty of the venue must be one of your pri­or­i­ties. In a big city, it must be a place that can be eas­i­ly accessed by pub­lic trans­port. On the oth­er hand, your fes­ti­val venue must have enough park­ing space for atten­dees’ vehi­cles.

c) Attractive

A loca­tion close to pop­u­lar areas or his­toric sites can add anoth­er dimen­sion to the event and attract more peo­ple.

Remem­ber that the loca­tion of your fes­ti­val can affect the type of activ­i­ties you can offer and the over­all logis­tics of the event.

For all the rea­sons men­tioned above, it’s essen­tial to con­sid­er the ide­al place for your fes­ti­val that meets all your require­ments and objec­tives.

3. The facilities and equipment of your festival venue

When look­ing for the ide­al venue for your fes­ti­val, you must con­sid­er the facil­i­ties and equip­ment avail­able and those that you or your sup­pli­ers have to pro­vide.

For exam­ple, if you organ­ise out­door con­certs, you must ensure the venue has a big enough stage and ade­quate sound sys­tems. You’ll need a bud­get to equip the venue if you don’t have these facil­i­ties.

If you organ­ise activ­i­ties for chil­dren, you’ll need to make sure that the place has safe spaces and ade­quate equip­ment.

It is also impor­tant to check that the venue has suf­fi­cient bath­rooms, water points and shad­ed areas to ensure the com­fort of the atten­dees.

If you con­sid­er these ele­ments, you can choose a place that suits your needs and guar­an­tee the suc­cess of your fes­ti­val.

Tip: To com­ple­ment these tips, read our full arti­cle on how to organ­ise a fes­ti­val.

4. The role of the budget in choosing the venue for a festival

As in all the steps of organ­is­ing a fes­ti­val, the bud­get is an ele­ment that must always be present. When select­ing a venue to hold your fes­ti­val, the cost of rent­ing it can sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact your even­t’s finances.

a) Type of rental

After draw­ing up the over­all bud­get for your fes­ti­val, you’ll know how much mon­ey you have avail­able to rent the venue. Remem­ber that rent­ing just the space is not the same as rent­ing “turnkey”, with addi­tion­al ser­vices: clean­ing, secu­ri­ty, equip­ment, etc., all includ­ed in the bud­get.

b) Additional costs

Don’t for­get to con­sid­er the addi­tion­al expens­es you have to cov­er, which may be relat­ed to the facil­i­ties or spe­cial prepa­ra­tions need­ed to cel­e­brate your fes­ti­val and its activ­i­ties.

It’s impor­tant to con­sid­er all these fac­tors to choose a venue that fits your bud­get and ensures the eco­nom­ic via­bil­i­ty of your event.

5. Key questions to ask yourself when visiting festival venues

Vis­it­ing the venues before choos­ing the ide­al one for your fes­ti­val is essen­tial. To make sure you make the right choice, you need to ask ques­tions that allow you to com­pare venues with the same cri­te­ria and with full knowl­edge of the facts.

Here are some ideas for ques­tions to ask dur­ing your vis­its. Write down the answers so you don’t miss any­thing!:

• What is the max­i­mum capac­i­ty of the venue?
• What facil­i­ties and ser­vices are includ­ed in the rent?
• What is the exact sur­face area avail­able? The best option would be to request a detailed plan.
• What are the rental con­di­tions? Please note the pay­ment terms, can­cel­la­tion con­di­tions and war­ran­ty claus­es.
• Do you have ref­er­ences from oth­er organ­is­ers who have rent­ed this venue? Don’t hes­i­tate to con­tact for­mer cus­tomers of the venue to dis­cuss its qual­i­ty and fea­tures.
• Do you have to apply for any per­mit or insur­ance besides those the venue already has?
• Ask any­thing rel­e­vant to visu­alise the pos­si­bil­i­ties of the venue and see if it meets the needs of your fes­ti­val.

If you ask your­self these ques­tions when you vis­it venues to cel­e­brate your fes­ti­val, you can make an informed deci­sion and choose the ide­al loca­tion for your event.

6. How to negotiate the best conditions for a festival venue?

Get­ting the best con­di­tions for your fes­ti­val venue is cru­cial to ensur­ing its suc­cess. It’s usu­al­ly worth nego­ti­at­ing the bud­gets received to get the best pos­si­ble offer.

a) Know the market

To nego­ti­ate most effi­cient­ly, you must know the rates and con­di­tions of the dif­fer­ent venues avail­able. To do this, noth­ing is more effi­cient than con­tact­ing, vis­it­ing and request­ing quotes from many venues.

b) Understand the budget

To nego­ti­ate a bud­get cor­rect­ly, you must under­stand its parts.

Check that you need all the equip­ment and facil­i­ties includ­ed in the bud­get. Also con­sid­er addi­tion­al costs, such as clean­ing and secu­ri­ty, and whether you would like to use your own sup­pli­ers.

c) Don’t just negotiate the price

If the own­er or man­ag­er of the venue isn’t will­ing to offer you a low­er price, you can nego­ti­ate oth­er terms—for exam­ple, pay­ment terms, can­cel­la­tion terms, etc.

Try to nego­ti­ate the best pos­si­ble terms while remain­ing real­is­tic and respect­ful of the work of oth­ers.

d) Make concessions

As in any nego­ti­a­tion, it’s essen­tial to be will­ing to make con­ces­sions.

For exam­ple, you may be will­ing to pay a lit­tle more for a bet­ter venue or accept less favourable rental con­di­tions if the venue per­fect­ly suits your needs.

7. The benefits of working with a venue coordinator

If you want to make it eas­i­er for your­self, you can con­sid­er work­ing with a venue coor­di­na­tor. This type of pro­fes­sion­al has sol­id expe­ri­ence organ­is­ing events and, more specif­i­cal­ly, man­ag­ing event venues.

A venue coor­di­na­tor is an impor­tant ally who can help you in sev­er­al stages: find­ing the ide­al venue that fits your needs and lim­i­ta­tions and nego­ti­at­ing with the own­er or man­ag­er of the cho­sen loca­tion. As a per­son spe­cial­is­ing in event venues, he will help you with logis­ti­cal man­age­ment and all the tech­ni­cal and admin­is­tra­tive aspects of hir­ing a venue.

Invest­ing in the ser­vices of a pro­fes­sion­al allows you to ben­e­fit from an expe­ri­ence that can save you time and mon­ey.

With these 7 tips, you’re ready to choose the per­fect place to cel­e­brate your fes­ti­val.

To learn more, down­load our free white paper for those who want to organ­ise a fes­ti­val for the first time.

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