Written by Katherine Severin. Photos by Katherine Severin.
It’s festival season; a time to let loose and enjoy live music with your friends. For many festival goers, it is a time to forget about work and have fun. However, for a creative, it only fills me with ideas and inspiration. Attending live music events get me thinking about the unique ways I can combine the things I love with my studies. Studying music is not a huge focus here at SCAD, but that doesn’t mean your creative talents can’t be utilized to make events come to life. Behind these few days of fun lies hundreds of hard working creatives. Let’s dive into how you can combine love for live music with your major!
High Water Music Festival is an indie folk rock festival that takes place at Riverfront Park in North Charleston, South Carolina each April. This year’s performers included Noah Kahan, Hozier, Grace Potter and Shovels and Rope among many others. The venue offered plenty of space for attendees to sit in the grass or stand in the pit for a more intimate music experience. Uniquely, the park sits right along the water where boaters and paddle boarders enjoyed the music from afar. With two stages, six pop up events, all day music, and 24 dining options, High Water makes the perfect weekend trip for students.
Live music wouldn’t be possible without live music mixers. I spoke to sound design major William Brown, who has focused his studies on sound design for live events. “We are in charge of handling speakers, microphones and in ear monitors as well as mixing everything with a mixing console. The collaborative experience between creatives is always great. In a live scenario, there are so many other things that also come into account. The audience plays a huge part in the energy of the performance, just as much as the talent,” Brown says.
Despite being centered around music, visuals are also a large part of High Water. Live video footage was streamed on LED screens beside the stages while photos, videos and drone footage were used to promote the festival online. Brit Bremser, a documentary photography student says, “I took lots of photos at Highwater! I used a lot of what I learned in my photography classes about lighting and framing in said photos. I think having good photos to look back on made my experience there even better.”
Excellent graphic designers, social media strategists, video editors, writers and photographers all play a large part in the marketing behind festivals. Often these jobs can be overlooked in the bigger picture, but these creatives are vital to a festival’s success. Attending live events expands my perspective on how many unique creative roles are needed to put together an event as a whole. I urge students to explore the many niche creative career possibilities within the spaces you love and continue to take advantage of new experiences.
