Succession Planning: Passing the Festival to New Hands

Succession planning is a critical yet often overlooked aspect of festival management. In the folk festival world – where many events carry decades of tradition – planning for the next generation of leadership can mean the difference between a festival that thrives for 50 more years and one that fades away. Successful festival producers treat passing the torch not as a crisis, but as a natural milestone in the event’s story. This guide shares veteran insights on how to document everything, mentor new leaders, rotate roles, preserve core values, and celebrate leadership handovers so that your beloved festival continues to flourish for generations to come.

Document Everything: Playbooks, Contacts, and Culture

One of the first steps in succession planning is capturing institutional knowledge. Festival producers should create detailed playbooks covering all aspects of the event – from venue layouts and logistics checklists to marketing plans and emergency procedures. By documenting these processes, you ensure that future organizers aren’t starting from scratch. For example, when long-running folk events like the Woodford Folk Festival in Australia prepared for leadership change, they compiled decades of expertise into manuals and digital archives for the next team. Woodford’s team launched a “future-proofing” initiative to secure the festival’s site and codify their operational playbook for future generations (www.abc.net.au).

Equally important is maintaining a master contact list of all stakeholders: venue owners, booking agents, artists, sponsors, ticketing platforms, vendors, and community partners. These relationships are the lifeblood of a festival. Make sure the names, roles, and contact details of key suppliers and supporters are recorded in an accessible place. If your folk festival relies on a particular sound company or a food village coordinator, introduce them to incoming staff ahead of time. When the founders of Maleny/Woodford Folk Festival (Bill and Ingrid Hauritz) stepped back after decades of work, they had built an extensive network of contacts. Because those connections were documented and nurtured within the organization, the new team could smoothly continue collaborating with longtime partners.

Don’t forget to document the festival’s culture and brand identity as well. Every festival has an ethos that defines it – perhaps your folk festival prides itself on intimate campfire jam sessions, zero-waste sustainability practices, or a family-friendly vibe. Write down these guiding principles and the stories behind them. For instance, a community folk festival might note, “Our event was founded to preserve local traditions and always opens with a blessing from tribal elders.” Recording such cultural details helps new organizers appreciate what makes the festival special. The Cambridge Folk Festival in the UK, for example, has a reputation for its relaxed atmosphere and artist-community interactions; those intangible qualities are passed down so that each successive management team protects the festival’s unique spirit. By documenting not just the how but the why of your event, you give future producers a cultural compass to make decisions consistent with the festival’s legacy.

In practical terms, create a shared repository (a secured drive or binder) that includes: production timelines, site maps, technical riders, budgeting templates, marketing calendars, social media account credentials, and any regulatory permits or insurance documents. Include a directory of all team members and volunteers with their roles. The goal is that if tomorrow a new team had to run the festival, they’d have a “festival bible” to guide them. Not only does this make succession easier, it also improves day-to-day efficiency and reduces risk. Risk management in festivals isn’t only about weather and safety – it’s also about knowing the show can go on even if a key person leaves. Thorough documentation is your insurance against losing critical knowledge.

Real-World Example: Newport Folk Festival’s Playbook

The Newport Folk Festival (USA) offers a great case study in documentation aiding succession. Founded in 1959, Newport Folk has passed through multiple hands and even a hiatus, but it was revived and thrives today under a non-profit foundation structure. How? One reason is that the festival’s procedures and values were carefully recorded and shared. Festival founder George Wein ensured that all aspects – from stage schedules to sponsor relationships – were written down and transitioned to the Newport Festivals Foundation. Today, Executive Producer Jay Sweet can tap into decades of archives and artist relations files, helping him uphold Newport’s legacy while innovating each year. Newport doesn’t even announce its lineup before selling out, thanks to a reputation built on consistency and trust (news.pollstar.com) – a reputation maintained by following the playbook Wein established. The lesson: no matter how storied or boutique your folk festival is, keep good records so its DNA is never lost in transition.

Mentor Emerging Leaders – And Do It Visibly

A healthy succession plan actively cultivates new leaders well before they’re needed. Seasoned festival producers should identify passionate, reliable individuals on their team (or in their volunteer base) and mentor them over multiple festival cycles. This mentorship should be hands-on and highly visible – both to the mentees and to the wider community. By openly empowering emerging organizers, you build confidence among stakeholders that the festival’s future is in good hands.

A shining example is Glastonbury Festival in England. Founder Michael Eavis, who started Glastonbury in 1970, spent years mentoring his daughter Emily Eavis to take over the reins. Emily was gradually given responsibility for booking headline artists, curating new stages, and handling press, essentially learning by doing under her father’s guidance. Today she is co-organizer of Glastonbury and the public face of the festival’s next generation. Festival-goers see Michael and Emily Eavis side by side at major announcements, symbolizing continuity. In 2025, as 200,000 attendees poured into Glastonbury’s fields, Organiser Emily Eavis and her father, Michael, who founded the festival in 1970, welcomed the first festivalgoers (www.reuters.com). That visible endorsement spoke volumes – the founder trusts the new leadership, and so can everyone else. Glastonbury’s smooth generational handover is no accident; it’s succession planning in action.

Mentoring emerging leaders isn’t limited to family succession. Many folk festivals are community-driven, so look for leadership potential among your volunteers, local arts administrators, or younger staff. Create deputy roles or apprenticeships that allow upcoming talent to shadow current producers in critical tasks like talent booking, operations management, or sponsorship negotiation. For instance, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (while not a folk festival, it’s a culturally rich event) employed this strategy: in the 1970s, founder George Wein brought on a young local named Quint Davis, teaching him the ropes of festival production. Quint went from apprentice to director and has been leading Jazz Fest for decades now, long after Wein stepped back – a testament to the power of grooming from within the community.

Mentorship can also be formalized through programs. International initiatives like The Festival Academy (by the European Festivals Association) bring veteran festival directors together with new festival producers from around the world for training and knowledge exchange. By participating in such networks, established folk festival organizers demonstrate a commitment to lifting up the next generation. Some festivals even have youth advisory boards or internship programs – for example, a folk festival might partner with a local college’s music or event management program to involve students behind the scenes. This not only gives emerging leaders real experience, it often brings fresh ideas and energy into the organisation.

Crucially, make the mentorship visible. Introduce your protégé to important contacts and publicly credit them for their work. Perhaps they can co-present on stage, lead a community forum, or be the spokesperson for a new initiative. When stakeholders – from attendees to sponsors – see new faces in leadership roles (and see them supported by the old guard), it builds trust. It sends a message that the festival’s mission is bigger than one person and that capable hands are helping steer the ship. By contrast, if a founder keeps all duties to themselves until the day they disappear, the sudden void can spook sponsors and fans alike. Avoid that by giving your emerging leaders the spotlight before they fully take over.

Rotate Roles to Prevent Burnout

It’s hard to pass on the festival torch if all your potential successors have burned out and left. Festivals, especially beloved folk festivals that run on passion, often rely on a small core team wearing many hats. Burnout is a real threat. One smart strategy is to rotate roles and redistribute responsibilities regularly to keep everyone fresh and cross-trained. Not only does this improve work-life balance, it also means more people understand multiple aspects of the festival – which is invaluable for succession.

Consider a small-town folk festival that might be volunteer-run by a committee. Rather than having one person serve as logistics coordinator or volunteer manager year after year indefinitely, they might adopt a rotation: each year (or every few years), someone new takes on that portfolio. This was a practice at events like the Sidmouth Folk Festival in England during its early years, where organising duties rotated among folk club members and community leaders. The rotation prevented any one volunteer from shouldering the entire burden for too long and allowed knowledge transfer among the group. It also helps identify who has the aptitude and enthusiasm to potentially lead the whole festival one day.

Even larger festivals can benefit from role rotation. Internally, encourage your staff to diversify their skills. Perhaps your marketing manager spends one season apprenticing with the production crew on staging logistics, or your operations lead sits in on sponsorship meetings. By cross-training in this way, team members grow and the festival becomes less vulnerable to single points of failure. If the person who “always handled the stage sound” moves on, it won’t sink the event if others have been exposed to that role. Woodford Folk Festival again provides a lesson: its founders admitted they were “utterly exhausted” by the time they stepped down in 2023 (themusic.com.au). For years they carried enormous workloads. In hindsight, building a larger leadership circle sooner and delegating more might have eased their burden and brought in fresh perspectives earlier. Fortunately, Woodford had cultivated a loyal crew and is now run by a broader team, but the founders’ burnout is a cautionary tale.

Rotating roles also keeps people engaged. Festival production is intense, so a change of responsibilities can re-energize veteran staff. For example, if someone has coordinated vendors for five years straight at a folk festival, they might relish a switch to overseeing the workshop stage or leading community outreach next time. They’ll bring lessons from one area into another, often improving both. Plus, rotating mid-level roles creates a natural pipeline for higher positions. You might discover that your artist liaison is a whiz at budgeting when she fills in for the finance manager, making her a candidate for festival director down the line.

To implement role rotation without chaos, create clear Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for each role (tying back to the importance of documentation) so a new person stepping in knows what to do. Allow overlap time where the outgoing role-holder trains the incoming one. And be mindful of not rotating too fast – people still need time to settle and master a role. The key is to avoid stagnation and overload. In the end, a team that has collectively experienced all facets of the festival is far more resilient and prepared to take over leadership when needed.

Codify Values That Outlast Individuals

Every festival has a soul – a set of values and principles that define why it exists and what it means to its community. Succession planning should include formally codifying those core values so they endure beyond the tenure of any one producer or organizer. When the festival’s values are clear and agreed upon, a new leader is more likely to uphold them, and longtime attendees will continue to feel “at home” even as management changes.

One way to do this is to develop a festival mission statement or charter. Many folk festivals already have mission statements focusing on preserving cultural heritage, fostering community, or celebrating artistic diversity. Take that a step further by writing down the values that guide decision-making. For example, the mission might be “to celebrate and sustain traditional folk music,” and the values could include things like “authenticity, accessibility, community-focus, sustainability, and innovation.” These values then become touchstones when tough choices arise. If an incoming director proposes changes (say, adding more mainstream pop acts to boost ticket sales), a codified value of “authenticity in folk programming” would encourage staying true to the festival’s folk roots even as it evolves.

A famous case of values guiding succession is Burning Man – not a folk festival, but a cultural festival with a strong ethos. Burning Man’s founders established ten core principles (like “Leave No Trace” and “Radical Inclusion”) which were explicitly written down. When the original leadership transitioned to a new nonprofit stewardship, those principles ensured the event’s culture lived on. So even after founder Larry Harvey passed away, Burning Man continues with its identity intact because the values, not just the founders, lead the way.

In the folk world, consider the ethos of the Newport Folk Festival. Newport’s values include musical exploration, collaboration, and respect for the folk tradition. These were exemplified by Pete Seeger and the festival’s early days and have been upheld by current producers. Jay Sweet often references Newport’s founding ideals – for instance, the festival’s non-profit status and focus on music education are a direct extension of the values codified by George Wein and Pete Seeger. As Sweet noted, Newport Folk isn’t just a festival now but “a nonprofit organization focusing on music education, which celebrates that mission with two of the most famous music events in the world” (news.pollstar.com). Because Newport’s core mission was clearly articulated, the festival could continue to thrive under new leadership without losing its purpose.

Codifying values can also mean preserving stories and rituals that embody those values. At Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland – which, like many folk festivals, started as a niche event and grew into a global hallmark – they continue to honor late founder Claude Nobs by keeping his traditions alive. Nobs was known for hospitality and adventurous programming. Ten years after his passing, Montreux’s team wrote an open tribute letter thanking him, noting that “ten years after your passing, this dreamer’s determination continues to inspire the artists, the public and the MJF teams every summer” (www.montreuxjazzfestival.com). They reminded everyone that it was “thanks to the spirit that you shared with everyone around you” that the festival can keep achieving the impossible (www.montreuxjazzfestival.com). In other words, Nobs’ visionary values were so ingrained in the festival’s culture that they continue to guide it long after his tenure. Montreux codified those values – innovation, excellence, intimacy between artists and audience – through institutional memory and even physical tributes (like the Claude Nobs Foundation and named venues). For a folk festival, similar steps might include establishing an archive, creating an award in the founder’s name that’s given each year, or simply an annual moment during the festival where the founder’s vision is spoken of and honored.

When values are clear, the community also polices the legacy. Your artists, crew, and attendees become guardians of the festival’s spirit. If a new leader strays too far, they’ll hear about it! On the positive side, codified values empower new leaders to take initiative confidently. They know the playing field and can innovate in ways that reinforce those core principles. For example, if “sustainability” is an encoded value of your festival, a new production manager might feel emboldened to introduce a green initiative (like a solar-powered stage or compostable dinnerware) as a way to carry the value forward. In this way, values aren’t just preserved – they’re actively practiced and kept relevant by each successive team.

Celebrate Handovers Like Milestones, Not Crises

All too often, festivals approach leadership change with trepidation, trying to keep it low-key to avoid alarming anyone. But a smarter approach – and one that sets a positive tone – is to celebrate handovers openly as milestones. Treat the transition of leadership as a moment to honor the past and excite everyone about the future, rather than as a reason to panic. Psychologically, this frames the narrative as continuity and progress, not loss.

How do you celebrate a handover? Start by publicly acknowledging the contributions of the outgoing festival producers or directors. Consider doing this at the festival itself: a scheduled moment on the main stage to thank the departing leader for their service, perhaps with a presentation of an award or a video montage of their greatest festival moments. Simultaneously, you can introduce the incoming leader to the crowd in a festive way – literally passing a symbolic item (a festival flag, a microphone, a torch) from old to new. This kind of ritual not only gives closure and recognition, it signals to the audience and press that the festival is consciously managing its future.

For example, when the Philadelphia Folk Festival grappled with a difficult period in 2023 (even having to cancel that year due to financial crisis), the organization didn’t hide from the issue. They rallied their community of folk fans and made the festival’s comeback in 2024 a celebratory affair. Long-time attendees, musicians, and supporters were invited to be part of the solution – through donations, benefit concerts, and volunteering – effectively making the festival’s survival a shared victory. The result: the 2024 Philadelphia Folk Festival went ahead and the society resolved its $200,000 debt, with an optimistic outlook from the new festival director (www.axios.com). By addressing the leadership and financial challenges head-on and treating the revival as a milestone (60 years of folk music heritage continuing), Philadelphia’s team turned a potential crisis into an inspiring community triumph. This openness and celebration of continuity can greatly boost goodwill and loyalty.

In cases of planned succession, some festivals hold formal events separate from the main festival to mark the transition. This could be an invite-only retirement dinner for the outgoing director, where colleagues and partners celebrate their legacy, and the new director can toast to the path ahead. Media can be invited to such events to generate positive press about the festival’s stability. Rather than headlines like “Festival X in turmoil as founder exits,” you’d aim for stories like “Festival X founder honored as new director takes the helm, promising to continue beloved traditions.” Indeed, when long-time leaders at events like Calgary Folk Music Festival or Cambridge Folk Festival retired, their organizations put out press releases highlighting their achievements and outlining the successor’s credentials and vision. By framing these changes as milestones, the narrative becomes one of evolution. It reassures sponsors and attendees that the festival isn’t ending – it’s growing.

Another tactic is to involve the outgoing leaders in an advisory or emeritus capacity during the transition period. This can be part of the celebration rather than a clinging to power. For instance, designate the founder as a “Festival Ambassador” or “Chair Emeritus” who will still attend and support the festival in a symbolic role. This way the handover feels like a continuity of family, not a cold cutoff. The outgoing leader gets to maintain a connection (often what founders fear losing most), and the incoming leader has a safety net of advice if needed. Importantly, communicate this clearly so everyone knows the outgoing leader chooses to step back and endorses the new team. When Warren Hellman, founder of Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in San Francisco, passed away, the festival immediately reassured fans with a message on its website: “Yes, the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival will go on! Next year’s dates are October 5, 6 & 7…” (jambands.com). They effectively said: “Our founder wouldn’t want you to worry – this festival is bigger than one person and will carry on in his honor.” The next edition of the festival was dedicated to Hellman’s memory, turning what could have been seen as the end of an era into a celebration of legacy. Hardly Strictly even kept an empty chair on stage for Warren at the first festival after his death, a touching tribute that signified both loss and continuity.

In summary, embrace transitions with positivity. Change is inevitable; festivals that last many generations (from small folk gatherings to giant music extravaganzas) all go through handovers. By celebrating the change, you set the stage for the new leadership to succeed. Audiences and crew take their cue from the tone you set – if they see a confident, cheerful handover, they’ll stick with the festival. Remember, at its heart every folk festival is a community. Communities know how to celebrate milestones – birthdays, anniversaries, new seasons. Treat your festival succession like one of those happy milestones and you’ll foster goodwill that money can’t buy.

Key Takeaways

• Document Everything: Create comprehensive playbooks, contact lists, and cultural guidelines. This ensures new festival organizers can pick up where you left off without missing a beat.
• Develop New Leaders Early: Identify and mentor emerging festival producers from within your team or community. Give them visible responsibilities so stakeholders trust in the festival’s future leadership.
• Prevent Burnout via Role Rotation: Rotate duties among staff and volunteers to share the load and cross-train skills. A resilient team with diverse experience is better prepared for leadership transitions.
• Define Core Values and Uphold Them: Write down the festival’s mission and values. These principles should guide decision-making and be passed on so the event’s soul remains intact no matter who is in charge.
• Celebrate the Handover: Frame leadership changes as positive milestones. Honour outgoing leaders and publicly welcome new ones. By managing the narrative and involving the community, you turn succession into a celebration of the festival’s journey rather than a crisis.