How to organise a children's music festival

You've found a band children love, a venue with outdoor space and a date that avoids the school holidays everyone seems to be away for. Now you're looking at the programme and wondering whether three performances are enough. Should you add inflatables? A craft tent? Another stage?

I'd start by making the music work. A children's music festival needs a clear age range, performers who know how to engage that audience and a site where families can enjoy the programme without spending the afternoon queuing or rushing between activities. For a first edition, one well-run stage and a manageable daytime programme are a sensible starting point. Add attractions only when they improve the visit and you can afford their full operating cost.

The interesting part is how much happens between the songs. A child needs the toilet just before the next set. Another wants to leave the crowd. A parent can't hear the instructions at the instrument activity because the stage has started again. Those moments determine whether the day feels worth paying for, even when the music is excellent.

This guide works through the decisions for a public, paid festival where children attend with responsible adults. We'll use a fictional afternoon event to connect the programme, ticket offer and budget. Its ages, timings, attendance and USD figures are planning examples, not safety limits, market prices or research findings.

Choose the children you're programming for

The first thing you want to decide is who the music is for. A singalong for preschool children and a performance aimed at older primary-school children can both be good. Putting them on the same poster doesn't automatically produce an afternoon both audiences will enjoy.

Choose a main audience before approaching artists. For our example, we'll plan mainly for children aged five to nine, accompanied by their parents or carers. Younger siblings can attend under the admission arrangements, but the event won't claim that every performance suits babies, teenagers and everyone in between. You can choose a different audience. The useful decision is being specific enough to programme for them.

Talk to adults who might actually buy. Ask which children they'd bring, what music those children choose, how far they'd travel and what they would expect from a paid afternoon. Find out what makes them abandon a day out. The answer might be a long queue, an uncertain finish time or a programme that requires two adults when only one can attend.

Listen to children as well, using an appropriate conversation with their carers involved. Ask what they enjoy doing while music plays. Some want to sing, others want to watch, and others want space to move. Don't turn one enthusiastic child's preferences into your whole audience forecast. You're looking for a programme you can explain and test with several likely households.

Then write a plain description of the outing. Our example is a three-hour afternoon with live songs, rhythm participation and a closing dance set, with breaks and a quieter space. Food is optional and sold separately. Adults stay responsible for their children throughout. That description is much more useful for booking decisions than a mood board headed "family fun."

Check a real household against it. Could one adult bring a five-year-old and an eight-year-old and enjoy most of the same programme? Could they step away together without missing everything they've paid for? If your concept needs the children to split into different areas, explain how their adult can accompany them. Our guide to planning a paid family day develops that household problem across different activities.

Build a music bill with a reason to stay

Book the programme as an afternoon someone will experience in order. Three individually appealing artists can still make an awkward bill if every set asks children to sit quietly, or if all the participation happens in the final performance when younger guests are already leaving.

For our example, the opening act invites families into familiar musical games. The second introduces live instruments and simple rhythm participation. The closing act offers a more energetic dance set. These are editorial choices for this fictional audience, not a prescribed formula. You might choose a different sequence after talking to performers and testing the concept with buyers.

Ask each artist for a recording of an actual performance for a similar audience. A polished music video tells you little about how they explain participation, recover from an interruption or handle a child who doesn't want to join in. Ask how their format changes with age, audience size and the physical setting.

Discuss what children are invited to do. Will they sing from their place, move into a dance area or come onto the stage? Each choice changes staffing, access and the production plan. For a first edition, I'd favour participation families can manage together in the audience. If an act depends on bringing children onstage, agree the process with your safeguarding and production leads before booking it.

Set lengths need the same care. Ask the performer what they can deliver well for your chosen ages, then test the whole afternoon rather than assuming a short set is always better. A slow introduction can use up much of a brief slot. A longer performance may work if children can participate, change position or step out without disruption.

Confirm the exact format in the contract. A solo acoustic appearance is different from the full band in the promotional clip. Agree the lineup, performance length, equipment, soundcheck, audience interaction, travel, payment dates and promotional permissions. If an artist's name or character is central to your offer, establish precisely what you're entitled to advertise.

Don't book an expensive name because adults recognise it unless you can explain the value for this audience. Local performers with a strong, relevant live show may be a better fit than an unfamiliar act with a large general following. Ask for evidence of their appeal in the area you expect buyers to travel from, while keeping the sales forecast your responsibility.

Send artists a brief they can answer

You can use the following enquiry structure before asking for a final quote. Fill in the actual date, venue and proposed slot rather than asking what a generic children's show costs:

• Audience: mainly children aged five to nine with their carers, with an expected audience mix and total allocation still subject to the final operating plan.

• Format: one daytime stage, families participating together, no drop-off care, and no planned onstage child participation unless separately agreed.

• Performance: the proposed start and finish, the role of the set in the afternoon, and whether the quoted lineup matches the supplied promotional material.

• Production: equipment provided by the venue, equipment requested from the artist, soundcheck access and the contact responsible for the sound plan.

• Commercial details: the complete fee, travel and hospitality, payment dates, cancellation terms and permission to use named promotional assets.

Ask the artist to identify anything in the brief that won't work for their show. That response is useful. They may need a longer changeover, a different position in the bill or a format that involves fewer audience instructions. Resolve the difference while you can still change the programme. Once you've agreed it, carry the final details into the booking paperwork and the production schedule so the stage team isn't working from an earlier email.

Make sound part of the booking conversation

A children's festival needs a sound plan before the equipment arrives. Ask your production provider to explain how they will deliver clear music and speech for the actual audience, site and performance schedule. Bring the intended ages into that discussion. "It's a small show" isn't a specification.

The WHO's safe-listening recommendations for venues and events cover monitoring, sound-system design, hearing protection, quiet areas and staff training. Treat them as a starting point for competent advice. A general entertainment limit isn't a volume target for a children's event or a guarantee that exposure is suitable for every child.

Agree who measures sound, where they measure it and who can require an adjustment during a set. The engineer needs a clear instruction from the organizer and a practical way to act. Make sure visiting performers understand the agreed arrangement before they turn up with their own equipment or engineer.

Walk the audience areas during the technical check. Review the places where children will actually stand, dance or sit, including positions near speakers. Check whether speech remains understandable away from the front. Have your provider address coverage and placement rather than simply increasing volume because someone at the back can't hear.

The quieter space needs checking while the main system is running. An empty tent behind a speaker doesn't become quiet because the map says so. Families should be able to reach it by an accessible route, take a break together and return to the event. Explain what the space provides without promising silence or individual supervision you haven't arranged.

If you provide hearing protection, get appropriate advice on selection, fit, instructions and the ages attending. Don't present it as permission to run a louder show. Give families accurate advance information about amplified music and where they can take breaks, so they can decide what preparations and questions are relevant to their child.

Include all sound sources in the plan. A drum activity, food-trader generator and interval playlist can make a supposedly restful break noisy. Ask suppliers what equipment they will operate and when. The festival's sound is the combined experience across the site, not just the level at the mixing desk.

Choose a site families can move through

Start with the working layout, then agree the audience allocation with the venue and competent event team. Think about the performance area, arrivals, toilets, food, quieter space and departure together. Cheap hire can become expensive when you need temporary facilities, additional surfacing or another team just to make the site usable.

Great Britain's HSE guidance on venue and site design considers audience and workforce numbers, activities, access, exits and circulation. Use the guidance within its jurisdiction and obtain the local assessment your event requires. A site limit is a result of the actual arrangements. It isn't a number you derive from your revenue target.

For our fictional budget, assume an assessed allocation of 300 audience members after staff, artists and contractors have been accounted for within the overall site arrangements. That is an invented input. It doesn't tell you what another venue can hold, how many staff to employ or whether a particular layout is safe.

Allow for the way families use space. An adult may stop to adjust a pushchair while others pass. Children may sit on the ground while adults stand behind them. Bags and parked pushchairs occupy room. Ask your venue and production team how viewing, circulation and emergency access work with those behaviours, including the busiest set.

Put activities where their queues can form without blocking a route. A stall can fit perfectly inside its pitch while the people waiting for it obstruct the toilet entrance. Check the footprint of both the attraction and its customers. Avoid sending families through the densest viewing area to reach essential facilities.

Access should continue through the experience. The US ADA National Network's planning guide for accessible temporary events considers arrival, movement, performances, activities and amenities. Use it for practical questions, alongside current rules where you operate. Check whether a child or adult using a mobility aid can participate and enjoy a useful view while staying with their household.

Publish confirmed details about routes, surfaces, toilets, seating and the quieter space. Invite access questions through an adult contact, and arrange useful answers before sales open. Describing the site precisely helps families judge the visit. A broad "fully accessible" claim leaves them guessing about the parts that matter to them.

Plan breaks that families can actually use

Let's put the fictional bill into a timetable. Admission runs from 11am to 2pm. Welcome information is delivered at 11.10am, and the first performance starts at 11.20am. Arriving on time gives families a chance to find their bearings before the music begins.

The opening performance lasts 25 minutes and finishes at 11.45am. The second starts at noon and finishes at 12.25pm. The final performance runs from 1pm to 1.30pm. Families then have half an hour for a relaxed departure before public admission closes at 2pm. These are proposed timings to rehearse with the artists, not age-based attention-span claims.

The gaps serve different purposes. The first allows a short toilet or water break and the technical changeover. The longer middle gap gives families time to eat, rest and explore an optional activity. During the last half-hour, don't advertise another essential attraction that keeps everyone waiting until the closing minute.

Check whether the changeovers are real. Can the next act set up, test its equipment and be ready within the gap? Can that happen without a noisy soundcheck beside a resting audience? You may need shared equipment, earlier checks or a different booking. The production lead should confirm the sequence before those timings go on the ticket page.

Ask someone to follow the schedule as a carer with children. Measure the walk to the toilets and the likely queue at the time everyone leaves a set. Include collecting belongings and getting back to a viewing position. If a break only works when families move immediately and nothing delays them, allow more time or change the facilities.

Keep intervals understandable. Tell the audience when the next performance starts and where to find the information again. A wandering host can help with questions if that's an agreed, staffed role. Don't fill every interval with amplified announcements and games until the break stops being a break.

Decide how late arrivals join. They should be able to enter without crossing the stage front or forcing through settled families. Brief the admission and audience teams on the route and any temporary restrictions. The public programme may start at 11am, but your operational timetable also needs setup, checks, staff breaks and the final venue handback.

Add activities without promising more than you can provide

An instrument area can strengthen the music theme. A collection of unrelated attractions can make the offer harder to deliver while taking attention and money away from the performances. Start by asking what an extra activity helps families do during a gap in the programme.

For our example, imagine a staffed instrument-tryout area during part of the long interval. The provider chooses suitable equipment, explains its use and manages cleaning and resets. Carers stay with their children. The event page describes it as optional, with limited availability, while the advertised admission value comes from the music programme everyone can attend.

Then test the numbers. If a fictional setup has eight child participation places and one complete turn takes ten minutes including changeover, three turns provide 24 child turns. That isn't enough for 200 children to participate once. It's a simple arithmetic check, not an approved activity capacity or an estimate of how quickly children should use instruments.

You can expand the staffed provision, repeat it in another suitable break or change the promise. If every child is supposed to try an instrument, allocate enough usable places and time for that commitment. Calling it "subject to availability" in small print won't repair an advert that makes the activity look like the main reason to buy.

Check what happens when the stage resumes. Some families may prefer the tryout, but the activity could interfere with the next performance or make instructions hard to hear. Agree whether it closes, changes format or operates elsewhere. Ask the provider how they will stop accepting new participants in time to finish properly.

Apply the same scrutiny to attractions suggested by sponsors. A branded play area may need extra space, power, staff, inspection and cleaning. Establish who pays and who controls it. If it introduces queues or a supervision model your event can't support, decline it or revise the proposal before selling the sponsorship.

Set adult and child admission before pricing

Decide who needs an admission record, what each ticket covers and how accompanying adults are counted. Families should understand the whole price before they start checkout. A low child price loses its appeal if buyers discover they also need several unexpected adult tickets.

You can charge adults, include a defined adult allocation or offer household bundles. Choose according to the programme and the households you expect. Adults use viewing space, toilets, access routes and staff attention even when the music mainly serves children. Including an adult in the price changes how you sell admission; it doesn't remove that person from the attendance count.

Our financial example uses separate adult and child admissions. We'll assume 100 adults and 200 children for the calculation. That mix is invented, and it is not a supervision ratio or a rule that every adult should bring two children. Actual households may contain more adults, fewer children or additional support people. Your admission policy and assessed operating arrangements must accommodate the mix you actually accept.

Explain arrangements for babies, younger siblings, support people and any age restrictions. If an infant enters free, include them in attendance planning and check how their presence affects facilities and space. Our simplified financial example contains no additional infants or other uncounted guests. You need to add them when modelling a policy that allows them.

Set connected inventory controls for the total audience allocation. Adult and child ticket limits cannot each independently use the venue's entire capacity. If you offer bundles, one purchased bundle must consume the appropriate number of admissions. Test the available setup and admission workflow before selling any combination you haven't used before.

Loopyah's ticketing tools let you set ticket types, prices and quantities. Use those controls for the admission options you've defined, then check the total people represented by all paid, free and reserved allocations. The organizer still decides the age policy and permitted mix. A ticket type doesn't establish a safe attendance limit.

Keep a clear record of complimentary admissions. In our example, reserving five adult and ten child places leaves 285 places for paid guests within the 300-person audience allocation. Those reservations need to be deducted before tickets go on sale. Release unused places only after checking the current guest commitments and total inventory.

Price the actual programme, including your time

Build the budget from written scopes and current quotes. Artist fees alone won't tell you whether the event works. You also need production, the venue, competent staffing, facilities, access provision, permissions, marketing and your own preparation and delivery time. Include the work after the audience leaves.

Here's a fictional fixed budget in USD for the example afternoon:

• Artists, including agreed travel and delivery: $1,400.

• Sound, stage requirements and production crew: $900.

• Venue hire and included site services: $750.

• Event staffing and agreed safety provision: $800.

• Additional facilities and access provision: $450.

• Paid organizer time, insurance allocation and administration: $450.

• Marketing: $300.

• Music permissions and other applicable approvals: $200.

• Miscellaneous allowance, assumed fully spent: $250.

The fixed total is $5,500. These are invented inputs, not recommended fees, staffing budgets or sufficient safety provision. Replace every line with the scope and cost your event actually needs. If the required team costs more than this example, change the budget. Don't reduce necessary provision to fit the illustration.

Assume another $4 in consumables and attendance-related services for each admitted guest, whether paid or complimentary. Equipment use and the optional instrument area's provider are already included in the fixed quotes. Food purchases and customer travel are separate. The costs include non-recoverable purchase taxes; business income tax and borrowing costs are excluded.

For ticket income, assume you retain $20 per paid adult and $30 per paid child after applicable sales taxes, ticketing and payment charges. These retained amounts are not advertised checkout prices or Loopyah fee examples. Work backwards from your actual charges and tax treatment when choosing the public price. The base calculation assumes no refunds, discounts, commissions or complimentary admissions.

With 100 paid adults and 200 paid children, retained income is $8,000. Attendance-related costs are $1,200 for 300 people. After the $5,500 fixed budget, the example makes $1,300 before the excluded items. That is the maximum result under this particular assumed ticket mix and full-paid allocation, not a forecast.

At 80 adults and 160 children, retained income is $6,400. Guest costs are $960, leaving a $60 loss after fixed costs. At 81 adults and 162 children, income is $6,480 and guest costs are $972, leaving $8. The event only just covers these costs at that point, provided the same mix and retained prices hold.

Each assumed group of one adult and two children contributes $68 after its $12 attendance cost. Dividing $5,500 by $68 gives just over 80 such groups, so 81 whole groups are needed. This is a calculation unit, not a required household composition or ticket bundle. More adult-heavy sales produce a different result.

Now put the reserved complimentary admissions back in. With five adults and ten children admitted free, and every other place sold at the assumed prices, retained income falls by $400 while all 300 guests still create costs. The full-attendance result becomes $900. Comp tickets aren't free to your business merely because no payment is taken.

Test other changes separately. Discounting 20 paid child admissions by $5 of retained income reduces the all-paid $1,300 result to $1,200. An extra $600 production requirement reduces that same base result to $700. Both changes together leave $600. If the complimentary allocation also applies, deduct its $400 effect as well, leaving $200.

That's why I'd settle the programme and technical requirements before opening a discounted launch. You need to know what you can afford to sell. Our event budget guide covers the broader cost plan, including items this example simplifies. Use your cautious sales case to decide whether to proceed, not only the result when every available ticket sells.

Check deposits against money you can access

A profitable budget doesn't pay an artist deposit if the money isn't available on the due date. List each supplier payment, the point cancellation charges increase and the cash you expect to have cleared by then. Keep money needed for refunds and the remaining delivery costs visible.

For example, suppose $1,200 of the fixed budget is due before meaningful ticket receipts arrive. You need funding for that payment even if the final event is projected to make $1,300. The deposit is part of the existing costs, not another cost to add on top. Its timing creates the funding problem.

Agree review dates before you lose choices. If sales are weaker than expected before a larger production balance becomes committed, review the actual ticket mix, available cash and cost of proceeding or changing course. Don't assume an artist will waive a fee or a venue will move the date unless they've agreed to it.

If a sponsor contributes, count cash only when the agreement and payment timing justify it. Deduct the cost of delivering their benefits. Donated equipment can reduce an expense if it meets the specification, but it can't pay a bill at the bank. Avoid promising a children's activity as a sponsor benefit until its operation is confirmed.

Keep a cancellation estimate separate from the full-event result. Which costs would remain payable? What customer payments would need returning, under the terms and law that apply? What additional administration or processing costs would arise? Those answers come from your actual contracts and obligations, not a fixed percentage of this example budget.

Agree safeguarding responsibilities with every provider

Make the family arrangement explicit. For this festival, children attend with responsible adults who stay with them throughout. Activity facilitators lead their activities, and event staff manage the event. No advertised area accepts children for drop-off care. If you want to offer that service, obtain specialist advice on the separate requirements before adding it.

The NSPCC's guidance on safer activities and events covers planning with partners, staff suitability, named safeguarding responsibilities and arrangements for missing children. It also recommends making parental responsibility clear at family events. Use the guidance with your safeguarding lead and the requirements where you operate, rather than assuming a venue's policy automatically covers your event.

Brief the whole delivery team on the agreed response to a concern. A child needing help may approach a musician, trader or volunteer before finding the designated staff member. Each person needs to know their first action, who to contact and what to do if that contact is temporarily unavailable.

Your detailed procedure needs competent review, including how a separated child is supported, how the appropriate adult is verified and when incidents are escalated. Keep personal details out of public announcements. For the fuller operational discussion, use our guide to safeguarding at paid children's events, then make the arrangements specific to this site and team.

Discuss artist interactions and photography before opening. A meet-and-greet needs a managed space, defined access and a clear role for carers. Agree how commissioned photography works and how families raise concerns or request an alternative. Don't assume buying a ticket resolves every question about photographing children or using their images in later advertising.

Make only the information requests you need for admission, communication and agreed support. Use the adult's contact for booking correspondence, and handle sensitive access or welfare discussions through an appropriate private process. A public guest list or broadly shared supplier spreadsheet isn't the place for details a family provided to arrange help.

Confirm permissions for the music and the performers

Check the event's permissions with the venue, relevant authorities and your advisers before making non-refundable commitments. The requirements depend on location, activities and the premises. Establish what the venue already holds, which conditions apply and which applications or arrangements remain your responsibility.

Music rights are a separate conversation from hiring a space. The UK government's guidance on licensing live and recorded music explains that public performances usually need the appropriate music licence. Confirm coverage with the relevant licensing body for your country and event. An artist playing covers, an interval playlist and a trader's music may create different questions to resolve.

If children will perform, check the applicable child-performance requirements early. The Department for Education's child performance licensing guidance for England addresses performances and activities involving children. Don't assume a school choir, unpaid appearance or short set is automatically exempt. Ask the relevant authority about your actual arrangement and obtain the necessary advice and approvals.

Distinguish a contracted child performer from an audience participation moment when seeking that advice. Explain what will happen, whether it is rehearsed, how the child is involved and what will be filmed. Avoid letting a sponsor or artist add a planned performance involving children after the licensing and safeguarding arrangements have been settled.

Give food and activity providers the same clear boundary. Confirm what they are authorised and insured to supply, their operating requirements and who is responsible for the relevant checks. Agree how customers obtain ingredient and allergen information from food traders. Your ticket page should distinguish food included in admission from food sold independently.

Sell the visit adults are actually choosing

Parents and carers are deciding whether this outing will work for their household. Lead with the music, intended ages, location and usable schedule. Show what the ticket includes, how long the programme lasts and why the artists suit the audience. A list of attractions is less persuasive when buyers can't work out how the afternoon fits together.

Use performance material you have permission to publish and explain what it represents. If the clip shows a different band lineup, venue or audience, don't let it imply equipment or appearances your booking doesn't include. Avoid crowd imagery that suggests a much larger event if your offer is deliberately small.

Before checkout, buyers should be able to find the supervision policy, adult and child ticket rules, access details, food arrangements and weather information. Include the exact location and likely travel considerations. The practical description can be warm and welcoming without hiding details that would make a family choose differently.

Start with channels that can reach adults in your realistic travel area. Your venue, performers and relevant family organisations may have useful audiences, subject to their own communication rules. Ask partners what they can actually share and when. Several overlapping mailing lists aren't several separate pools of likely buyers.

Judge promotion by paid admissions and the mix being sold. If adults are buying in larger numbers than expected, review income per guest and the programme's capacity assumptions. If people enquire but don't buy, find out what is unresolved. You might need to clarify supervision or transport rather than add another artist.

Don't collect children's contact details to run the sales campaign. Reach the adults making the decision through appropriate channels. When using photographs, endorsements or community partnerships, establish the necessary permissions and what each party has actually agreed to support. Keep any promotional incentive within the budget you've tested.

Prepare for weather and programme changes

Choose what happens if the outdoor programme can't operate as planned. An indoor alternative is useful only if it can accommodate the audience and deliver the promised experience under its own approved arrangements. A smaller hall isn't a full fallback for a larger outdoor crowd simply because it's available.

Agree who makes weather decisions, whose advice they use and how the team receives the instruction. Ask competent suppliers about the conditions their equipment and activities can operate in, then incorporate those requirements into the event plan. Avoid publishing a universal wind, heat or rain threshold copied from another event.

Write customer terms that explain the actual possibilities and respect the rules that apply. A shower, a closed optional attraction, a cancelled headline performance and an unsafe site can have different consequences. Describe the arrangements you can fulfil. Have suitable advice on cancellation, changes and refunds before sales begin.

Keep one current version of every customer message. Loopyah's attendee email tools support event updates and test emails, which helps you check the information before sending it to ticket holders. Your team still has to make the operational decision, approve the wording and update the event page and other relevant channels.

For an artist cancellation, review the value of the remaining bill before announcing a replacement. Another available performer may have different technical needs or suit a different age. Check the contract, production implications and customer obligations. Don't promise "the same experience" before you've confirmed what you can deliver.

Rehearse the handovers, then review the result

Before gates open, walk the whole visit with the people running it. Follow the route from arrival to viewing, toilets, the quieter space and departure. Test the radio or other communication arrangements where staff will actually work. Check who can stop an activity, delay entry or pause a performance when necessary.

Rehearse the less convenient moments. The artist is late while families wait. The instrument area has a queue when the stage resumes. A parent needs help during a staff break. Work through who acts and who covers the role they leave. If everyone assumes the event manager will personally handle each issue, the staffing plan needs attention.

After the festival, compare the delivered programme with what buyers were promised. Review set timings, sound feedback, access, activity availability and the repeated questions at admission. Ask families what they enjoyed and what made the visit harder. Keep the feedback specific enough to change a booking, route or instruction for the next date.

Then finish the financial review using actual paid adult and child admissions, complimentary guests, refunds, retained income and final supplier costs. Include your time. A busy afternoon can still leave a small return if the ticket mix differs from the forecast or the production bill changes late.

Before booking another edition, choose the changes that protect the strongest part of the offer. You might repeat a successful act, lengthen a useful interval or remove an attraction that created more waiting than enjoyment. Confirm that revised programme and its full cost before selling the next date. Families need a music festival they can enjoy together, and you need a price that pays for delivering it.