From the outside, entering the music industry seems incredibly daunting, sometimes impossible. Scrolling through the various job applications and finding that you aren’t qualified for much will likely leave you unsure of where to even start. But luckily in this industry, it isn’t all about your education and experience, but rather who you know and your involvement in the community.
So how do you meet these people and get involved? The internet is always an option, but there is truly no better way than building connections in person, especially on common grounds like a music festival. Working and volunteering at music festivals are likely your best option when trying to navigate your way into the music industry. Not only will you gain experience, but you will also meet many great people along the way, which could lead to other opportunities. So how do you get involved with music festivals?
Stephanie Rosa x Respect My Region Exclusive Interview
Respect My Region sat down with festival maven Stephanie Rosa to chat about how to get involved with music festivals, the benefits, her position as VP of Sales at Festicket, her journey with Festival Squad, and much more. She dropped tons of valuable advice for those trying to get into the music industry, sharing her own personal experiences and anecdotes. Continue reading to learn all about Stephanie’s journey and ways you can follow a similar path.
Starting in business, switching to political science, ultimately ending up graduating with a degree in advertising, and then working in various industries over the years, Stephanie Rosa has undoubtedly experienced a lot leading up to her current position. Through her various careers and a year of traveling, Stephanie found that her passion lies in music and festivals, and that she is very good at sales, too.
During her travels, a friend suggested that she starts blogging about it, highlighting the different music festivals she hits along the way. She found that people were actually reading her stuff and really enjoying it, especially the music festival content opposed to the general travel blogs. Consequently, she turned the blog into a full festival page, and Festival Squad was soon born.
Festival Squad
From there, Festival Squad has grown immensely. Over the years, Stephanie received what she likes to call “love notes” from readers. Many of those people are now apart of the team. In fact, Festival Squad now has dozens of writers and photographers worldwide. For those looking to get involved, visit their website and shoot an email to info@festivalsquad.com.
“It just kind of catapulted as we were getting these emails from people. I used to call them love notes, and they were just like, I love your blog. I love what you guys are doing. How do I be a part of it?”
Getting Involved with Music Festivals
Stephanie really stresses how great of a stepping stone into the industry it is to get involved with music festivals. Aside from the undeniable magic in the air, it gives you the opportunity to meet other like-minded people and professionals. And contrary to what you may believe, festivals are pretty easy to get involved with.
“It is such a great stepping stone for folks that are looking to get into the industry full time. We’ve had folks from our team get hired full time with Insomniac, Excision… they get booked by tons of different artists for paid projects… Madison House, which does Electric Forest.”
All festivals need volunteers and it is typically as easy as applying through their website. Through that you could meet industry professionals and gain experience that can lead to a full time position in the industry. You may even come across opportunities to write about festivals, which could give you the opportunity to get press passes at events.
“It’s honestly crazy how many people you get to know through conversations or being on site. You just spark up these conversations that later can just turn into a full-time role.”
Festicket
Through Stephanie’s hard work and dedication she started working at Festicket a couple of years ago. She started out as a Business Development Manager and as of a few months ago, she is now the VP of Sales. This position combines her love for music festivals and her sales expertise.
Festicket is a b2b2c company that does everything from marketing events to ticketing events to organizing travel, setting up cashless systems, and more. Therefore, they call it an end-to-end platform because they work from pre-sale to post sale.
Now, Stephanie’s days consist of talking on the phone with promoters, mainly. From what she told us, though, she absolutely loves it.
“It’s really fun because I talk about festivals all the time. And you know, my motivation for getting into this industry has always been the fan because that’s what I was, am, and will continue to be.”
“I’m sure you’ve been at a festival before where you’re like, ‘What is taking so long? All they have to do is scan the ticket. Like, what’s going on?’ Things like that are what I get to talk about every day. It’s like, how do we make the experience better? How do we keep the fees low? How do we make sure that the festival is still making enough money to book that next big artist in the next year and things like that. So it’s really strategizing with the event organizers on best practices so that they’re happy, the ticket holders are happy, and that our company is happy. And just finding that really nice synergy.”
RMR: What do you feel help prepared you the most for your career in the music industry?
“There’s a couple answers to this question. One was just getting started. A lot of people say they aren’t ready – like their music isn’t ready, their graphic design skills, all these things. And I think the answer is, no you are ready. Also, knowing that you aren’t going to know everything, and to ask questions. I think the number one thing that prepared me is failure. Anytime I’ve failed in something, which is more times than I can admit, I learned a lesson from it and built from it. Even if you didn’t get the job, even if somebody tells you that you didn’t do a good job, ask for feedback, like what could have gone differently? You know, those kind of things. And then taking that and moving forward.”
She continues to stress the importance of just getting started, and gives more tips on how to do so. If you’re looking to get involved with events, whether it’s volunteering or working, there are many Facebook groups that post positions. She suggests trying out different positions at every event to see what you like the most, and to meet different kinds of people.
Moreover, she also suggests checking out virtual conferences as there are so many more happening now than ever before. This gives you the opportunity to learn from experts with direct experience. Listening to the speakers could prove motivating and help you figure out what direction you may want to take in the industry.
Balancing Work and Personal Life
Furthermore, Stephanie gives tips on how to balance work and personal life. She stresses the importance of knowing the difference between urgent and important.
“Sometimes there’s something that’s important and it’s not urgent. That means it can wait. So if that important thing is the difference between you getting three or six hours of sleep- get those six hours of sleep. You’re going to be more efficient in the morning.”
“Knowing how to take what you’re doing in a day and classifying it appropriately is going to be one of the healthiest things that you can do. Prioritizing things appropriately has helped me a lot.”
Stephanie’s Favorite Music Festivals
We simply had to ask Stephanie what her favorite festivals are. In predictable fashion, she tells us she has multiple answers.
“Favorite festival of all time is Glastonbury, which is in the UK. Biggest music festival worldwide, 225,000 people a day. You could be on site for an entire week and you’ll never see the whole festival… like it’s crazy. My favorite festival in North America is Shambala, which is in Canada. The vibes are just incredible. It’s small. It’s just very intimate, very well done. I love that festival. And then favorite festival in the US is Coachella. Great food, super organized, very clean, diverse lineup.”
“Festivals are a place for me to just not care and be myself, and be able to make friends doing that. So I want to create that environment and create more opportunities for people to go and have those kinds of weekends.”
Stephanie Rosa
Connect with Stephanie Rosa
LinkedIn | Festicket | Festival Squad
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