We’d like to say a huge thank you to Gary from Stonedead Festival for taking the time out of his busy schedule to sit down for an exclusive interview with The Riff Report Blog! ๐ธ๐ฅ
We got the chance to go behind the scenes and find out what it really takes to organise and run a rock festival, from the hard graft and challenges to the passion, dedication and sheer love of live music that makes it all happen.
It’s people like Gary and the hardworking Stonedead team who help keep the UK rock scene alive and kicking! ๐ค
Cheers, Gary! We really appreciate your time, honesty and insight.
1.Gary, for anyone who sees the finished festival but has no idea what happens behind the scenes, what exactly does the Production Manager of Stonedead do?
I am basically responsible for everything technical at stone dead to do with the stage elements of the show, Iโm given a rough budget, Iโm given riders for the artists I then have to put every other part of that together such as booking stages, audio, lighting etc, liasing with the artists, sorting out everything else in between. Its a rather wide list.(can elaborate on a call a bit more if easier)
2. How far in advance does planning for each Stonedead Festival actually begin?
Me and Chris Sumby generally start the discussion about 18 months before the festival, he will send me over line up ideas or visions for the shows and I will work out if those artists will work then around 14-8 months before I get conformation on some of the artists, and then we starting working ahead from there, stage is booked three years in advance vendors around 1 year in advance some are 3 years in advance.
3. When do you personally arrive on site, and what are those first few hours like when youโre effectively looking at an empty space that needs turning into a rock festival?
This changes year to year, when I have a clear schedule I will come down the Sunday before the festival, but as I work in the touring industry I have arrived anywhere from the Tuesday to the Thursday. I come in to a lot of projects in this kind of situation, where its either an empty field empty arena or something to that effect, and its just really about visualising the space you are working with, in Stonedeads case this is working out where the stage and other logistics will be place.
4. Whatโs the very first thing that gets built โ and whatโs the very last thing you check before the gates open?
Nothing is built for the first say 16-18 hours on site, it is rather marked out on the ground as to where everything will be going and how it will be placed, but when we do start, its with getting the stage on to its marks and then opened up this usually happens Tuesday morning around 9am. Last thing we check for the Saturday band is generally make sure we have a line check for the opening band, and then I or my cover will radio to Chris and give the venue over to him, but we are still doing checks of equipment weather and many more things even when doors are open until last band goes on, my last check before the headliner usually goes on is generator diesel level and phase balance.
5. How big is the production crew behind Stonedead, and how many different teams are you coordinating across the weekend?
Production Team – 1 just me Audio Team – 5 People Lighting Team – 3 People Video Team – 6-9 People depending on the year Power and Generators – 1 Stage Crew 4 – Heads of departments (Stage Management, Load Team, Changeover Team, Auxiliary Team) 18 – Loaders and stage hands or there about 20 – give or take for build and break
6. Stonedead is famously a one-day, one-stage festival. Does having one stage make production easier, or does it actually increase the pressure because thereโs nowhere to hide if something goes wrong?
Exactly that, if we have a delay or a knock on we canโt distract to another area so we have to be on top of everything, but in other terms of one team one lot of suppliers it makes it easier.
7. How tightly scheduled are the changeovers between bands?
Its very tight, and I am of the opinion the on time is yours the off time is mine, our stage manager has signs that he shows the artist whilst they are on stage to tell them how long they have, but he also has me tapping my watch side stage very often. I believe finishing on time is respect to all the other artist around you. I have had to remove bands from stage on other festivals.
8. What happens during those frantic minutes when one band finishes and another bandโs entire production needs to be ready to go?
Tim co-ordinates everyone and everything that needs to happen, to be fair its fairly well structured for the most part and less frantic but more coordinated.
9. Have you ever been standing side-stage watching the clock thinking, โWe might be in trouble hereโ?
If I have the stage team generally get daggers from me and he starts waving the signs more vigorously to catch the attention of the artist on stage.
10. Bands can arrive with very different production requirements. Whatโs the biggest challenge when accommodating everything from opening acts through to the headliner?
Space is the main thing, the direct support is usually the thing that changes how the show sits together for us, we have room for the headliner but depending on what they bring depends on how we set everything, this year we had to make lots of changes in advance for Accept but their team where super professional super experienced and super helpful so it made them fantastic to work with, even though we could not quite accommodate them, they understood and helped work with us from the start.
11. How much communication happens with touring production managers before bands arrive at Stonedead?
A lot of the bands donโt really have a touring PM maybe the top 2-3 bands, but with them a lot and generally with the lower bands on the bill this is done with a TM or with a member of the band, some years I can be done with each band in 2-3 emails some bands require a lot more attention and require 50-60 emails per artist and myself, so it depends on the show and the people I am advancing with, but then you get some artists that will send the same question 10-20 times and not read the answer.
12. Have you ever received a technical rider thatโs made you look at it and think, โThey want WHAT?โ
We receive those all the time, and to be fair I have made my fair share of them, its always a best scenario kind of thing, we do endeavour to provide as much as is possible on that list as per their position on the billing, obviously headliner and special guests we will do what we can to accommodate everything within the framework we can we then drop down from that as we move forward. As sometimes those artists are arena bands in their native country but in the UK they are 2 of 9 or 3 of 9 if that makes sense.
13. Stonedead has developed a reputation for being incredibly slick operationally. Whatโs the secret to keeping everything running on time?
Planning, as we say to everyone the planning stage is essentially to a slick operation, I spend months and months ahead of time working on the planning for this, and even when we are on site we are still planning, some years we are on site we are taking measurements for the next years so its all about how well you plan. And how well you deal with incidents as trust me there are many things we have to overcome each year, be it a band riser too tall, or a space too small but we spend days and weeks planning out those moves.
14. How important are the volunteers and crew members in making the festival happen?
Without that team we would be unable to make the stage side of the festival happen, they come down work their asses of all week, and really do come in to their own as the week develops I find people I like in the crew there are even a couple I have taken out on to paid gigs with some of my clients as I like the way they work. But at the same times they are still volunteers and so have their limitations.
15. Whatโs something the audience probably never notices that actually takes an enormous amount of work behind the scenes?
Again this goes to planning, it was great in the post I put out I receive many questions about things such as the speakers at the front blocking the view, and we have spent a considerable amount of time mapping the sound and if we where to change the speakers to be lower we wouldnโt get the same coverage but we have to take in to account people that donโt have the height to see, but even that is a conversation had multiple times between myself and Chris to make it the best show for everyone.
16. Festivals always have unexpected problems โ weather, equipment failures, late arrivals, power issues. Whatโs the biggest production headache youโve faced at Stonedead?
Wind is the biggest nightmare for me at most festivals, when your trying to set things and chasing it around I think it was 2024 we had a really bad year and I had to open the stage up fully on the Friday to allow the wind to blow though the structure, the rain can be a problem but for me its always the wind. Oh and the year I had to drive around with about 15 other people trying to find a certain artist that had gone to the wrong festival and they where due on stage in 30 minutes.
17. When something does go wrong, how do you keep calm when thousands of people are waiting on the other side of the barrier?
As Chris will tell you, Iโm a miserable cunt, and if everything is going wrong I have a face like a slapped ass but if Chris spots me smiling he goes in to panic mode as he knows something is wrong and Iโm generally trying to make it work. So I would say my panicked face portrays calm and if you know me you would know that statement too be true, my other half even says the same, she has me saved in her phone as captain calm. Its about displaying a front for the people that are around you, donโt get me wrong I loose my cool fairly often but it is usually about other things, but in a troubled scenario I love solving problems.
18. Have there been any legendary last-minute fixes involving cable ties, gaffer tape and somebody shouting โThatโll bloody do!โ?
๐ The big one was the Friday night party in 2024, where I had to have all the sides removed from the stage to allow the wind to blow through, I dropped the video wall, flew the lighting rig as high as possible, and then we had about 10 of the stage hands just sat on top of the one backdrop we used to stop it blowing away.
19. How closely do you work with the festival organisers when deciding how the site and production will evolve each year?
Me and Chris have a considerable amount of conversations be they email, calls, texts, but we communicate a lot it may be about one thing it may be about multiple things it varies per year and per thing but Chris has a huge impact and like the fans at the festival will send me images through the year of things he likes or wants to try or things like that so we are constantly communicating.
20. Stonedead has grown enormously since its early days. Whatโs been the biggest production change youโve witnessed as the festival has developed?
I came to the festival with an artists in 2021 and Chris hired me to take on the Production management after that, so for me the biggest change was bringing in a totally new production when I took over, sound, lighting, video, stage, SFX and Pyro, power everything changed to my preference of vendors, so the first years in 2022 was everything starting from the beginning again and since that point only one of those companies has changed.
21. Are there things youโre able to do now that simply wouldnโt have been possible during the festivalโs first few years?
I came in, in 2022 and there where things I saw when I was there as a guest engineer in 2021 that made me want to up scale everything we did here, so in terms of those days very much so, the festival change dramatically between years and I remember seeing all the comment on social media as they pulled in to the camp zone stating the stage is much bigger etc etc.
22. Whatโs the proudest moment youโve had as Production Manager at Stonedead?
For me its not delivering for the fans its delivery for the directors. The directors on this are like a creative team on tour, who have a set vision of how they want it to play out, so seeing them happy on deliverance each time is the big thing for me, obviously the fans enjoying it is huge but Iโm bought in to deliver a vision and if I can do that each time thatโs the best part. Plus the 8 minute changeover getting KKโs Priests video wall of the stage.
23. Is there a particular bandโs production youโve seen at Stonedead where youโve stood side-stage and thought, โYeahโฆ this looks absolutely massiveโ?
My general touring is with large acts doing stadiums and arenas so in terms of scale not really its all usually 1 truck or under, often I am doing shows with 10+ to 50 truck tours not as PM but on those tours. But to scale it to Stonedead its always fairly substantial, we are often beaten by the stages capabilities, but the productions are not really large per say, when I was working with a couple of artists that could have been booked on the festival we probably would of had trouble as I like to go big with production but they did not come off whilst I was with them.
24. Do you actually get the chance to watch any bands, or are you permanently walking around with a radio attached to your ear solving problems?
๐ Generally no, sometimes through choice sometimes though other reasons, this isnโt really the genre of music I listen to so it does really help in that approach to keep me separated but saying that in general even when I am at a festival with some of my favourite bands its about 1/10 times I actually get to see a band perform.
25. Whatโs the atmosphere like backstage once the final band finishes and you realise youโve successfully pulled off another Stonedead?
Honestly, Iโm usually thinking about my next gig which usually means me jumping straight in a car and getting to an airport ready to fly the next day. But the volunteers go down to what they call the HQ and the stage crew get cheered in to the HQ.
26. How quickly does the site transformation begin afterwards? Is everyone celebrating, or is it straight into dismantling everything?
We generally load the headliner out straight away and then the volunteers go for an after party you can usually hear them being cheered in when they arrive, all the way from the stage and then the main load out starts the day after.
27. Whatโs harder: building a festival or taking the bloody thing back down again?
It always comes down quicker than it goes up that is a common theme especially on tours, but on something like this the crew are generally burnt out after days and days on site so for them the taking it down can be difficult but for me getting it together is always harder.
28. Whatโs the biggest misconception fans have about festival production?
How it can be perfect for everyone, audio is the big one, standing in one place may not be as good as another place. The lighting may blind you in the cheap seats but that is so the rest of the festival can have amazing lighting there are always sacrifices for one part to another sometimes it comes down to budget, as people donโt realise what something like this costs to put on, sometimes its space or logistics there are many factors here.
29. For someone watching from the crowd who thinks festival production looks like an incredible career, how would you recommend getting started?
Volunteer at your local venues, or Equipment suppliers be they sound lighting or anything of the sort, help your mates band out for a while develop your skills and then go on to taking gigs, one of the stonedead crew I actually took on to do set carp work for me on a few shows outside of stonedead, and we have some great crew on site so opportunities are everywhere.
30. Finally, Gary โ when thousands of rock fans are standing in front of that stage, the lights go down and the first massive riff rings out across Newark Showground, do you ever stop for a second and think:
โWe built thisโ? Yes and no, as most of the crew will tell you, when I get on site I am generally working on my next show, its great to hear the crowd cheering, and everyone happy but 90 percent of my job is done before I step on site, and its the same of most of my work, so I tend to get not a lot of time to reflect on the shows, I do always read the fans perspective after a show to see what we can do to improve and the ways we can implement some of their requests, I know the volunteer crew do love it though, they may be beat down in the middle of the day but when they see the headliner go on they are in great spirits of what they have achieved.
๐ฅ Bonus Riff Report Question Youโve got no budget restrictions, no logistical restrictions and absolutely nobody is allowed to tell you โnoโ โ whatโs the most ridiculously over-the-top thing youโd add to Stonedead?
Pyro? Moving stages? A giant fire-breathing dragon? Give us your dream production! ๐ค ๐ ๐ฅ As a pyro guy I would like to see more finale pyro at the end of the weekend, I also have a great idea that I pitch to Chris each year but that one will stay between me and him haha.ย
