Context
Somewhere Fest & Conference is a large-scale, multi-day, multi-venue festival combining live music programming, conference content, and community engagement. The program operated under fixed, immovable deadlines, significant financial constraints, and a complex stakeholder environment including artists, venues, vendors, sponsors, nonprofit partners, and external production teams.
Previously produced as Elsewhere Fest in 2024, the program evolved while maintaining consistent operational scope and delivery constraints.
My Role
I led end-to-end program coordination and delivery across the festival and conference.
Key responsibilities included:
- Owning the integrated program plan across programming, operations, finance, and marketing
- Establishing timelines, dependencies, and operating rhythms across teams
- Managing multi-million-dollar budgets, forecasts, and vendor commitments
- Coordinating internal teams and external partners across multiple venues
- Serving as the primary escalation point for risk, scope changes, and decision-making
The Work
- Built and maintained an integrated master program plan aligning creative, operational, and financial milestones
- Designed cross-functional workflows coordinating artists, venues, production, marketing, and sponsors
- Established budget tracking and financial controls to manage spend against forecast
- Led weekly cross-functional check-ins to surface risks, resolve blockers, and maintain momentum
- Coordinated venue logistics, staffing plans, and production schedules across parallel locations
- Managed late-stage changes while protecting critical path timelines
Outcomes
- Delivered a multi-day, multi-venue festival and conference on a fixed deadline
- Supported programming for 150+ artists and speakers across multiple stages and venues
- Maintained financial discipline while operating under real-world budget constraints
- Created repeatable program artifacts and workflows supporting future iterations
- Strengthened cross-functional collaboration across creative, operational, and financial teams
Media and External References
Third-party coverage documenting program scope and operating environment:
How Elsewhere Fest Conference is building community through music
Pollstar, June 2024
Coverage of the 2024 iteration of the festival, then branded Elsewhere Fest, highlighting community impact and event strategy
Relix
Preview interview detailing program design, operational approach, and strategic priorities for the festival experience
What I'd Do Again or Differently
- Build redundancy and escalation paths earlier for critical planning artifacts, ensuring timelines and dependencies are delivered even when individual workstreams stall
- Translate early guidance emphasizing creative flexibility into explicit budget ranges and approval checkpoints sooner, ensuring teams have clarity while maintaining financial predictability and reducing post-event variance
- Preserve lightweight documentation from early phases to reduce late-stage decision churn