Team NH7 Has Compiled A Festival Guide For Artists

Loudest.in reached out to NH7 Team, to help us compile a guide for all the budding musicians out prepping for the festival season out there. When pioneers talk, you listen. OML, After providing a platform to 400+ independent artists over the course of 8 years via NH7 Weekender,  the team shares some important note-worthy tips to budding musicians on how to prepare for the D-day.

1. Planning The Right Set

Planning the right set list is one of the most important parts of performing at the music festival. So while you prepare your set-list, consider your new songs with which you think the band can win over new fans from an audience that's listening to you for the first time along with older material that are fan favorites. At a festival like NH7 Weekender, your music will be exposed to fans across genres. Very often you will find a metalhead listening to bass music. Once the band has a rough idea of how the set-list is shaping up, rehearse the songs until you are confident about each and every part. If the live rendition of a song is not sounding right best to skip performing the song live. 

 

2. Hype it up in Sync With Your Festival Promoter

Content-led fan engagement on social media platforms is pretty big these days. One of the key things that our marketing team works on is an artist-led marketing strategy. Artists are involved in a photo shoot for Instagram stories, FB lives, press interviews and communicating the date of their performance on the day we release our day wise line up. Artists are also encouraged to make their own posters for the specific promotional purpose of their set.

The lineup announcement strategy also plays a big part of our marketing. In the past artists have announced each other, fans have announced their favorite acts playing NH7. The strategy for this year was to release a series of videos to communicate the names of the headliners, key acts playing the festival along with discovery acts. As much as headliners are important and play a big part in our communication discovery remains a very important part of the NH7 Line-up. From the biggest of rock acts to the newest of singer-songwriters. Both are equally important. There are on ground promotional opportunities like Meet & Greets with a very select group of fans and playing short acoustic sets or being part of a podcast to speak about your band at some of the branded zones at the festival. 

 

3. Enhancing The Set by Adding Engaging Elements

[caption id="attachment_1965" align="alignleft" width="300"] Tool Live[/caption] Most bands have come a long way in terms of their production. In some of the early editions of Weekender, the number of bands coming to the festival with their own sound engineer, visual jockey, and stage techs was very limited. Literally 2-3 bands at best among 50 odd acts but over the years it's reached a place where a lot more bands show up with a dedicated sound engineer, VJs get in touch with us to check LED specs, bands submit a crew list prior to the festival that consists of well-trained guitar and drum techs. Building a good unit of crew members is really important towards putting together a good show.  

4. Make Sure Your Backend is Strong Before The Festival!

5. Sound Engineer & Audience Interaction at Festival!

6. Merchandise & On-Ground Activations at Festival

At the NH7 Bazaar you will find merch stall dedicated to artist and festival merch. All acts who are part of the line up are encouraged to sell their own merch. Very often bands bring out their DIY ethic best with the merchandise made available to their fans.T-shirts and badges are a big hit among the fans. Merchandise also plays an important part in shaping the identity of an artist.

     

7. Post- Festival Promotions

   

Signing Off,

Team NH7

Contributors: Vijay Nair | Anuj Gupta | Debyaan Deb

Compiled By | Suhas Thobbi, Loudest.in