A charity event in North East Derbyshire
9 / 10 / 11 SEPTEMBER 2022
Whitwell Festival of Music
Application info
Thank you for considering being a part of Whitwell Festival 2020 - we really appreciate the time that bands and musicians take to send their material to us. Last year we had over 150 applications with only around 15 slots to fill, so we're sure you can appreciate that we had a difficult job choosing who to pick!
As a team of organisers, we have to agree on a varied line-up that will pull in ticket-buyers (the more tickets we sell, the more we raise for the charities we support). It's not easy as we all have personal preferences but we do ensure that we read, listen to and watch all the promotional stuff we are sent.
We have links with other festival organisers and so often discuss the band application process, and from this have put together a few tips that we hope will help artists make their application a stand-out one whichever festival they are applying to.
1. Brief description/biography.
We don't have time (we are unpaid volunteers, as are many other organisers) to read through reams of stuff telling us life stories of each band member over thirty years. What we DO want to know is: what your genre is; where you are based (we make a few exceptions, but generally book bands from a 40-mile radius as they will bring fans and keep our carbon footprint down); what makes you quirky/different from other bands in that genre; and how many musicians are in your band and would be playing at the festival (we have so many applications from solo/duos yet the video they send shows numerous musicians on stage - please be clear, we need to know).
2. Live Video.
If you don't send us one we can't consider your application. Nowadays it's not difficult to get a mate to record you on a phone at a gig. That's all we are asking for. We really DON'T want your official band video no matter how great it is - you can send it us later if you get booked and we will use it on our Facebook as promotion, but all we want at this stage is to know how you look and perform in a real live setting, preferably with an audience (rather than a studio shoot).
3. Music tracks.
If we've already been hooked by your description and like what we see of your live video we'll have a further listen to your links. Spotify accounts are useful too, to see what related artists pop up, how many listeners/followers you have, plus if you get booked we can add you to our festival playlist.
4. Facebook/website links.
We like to see that bands have an online presence and if you have gig listings it's likely that we may turn up at one of your gigs to check you out. Social media is a must nowadays and we like to see how you promote and interact with your fanbase.
5. Fee/Expense requirements.
We don't want bands to end up out of pocket by coming to play for us. Last year all the artists and bands got something, even if it was only £20 towards their petrol money, and we feel it's only fair to continue this policy. Please fill in the box with a realistic sum and we will be happy to consider you. If you leave it blank we will assume that you're happy to play for free!
We're looking forward to hearing from you!!