Street festival - BYO PA

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Chuck Fry

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Feb 11, 2012
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Silicon Valley, CA, USA
www.chucko.com
Apologies if you've seen this post on another forum, just trying to gather as much advice as possible.

A band I'm in got a gig at a local street festival in May. I thought "great, they'll probably provide a PA". I was wrong. :(~:-(~:sad: Now I'm wondering how we can put together a rig for the gig.

Our keyboard player has a basic bar grade PA rig - a Mackie powered mixer, and some JBL JRX series wedges and columns. Our "mains" are a pair of JRX 125s.

I have an old Soundcraft RacPac mixer, a couple of PLX power amps, some compressors and graphic EQs, and a couple of PAS wedges, but no main speakers.

So I'm trying to figure out how we can combine all this stuff with a minimum of additional purchases and not embarrass ourselves at the festival.

Any help will be welcomed.
 
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Re: Street festival - BYO PA

what type of music, how many people will be there, give us more info on what you are trying to cover. Are you making enough to rent?
 
Re: Street festival - BYO PA

Depends on the size of your festival stage. Sometimes there's many small ones and you only have to cover the width of a street. (Seen many bands doing fine with a set of self-powered mackies in such an environment.)
If it's a large area, find out what other bands are also playing on that stage and become "friends" with the one with the best PA, or go in together on a gear rental deal or a local owner-operator sound co. (find out the one providing for the main stage if there is one and make a deal with them -reduce your expense by offering to help them at load-out :)
 
Re: Street festival - BYO PA

Right, some details would be good. We're a 4 piece blues-rock band, keys, guitar, bass, drums, all 4 of us sing though not usually at once. The bass will not be in the PA, I have enough of a bass rig for this gig. Guitarist has a Fender De Ville with 4 10s, that might be enough to carry him. Keyboardist has a brand B combo amp. I suspect we'll have to put him in the PA.

The festival is Campbell's Boogie on the Bayou. This is in a location that gets a big turnout for the Sunday farmers' market. I'm guesstimating at least a couple hundred people on the street for our performance.

We are NOT making enough to rent. That's part of the reason I presumed the festival would provide a PA.
 
Re: Street festival - BYO PA

Chuck Fry said:
Oh, and we're first up on Sunday. 8O~8-O~:shock:
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I like Craigs suggestion of making friends with one the other bands who has a good PA if there is one. I would suggest checking with the number 2 up band first and see what they have. Maybe combine what you have with their system and both of you will have a better rig. You will have to stay for their show and they will have to come early for yours.
 
Re: Street festival - BYO PA

Chuck Fry said:
Oh, and we're first up on Sunday. 8O~8-O~:shock:
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Then consider it a (low) paid practice session, use what you have and go for it.
Most people don't want to get clobbered by level first thing on a Sunday morning at the Farmers Market.
Combining PA systems requires time and experience and a dedicated sound man to get right.
Pick your best PA speakers, and make sure they are up above head level.

Put a long cord on your bass so you can walk out, listen and adjust from time to time.
 
Re: Street festival - BYO PA

Bennett Prescott said:
Is every band expected to bring and change over their own PA? What a cluster fuck!
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I've mixed at several "festivals" like this. The organizers don't have $$$ for production and think "hey, the bands have PA they can use."

The last time I did one of these was in Tuscaloosa, AL. Our lighting guy had his wallet stolen, the thief went on a 1 man crime spree with our guy's ID, and that led to our guy being arrested in New Jersey. The details would take far too much time, but the experience of getting our guy out left me absolutely no desire to return to either of those states.

Hey, OJ got off because "the glove does not fit so you must acquit." In Alabama and New Jersey, the fingerprints can be obviously different (and the expert can say so, too), but you're staying in jail.

At the risk of restarting the Civil War, I must ask, what is there like about the South, and why the hell would any civilized population tolerate the NJ State Patrol?
 
Re: Street festival - BYO PA

Bennett Prescott said:
Is every band expected to bring and change over their own PA? What a cluster fuck!
Click to expand...
I have done several of those type "festivals"

Yeah it is a total mess. And they usually only have 10 minutes between bands-to get stage gear on and off and strike the PA etc.

And they wonder why it does not go smooth---------------------------------
 
Re: Street festival - BYO PA

Tim McCulloch said:
I've mixed at several "festivals" like this. The organizers don't have $$$ for production and think "hey, the bands have PA they can use."

The last time I did one of these was in Tuscaloosa, AL. Our lighting guy had his wallet stolen, the thief went on a 1 man crime spree with our guy's ID, and that led to our guy being arrested in New Jersey. The details would take far too much time, but the experience of getting our guy out left me absolutely no desire to return to either of those states.

Hey, OJ got off because "the glove does not fit so you must acquit." In Alabama and New Jersey, the fingerprints can be obviously different (and the expert can say so, too), but you're staying in jail.

At the risk of restarting the Civil War, I must ask, what is there like about the South, and why the hell would any civilized population tolerate the NJ State Patrol?
Click to expand...
As we in Ga like to say "What is the best thing to come out of AL? I-20"
 
Re: Street festival - BYO PA

Play for the 30 people nearest the stage. that's all they're usually expecting at events like this, and to do anything else means having a real sound person with real tools who can be out front to listen, and field the complaints from the people who just came to shop.

So in the end, that means you put vocals through the PA, and nothing else. Your drummer is the volume that everyone else matches. I'd only set up wedges if you really need them... otherwise I'd do a pair of FOH speakers, and a pair of side-fills for monitoring. Keep it simple. Wander out front some time in the first song to be sure the balance is ok. Have fun.
 
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