Filmmakers Ethan and Joel Coen and actor Jeff Daniels at FestForums' conference in November 2017. (Courtesy FestForums)
The raging wildfires in California have prevented some registrants from attending a festival conference this week in Santa Barbara, but organizers hope to provide some industry fellowship in the midst of difficult times.
Roughly 200 of the 1,000 people registered for FestForums’ conference, which began Wednesday night and continues through Friday at the Hilton Santa Barbara Beachfront Resort, were unable to attend, but organizers are grateful they can still host the event.
“We are fine up here. Thank goodness. Some of the attendees have been affected in both southern and northern California, but the show will go on and we want to show everyone a good time in these very stressful times,” said Laurie Kirby, co-founder and co-president of FestForums, a Santa Barbara-based company that produces two conferences a year for the festival industry.
One of FestForums’ beverage sponsors, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., canceled because many of its workers lost their homes to the fires. The Camp Fire barely missed the company’s Chico brewery and Sierra Nevada founder Ken Grossman and his family donated $100,000 to start a relief fund, according to the Chico Enterprise-Record.
Despite the devastation in California, Kirby and fellow co-founder and co-president Stuart MacNaught were working long days leading up to the convention to make sure they could still educate and lift the spirits of festival operators, vendors, artists and others. Participants also include event producers, ticketing companies, sponsors and merchandisers, all of which work with festivals annually around the globe.
“It’s sort of like summer camp where (attendees) come back every year to work together and collaborate,” MacNaught said. “We’ve got amazing speakers. We have a talent karaoke show on Thursday night.”
Panel sessions include talking about event safety, cannabis use, branding, booking artists, marketing ideas, and picking the right venue for festivals.
Musical artists are always part of the lineup to entertain attendees, and Michael McDonald, Dennis Quaid, Kenny Loggins and Dishwalla are some of the headlining acts.
Small and large festival operators take part, giving them an opportunity to learn from one another, said Kevin Lyman, founder and CEO of the Vans Warped Tour.
“It’s very niche. It’s very focused. Everyone has the same passion, the same concerns. It’s cathartic in some ways for people to understand that they’re not alone,” Lyman said. “Once you share a concern … you can start working on a solution.”
The goal is to provide professional development and best practices for small festivals and larger ones, such as Coachella and South by Southwest.
Like any industry conference, cocktail parties and awards ceremonies also are on the roster, including the Best of the Fests, honoring the year’s best festivals.
FestForums started four years ago when MacNaught and Kirby sat down and outlined their business model on a couple of cocktail napkins at an Applebee’s restaurant during South by Southwest in Austin, Texas. Kirby was previously an attorney for festivals, and MacNaught worked on the marketing side of the business.
“We started working together and we always wanted to start a business together,” MacNaught said.
Kirby also worked as an adviser for festival operators, and she saw missing pieces in a lot of festival work.
“I saw the pain points that festivals were having,” she said. “(Now we have) smaller ones who are trying to understand how the big ones got big and what can they do to make sure they’re not the next festival that closes because of mismanagement or weather or gun violence.”