How To DANCE Through Your Next Festival (Or Partnership)

The Group At Camp Bestival!

It’s been ages since I wrote anything more than 500 words. Life has been a little busy with a growing business and a new baby in the house to make us a family of 5. But, especially considering I have a book to complete over the next few weeks, I knew it was time to get back in the swing of things.

So, what better way to be inspired then returning from a music festival with the family.

And with my partnership framework (and focus of aforementioned book) being centred around DANCE that seemed like a good pairing.

So here it is, some business lessons we can learn from a magical festival experience.

(First up a quick bit of context. Anyone who knows me knows how much I love festivals, and Bestival & Camp Bestival (where I’ve just returned from) holds a particularly special place, more on that later. However, this year was different than the last couple. We weren’t just going with 2 young children, we were going for 4 days with the existing lively 2 in tow and an 11 week old. My wife, Kelly, was slightly apprehensive as you can imagine, so everything had to be right if we were going to get the festival experience we wanted.

Anyhow, enough of the long intro and into the main tune.

Meeting our friends from last year.

In my DANCE framework D is all about Discovery.

Knowing your target market so you can identify who your ideal partners are, and then identifying the value proposition (the Real Why) that will get them bought into your collaboration.

For the festival this was easy. We went with a bunch of friends, some we knew well, other less so, but we knew their values (same circle of friends) and we also knew what each brought to the party. Both in terms of kids and personality!

But we also didn’t leave anything to chance. We paid to have reserved pitches in a slightly upgraded section of the site, which meant we not only were guaranteed to be camped next to our friends, but in general knew we’d be surrounded by families who must be in some way on our wavelength to even be there.

Take all the steps you can to ensure your surrounded by the right partners and you’ll have much greater chance of success.

But we didn’t just hang around with our friends from home.

We met up with a family we met last year and have met and stayed in touch with since. A chance encounter under a tree while it was raining has ended up with friends for life.

A lesson that when you understand your values and communicate them openly you’ll attract and retain partners for the long term.

Friends stepping in to help out when needed.

A is for Assembly – the systems, processes, and equipment to make everything run smoothly.

Again, we had it down. We bought a new tent to allow for the larger family and went on a trial run prior to the big weekend.

We figured out how mornings would run based on baby Remi’s feeding habits so Kelly could shower in peace and even if that went wrong, because we’d chosen the right partners up front, we knew they’d step in if needed.

And of course, they did, and were pro-active about offering – although to be fair who doesn’t want a cuddle with the cutest, most content, baby ever?

Having systems and processes in place ensures you can deliver a consistent level of service to your partners.

Having the right partners means that when someone needs to pick up some slack because of extenuating circumstances they will do so willingly.

Stuck in the science tent.

N stands for Nurturing – this is all about communication with your partners.

Despite being a bunch of friends all camping together, that doesn’t mean we wanted to spend every minute of the festival joined at the hip, or camping trolley. Time just with your own family was on the cards for everyone.

Now, it’s much easier to be open and honest about this when with friends I admit, but there was not an ill word spilled all weekend (well not among friends anyway!)

The business lesson here is to be open and honest about your intentions from the outset. If they move, and plans change (as ours did as the days unfolded) communicate and contextualise these with your partners as soon as you can.

It might need to be a bit more in depth than a what’s app message to say you’re stuck in the science tent or that you’re hanging round to see the end of Sister Sledge, but the principle remains the same.

Connection – so in my framework the C is all about helping you partners connect their audience to you.

But to do that you need to have real clarity on your offering, the experience you’ll deliver, and then help them to market it well.

For us, and our friends, we picked out a few key experiences (bands) we all wanted to see together, and we made sure that happened.

Kool and the Gang headlining on the Saturday was a personal favourite, as was Elvana (an Elvis fronted Nirvana tribute act) on the Friday afternoon, and of course the firework close on the Sunday night.

Are there certain times or occasions when it’s most important for your partners to be referring you? Make sure they understand these and you give them the support to be able to do so. 

Me and Kelly when we first met at Bestival in 2012.

E is for Engagement – going out there and getting your partners.

Now, you might think that my last link was a bit tenuous and be wondering where I could go with this.

But you can meet partners in the most unexpected places and you need to always be open to opportunity.

I mentioned Bestival holds a special place in our heart and that’s because I met my greatest partner, my wife, on the way to that very festival in 2012.

Neither of us were looking for love, but it blossomed that weekend and we married last September 9 years to the day we met.

So always be open and curious – you never know what might happen!

Right, that’s me back in the groove – more to follow!