Three weeks before the big day
Eid prayers with three sittings instead of one. A Diwali evening with fireworks, food and a cultural programme. Vaisakhi with a procession through the streets and langar for thousands. Christmas with a carol service, a children's nativity and midnight worship. Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur with a full building and extra security. Whatever your faith, one or two days a year bring numbers far beyond a normal week.
Three weeks before, the festival committee meets. Someone asks how many stewards were needed last year and where they stood. Someone else asks which caterer supplied the extra food and whether they were any good. The council contact for road closures has changed. The man who organised parking last year has moved away, and his plan was in his head.
The group chat has three hundred messages from last year's planning, and nobody can find anything in it.
Why every festival starts from zero
Festival planning is intense for a few weeks, then stops for a year. The knowledge built up during those weeks has nowhere to go.
- Plans are made in WhatsApp groups, where decisions are buried in chat.
- Lists of stewards, suppliers and contacts are on personal phones.
- Quantities of food, chairs, prayer mats or service sheets are guessed again.
- The debrief, if it happens, is a conversation nobody writes up.
- Dates move every year, so the lead time is different each time.
External contacts add to it. Police liaison, council events teams, neighbours, local schools whose car parks you borrow, portable toilet suppliers and security firms all need contacting at the right time, and the right time is relative to a date that moves.
What the scramble costs
Safety and crowding are the serious costs. Too few stewards, unclear exits or a car park plan nobody has seen make a crowded day harder to manage. We do not advise on crowd safety; your trustees and qualified advisers do. What helps them is a plan that is written down and handed on.
Money is wasted too. Food over-ordered one year and under-ordered the next, supplier bookings made late at higher prices, equipment hired when the building already has it in a cupboard nobody remembered.
And people burn out. The same few organisers carry every festival, and each year feels like the first.
A festival planning hub that remembers
What we build is a planning space for each festival, set up so this year's plan starts as a copy of last year's, with notes.
- A task timeline counted back from the festival date, such as book caterer eight weeks before and confirm stewards two weeks before, which recalculates when the date is set.
- A stewarding plan with positions, shift times and names, linked to your volunteer rota so stewards are asked and confirmed in one place.
- A supplier and contact list with notes from last year, including who was reliable, what they supplied and what it cost, held in the organisation's system rather than a phone.
- Quantities with actuals, such as food ordered versus food used, chairs set out versus chairs needed, so next year's estimates start from real figures.
- Attendance counts for each sitting or service, entered on the day by door stewards on their phones, so numbers are real rather than impressions.
- A debrief form sent to organisers after the day, with answers attached to the plan for next year.
| Part of the plan | Before | With the hub |
|---|---|---|
| Tasks and deadlines | Remembered by the chair | Timeline worked back from the date |
| Stewards | Asked in the group chat | Positions filled and confirmed |
| Suppliers | On personal phones | Shared list with notes |
| Quantities | Guessed | Last year's actual figures |
| Lessons | Forgotten | Debrief attached to next year's plan |
It can be as light as a structured workspace in Microsoft 365 or Google Workspace, or a small web application if several festivals, sites or large numbers are involved. We recommend the smallest thing that works.
Next year's committee meeting
When the date is confirmed, the chair copies last year's plan. The timeline fills in the deadlines. The supplier list shows the caterer was good but late, with a note to confirm the delivery time in writing. The quantity sheet says last year's third sitting was smaller than expected, so fewer chairs are needed for it.
Stewards are asked through the rota a month ahead, and the positions map shows where each stands. After the day, the debrief form goes out on the Monday, and the answers are waiting for next year.
Is your festival planning like this?
- Every year the committee starts planning from scratch.
- Last year's decisions are buried in a group chat.
- Supplier contacts leave when an organiser moves on.
- Food and equipment quantities are guessed each time.
- There is no written debrief after the day.