I do this every year.  A couple of posts to prepare for Live at Heart. So if you have followed my blog you probably have read it before. Still, there are changes from the past editions. And as usual, these tip-off works for any showcase festival.

Get the most of a Showcase festival.

Live at heart has a conference part to it. Use that! Most showcase festivals have a conference part, most artist never uses it. Okay, some of the panels might seem boring. Hopefully, they will give you new information. But don’t think of it just like a panel. It’s a chance to see industry professionals. Check them out what can they provide for your career? The best way to find out is actually to see panels. You learn and you find new people that you can easily approach right there afterward or during the whole festival. Not going to the conference is like wasting a good opportunity to find your next person to work with.

Attend the mingles. Yes, mingles can be really boring. But if you have done your homework and seen the panels you will find people at these mingles to ask these extra questions you couldn’t ask on the panel. Go up to these people tehy are there to find new artists. Not attend any mingle or afterparty is a good way to not get much done on a showcase festival.

A showcase festival is not just a show. It’s an opportunity to get the right people down to see your show. A good showcase festival gig can be for just five people if they are the right five people. To get these people down to your showcase you need to invite them
You are faced against 200 good bands. Probably 20 bands play on the same time slot. So there is no point just to invite everybody. Select the persons you think you can do the most with or the persons you find the nicest when you meet them at the panels or mingles.

Also, the panel is a good way to know what people are doing. Just because they work at a booking agency or record label it might not fit. If you play metal and they work with country music it won’t be a match. During the panel sometimes, you find new ways. Maybe this country label has just started a metal division.

Be active. I was on a showcase in NYC a couple years ago where I took care of two bands. One band was the headliner, people loved that band. But they wanted to do some sightseeing instead of going to the conference. The other band I had was unknown but they went to the conference with me. Suddenly I got the opportunity to play two songs acoustically in the mingling part. The band took it. Played a really good two songs in front of all the important people and invited them down to their show. That got them a lot of important people to their showcase that night. The other artist mainly just played on the festival and nothing got out of it.

This method also works quite well even though you are not playing at the festival. The introduction part is a huge part of the success of an artist. I have seen artist being successful just on the conference part, not playing. I have also seen many artists just play and just got a gig out of it.

Think of it as an opportunity to just be chosen, use it.

This gig gave The Magnettes a ticket to play in NYC and their career took off. This summer they played around the world and opened up to KeSha on the worlds largest festival Summerfest.