Melbourne Events Festival Selection Criteria
Melbourne Events | Festival Selection Criteria
Thomas Lorenzo produces music that is a reflection on Contemporary Australian Urban Culture.
There is a lot information on the net on how to organize festivals but very little in terms of how music is selected and organized in relation to a festival theme.
The following is the result of a past project management consultancy where I was approached to establish guidelines to determine the selection criteria for live bands, sound, lighting, theatre and dance companies for Melbourne Events
Best Regards.
Tomas Lorenzo
Melbourne Events
Services to be provided
- To contract and produce live entertainment in accordance to mission statement, Festival Policy & Procedures Manual, and designated budgets
- To establish an action plan in accordance with the festival event organiser
- To produce an entertainment event schedule for the three day festival to
Festival Theme
The Day of the Dead.
Festival Mission
To promote and portray traditions that relate to the Day of the Dead in Mexico, Latino America and Australian communities with contemporary and traditional artists. To becomes a recurring contributor of Cultural Melbourne Events .
Proposal
Friday: 4 hour show
Thomas Lorenzo Music production services will produce for the festival the following Melbourne events.
One 40 minute theatrical musical act in collaboration with the Mexican local community that will portray the beauty and values of the Aztec and Catholic Traditions of the Day of the Dead. It will make an impact through live artistic expression, music, sound, visuals and lighting.
- 2 powerful roving acts. They will start the performance from the main stage and requiring no amplification when off stage.
- 6 Dancers plus 4 percussionists
- Mariachis interpreting rancheras, corridos, huapangos, sones jarochos y valses mexicano with 2 trumpets, 3 violins, one guitarron and three guitars
Thomas Lorenzo Music production services will select:
- 1 high energy latin dance band
Saturday morning until parade time:
6 acts in total. Friday night roving artists will repeat 1 set each.
Thomas Lorenzo Music production services will also select from local acts performing in Melbourne events.
- 3 community musical/ theatrical/dance acts that reflect the mission statement and target audience. The styles of all acts may be traditional or contemporary
- 2 emerging artists that develop skills in art and new media
Parade
Friday night roving artists will repeat their performance but with increased numbers of performers by engaging community brass bands and dance groups. Thomas Lorenzo will produce this high power collaboration that will open and close the parade contributing to the overall success of one of the major festival events in Melbourne, 2014
Saturday Night
Thomas Lorenzo music production services will select:
- One major act and also will produce the proposed collaboration with the Mexican tradition. Example: Mariachi and Cat Empire
- Two Major DJs with dancers, light and visual shows
- Two high power latin dance bands
Sunday
7 acts.
Friday night roving artists will repeat 1 set each and Friday night theatrical act will be repeated .
Thomas Lorenzo Music production services will select:
- 3 community musical/ theatrical/dance acts that reflect the mission statement and target audience. The styles of all acts may be traditional or contemporary
- 2 emerging artists that develop skills in art and new media
- 1 high energy latin dance band
Acts will be selected by those most in accord to the following factors
- Relevance to theme
- Relevance to mission
- The wow factor
- Brand
- Budget
- Sound and lighting requirements
- Public liability
- Their proven capability of producing an engaging live show.
- Royalties
They may be approached by invitation or may be selected from data bases created from expression of interest.
Due to time constraints, expression of interest would have to be enhanced through publicity and word of mouth in target entertainment genres, groups and acts, and also via paid publicity on media.
Who selects acts?
Thomas Lorenzo Music production services will propose three acts for each selected time frame. The festival committee with a minimum of three members will select the final candidate for each time frame. The selection process will finalise 4 weeks prior public tickets sales, and contracts should be signed no later than three weeks prior public ticket sales.
All act promotional materials should be collected, published and revised 2 weeks prior to ticket sales.
What difference will Thomas Lorenzo Music production services make?
- We will see all acts live to determine if selection criteria is met .
- If needed, for emerging artists and community acts, we will suggest how to achieve the required impact factor.
- We will produce: 2 roving acts , the opening acts of the parade, the musical theatrical dance show and Saturday night collaborations.
Note: Producing means arranging selected repertoire, selecting musicians and musical direction.
- We will ensure all acts create the desired emotional contour to engage the audience throughout the full time frames of each session.
- We will negotiate sound and lighting requirements with artists and sound and light-crew within the budget and time frames. Sound reinforcement is a crucial factor in all shows as there is a tendency for acts to suffer from a lack of coordination and understanding of technical needs to convey a clear expression to the audience.
- Artists will liaise with one selected personnel for all festival events in Melbourne who will be trained in required skills to cater for technical needs, catering, time management and co-ordination.
Production management plan
The detailed production management plan for these Melbourne events will reflect guidelines established in the future Festival Policy & Procedures Manual.
The plan will encompass two main areas of entertainment management:
- Pre production which finalizes once all contracts have been signed and specific produced acts or collaborations for the show are also ready for engagement
- The actual live production of the show.
An action plan will be created with details of all tasks required during the months in logical sequence for the events in Melbourne to be held. It will specify:
- The target date by which each of the tasks should be completed.
- Who is the one person responsible for the task
- Who will support each task
- Who must be informed of progress and results
- A completion column to check off when a task has been completed.
- A follow-up column indicating particular tasks that may have been implemented,
Task will be consequence of specific reviewed goals .
Examples of task: Entertainment booking for all Day of the Dead festival events in Melbourne 2014.
The specific action plan will determine dates to:
- Accept and make proposals
- Negotiate costs
- Explain festival policies
- Accept sound and lighting requirements
- Sign contracts
- Follow up dates to finalise sound and lighting production requirements and stage set up for all established events in Melbourne and the Festival.
Others Tasks for all Festival Events in Melbourne
- Sound and Lighting Production
- Performer special needs management: food, lodging , tickets
For the actual live production we will produce a Gantt chart to summarize the entertainment event schedule detailing listing of tasks related to all entertainment, illustrating time, activity, location and responsibility.
Tasks will include.
- Where acts are staged
- Bump in and out time for performance and sound checks
- Personnel assigned to each individual act to assist in time location management , to implement predetermined sound and lighting requirements and to liaison between acts and tech crew
- Assignation of dressing rooms and storage area