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Author Topic: Advice Needed on reviewing a festival  (Read 4026 times)

Bowers

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Advice Needed on reviewing a festival
« on: 07 Jun 2011, 08:59 »

So, after completing my degree this year I’ve managed to secure a deal with the student newspaper to review the four day festival Beach Break (http://www.beachbreaklive.com/en-uk/frontpage/index). I have some experience in doing reviews, I’ve been writing on and off before and during my degree for local papers, websites such as Channel 4 Music as well as a couple of music blogs.

I’ve been following this forum for a long time now, and have learned a lot about music and discovered so many new bands from this website .What I’m hoping you guys could help me out with is some advise on reviewing the festival as a whole. This is something I’ve never done before and it’s a fantastic opportunity for me to get a foot in the door to a very tough industry

I’m attending the festival with a photographer and a good friend of mine whose managed to secure the tickets as well as access all areas passes and will be given the opportunity to interview the acts as well as writing an editorial on the festival as a whole. Any advice you could give me, interview tips or...well anything really, would help me out.  I’ve done my research, I’m making my way through the line up and I’m hoping to be able to write something concentrating on the fact that BB is a student based festival. I feel this is a very poignant and apt background to not only comment on the influence music has on university students within the UK, but to also comment on the raising of tuition fees this year, what it will mean for future university students and also comment on the riots in London that occurred during the parliamentary procedure that led to the raising of tuition fees
Cheers for all your help and thanks for expanding my music collection over the past couple of years
Bowers
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leftandleaving

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Re: Advice Needed on reviewing a festival
« Reply #1 on: 07 Jun 2011, 11:53 »

This sounds an awful lot like the plot to Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas.  Perhaps you should start with two bags of grass, seventy-five pellets of mescaline, five sheets of high powered blotter acid, a salt shaker half full of cocaine, and a whole galaxy of multi-colored uppers, downers, screamers, laughers... and also a quart of tequila, a quart of rum, a case of beer, a pint of raw ether and two dozen amyls?
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Melodic

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Re: Advice Needed on reviewing a festival
« Reply #2 on: 07 Jun 2011, 15:38 »

Seems like you have your bases covered, but here's my 101 anyway:

-know your shit. Research and listen to everyone. Know what you're getting into, this goes double if you're interviewing acts. Come up with interesting questions.

-no one wants to read about what bands played what songs. You're reviewing a FESTIVAL, so talk about the crowd, the venues, interesting events or things that caught your attention. The entire show is a character and the music is a big part but not the only part.

-have fun!

-show yr all-access badge to as many nubile young women as possible. Attempt to copulate. Write about that.
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And if you played too hard it'd flop out and dangle around by the wire and that is just super ugly

Bowers

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Re: Advice Needed on reviewing a festival
« Reply #3 on: 07 Jun 2011, 17:49 »

 leftandleaving, you have no many times that thought has run through my head. I've just finished an 8,000 word dissertation on Hunter S. Thompson and Gonzo journalism. All I need is a big red convertible...

As far as the festival goes it looks like there's going to be a lot going on, so I'll have a lot to cover. It's not just the main stage that I'm going to covering. There's a shit tonne of workshops, poetry open mic tents, comedy tents, surfing competitions and all sorts, so it looks like I'm going to have a lot to do bar drink and get stoned.


-show yr all-access badge to as many nubile young women as possible. Attempt to copulate. Write about that.

Also very much looking forward to this
« Last Edit: 07 Jun 2011, 17:53 by Bowers »
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Melodic

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Re: Advice Needed on reviewing a festival
« Reply #4 on: 07 Jun 2011, 18:59 »

seriously dude if you get laid at all during this festival, substitute your review with a graphic and detailed description of your sex. the title of the article would be the name of the festival and then the rest of it is just dicks and vagoos.
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And if you played too hard it'd flop out and dangle around by the wire and that is just super ugly

Bowers

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Re: Advice Needed on reviewing a festival
« Reply #5 on: 08 Jun 2011, 05:02 »

Well at the moment I dont have a tent to sleep in, so I might make it a mission to sleep in a different tent every night
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