Developing a Festival ~ Planning

       8. Sub Committee Job Descriptions

Each committee will need a hierarchy and its member will need to know what is expected of them. Now is the time to develop specific job descriptions for each position. 

9. Sub Committee Action Plans

Each sub committee should prepare its own Action Plan, Budget and Critical Path. The format should be similar to the overall plan and budget and should reflect the actions and figures detailed in the overall plan.

10. Contingency Planning

Contingency planning is an important part of your overall festival planning. Who knows what problems could arise? Taking all or as many eventualities in to consideration is just common sense. Problems will occur during both the planning and implementation phases of your festival. How you handle each problem (opportunity) will affect your festival’s final success (or failure). All problems should be considered and alternative plans should ready. Unplanned circumstances can easily come about. Weather, manpower, strikes, war, fire, etc can all happen. Have an alternate date available. Make sure you have more manpower available than you actually need. Have a cancellation strategy in place in case the event has to cancelled or postponed. These all seem simple and obvious, but considering them before the event could save a lot of embarrassment later on. One last word, if you do need to cancel your festival, make sure you have a plan to notify potential attendees that it has been cancelled. Place an ad in your local newspaper; take out radio and/or TV ads and place a notice on your website. There is nothing worse then traveling for several hours to attend a festival only to find that it has been cancelled.