How detailed should a festival run sheet be?

Detailed enough that someone who was not there could still run the day, but not so thick that nobody reads it anymore. Work in blocks of fifteen or thirty minutes and describe one action per row. Details that are not time-bound, such as technical specifications, go into appendices.

When should my run sheet be ready?

You want a first complete version a week or two before the festival, so your crew leads can respond to it. In the final days you only process changes. On the day itself you freeze the version and only update it when it is genuinely necessary.

Who is responsible for the run sheet?

Usually the production manager or the lead organiser. They write and maintain the document, but fill it in together with the crew leads for technical, hospitality, security and site. Every row has an owner, but one person keeps the whole thing up to date.

Can I make a run sheet in Excel or Word?

For a small festival that is fine to start with. The risk is that you end up emailing versions around and nobody knows which is the latest. A run sheet that runs live on every phone and moves automatically when times change solves that.

What is the difference between a run sheet and an emergency plan?

An emergency plan describes what you do during incidents and emergencies and is often required for your permit. It is a component you build into your run sheet or link to it, so on the day itself the crew immediately knows who does what.

Building a festival run sheet: structure and example

What a run sheet is and why it is indispensable

A run sheet is a chronological overview of your festival day that sets out, moment by moment, what happens, who does it and where. It is not an inspiration document or a concept, but the working tool your crew relies on to get through the day. Everything you think through and agree in advance ultimately lands here.

Why is it indispensable? On the day itself there is no time to work out who calls the sound engineer or when the volunteers eat. If that is already pinned down, you can spend your energy on the things that go differently anyway. A good run sheet makes you replaceable in the right way: if you step away for a moment, someone else can take over because everything is in black and white.

That is why more and more organisers are moving away from a standalone spreadsheet and working with a run sheet that runs live on every phone, ticking along with the clock. Software like festival.productions lets you add rows with a time, an action and an owner, so everyone sees the same version at the same moment.

The difference between a run sheet, a programme and a timetable

These three are often mixed up, even though they serve different purposes. In short:

The programme is for your audience: which acts play, on which stage and at what time. This goes up at the entrance and appears on your socials.
The timetable is a tight schedule of the set times, usually per stage. It is one part of your run sheet, not the whole thing.
The run sheet is for the organisation and the crew. It contains everything: the timetable, but also build-up and break-down, load-in, technical, contacts and what you do when things go wrong.

A handy rule of thumb: the programme shows what there is to see, the run sheet makes sure it actually happens. Do not confuse the run sheet with your advance planning either. Planning is about the weeks and months before; the run sheet is about the days and hours themselves.

The standard components of a festival run sheet

Every festival is different, but a workable run sheet almost always contains the same building blocks. Use these as a checklist:

A chronological timeline per day. This is the heart of your run sheet. One row per time, action and owner, from early morning to after the event. Work in blocks of fifteen or thirty minutes and give each day (build-up, show day, break-down) its own timeline.
Build-up and break-down. When do the stages, tents and fencing arrive, and in what order. Plan the break-down just as seriously as the build-up, because that is where most festivals lose time and money.
Load-in schedule. Which supplier or act comes on site at what time, through which entrance, and how long the truck may stay. Without this schedule everyone ends up at the gate at once.
Contact list. Name, role and phone number of everyone who matters on the day: crew leads, suppliers, security, the local authority and the nearest out-of-hours GP service. Put the key numbers at the top.
Emergencies and contingency scenarios. Short and concrete: what you do if someone is injured, in severe weather, during a power cut or in an evacuation. For each scenario, the first action and who takes charge.
Suppliers and technical. Who delivers sound, light, power, toilets and catering, with arrival times and technical requirements. Note the power generators, the number of connections and the soundcheck slots.

Building a run sheet step by step

You do not build a run sheet in one go, but layer by layer. This order works well in practice:

Set the fixed anchors first: doors open, doors closed, set times and the moment the music has to stop. Everything else hangs around those.
Then work backwards in time. If the first act plays at 15:00, the soundcheck has to come earlier, and the load-in before that. That way the morning rolls out on its own.
Add an owner to every row. A row without an owner is a row nobody does.
Build in buffers. Allow more time for build-up and soundchecks than you hope to need. Technical almost always overruns.
Have your crew leads read it. They spot the gaps you miss and feel ownership straight away.
Freeze one version as the single source of truth and make sure changes land there immediately, rather than in stray messages.

Example: a few run sheet rows

A run sheet row does not have to be complicated. Three columns are enough: time, action and owner (or team). Here is what a slice of show day looks like:

07:30, set up fencing and crowd barriers at the main entrance, site crew (Kevin)
09:00, load-in main stage via the rear entrance, truck 1, stage technical (Sanne)
12:00, soundcheck act 1 on the main stage, sound (Bram)
14:00, volunteer briefing at the crew tent, coordinator (Lisa)
15:00, doors open, audience in, entrance and security (head of security)
23:00, last act finishes, music off, stage manager (Sanne)
23:30, start break-down of sound and light, technical (Bram)

You do not need more than that per row. The strength is in the consistency: every row has a time, a clear action and a name on it.

Practical tips for a workable run sheet

Keep it readable on a phone screen. On the day itself no one is standing around with an A4 in hand; everyone checks their mobile.
Use short, active sentences. 'Set up fencing' reads faster than 'the fencing is to be set up'.
Highlight the critical moments, such as doors open and the last act, so they stand out.
Work with one current version. If you do print, add a timestamp so old copies are easy to recognise.
Share the contact list separately, so crew can call quickly without scrolling through the whole document.

A run sheet that moves with you helps most here. If a set time changes, festival.productions shifts everything automatically and everyone sees the new version straight away, without files being emailed around.

Common mistakes in a run sheet

A version that does not move with you. You make a nice document, print it, and then everything changes. By halfway through the day no one is working from the same truth anymore.
No owner per row. 'Someone will do this' means nobody does. Put a name against every action.
Too little buffer time. Build-up and soundchecks almost always overrun. Plan more generously than you hope.
Missing or outdated contact details. A number that is wrong costs you the most time at the worst moment.
Forgetting the break-down. After the last act, the job is not done. Without a break-down schedule your crew hangs around far too long.
No contingency scenarios. If you only start thinking during an incident, you are too late. Set the first action down in advance.