dimanche 30 mars 2014

Music Festivals For Local Bands

By Michael Fitzgerald


In the past 5 years alone, new music festivals have sprouted up all across the country, from major cities like Chicago and Austin, to places almost literally in the middle of nowhere, like a desert in Nevada or an unassuming campground in the Ohio Valley. But no matter where they take place, these music festivals always seem to attract huge audiences - and offer an amazing opportunity for local bands to get noticed. Local bands lucky enough to earn their way to a stage on a music festival not only get the chance to perform for massive crowds, but many record labels and A&R representatives take special note of these events and the bands that perform well on them.

When a local group gets to perform with a bunch of other bands and musicians in front of tons of potential fans - like they would on a music festival - they also have the chance to meet and make friends with other bands, brand new fans, and music industry personnel on a scale far greater than they would ever get to on a regular local show. These Music Festivals are also be a great chance for groups to sell band merchandise - the more merchandise (especially T-shirts) a band can sell at a music festival, the better the odds are that the attendees will take interest in the group. For local bands, a T-shirt is infinitely more effective that a billboard, a radio ad, or even a TV commercial. A fan of a local band wearing a band T-shirt has the potential to be a walking, talking billboard advocating the band. This can really create a buzz for the group, especially some place like a music festival.

As more and more cities continue to host these events, and they continue to snowball in popularity, undoubtedly more and more local bands and musicians will get "discovered" at them. There are already many, many, success stories out there of local musicians being discovered like diamonds in the rough at local music festivals alone. For example, at Gorilla Music's CMF just 3 years ago, Jeff Blue (an A&R rep most well known for discovering Linkin Park and working with them on their first album) discovered guitarist Lance Dowdle on the local band DNA. Jeff would later help Lance get signed to Atlantic records, and in turn become guitarist for the national rock band, Emphatic.

Playing on a show where a talent scout or label rep is in attendance is a great way for a group to get discovered quickly. Currently, Jeff Blue is again in search of undiscovered talent, this time by working with Gorilla Music to put on The Jeff Blue Contest Tour in cities all across the country, where bands will compete for a chance to go to Los Angeles and actually write and record a song with Jeff himself.

The Cleveland Music Festival and many other Gorilla Music festivals continue to be amazing opportunities for unknown or local bands to get noticed in their home market. Unlike many other music festivals out there today, Gorilla Music's festivals are designed to showcase the local talent as much as possible while still including National headliners in order to draw bigger crowds. This differs from many other house-hold name music fests which book 90% regional or national bands and leave very little chance for local bands to get much attention. Gorilla Music holds many music fests every year, the next one being The Dallas Music Festival, which is set to take place May 30th to June 1st at venues in and around the Deep Ellum area or Dallas.




About the Author:



Aucun commentaire:

Enregistrer un commentaire