Life Behind the Scenes

There’s a lot going on behind the scenes at a major festival like Bluesfest and I thought I’d talk a bit about that. People don’t really know what’s involved in putting all this together, and to get an idea about that, you can check out my earlier blog entries about Concert Education.

 

Festivals are a little bit different than the standard touring show though. Because of the number of performers every day, things get pretty hectic. We have a stage manager who tries to keep it all under control and running smoothly, and 8 stage hands to make sure all the band gear gets setup and torn down and all the microphones get patched and tested before the bands go on. Not every band gets a soundcheck; usually only the headliners do, and it’s early in the morning before everything else starts. As a result, there’s a period of 15 to 30 minutes between acts when all hell breaks loose, but somehow everything all comes together, which is a result of the skilled and talented guys we have on stage.

 

Once a band starts their show and everything is working, we get the paperwork provided to us for the next band, which is called a Technical Rider. It has all the information about required microphones, monitors, stage positions of the performers, etc… We spend a few minutes making a plan which is then executed during that 15-30 minute window. So, really there’s about 1 hour of work to get a band on stage and functional. It’s a pretty heavy load when you think about it, especially when doing multiple acts per day and not all of them are compatible in a technical sense. Sometimes we can make up time if the band setup is similar to the band playing before or after, but we’re not always that lucky.

 

So, as you can imagine, things can get pretty stressful backstage, even more so when bands are late, gear doesn’t work, etc… To cope with that, we have a few ways to relax and enjoy our *very rare* downtime. One of the guys has a hammock slung under the stage, our stage crew has a hibachi and one of the guys cooks for us, I brought in a coffee maker, and we all have books, newspapers, laptops and dvds to help ease the tensions. When the stress hits, it hits hard, there’s a lot of yelling back and forth, etc… but we’re all pros, we can deal with it and 5 mins after we’re all on good terms again. It’s a delicate balance of personalities that’s needed to make these situations workable and not everyone can cut it.

 

I’ve been taking a few pictures to show how it all comes together and at the end of the festival I’ll put them up in the photos section of my website.