All over our country, from small towns to large cities, festivals, and other special events are meticulously planned to bring people in and add to a community’s tourism draw. These events are fantastic for local business owners and allow opportunities for people from outside the local area to come see what your community has to offer. Festivals are the perfect way to introduce these “outsiders” to what your city and state are all about! Often, those events revolve around something that the town or general area is known for – think BBQ Festival, Peach Festival, Shrimp Festival, etc.
Local and regional festivals are valuable for communities and offer the following benefits:
* Cultural Celebration: They preserve and showcase local traditions, art, and heritage, fostering pride and connection among your residents.
* Community Bonding: Festivals bring people together, strengthening community ties and promoting social interaction. In these post-COVID times, this is incredibly important!
* Economic Boost: Special events attract visitors, which can support local businesses, artisans, and the hospitality industry, driving the local economy.
* Support for Local Artists: Musicians, performers and craftspeople are given a great platform to share their work, gaining recognition and support from their community.
* Tourism Appeal: Unique local festivals can draw in tourists, increasing visibility for the region and bringing in outside revenue.
* Celebration of Diversity: Festivals often celebrate various cultures, cuisines and lifestyles, fostering inclusivity and appreciation for diversity.
* Tradition Preservation: These events help pass down stories, values and traditions to younger generations, keeping cultural identities alive.
No matter what type of festival(s) you put on, your festival entertainment choices are an extremely important aspect of insuring your success. You definitely need to know your audience. Is country music a big deal where you are? How about the blues … perhaps that is more your community’s identity. Many towns love to celebrate gospel, jazz, bluegrass or 80’s rock music! Whatever your town’s personality is will dictate what type of musical acts you bring in. It’s still important, though, to make sure there’s some festival entertainment that appeals to everyone. If every band you book plays southern rock, you might lose the attendees that love the blues!
The theme of your festival will also dictate some of your festival entertainment. For a BBQ festival, how much fun would it be to watch pig races! For St. Patrick’s Day, Irish dancers or an Irish band with some bagpipers would be huge crowd pleasers. Patriotic events are perfect for an Uncle Sam on stilts or a patriotic unicyclist on a giant unicycle, roving around the festival site, entertaining and interacting with attendees and doing photo ops.
Another thing to keep at the forefront when planning your festival entertainment is choosing top notch variety acts. A professional ventriloquist, juggler or magician will add such a different vibe to the festivities and can appeal to a lot of people that perhaps are there with their family, including children, teens, and adults. Don’t forget about break dancers, mascots, ball spinners, BMX riders and family musical acts. Some variety entertainers just do stage shows, while others can provide stage shows as well as roving/strolling entertainment. Make sure you understand what kind of festival entertainment they do best. Ask them what their preferred audience is. Some of them might be geared towards preschoolers and early elementary. Others prefer older kids, youth, and their parents. You really can’t go wrong with several professional variety entertainers roving throughout your festival site and/or doing upbeat and fun family shows.
Roving entertainment is often misunderstood but adds so much to any large special event. Examples of roving festival entertainers are mascots, jugglers, fire eaters, stilt walkers, unicyclists & bubble artists. Choose entertainers that are highly visible and have great crowd interaction. They should be comfortable talking with people of all ages in a friendly way as they entertain. These days you can find stilt walkers in almost every medium to large city. Do your homework, though! Not everyone who straps on stilts is the same. Ask lots of questions: What skills will they do while they’re on stilts (i.e. juggle different props, eat fire, dance with grannies)? Find out what entertainment they can perform other than just stilt walking. Does their festival entertainment include extra things like sword swallowing, balloon sculpting, fire eating, riding giant unicycles through the crowd? Festival planners can feel good when they hire someone who is going to be unique, visible, professional, hard working and super entertaining for all ages. **One of the most important questions to ask your festival entertainers is if they have a performers liability insurance policy that allows them to add your festival/event as an Additional Insured.**
A professional roving entertainer is rarely in one place for very long. They will move all around the festival site and should not be limited to one area. (If a roving entertainer is given a specific area to concentrate on, it’s really not roving!) A true roving festival entertainer will draw people over to them using their unique skills and personality. Their goal should be to entertain as many people as they can during the hours they are booked at your event. This flexibility to go where the larger gatherings of people are is a very positive aspect of roving vs shows. Roving entertainers should be seen by everyone and if you pick the right act(s), will be enjoyed by everyone – young and old alike. The more visual and unique they are, the better for your festival. At the end of the day, your attendees will head back home with an all around positive feeling about their experience at your event!
Finally, make sure all of the bands, emcees, dance troupes, school groups and professional variety entertainers – including your roving/strolling artists – are listed in advance on your festival schedule and in print and/or social media channels. Ask each performer or group for a press kit or at the very least, some high quality digital images that you can utilize in your print ads and on all your social media outlets. Every festival entertainment act, whether paid or volunteer, deserves to be recognized for their hard work. And at the end of the event, be sure to pat yourself on the back for a job well done!