Sunday, 13 April 2014

Why It's Important For Local Bands To Play Music Festivals

By Michael Fitzgerald


In the past 5 years alone, new music festivals have sprouted up all across the country, from major cities like Chicago and Austin, to places almost literally in the middle of nowhere, like a desert in Nevada or an unassuming campground in the Ohio Valley. But no matter where they take place, these music festivals always seem to attract huge audiences - and offer an amazing opportunity for local bands to get noticed. Local bands lucky enough to earn their way to a stage on a music festival not only get the chance to perform for massive crowds, but many record labels and A&R representatives take special note of these events and the bands that perform well on them.

When a band gets to perform with a ton of other groups and musicians in front of lots of new fans - on a music festivals, for example - they also get the chance to network with more fans, bands, and music industry people than they would on your average local show. Festivals may also be a great chance for groups to sell all kinds of band merchandise - the more merch they can sell at a fest, the more the attendees will take interest in the group - for a local band, a T-shirt can be a walking, talking billboard of sorts, and can really create a buzz for the band somewhere like a local music fest.

As local music fests grow in popularity and more companies continue to hold these events, we will see more groups getting discovered from Music Festivals all across the country. There are a ton of success stories that start at music festivals. In 2011 at The Cleveland Music Festival - presented by Gorilla Music - Jeff Blue, the A&R representative who discovered Linkin Park, found guitarist Lance Dowdle performing in a local group, DNA. Jeff helped Lance get signed to Atlantic records, and he now plays guitar for the band, Emphatic.

For local bands, playing on a show where a scout or label representative is attending is an amazing opportunity to get discovered sooner rather than later. Today, Jeff Blue himself is once again in search of undiscovered talent, this time by collaborating with Gorilla Music for The Jeff Blue Contest Tour in cities all across the United States. On this city-by-city tour, bands will compete for a chance to write and record with Jeff himself in his studio in Los Angeles.

Gorilla Music music fests, like The Cleveland Music Festival for example, have always been great opportunities for local or unknown bands to get attention in their city. Unlike most other music festivals across the U.S., Gorilla Music's fests have National headliners but are really designed to showcase local bands and musicians as much as humanly possible. This differs from most house-hold name festivals which book almost entirely regional and national bands, leaving very little chance for local bands to get much notice. The next chance bands working with Gorilla Music will have to play on one of their music festivals will be The Dallas Music Festival, taking place at Deep Ellum venues this summer.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment