Playing a festival should be fun! But what if it’s your first time? Let’s see what to expect when stepping on stage for that initial buzz.
Playing a Festival for the 1st Time:
All about Festivals for Guitarists
- Preparing for a festival should be about reliability as well as tone. Creating a simple and dependable rig could be the make-or-break of your set.
- The tone you practice with at home will change once you’re on that festival stage. Outdoor spaces and different backlines will alter your tone. Be prepared for this.
- Get ready for a fast-paced environment. There’s no time to mess around, so you must ensure that you’re able to get on and off stage as quickly as possible.
Last Minute Depping
After 18 years of playing guitar, I’m not the rock star I thought I’d be. But that’s okay! Because it means that I get to do lots of other cool things. Full disclaimer, that image you clicked on is from alamy.com, not my own camera roll…
A few weeks ago, a friend of a friend reached out asking if I’d like to cover for one of their regular guitarists who couldn’t make a gig. No problem, I thought. However, after I was given some more information, I later discovered that the gig in question was for an originals band.
Therefore, no Proud Mary, no Mr Brightside, or any of the regular party and function songs. For the Jambleton Festival, I had less than a week to learn 15 original songs that I’d never heard of before. Did I have any TABs or chord sheets? Of course not! That would have been too easy. All I had to learn these lead guitar parts was MP3 files from the band’s studio sessions.
What Gear Did I Use?
Fortunately, there was time for one rehearsal with the band in the drummer’s garage. Old school vibes always work out the best. This was my first time ever playing a festival, so I was keen to get on board. It wasn’t exactly Download, but it was still very British in the respects that it was pretty chilly for June, and there were lots of little stalls selling homemade jam and cheese. Get the picture? Apologies to American readers.
The overall genre for this band, The Brad Mack Band, felt very indie and early 2000s rock and pop. Therefore, I treated my *Blueberry Burst Les Paul to a fresh set of *D’Addarios and loaded it up. A set of 15 songs, all in E standard tuning, other than the opener, which is a moody track in Open D tuning. Thankfully, my LP behaved itself going between tunings.
To aid with those onstage stunings, on my pedal board, I have the tremendous *NUX Cerberus multi effects unit. This analogue box of tricks allows me to have distortion, overdrive, delay, reverb, and, for this particular gig, tremolo. You can check out when I built my pedalboard here at gearnews.
On Stage
Rather selfishly, I arrived at the festival venue about an hour before the band’s set. This gave me time to sketch out the area and get all of my gear ready. Before I knew it, one band finished, and then it was our turn.
No messing about. Each of us in the four-piece band carried our gear onto the stage and began frantically setting up. The drummer was installing his breakables, the bass player was working on the DI, the singer was adjusting the mic stand, and I was giving my pedal board power and hooking up to the house Hiwatt backline amps.
Overall, the set went down really well. A couple of upbeat rock tracks always get people up on their feet. Thankfully, I’d done my homework and was happy playing somebody else’s guitar solos and lead parts, which felt very strange, but enjoyable all the same. A huge thanks to the sound team, also, who made the setup and tear down easy! Moreover, my monitor was set up beautifully, and was probuably the best on-stage sound I’ve ever had.
What Did I Learn From Playing a Festival?
I’ll always take the opportunity to play live. It’s why we learn to play in the first place, isn’t it? Overall, the gig went really well and was trouble-free. Playing just 15 songs did feel odd, as most of my gigs see me play upwards of 40 songs per night. But then again, this meant an early finish!
What did I learn from playing a festival for the 1st time? There’s no such thing as a soundcheck. You get on stage, plug in and play. Thankfully, I’m not too precious about my tone, as long as it’s audible and I can hear the band, I’m pretty chill.
Therefore, if you ever get the chance to play in front of a large group of people, definatley do it! It’s easier to play in front of lots of people rather than an intimate group. Just enjoy the music.
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