Moderator: Melvin Benn, Festival Republic
Stuart Galbraith, Kilimanjaro Live / AEG
Folkert Koopmans, FKP Scorpio Konzertprod.
André Ménard, Festival Int’l de Jazz Montreal
Jackie Wartanian, CSM Center Stage Management
Cem Yegul, Pozitif Productions

Jackie Wartanian, Cem Yegul, Stuart Galbraith, Melvin Benn, André Ménard and Folkert Koopmans

While some of the leading international festival promoters set out to discuss the best practices of putting events together, the only conclusion from this panel might be that it all depends on what and where.v Folkert Koopmans was surprised and apparently a little miffed at the differences in fan behavior between the Coachella festival in California and his massively popular German festivals, asking why fans aren't drunk at Coachella and why they don't wear band merch to the festival. Still, the panel discussion was basically a compare/contrast session, explaining why a best practice in one country or festival isn't necessarily the best in another.

The major issues brought up involved catering, set length, festival currency (as opposed to traditional money) and waste reduction methods.

Melvin Benn

While trying to accommodate artists as much as possible, Benn said set length is usually more limited at the end of the day, and that dressing rooms for artists are always an issue of space and time.

Jackie Wartanian of Dubai-based Center Stage Management said she is limited by her location, which lacks some of the services required.

"Catering riders are usually just scratched off," she said, saying they "just adjust to what can be done." She also said hotel fees are triple in Dubai, and that "not everybody is a sheik" in the country. She said her Desert Rock festival has just instated its own currency for this year and will see how it works out.

Cem Yegul of Pozitif Productions in Turkey, although another developing market, is closer to Western Europe and therefore approaches the subject in a different manner than Wartanian.

Because of Istanbul's distance from the more-established festivals, "We try to make our festival as attractive as possible to get the kind of headliners needed to be successful," Yegul said, adding that they house artists in a five-star, riverside hotel with top-quality staff.

Yegul's Rock'n Coke festival uses its own currency, which he says works like a debit card. The biggest bank in Turkey is one of the sponsors of the event and fans can pick up their festival currency at the bank's branches and other locations.

"This way you can see what is working and who buys what," he said. "We want to understand the audience's behavior." He said the festival, since starting five years ago, now draws 26,000 fans each day with a ticket price comparable to the Western European festivals.

FKP Scorpio managing director Folkert Koopmans, who runs such major German events as Southside, Highfield and Hurricane, seemed to be more in line with Benn's philosophy, letting the festival determine the production elements. "Two or three headliners can bring their own monitor system. Others have to use what is available," he said, adding that they employ first-class catering because it's important to the acts as well as to Koopmans, who likes to eat well.

He said hotels "are a nightmare," where sometimes artists don't show up and there are too many acts for it to be practical.

André Ménard and Jackie Wartanian

Stuart Galbraith, who left Live Nation to start his own company with the help of AEG, acknowledged that with "187 festivals" in the U.K., he was "coming back into the market not to compete with Reading and Leeds" but because "there is still a need for niche festivals." His Kilimanjaro Live has bought into Wakestock, which started as a sporting event and has grown into a festival for 20,000 watersports fans.

Andre Menard of Festival de International de Montreal has a completely different event from most. His two concurrent festivals host 3,000 musicians over three days, with 120 ticketed events and 250 events spanning a three-block area of Montreal.

Therefore, catering is difficult. He said his biggest need is to "surprise and impress the audience, which is used to live entertainment."

On green initiatives, which Benn said are "much more acute in Europe than in the U.S." and are "absolutely forced" by the fans, interesting waste-reducing plans have been put into use with increasing success, according to the panelists. One method is to make fans pay a waste deposit, which is returned when a cup is recycled or a garbage bag is filled. This does not guarantee that fans won't throw away their garbage, Benn said, but some enterprising observers will pick up the trash of others and make a few pounds.

Benn also noted that campers at Reading and Leeds left 20,000 tents last year, but 12,000 of those were picked up and recycled with volunteer help. However, one downfall of such success stories is that future festivalgoers might throw away their garbage under the assumption that others will care more about the waste and clean up after them.