Another thing that typically occurs is that the festival coordinators will cram the schedule with acts.
Their challenge is that more artists want to perform than they have available slots for.
You will also usually see the same band perform more than once a day on your stage and usually on consecutive days as well, so you should be prepared to chart your consoles, as there is almost no concept of 30-minute set changes.
These shows require very hard work, but they’re an immense amount of fun and the performers are so appreciative of ‘good sound’ that it’s well worth the effort.
STYLES OF CELTIC MUSIC
As I stated earlier, I divide the genre into traditional folk, bluegrass, balladeers, rock, and pipes and drums.
The first group is almost always completely acoustic. Every year, thankfully, we find more and more artists installing pick-ups in their instruments but you’ll still encounter a healthy proportion of instruments you have to mic.
For these groups, it is wise to have a large number of condenser mics available. You’ll find everything from solo guitarists to seven or eight-piece ensembles with almost everyone singing. You’ll rarely see a drum kit but often there will be a bodhran (sometimes two or three) or other hand drum.
Loud is not an adjective to apply to these artists and generally, every musician is a soloist at some point.
That also presents the problem that you really have to be paying attention. There is no set-it-and-forget-it. The musicians will expect you to highlight each soloist as his or her turn comes.
The bluegrass groups are pretty straight forward as far as instrumentation. There are lots of upright basses, banjos, accordions, fiddles, guitars and vocals, as well as the occasional drum kit, but not often.
These groups are mostly just down-home fun. They are generally booked on the smaller stages of the festivals, and the engineer’s biggest challenge is to contain their exuberance to the venue. Banjos are just plain loud and it can be difficult to get a balanced mix without having the whole thing get out of control.
The balladeers are the singers of the traditional pub songs, nowadays mixed in with modern folk type ballads. Think Peter, Paul and Mary. The words are not incidental – they are essential.