Here’s What You Need To Make Your Community Event A Success

On the JJ Barnes Blog, discover how to effortlessly plan and host an unforgettable community event—from assembling a dream team and marketing early, to securing entertainment, food vendors, legal compliance, and weather backups—with this essential step-by-step guide that turns your vision into an epic, annual tradition!

If you are trying to get your whole community together then hosting a festival or other event is a wonderful way to do this. However, there can be many boxes to tick along the way before you can host this for actual people. If you just don’t know where to start then check out this article to find some helpful guidance. 

Make A Plan

So, you are now in the beginning stages of planning the best community event people have ever attended. You will need a notebook and pen, write everything down that you think of. You might want to get together a professional planning team and host regular meetings to see what everyone thinks or can bring to the table. It might be that you think of one idea and someone else comes up with where to host this. Many hands make light work, as the saying goes. However, too many chefs can spoil the broth so don’t have too many people involved. 

Market The Event 

Once you have sorted what the event will be and where the event will take place, you need to start marketing. It is a good idea to start marketing way in advance so people can plan out their time and what they are going to do. If your event is an all day thing then those in the local neighborhood can decide when they are going to show up. For instance, an evening Christmas event might run from 7pm to 11pm. Not everyone will attend for the full four hours, instead attending for the first or last hour. 

Have an in-house marketing team working on social media pages and potentially video marketing talking about what the event is and what is being hosted on the day. 

Hire Workers 

In order for your event to go ahead you may need to hire experts to get it off the ground. This could be marketing experts or people to build your various stages. Don’t forget you could also advertise for volunteers. This could be students or young people looking to add various pieces of experience to their CV. There are professional companies out there who are used to providing staff and other workers to private and community events. Make sure you know what you want and who you need otherwise you could end up short staffed. 

Work With Local Businesses

It could also be local businesses for children’s parties and other fun events. You could have a bouncy castle or two at your event, to keep the children happy. Just make sure you and other businesses have the right insurance in place, in case something were to happen. You don’t want your event to be a one and done because children or adults become injured. If you have people approach you then be sure to check reviews to see if they will be welcomed at your event. Another great idea for entertainment is a photo booth, there might be a local business owner who has one to loan out. 

Ensure Legal Compliance

If you are hosting a community event then you need to ensure you have all the legal paperwork in place. You don’t want to get in trouble further down the line with not having everything covered. If someone was to get injured and you didn’t have public liability insurance then this could be a costly mistake. Speak with a local lawyer who will be able to go through your list to ensure you have it all in place. If you are hiring staff then employers liability insurance is also a legal requirement. 

Who’s On Stage? 

Now, who is going to be up on stage for your event? The list of possibilities is endless, this could range from local bands to professional speakers. You could send out polls asking the local community what they think and who they would like to see. It could be child entertainers or even famous people who grew up in the town or city your event is being hosted. You may need to use an audio and visual company to make sure everything runs smoothly with the people on stage. Get yourself booked in with plenty of notice, you never know how many months in advance people get booked up. 

Offer Food & Drink

If you are having people and families on site for many hours then you will need to offer some form of food and drink. You can’t expect people to last all day with no sustenance, otherwise they won’t attend the following year. Work with local chefs and eateries to bring together a menu that your community cannot resist. This could include chips, burgers, and posh nosh such as canapes. This is a fantastic way for you to help other businesses drum up business and show off their skills and attributes. Once the locals taste the food then they will always wish to go to their establishments. Advertise the festival or event you are hosting and let the eateries and restaurants come to you. You will be surprised at who wishes to attend as they know many people will be attending. 

Weather Back Ups

Lastly, if you are hosting a large community event then you may need to think of a backup location. If your initial location is an open green space then this can become very wet and miserable if you are expecting the neighborhood to hang around. It might help to also have an indoor backup, however, this will need to be a large enough space to host everyone that appears. One thing you could do is encourage people to apply for tickets, these will be free but it will give you a better idea of how many are potentially attending. 

So there you have it, hopefully now you are better equipped at handling hosting the most epic community event. If this is successful then you can see yourself hosting the same event year and year. Good luck with your new venture, we hope your commonty is astounded and it is a huge success.