Festival Bands

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Last updated 12 08 11

Festival Bands Cape Town, Festival Bands Durban, Festival Bands Pretoria, Festival Bands Johannesburg, Festival Bands Gauteng, Festival Bands South Africa

What are Festival Bands: 

A festival band is a festival oriented towards music that is sometimes presented with a theme such as musical genre, nationality or locality of musicians, or holiday. They are commonly held outdoors, and are often inclusive of other attractions such as food and merchandise vending machines, performance art, and social activities. The Pythian Games at Delphi included musical performances, and may be one of the earliest festivals known. During the Middle Ages festivals were often held as competitions.

Many festivals are annual, or repeat at some other interval. Some, including many rock festivals, are held only once. Some festivals are organized as for-profit concerts and others are benefits for a specific cause.

Another type of festival bands is the educative type, organised annually in local communities, regionally or nationally, for the benefit of amateur musicians of all ages and grades of achievement. While entrants perform prepared pieces in the presence of an audience which includes competitors, the essential feature of this type of festival is that each participant receives verbal and written feedback, there and then, from a highly qualified, professional adjudicator — someone whom they might never meet in any other way. They also usually receive a certificate, classified according to merit, and some may win trophies. The competitive element is often played down, however, as the important aspect is that participants can learn from one another. Such festivals aim to provide a friendly and supportive platform for musicians to share in the excitement of making music. For many they provide a bridge between lessons & examinations and performing confidently in public.

The world's largest music festival is Summerfest, which is held for eleven days every year in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Each year, it attracts between 800,000 and 1,000,000 spectators. The Woodstock Festival in 1969 drew nearly 500,000 attendees.

What to pack to Festival Bands:

Packing for festival bands is quite a different experience than packing for, say, a camping trip in the mountains. What items do you consider essential when you're packing for a music festival?

Bring an extra set of keys for your vehicle. Hide the extra set under your vehicle or in your tent or under your tent or where ever you think is a good hiding place. I locked my self out of my truck last year and had the extra set inside the truck as well. After having a tow truck driver let me back into my truck at 2 AM. I then hid the extra set in my tent so I didn't get locked out again. The tow truck driver that helped me said is spends the whole night unlocking vehicles and jump starting dead batteries. Jumper cables and a cell phone car charger if you don't want to buy an extra battery for your cell phone.

Baby wipes are amazing! Especially when you've been stick in a field without decent showers for a week! Just a quick once-over in the morning with a baby wipe, can put a completely different spin on the day! Dry shampoo can also be BRILLIANT! Although you have to be carful about how you apply it. I find it best to give short spurts from a reasonable distance, rather than going close up. I hope this helped

Some stuff that was left out that is essential: a large pack of gum, travel insurance if you are travelling outside of the country, passport, hair elastics/bobby pins, insoles for running shoes, polypore/band aids, gps, hair brush, cough drops (if you yell at your favourite bands and get a sore throat), mirror, wet naps, paper towels, more than one bathing suit and towel, plastic/trash bags.

You'll probably won't the kind for your campsite and for your body/clothes. You can also get special soap with citronella in it to shower with...I find this helps a lot.

Duct tape, watch, extra phone battery, hammock, battery powered vacuum, solar lamps, garden fence, glow in the dark paint, meeting spot within the crowd: (i.e. middle right of field, next to sound table, etc.)

If you're driving don't forget the jump leads, spare wheel/tyre, jack and if you're driving abroad that your insurance covers you and anyone sharing the driving. Cheap multi pen knife: cheap ones do break easily but they are so handy and you won't cry if you lose it or if the door people say no. Superglue: another great answer to broken shoes and tents also hats and jewellery. Zip lock bags: big ones- put everything in your pockets in them when it rains so no soggy cameras and concertina rolling papers- also great answer to shampoo etc bursting in your bag and opened packets of nuts spreading themselves around your tent for the ants to eat. Particularly ladies- pocket belts particularly popular with trance guys are amazing because they hold all your bits, aren't annoying to dance with, go over your pocket less pretty summer dresses and you don't end up putting them down and losing them. People have said condoms but also don't forget your birth-control pill and any other medication.

A pair of shades are the best thing to sit back and relax in, plus they are very handy when you can hardly see your favourite band because the sun is so bright.

I recommend make-up items, because you will be sweating', crying tears of joy for your best artists, which will ruin the make-up.

If you want to use your mobile over a whole festival one battery will never last.. Buy a spare battery for your mobile and charge both batteries fully before leaving for the festival, when one runs out you have a spare.

Cheap foamies will do, musician's plugs are even better. especially for kids. volumes from the stage can fluctuate and it saves you from picking up and moving further back (if that's even an option).