Shows
How to Build a FestivalEpisode 49 - We built a festival! Echo 17 emotional recap!The gang celebrate the success of the first ever Echo 7 festival, and talk about how it all felt. This one is excitable and we focus on the emotion of it all, the excitement of seeing it all come together after two years of trying to figure out how to do it!
A huge thankyou to everyone who worked with us, helped us in advance and on the day, and who pushed us to see it through!
If you came along - firstly a huge thankyou - secondly please fill in our very quick feedback form so we can learn and...
2025-10-0135 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 48 - ECHO 17 Final Preview!We get together for a final preview of Echo 17 before our very first festival on Saturday 20th September! We talk lineup, activities, timings and what we’re excited and worried about! Join us as our journey gets a little closer to reality
Get your tickets at www.echo17.co.uk
Check out our lineup playlist here
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4O3OzxatvJ1qdMaVdEfj0t?si=c8aLp8BTSJ6rEFd4XlX1lw&pi=wKl_FoP7SS6Vd
2025-09-1821 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 47 - Echo 17 week!!! Main Stage artists More Peas and Kimmi WatsonEcho 17 is finally here on the 20th September and we are joined by brilliant main stage artists Kimmi Watson, founder of She17, and by Muriel and Lucy of More Peas. We talk about their music, their festival memories and the work of She17
2025-09-1643 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 46 - End of the Road preview with Ronan LeonardIt’s End of the Road and that means back to back episodes! We go through our picks for the week, compare them to the famous Sally’s Notes, and chat with End of the Road lineup mainstay Ronan Leonard…. Plus a super exciting announcement
2025-08-2729 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 45 Green Man Recap and Echo 17 PreparationCat and Rach work through where we’re at with preparations now we’ve launched our website and lineup! We recap a very hot Green Man, one of the best lineups of 2025
2025-08-2642 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 44 - Chatting with Danny Hagan, co-founder of Green Man Festival and The Wake FestivalDanny Hagan co-founded Green Man Festival in 2003 and 21 years later launched The Wake in 2024. Now coming into its second sold out year, we chat to Danny about the experience both festivals, the difference starting them two decades apart and what made he and his partner Jo come back to start a second festival last year.
2025-08-0826 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 43 - Lakefest PreviewRach and Cat check in with Lakefest Owner Lee Martin ahead of the 2025 edition of the brilliant family festival coming up this weekend.
We talk about the lineup, the frantic nature of the weeks building up to the event and the wonderful ‘Road to Lakefest’ initiative
2025-08-0534 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 42 - Emergency pod… our big announcementOur short and sweet announcement episode... The one we’ve been working towards for the last 41 episodes! Announcing our name, date, venues and pricing structure as well as what happens next!
Join us on our journey!
2025-08-0112 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 41 - Truck Festival and Deer Shed 2025 very unofficial previewWe team up with Lisa and Uncouth Brett to preview this year’s Truck Festival before looking at the 2025 edition of Deer Shed ahead of one of the busiest weekends of the festival summer
Get in touch with any tips for either of these awesome festivals!
2025-07-2233 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 40 - Glastonbury 2025 Recap with OOFestivalsWe follow up with Damian, Gina and Jack on this year’s Glastonbury festival and talk all about it. Relive the last Glasto for a couple of years here with your favourite OOF mods!
2025-07-1553 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 39 - Last minute Glastonbury 2025 lineup tipsIt’s Glastonbury Eve… have you somehow forgotten to do any lineup research, looking for some last minute inspiration, or just stuck in traffic just after Fleet Services on the way to Worthy Farm? Here’s your last minute lineup tips from the HTBAF gang and their friends
Search HTBAF Glastonbury 2025 for our new playlist
Have an amazing Glasto everybody!
Thanks to Tom, Bilal & Leo for joining us!
2025-06-2524 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 38 - Glastonbury preview and festival community chat with OOFestivalsHow do you say OOFestivals, what is it, and how has it grown in a way the team never imagined? We’re joined by three of its moderators to talk through the incredible online community of festival fans and of course to deliver their Glastonbury 2025 preview including lineup favourites, first timer tips and vital information for the OOFestivals meetup
2025-06-1854 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 37 - Festival progress, Wide Awake and Wanderlust recap and designing merchToday we canter through how our preparation is coming along and recaps of both Wide Awake and Wanderlust festivals with special guest Alexa. We also talk MJ Lenderman, Mama’s Broke and Dana Sipos from recent gigs
2025-06-1231 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 36 - Some announcements - moving our festival forwards and a call for artistsWe round up our favourite recent gigs before getting into some exciting details for our first festival, and what’s been holding up a launch
If you’d like to play, please get in touch with us on Instagram at Howtobuildafest or email us at howtobuildafest@gmail.com
2025-05-0832 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 35 - Festival set design and getting involved in the festival industry with Jack LeatherWe are joined for the first of two episodes with Jack Leather who talks us through his many involvements in the festival world, including building installations for major festivals, and what is the OOFestivals Discord (more to follow on that!)
2025-04-2250 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 34 - Walthamstow’s live music scene with Turncoat BillyWe talk to Turncoat Billy’s lead singer Jonny about the local music scene in the area we’re looking to put our festival, the band’s upcoming event, what makes a good experience for a band, and it was like being championed by his local MP for Christmas number 1!
2025-04-0332 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 33 - Supporting the Libertines and major festival bookings - chatting with SoakedWe chat with Brandon from Soaked about the challenges of being independent, and the epic adventures of the band in 2024, major festival bookings for 2025. Amongst our struggles to name our festival, Brandon tells us how he named the band.
2025-03-2446 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 32 - Glastonbury and Green Man lineup reactions and trying to name our festivalThe team react to the Glastonbury and Green Man lineup posters, and then debate what we’re going to call our festival, with less than perfect alignment across the gang!
Last week we joined Bilal and Tilly on Festival Sounds - catch their episode here: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3JNhYwo56DCZvXl5xS5LBa?si=T5Y3hyGiR0K_tbqsoVSwbg
2025-03-1042 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 31 - Reflections from Festival Congress 2025After our first visit to Festival Congress, we talk about what we learned as well as gigs we’ve been to and looking forward to in the second half of February
2025-02-1227 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 30 - Lilo talk us through what makes a great festival for artistsThe brilliant lilo’s Helen and Christie kindly spent some time with Rachel and Cat talking about their favourite festival experiences, what makes a great festival to play at, and how to bring gender balance to lineups, including a manifesto for women in music!
lilo have a new album in the spring and a UK headline tour in April - see you there
2025-01-2836 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 29 - Rockaway Beach recap and our team new year resolutionsWe recap and learn about Rockaway Beach with new guest Ali, and talk about our resolutions for 2025 and what we’re doing with the podcast this year
2025-01-1453 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 28 - Recapping our favourite festivals and gigs of 2024We run through our favourite music from 2024, our top gigs and what’s going on our playlist at the start of 2025.
Thanks for listening this year, here’s to a great 2025 - we can’t wait to share what we’ve got in store
2024-12-3134 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 27 - Chatting with Lakefest’s Lee MartinCat and Rach are joined by Lee Martin, who talks all about the journey of starting and growing a new festival over the course of over a decade, shares his advice for building our festival, and talks through his newly released book from the incredible story of developing Lakefest
https://lakefest.co.uk/product/festival-of-love-and-pain/
2024-12-2053 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 26 - Our Festival ManifestoWe talk through our manifesto for our festival, find some things we still need to agree on… and we’ve been nominated for an award!
Vote for us here…
https://s.surveyplanet.com/vyhvggua
2024-12-1639 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 25 - Anniversary Edition! What we thought of the Glastonbury ticket sale process and where we’ve got to with building our festivalThe team get together to work through progress with planning our festival, what we’re learning and some of the forward steps and setbacks we’re experiencing. We also talk about some great gigs we’ve been to lately and what we thought of the new and kind of the same Glastonbury ticket process
2024-11-2636 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 24 - Glastonbury ticketing changes and recapping the first On the Meadow FestivalWe’re back just in time for Glastonbury sale day, and we talk to Leo from On the Meadow Festival to hear all about the first edition of the event, and what he’s learned from putting on his own festival
2024-11-1149 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 23 - Deer Shed Festival Director Oliver Jones talks to us about how it all really worksWe were very lucky this week to have the chance to meet Oliver Jones, co-Festival Director of Deer Shed Festival, a superb and long running independent festival in Thirsk, in the north of England that starred HTBAF favourites CMAT, deadletter, Jessica Winter, James Ngonda and Personal Trainer in 2024. Oliver talks to us about what makes Deer Shed unique, the challenges facing independent festivals, and gives plenty of great advice and food for thought for those thinking about starting something new.
2024-09-2447 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 22 - End of the Road Recap - DJ Rach & CatOur unofficial End of the Road recap - the last summer festival of the year and there’s lots to talk about, including performances by Bonnie Prince Billy, CMAT, Malice K, Jalen Ngonda, Master Peace, Snooper, Brown Horse, Phosphorescent and more.
The team get the opportunity to DJ and meet some of our friends from the world of festivals, and take inspiration from the brilliant community of this festival
2024-09-0939 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 21 - End of the Road Unofficial Preview, Oasis and All Points EastThe gang are excited for End of the Road, and run through what we’re looking forward to including Bonnie Prince Billy, Jess Williamson and Holiday Ghosts. We talk about the Oasis reunion and our days at All Points East over the Bank Holiday weekend
2024-08-2729 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 20 - Green Man RecapOur Green Man run through - what we loved, how the festival is evolving and how we dodged the diablos. We talk about the Wishbone, the new Rising Stage, the brilliant artists we saw including Getdown Services, Big Thief, Sampha, Royel Otis and more…
2024-08-2231 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 19 - Green Man Festival preview, plus Deer Shed Festival and Uptown Festival recapsWe preview our favourite festival, Green Man, before its 2024 edition. Then the gang recap Deer Shed Festival and Uptown Festival as well as discussing some of what we’ve been learning for our own festival.
We talk about the excellent recent new acts we’ve seen including deadletter, Tapir!, Man/Woman/Chainsaw and Ross admits Personal Trainer won’t win the Mercury Prize
2024-08-1241 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 18 - Catch up with Festival Sounds on volunteering, new festivals and our favourite 2024 festivals yet to comeEpisode 18 - We catch up with Festival Sounds Podcast to talk festival volunteering, test what would convince them to try a new festival, and talk about our favourite late season festivals including Green Man, Shambala, End of the Road and Boomtown
2024-08-0646 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 17 - Bitesized Deer Shed preview, our first festival of the year - plus Truck and TramlinesRoss and Rach do a Quick Look ahead to Deer Shed , Truck and Tramlines all happening this weekend - one for your journey! And Ross gets confused about the Mercury list, but huge congrats to two podcast favourites, corto.alto and CMAT for their noms
2024-07-2615 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 16 - Glastonbury recap and our interview with Leo, founder of the brand new On the Meadow FestivalToday Ross and Cat break down the Glastonbury experience from outside the fence, and then we get back to learning about how to go about starting one of our own as Rach and Cat speak with Leo from On the Meadow Festival, a brand new event taking place this year, about how he’s pulled it all together and how he hopes it will support independent music, as well as his festival experiences and why he’s looking to do it.
2024-07-1151 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 15 - Playing at Glastonbury and building sustainability and accessibility into festivals all over the countryOur last pre-Glastonbury pod, and we were chuffed to sit down with Andrew Lansley, a man who has played Glastonbury many times and also works with festivals all over the country to help build sustainability and accessibility into the delivery of the festival. We ask what it’s actually like to perform at Glasto, and dig in to some of the great initiatives going on at festivals including Cheltenham Festivals, Glastonbury, 2000 Trees and others to make a better experience for everyone.
2024-06-1940 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 14 - Glastonbury 2024 Early Preview - Plus Taylor Swift, Isle of Wight, This Feeling and CoastNo we’re not going this year, but before we get too sad to talk about it, we get our early Glastonbury 2024 preview in early and share our tips and tricks for getting the best out of the week, as well as our personal lineup highlights. We run through other festivals coming up in June and talk about upcoming Taylor Swift and This Feeling events
2024-06-1141 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 13 - Game Changer: We interview Mark Davyd of the Venue Trust on the Grassroots Music ReportMark Davyd, CEO of the Music Venue Trust joins to talk to us about what the cross party Culture, Media and Sport Committee report means for independent music in the UK and why it’s a potential game changer
2024-05-3035 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 12: Grassroots Music Report and Afflecks PalaceThe gang recap their visit to OMeara to see Afflecks Palace, discuss what we learned from our interviews with Coast Festival and the band Soaked, and spend some time looking at the various initiatives picking up steam to support small venues and independent artists
2024-05-1546 minHow to Build a FestivalHow to Build a Festival - Episode 11: Interviewing SoakedWe talk to one of our favourite new bands @soakedband. Lead singer Brandon tells us about how it all began for the band, how best to support growing bands, and what it’s like trying to get on festival lineups - hope you enjoy this one as much as we did
2024-04-2434 minHow to Build a FestivalHow to Build a Festival Episode 10 - Chatting with Coast FestivalCat and Ross sit down with the amazing John and Rachel from Coast Festival - who better to learn how to start a new festival from than the founders of the 2023 UK Festival Awards New Festival of the Year? We had an amazing time talking to John and Rachel!
P.S…. There’s a small amount of swearing in this one!
2024-03-2849 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 9 - Glasto and Green Man reactionsThe gang react to the big lineup reveals of the last few weeks, discuss the greatest band since The Beatles (according to one of us anyway), and talk about some of our favourite new artists Find our playlist here: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0OYngeOPLJPAu9jeOXEP0M?si=2FzMxSm7SaCFejYgXNFEogπ=e-WDzrtJjxRLmJ
2024-03-2129 minHow to Build a FestivalHow to Build a Festival Episode 8: Green Man Predictions and Les Savy FavThe team are back and Rachel returns! We look back on our Les Savy Fav experience and look at what the internet has to say about likely features on the imminent Green Man lineup
Find our 2024 playlist featuring all the artists we’ve talked about here:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0OYngeOPLJPAu9jeOXEP0M?si=sSAjQPVCSDW34fkgdRPDCAπ=e-ZsBx7fPBQACv
2024-02-2830 minHow to Build a FestivalHow to Build a Festival Episode 7 - Back from hibernation just in time for lineupsWe’re back! And it’s time to discuss festival lineups, new artists, and some festival cancellation news for 2024. What are we going to be doing for festivals this year?
2024-02-2134 minHow to Build a FestivalHow to Build a Festival Episode 6: What we loved in 2023The team talk about their favourite and least favourite experiences of the 2023 live music year, including Rachel’s favourite toilets (of course), what we thought of Glastonbury’s new Car Henge area (we are not all in agreement) and most importantly who our favourite live acts of the year were
2024-01-0236 minHow to Build a FestivalHow to Build a Festival Episode 5: Genre chat and do we have a target audience?Should festivals try and have a target audience, and what does that mean for us? And how does Cat feel about this week’s major festival lineup announcements?
2023-12-2135 minHow to Build a FestivalHow to Build a Festival Episode 4: What music will we have, what are our favourite live songs, and Starsailor’s very polite audienceWe talk about a very polite Starsailor concert and try to make some decisions about the music we’re going to have at our festival. We also try and establish our favourite live songs.
2023-12-1328 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 3: Glasto ticket reveal and next steps for our festivalThe gang talk about their glasto ticket day, whether there should be a lottery for tickets, and the first things we need to work out for getting our festival up and running
2023-12-0731 minHow to Build a FestivalEpisode 2: Is a city festival the way to go for us?The team visited a city festival to see if that was the format for us. Listen to hear what we thought - plus we caught some of our favourite artists on their autumn tours, and a bit of Glastonbury ticket fear.
2023-11-2937 minHow to Build a FestivalHow to Build a Festival - Episode 1: Why are we here?Meet the friends behind the podcast! What do we love and hate about festivals and why do we want to start one of our own? Also…how do we make a podcast? Welcome to Episode 1 of How to Build a Festival
2023-11-2124 minHow to Build a FestivalHow to Build a Festival TasterWelcome to our new podcast, where three friends try and figure out what it takes to build a festival from the ground up with no contacts, no experience and no knowledge of how to do it. Join us on our journey as we learn how it’s done, and see if we think we can have a go ourselves. We’ll be talking to a wide range of guests, as well as just chatting about all the things that we love about independent music and festivals ourselves
2023-11-1901 min