How to Build a Festival

Episode 36 - Some announcements - moving our festival forwards and a call for artists

We round up our favourite recent gigs before getting into some exciting details for our first festival, and what’s been holding up a launch
If you’d like to play, please get in touch with us on Instagram at Howtobuildafest or email us at howtobuildafest@gmail.com

Episode 35 - Festival set design and getting involved in the festival industry with Jack Leather

We are joined for the first of two episodes with Jack Leather who talks us through his many involvements in the festival world, including building installations for major festivals, and what is the OOFestivals Discord (more to follow on that!)

Episode 34 - Walthamstow’s live music scene with Turncoat Billy

We talk to Turncoat Billy’s lead singer Jonny about the local music scene in the area we’re looking to put our festival, the band’s upcoming event, what makes a good experience for a band, and it was like being championed by his local MP for Christmas number 1!

Episode 33 - Supporting the Libertines and major festival bookings - chatting with Soaked

We chat with Brandon from Soaked about the challenges of being independent, and the epic adventures of the band in 2024, major festival bookings for 2025. Amongst our struggles to name our festival, Brandon tells us how he named the band.

Episode 32 - Glastonbury and Green Man lineup reactions and trying to name our festival

The team react to the Glastonbury and Green Man lineup posters, and then debate what we’re going to call our festival, with less than perfect alignment across the gang!
Last week we joined Bilal and Tilly on Festival Sounds - catch their episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3JNhYwo56DCZvXl5xS5LBa?si=T5Y3hyGiR0K_tbqsoVSwbg

Episode 31 - Reflections from Festival Congress 2025

After our first visit to Festival Congress, we talk about what we learned as well as gigs we’ve been to and looking forward to in the second half of February

Episode 30 - Lilo talk us through what makes a great festival for artists

The brilliant lilo’s Helen and Christie kindly spent some time with Rachel and Cat talking about their favourite festival experiences, what makes a great festival to play at, and how to bring gender balance to lineups, including a manifesto for women in music!
lilo have a new album in the spring and a UK headline tour in April - see you there

Episode 29 - Rockaway Beach recap and our team new year resolutions

We recap and learn about Rockaway Beach with new guest Ali, and talk about our resolutions for 2025 and what we’re doing with the podcast this year

Episode 28 - Recapping our favourite festivals and gigs of 2024

We run through our favourite music from 2024, our top gigs and what’s going on our playlist at the start of 2025.
Thanks for listening this year, here’s to a great 2025 - we can’t wait to share what we’ve got in store

Episode 27 - Chatting with Lakefest’s Lee Martin

Cat and Rach are joined by Lee Martin, who talks all about the journey of starting and growing a new festival over the course of over a decade, shares his advice for building our festival, and talks through his newly released book from the incredible story of developing Lakefest
https://lakefest.co.uk/product/festival-of-love-and-pain/