How to Plan Festival Power & Lighting in Spring
As spring settles in, the countdown to festival season begins. If you’re wondering how to plan festival power and lighting in spring, you’re not alone. When planning a successful summer festival, you must nail the foundations: power, lighting, layout & safety. Without these key fundamentals in place, the best line-up or stage design can’t shine.
At Event Sparks, we work with event professionals across England and Wales to get the essentials just right – and spring is the perfect time to get ahead. Whether you’re running a boutique weekend or a major multi-stage music festival, this guide shares practical tips to help you prepare your site infrastructure with confidence
Power Planning: Start With the End in Mind
When it comes to festival power, it’s not just about wattage, it’s about strategy. The best power setups consist of a detailed plan with flow, flexibility and redundancy in mind.
Some things for you to consider:
- What will your peak power be – and when? In simple terms, when will your festival be pulling the most power, and what will that peak load be (in kW). This ensures that you choose the correct generator(s) to cover your site’s power. Furthermore, this prevents overloading your generator which can cause problems during the festival.
- How many areas will need isolated supply? Different areas may require isolated power supply to ensure safety, prevent ground loops or to reduce noise interference. It’s best to find out which areas will need isolated supply before devising your power plan.
- What backup provisions will keep your festival running smoothly if the unexpected happens? Every event planners nightmare is for there to be a disruption during their festival, especially down to something like power. That is why it’s always best to be prepared with backup generators that keep things running smoothly should there be a mishap.
Functional & Aesthetic Lighting
Lighting plays a huge role when learning how to plan festival power and lighting in spring — it’s about balancing safety, atmosphere, and logistics. As well as the general tower lights, think festoon to illuminate walkways, campsite’s or food courts. Festoon is great and subtly illuminates large areas to help people feel safe without overpowering the space. It’s always a bonus when it looks great as well!
When we support events, we often conduct a site visit in advance to suggest lighting layouts based on how crowds move – not just where tower lights can fit. The early planning can make a big difference to ambience and safety.
Fuel Management: The Often Forgotten Piece
Fuel isn’t usually front of mind – until it runs out mid-set. This is why it’s great to plan early and liaise with a company like us, who take pride in assisting with successful events.
Not only do you have to ensure you have enough fuel to keep everything running, but you also have to think about how you’ll manage refuelling during your event. Will you need on-site fuel tanks for each generator? Will you use scheduled top-ups?
Reliable fuel support keeps the event running in the background so you and your team can focus on the tasks that actually need your attention. Do you want to learn more about fuel management? Check out our full guide…
Seamless Power Distribution
Getting power from the generator to a stage or bar isn’t as simple as running a couple of cables. To ensure seamless power distribution, it is important that your plan ensures the following:
- Equipment is accessible, safe and covered with cable ramp if interrupting heavy traffic areas.
- The power supply is balanced across circuits to prevent overloads and power trips.
- Quick changes or fixes are easy if needed.
These are the small wins that save time (and headaches) during the live event. Also, a clean distro layout is key to passing health & safety checks with ease. We understand that to a non-power expert, this can seem daunting and very confusing. That’s why at Event Sparks, our technicians are on hand during the planning phase to communicate with you and create the best power distribution plan for your event. By using their years of experience and expertise, you can have a seamless, safe and cost-effective distribution set-up that will keep your event running all weekend!
Professional On-Site Support
Even with the best planning, festivals can change fast. Unexpected weather, site changes or last-minute additions are part of the joys – and having a supplier who can adapt on the ground is invaluable.
Our clients often tell us that the biggest value we bring isn’t just our equipment, it’s the support, experience and years of industry experience that comes with it.
Spring Power Prep Checklist for Event Planners
Here’s a simple list to kick off your infrastructure planning:
- Have you calculated your estimated load (kW) per area?
- Are your power and lighting plans mapped to your site layout?
- Do you have a clear fuel management strategy?
- Is your distro plan designed for safety and access?
- Do you have experienced support on standby during the event?
If you are working through these questions and need some expert advice, guidance or reassurance, our power experts are happy to help.
Let’s Begin Planning Together!
Spring is the perfect time to start planning the infrastructure for your summer festival. If you need help with how to plan festival power and lighting in spring, our team is ready to provide expert advice and tailored solutions to ensure your event runs smoothly
At Event Sparks, we’ve supported everything from intimate countryside festivals to larger high-capacity weekends, and we’re always happy to share what we know!
Planning a festival this summer? Get in touch – we’d love to help!
