emily bloch - music festival coverage - college media
TRANSCRIPT
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How to Cover a Music Festival
Before you’re Old Enough to Drink At One
Emily Bloch - Music Journo // Freelance Reporter^ college student!
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What’s The Gig? - PR versus critical coverage
- Who were you hired by?
- What’s their objective?
- If you’re working for the festival, you can’t say a band sucked harder than any band you’ve ever seen in your life. But that doesn’t mean you lie.
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The Loophole
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Pre-Planning - There’s no such thing as “winging it”
- Priority bands
- Location
- Format: longform? Time stamps? Short motifs?
- List it all out: number of bands, set times, stages
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Examples Timestamp
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Examples
Narrative
(no interview)
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ExamplesMore Narrative (With an interview)
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Pre-Planning- Ask about the logistics
- Things to think about: parking, meals, green room, equipment storage, bathrooms (yes, really), A/C, wifi, etc. — You may not even want to break out your laptop.
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Interview Requests“Hi publicist’s name,
This is Emily Bloch, blogger for this year's SunFest.
With BAND NAME set to perform, it'd be great if we could arrange a phone interview within the next week or two to run as a preview.
We'd love to promote the band's South Florida performance on the festival's official blog -- catered specifically to show-goers.
Looking forward to hearing from you,
Your name here
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What To Bring- The journo stuff: digital recorder, external phone charger(s), notepads, pens (bring all of the pens), laptop and charger
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What Else to Bring- The non-journalistic stuff: sealed water bottles, protein bars, a light sandwich (non-perishable), poncho, ziplock bags, bandana(s), ear plugs
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You Still Have to Breathe- Bands sets will clash
- Stagger your reporting
- Prioritize your coverage
- Nix one low priority band and eat your sandwich
- Don’t power down — use this opportunity to take in the atmosphere and color around you.
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The Interviews… or lack thereof - You can Google how long they’ve been together.
- Know what the big, well known band is up to. Ask about the small details.
- Sometimes the unknown artist will give you more than the mainstream group — but not always.
- Be ready for time crunches — and their handler’s reminders.
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The Interviews… or lack thereof (cont.)- Get creative
- Don’t expect to interview with everyone — or anyone
- Kendrick Lamar doesn’t want to talk to you
- You might as well ask, but you can’t rely on it. Think of what else you can do to supplement that color
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When They Won’t Talk...
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When They Won’t Talk...“Two large black tour buses sit behind the Student Union, and a table is set up in his dressing room — complete with Lemon Snapple, orange juice, and Fruity Pebbles.”
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When They Won’t Talk...
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Legendary
This Isn’t a New Technique
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But Sometimes, They Talk!
Me
Candy Hearts
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You’re At Work, Dude- This is still a job
- You’re not here for the open bar, you’re here to write a story
- Blend in and be comfortable, but be (and dress so that you’re) able to carry yourself
- Even if you get backstage, remember your assignment and your angle. Don’t forget the audience. Who’s the story?
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The Actual Writing Part- Manage your time
- know your earliest deadlines and what stories will take you the longest.
- Don’t write cold.
- Your 1 a.m. coffee shop writeup will have more detail and be more effortless than the morning after.
- Use the next day to trim the fat
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The Actual Writing Part- Pre-writing is your friend — Do as much as possible
- Band previews don’t have to be written the night before
- Write advances as early as possible
- Have a doc with compiled info: awards, singles, how many members, genre, bio facts, etc.
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Promote Yourself- See if your hirer wants Twitter updates
- link up with the festival’s social media team and tag them, the publication you represent or both
- Self promote
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Promote Yourself- “Can I get a photo of you and the
guys?”
- If the band’s promoter asks, go for it, but not the other way around.
- Connect socially
- Follow the hashtags and crowd members. Just because you missed a set doesn’t mean they did. *Crowd reactions can become a story in itself
- Follow the bands on social media — their stories turn into stories
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“Thank You” goes a Long way- Thank your employer if it’s a freelance/non-regular
arrangement.
- Thank the publicist. A simple email and request to be added to their contact list will help both of you.