General Music Chat

Fist I'd like to say what a great board I've gotten a lot of helpful info here.

So here's the thing. I'm putting on an outdoor concert this weekend as a thank you to our community. Its totally free and have taken very few donations. We are gonna have 5 bands playing on a floating stage anchored off a beach here on the Texas coast. We will be setup on the bayside so rough water will not be a problem. I have quality sound people so I'm not too concerned about sound. What I'm trying to figure out is all the little things that can screw this up. The only way to get to the beach is by boat and we are expecting a 1000+ people. So running out real quick and getting something you forgot is not possible. None of us have ever done anything like this before so if anyone has any advice or suggestions I would appreciate it.

Soft sand gettin' the stuff to the stage.
Generator? Power? has anyone checked the Amp's? hope its big enough
Floating stage that can hold around 3,000 lbs + hummm must be a barge huh?
Thats just the biggies I'll think of some more later.
Insurance?

Fist I'd like to say what a great board I've gotten a lot of helpful info here.

So here's the thing. I'm putting on an outdoor concert this weekend as a thank you to our community. Its totally free and have taken very few donations. We are gonna have 5 bands playing on a floating stage anchored off a beach here on the Texas coast. We will be setup on the bayside so rough water will not be a problem. I have quality sound people so I'm not too concerned about sound. What I'm trying to figure out is all the little things that can screw this up. The only way to get to the beach is by boat and we are expecting a 1000+ people. So running out real quick and getting something you forgot is not possible. None of us have ever done anything like this before so if anyone has any advice or suggestions I would appreciate it.

Water and Electricity are not a wise mix. Hopefully, your crew understands that, when and if they power-cable the stage.

If you are close to a pier, make sure your platform has adequate fenders in place to soften the blow ( in case the platform drifts and collides into the pier). Make sure to set your gear as close to center of platform and out of reach of any overhangs jutting out from the pier, or risk of water splashing on the platform.

Breezes are common pier-side. If you have lighting or other tall objects set up, consider bolting them down, ( if on the platform).

Finally, See the dock-master or whoever about setting up fire extinguishers ... Here's the deal; You are standing on a floating piece of oily wood. One good hot arc and bolt from the cable or equipment or falling light, is all it would take to start a nasty fire on your stage. Ask for CO2 extinguisher for the wood and PKP extinguisher (if they have it) for the electrical equipment.

Also make sure you have/ are able to locate a kill-switch to the power. Its sounds drastic, but the first step to fighting an electrical fire (aka equipment) is to kill the power source .

Oh yeah..then have fun

Yep,
It will surely be a logistical nightmare all right. In addition to the electrical and safety issues, getting 5 bands worth of gear down to the dock, loaded on the boat, run out to the barge, unloaded off the boat without damage or dropping something in the drink will require a small army. The effect of salt water in close proximity to instruments and sensitive electronics that were not designed for a marine environment will rust up badly in a few hours.

We did a show on a floating dock in Ventura Harbor a few years ago. You could simply roll your gear from the truck to the dock so load-in was much simpler and we had shore power. Still the dock moved quite a bit as boat traffic moved in the harbor. Rust gremlins are still in my gear to this day. We also played aboard the Queen Mary once. It was a maze getting into the ballroom from shore but once there it was just like any other ballroom. Roll in- roll out.

In Cali there are a lot of live music events at the beach. 99% use a 4' tall shore stage so they can easily get gear in and out, and plenty of power is available for lights and sound. If I were this event promoter and I didn't have 50 guys available to load-in and set up gear, this is what I would do.

Just my 2 cents.

To the OP, Ive never done a gig like this in salt water, as for me if it was free I would want to use someone elses equipment, dont think I would want to put my Mesa rig and pedal board out there for something like this.

My band has done two gigs in the last 15 years on a river barge in a lake. It wasnt that rough but when ever boats are around the people on them get curious and will get as close as they can, so my only suggestion would be to make sure whatever you are playing on is anchored on both ends securely if that is possible. We were on this huge barge platform with a large walkway that we could push the gear off and on, there were 3 bands and we all put our gear on the platform and just moved it from one side to the other, once again it was a huge barge.

So in short the roughness of the water may not be the surf but curious onlookers on boats that may pull up behind the stage or in front of it if you are off shore.

Good Luck and let us know on here how it turns out, and then suggestions from your point of view after doing this, so then any of us who encounter this type of thing know what to prepare for.

Rock ON!!!!

Well it came off without any major problems cept my stresslevel all day. and had a 40knot wind blowing directly at us. Had a crowd of about a 1000 and went off without a glitch. Transportation back to the dock was a bitch. Have some great pics as well as aerial photos.

Now the hard part, cleaning the sand and salt out of the inside of the amps.

Now that looked like fun and good memories.
You guys look funny with your wind blown hair-doos.[/b]

Cool Pictures, but man as much as we drink when we gig we would have needed life preservers, LOL.

Thanks for sharing glad it went off so good!

Keep Rockin Po Boys!