How to Get Your Act Booked for Summer Festivals

Your talent got you this far — but strategy is what gets you on stage.

Summer festival season is the heartbeat of the live music calendar. From Bonnaroo and Lollapalooza to Osheaga, Calgary Stampede, and RBC Bluesfest, thousands of stages light up across North America every year — and every one of them needs artists to fill the lineup. The question isn't whether opportunities exist. It's whether you're positioning yourself to land them.

Getting booked for a summer festival isn't about luck. It's about preparation, relationships, and understanding how the booking ecosystem actually works. Whether you're an emerging act chasing your first festival slot or a working musician looking to level up, here's how to put yourself in the running.

Understand the Timeline

One of the biggest mistakes artists make is reaching out too late. Most major festivals begin locking in their lineups six to nine months in advance. That means if you want to play this summer, the work starts now — in the winter before.

Larger festivals like Coachella, Glastonbury, or Montreal Jazz Festival often have headliners confirmed a year out. Mid-tier and emerging artist slots typically get filled between October and February. Smaller regional festivals and those with curated local stages may book a bit later, sometimes into early spring, but even they appreciate early submissions.

Create a calendar of your target festivals with their submission deadlines, application windows, and the names of their talent buyers. Treat this like a campaign, not a one-off email.

Build a Booking Package That Works

Festival bookers review hundreds — sometimes thousands — of submissions. You need to make it easy for them to say yes. Your electronic press kit should be tight, professional, and current. At minimum, it should include a concise bio that tells your story in two or three paragraphs, links to your best live performance videos (not just studio recordings), high-resolution promotional photos in both landscape and portrait formats, your streaming numbers and social media metrics, a list of notable past performances and any previous festival appearances, and your technical rider and stage plot.

Live video is especially important. Bookers want to see how you command a stage and connect with a crowd, not just how you sound in a controlled studio environment. A single well-shot clip from a packed club can be more persuasive than a polished music video.

Know Who You're Talking To

Festivals don't book themselves. Behind every lineup is a talent buyer, a booking committee, or an agency relationship. Understanding this chain is critical.

For larger festivals, most bookings flow through established booking agencies. If you're not signed with an agent, that's not necessarily a dealbreaker, but it does mean you'll need to work harder to get noticed. Many mid-size and smaller festivals accept direct submissions through their websites or through platforms like Sonicbids, Music Gateway, or Festival Bootcamp.

For the Canadian circuit specifically, building relationships with regional promoters and arts councils can open doors. Organizations like FACTOR, Canada Council for the Arts, and provincial music industry associations often have connections to festival networks and sometimes offer showcase opportunities that put you directly in front of bookers.

For the US, familiarize yourself with regional booking networks and the conference circuit. Events like Folk Alliance International, SXSW, Americana Music Festival, and Departure serve as industry marketplaces where festival programmers actively scout talent.

Leverage the Showcase Circuit

Industry showcases are one of the most effective paths to festival stages. These curated performance opportunities put you in front of the exact people who make booking decisions.

In Canada, events like BreakOut West, East Coast Music Awards, North By Northeast and Departure feature official showcases where festival programmers are in the audience with pen and paper. The US equivalent includes SXSW, AmericanaFest, and the International Folk Alliance conference.

Apply early, prepare a killer set, and treat every showcase like a headlining performance. The rooms may be small, but the people watching have big stages to fill.

Make the Local-to-Regional Leap

If you haven't played festivals before, start where you are. Nearly every city and town in North America hosts some kind of summer music event, from county fairs and food festivals to community concert series and arts celebrations. These smaller stages are where you build the track record that larger festivals want to see.

Document everything. Collect photos, video, and audience numbers from every performance. A strong history of drawing crowds at local and regional events gives bookers confidence that you can deliver at a larger scale.

Cross-border artists have a particular advantage here. Canadian acts that can demonstrate a following on both sides of the border become more attractive to US festival programmers looking for fresh talent, and vice versa. If you're a Canadian artist, don't overlook smaller US festivals in border states — they're often hungry for quality acts and the proximity makes logistics manageable.

Get Your Digital Presence Festival-Ready

Before a booker ever listens to your music, they're going to look you up online. Your digital presence needs to tell a clear, compelling story.

Make sure your Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube profiles are up to date with current photos, a well-written bio, and your best work front and center. Your website should load quickly, look professional, and have a clear press or booking section. Your social media should show an active, engaged fanbase — not just follower counts, but real interaction.

Bookers increasingly pay attention to streaming data and social engagement as indicators of drawing power. You don't need millions of streams, but you do need to show momentum. Consistent growth, engaged fans in your target markets, and evidence that people actually show up when you play live all matter.

Follow Up Without Being a Nuisance

The music industry runs on relationships, and relationships take time. After you submit to a festival, give it a few weeks before following up. When you do, keep it brief and professional. Reference your original submission, mention any new developments like a single release, a strong recent show, or a press feature, and reiterate your interest.

If you don't hear back, that's not necessarily a rejection — it often just means they're buried. A polite follow-up a month or two later is perfectly acceptable. What isn't acceptable is daily emails, aggressive social media messages, or showing up unannounced at a festival office.

Build genuine connections with the people in your regional music ecosystem. Attend industry events, support other artists, and be someone people enjoy working with. When a booker has two equally qualified acts and one of them is someone they've met and liked, guess who gets the call.

Think Like a Festival Programmer

Put yourself in the booker's shoes for a moment. They're assembling a lineup that needs to balance genres, energy levels, drawing power, diversity, and budget. They need acts that will enhance the overall experience for festivalgoers, not just talented musicians.

Ask yourself what you bring to a festival beyond your music. Do you have a visually dynamic live show? Do you engage with the crowd in a way that creates memorable moments? Can you draw an audience that might not otherwise attend? Do you represent a community or sound that adds diversity to the lineup?

Position your pitch around what you offer the festival, not just what the festival can do for your career. That shift in perspective can make all the difference.

Handle the Business Side

When an offer comes in, be ready. Have a clear understanding of your minimum acceptable fee, your travel and accommodation needs, and your technical requirements. Know whether you need work permits for cross-border performances — Canadian artists playing US festivals and American artists playing Canadian events both need to navigate immigration requirements, and these take time to process.

Consider the full value of a festival appearance beyond the performance fee. Exposure to new audiences, networking with other artists and industry professionals, content for your social channels, and the credibility of having the festival on your resume all have real value. That said, know your worth and don't consistently play for free or well below market rate just for the exposure.

Start Now

The artists who consistently land festival bookings are the ones who treat it as a year-round effort, not a seasonal scramble. Build your press kit this month. Research your target festivals now. Start making connections at industry events over the winter. Submit your applications as soon as windows open.

Summer festival stages are waiting. The question is whether you'll be ready when the opportunity arrives.