Fictional Festival Series Introduction

 One blog idea I have teased for at least a few weeks is the Fictional Festival series. A couple months into the pandemic, I began to create fictional festival lineups of various genres to pass time.  I started with a festival that was more of a metalcore version of Warped Tour (but still including certain Warped style acts of other genres) and did a few of those before expanding.  My plan with this series is to share my festival ideas, lineups, and my though process behind the decisions I made.

I currently have created the following festivals and lineups for them:

• Metalcore version of Warped Tour.  This is a one-day festival with 34 acts on 6 stages.  While Warped Tour was a touring festival for years, I treated this idea as if it were booking artists for a stationary festival due to my comfort level.
• Hard Rock/Metal festival.  I set it up in the same way that Epicenter was as guidance:  3 days, 4 stages, 68 acts total (22 on Friday, 23 on the other two days).
• Various Genre Hybrid Live/Virtual festival.  An idea obviously inspired by Covid-19, this is a 4-day festival with performers of various genres.  I initially scheduled it so there were 4 live acts per day and several other pre-recorded acts, but I plan to increase the number of live acts.
• Progressive Rock/Electronic festival.  A 2-day festival with 76 total acts across 6 stages.  I also expanded the festival to include some other stages, including experimental, avant-garde, post-rock, and certain subgenres of progressive or experimental metal.  There are also genre specific stages:  Day 1 has a stage dedicated for math rock and Day 2 has a stage dedicated to industrial.
• Still to come:  Jam festival.  It will likely be a 3-day festival, but I’m still figuring out how many artists I would like to include and finalizing which artists I should consider.

I have also considered festivals of various other genres, including alternative/rock, hip-hop/rap/R&B, country, electronic, and gothic rock.  I am not as invested with those other ideas at this time but are possible in the future.

I would also like to include a couple other notes and disclaimers here:

• None of the lineups I include are ones that have been announced as festivals do not represent festivals that will be occurring in real life.  While I try to make the festivals as realistic as possible, any drastic similarities between lineups are solely coincidental.
• Many festivals of similar genres either overlap or repeat artists in different years.  There will likely be artists I select that frequently perform at similar festivals.  I will try not to repeat artists for as long as I can.
• While I try have these festivals reflect real life festivals as much as possible, I did not account for an artist declining or being unable to come to terms with an agreement.
• Some artists that are included in some of these lineups are in the midst of a retirement tour.  While I didn’t include artists who actually did retire, I considered artists who plan to retire (i.e. Kiss, Lynyrd Skynyrd).
• In real festivals, a lot of artists booked will be on tour or have just released an album.  I did not account for this so I would be able to include more options for lineups.  I am considering this as an option for future lineups though.
• For the most part, did not treat each lineup to be treated in chronological order for any reason other than tracking purposes.  There are exceptions where the first festival should be treated as the first festival.
• I tried to imitate a real-life festival by including a mix of artists with different levels of popularity.  There are certain acts who are bigger, but there are several acts who are smaller names.
• I did not punish artists who struggled with album sales compared to usual during the pandemic.  I blamed that on lack of touring.
• Just like in life, there will be some excitement or disappointment with certain lineups.  While I will discuss why I did what I did, there might be disagreements with my decisions.  When that happens (or when there are some you like), I think it would be great to hear from you in the comments so we can start a conversation about our ideas for those; I might try to incorporate your ideas into a future festival lineup!

Do you have any other festivals I should consider creating?  Let me know in the comments!