Roots music festivalpdf

DES09116

Visual Communications

Roots Music Festival Laura Wilson Visual Communications Assessment 2 1884 words

1

40214421

DES09116

Visual Communications

40214421

1 The What, When and Where?

Roots Festival is an event scheduled to run in July in Balquhidder, Trossachs National Park, Loch Lomond, Scotland.

The Roots Music Festival will feature three genres; country, bluegrass and folk music. Which will be aimed at a general target audience of adults, aged 25 - 65 who have a passion for one or more of the genres mentioned.

2 The Inspiration When looking at festivals in the UK and the reasons why they are so popular you find it is because they provide the average Briton with the chance to escape normality and some consider it a holiday. In the Association for Independent Festivals Report (2013), 45.2% said that they would rather go to a festival than go on holiday and 22% said, in the UKFA Market Report (2013), they go to festivals to escape normal life.

With these statistics in mind, it became my primary objective to create a festival that would allow the audience to feel they were also on a short holiday.

3 Genres 3.1

Folk - the music of the people

Folk music is described as “the music of the people� and comes in many different forms. It can be psychedelic, spiritual, traditional or feature a pop twist to make it more contemporary which allows for a variety of listeners within the audience.

3.1.1 Acts Potential Folk acts for Roots Musical Festival are Harry Harris, The Unthanks, Findlay Napier, Hewerdine, Altan, Joe Topping, Tom Kitching and Fabien Holland.

These acts were chosen as they are some of the more popular acts within this niche genre and their participation will bring in their own fan base.

3.2

Country & Bluegrass

Country music is a branch of south-eastern American folk music which has grown in popularity in the UK and bluegrass is considered American roots music. Both genres are similar in style and are often confused for each other. As a result, it felt best to have both genres play on the same stage to the same audience.

As bluegrass is of a similar style to that of folk music it could entice many folk music lovers to the Country and Bluegrass Area, allowing them to experience acts they may have never heard of before and introduce them to a new genre and style of music.

3.2.1 Potential Acts Picking potential acts for this genre was something which required a lot of consideration as there are so many acts from the USA who are popular in the UK but may not be within the budget of the festival. However, some popular US acts who are known to attend the various country festivals in the UK are Luke Bryan, Brad Paisley, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, 2

DES09116

Visual Communications

40214421

Little Big Town, Rascal Flatts, Sonia Leigh, Striking Matches and John & Jacob. There are many UK acts who have become extremely popular, such as Raintown, Dexeter, Accoustic Journey, Honey Ryder, Meghan O'Neil and Steve Black.

As for bluegrass, the potential acts are as follows, The Kentucky Cow Tippers, Blossom Hill, Cup O’Joe, Jaywalkers, The Carrivick Sisters, Contraband, Thunderbridge and Antique Popsters. Along with popular American Bluegrass singer Alison Krauss.

3.2.2 Mainstage The mainstage will only feature acts on the Friday and Saturday and will host acts who are considered ‘popular’ such as Mumford and Sons, Bob Dylan and Post Modern Jukebox, who have a large following on Youtube.

4 Target Audience 4.1.1 Target Audience Roots Music Festival is a festival aimed at families and groups aged 25-65, with music and fun for all ages. The primary target audience are male/female, 30-65 who have a love of the genres featured at the festival. They may enjoy pass times such as gardening, painting, crafts or DIY and seek out information on their chosen hobby. They enjoy an element of the fantastical, taking particular interest to films and television programmes such as Game of Thrones, Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Their enjoyment of this does not stop at the screen, they are inclined to purchase merchandise and collect memorabilia from franchises and display them with great pride.

While certain members of the target audience will be more outgoing and ‘individual’ in their style and appearance, most will be your average joe. Holding down professional careers such as teaching, medicine or working in the public sector. However, in their own time they spend their time reading publications specific to their music preference and seeking out gig and concert information for their favourite acts/bands. They will be more inclined to pay a bit more for tickets to see their favourites as the chances to see them may be limited.

When delving further there are certain ‘tribes’ within the target audience whom would be targeted also.

4.1.2 Audience - Musicians This tribe will enjoy music at the root. They will enjoy playing and practising music on various instruments and could possibly be teachers of the art. As they enjoy music as a part of their life instead of just as a hobby they will attend concerts and possibly play in front of audiences regularly and like to ‘jam’ with other musicians.

4.1.3 Audience - Hipsters/young folk This tribe is a consequence of ‘pop’ culture. Hipsters are the ‘cool kids’ who follow what they consider to be ‘odd and individual’ that they believe make them stand out from the crowd and seem ‘too cool for school’. They are generally students with part time employment in bars, nightclubs and pubs.

3

DES09116

Visual Communications

40214421

4.1.4 Activities There will be a host of different fayres and stalls selling, crafts, art supplies, bric-a-brac, trinkets and ornaments. These stalls will be present during all three days, however, there will be art classes and kids entertainment organised for specific times. In keeping with the Celtic and rural theme of the folk area there will be a ceilidh event on the Sunday evening with live music, food and traditional highland dance. And to keep to the country feel there will be a BBQ, mechanical bull, line dancing and an open mic.

5 Logo Research Whilst researching different folk, bluegrass and country festival logos there were some common trends: Guitars or other instruments Earthy greens and yellows Nature (leaves, trees, animals) Taking this into consideration I decided to narrow down the research and focus on logos featuring these subjects to properly gain a knowledge of what works and what does not.

6 Logo Design During the design process there was many different avenues I considered taking, e.g. having a Celtic design fill the guitar base. However, this didn’t have the desired effect and looked amateur and cheap. After careful reflection and further creative thought, I decided to experiment with different guitar vectors and incorporating leaves or petals instead of a cluttered Celtic pattern.

After playing around with different color palettes I felt it best to stick to the colors featured in figure 2.

Figure 1 Colour palettes consulted during design process

4

DES09116

Visual Communications

40214421

7 Final Logo The final logo became a combination of all three common trends mentioned in section 3. It is the appropriate blend of nature, to appeal to the different tribes mentioned in section 2 (many of the target audience enjoy the outdoors and gardening), instruments (the guitar will draw the attention of musicians) and earthy greens and yellows. The guitar is a dark burgundy to subtly hint to the country element of the festival and its American heritage.

8 Focus Group Through an online focus group there were slight changes made to both the logo and the poster to make them more in keeping with the genre and the theme of the festival and maintain consistency throughout all advertising media.

9 Poster Research After the logo was developed it was easier to build an image of the poster. The poster had to reflect the audience, theme and tone of voice of the festival and incorporate the logo.

Consistency throughout all media was something that was always under consideration when looking at other posters and drawing together research and inspiration. The poster had to involve the three common trends previously mentioned and still be unique to this particular festival.

There were many different posters which proved inspirational, incorporating different elements of nature and musical instruments, whilst also conveying the theme of the festivals. A common theme running through the posters drawn together was a rough, organic feel, using textures such as old paper, wood and burnt images.

10 Poster Design Taking the textures and colours mentioned above (section 6) it was easy to create a basic format and layout for the Roots poster. The main aim was to make sure the poster incorporated the three genres featured at Roots. The poster design was relatively simple and straight forward, although there were many changes made throughout to make sure the right feeling was achieved.

11 Final Poster The final poster was made to look as if the logo and text had been burnt onto a painted piece of wood. The creative thinking behind this was to make the poster looked like it could be found in an establishment frequented by all three genre audiences. Such as country bars, on country/bluegrass blogs and arts and crafts fayres. This created a simple yet elegant, organic and uncluttered poster which appropriately and effectively conveys Roots Music Festival and all it encompasses.

5

DES09116

Visual Communications

40214421

12 Sponsors The sponsor search for Roots Festival was at first quite difficult. However, with Scottish companies such as Highland Spring, Megabus (Stagecoach), Edinburgh Woolen Mill and Tunnocks who may be keen to support an event with a potentially big and diverse audience, the search became much easier. The Trossachs National Park Trust is also a good sponsor, along with local businesses sponsoring the event also.

13 Social Media & Online Presence In order to generate a buzz about the festival there will be a relatively simple but engaging campaign spread across social media. This campaign will incorporate the hashtag #musicalroots and will run across Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. The headlining acts will be asked to post a short video where they explain/show what their musical inspiration is and to share these videos on their own social media sites. Followers will then be encouraged to post their own inspiration, whether musical or artistic and to use #musicalroots in their posts. These posts can be pictures, written or videos. This engagement will get consumers excited about the festivals and create a more personal connection with the festival and performing acts. Youtube will be used to post behind-the-scenes content to allow the audience to feel involved in the festival and to inspire a feeling of excitement.

14 Experiential Launch Event Flashmobs, although once a viral phenomenon, are now considered to be retro and videos of them are very rarely seen on the social media network these days. However, this can be used to the advantage of the festival. Using two flashmobs and combining them into one can appropriately illustrate how this festival will work.

There will be two groups, one dressed in stereotypical cowboy dress performing line dancing.

The second group will be dressed in traditional highland attire (e.g. kilt) performing ceilidh dances. There will be a band present, performing two songs separately as the groups perform a dance off.

Eventually both groups come together to perform a combined version of line dancing and traditional ceilidh dance.

This is will be filmed and shared on social media with the hashtag #musicalroots, to influence social media following.

15 References Association Independent Festivals. (2013). Annual Report.

UK Festival Awards. (2013). Market Report.

6