The summer’s coming up and that’s means that festival season is nearly upon us. Whether you’ve been to TicketSmarter to find tickets to see your favourite artist, you’re camping at the legendary Glastonbury or heading to the local mini-festival on a farm up the road, it’s a great idea to familiarise with all the artists you’re likely to see. You’ll get so much more out of watching a band if you already know a few of the songs before they come to play.

To get to know the tunes you could buy the full back catalogue of every single band on the bill and set aside six weeks before the festival to listen to each album in its entirety. If you’re a normal human being it’s a much better idea to make a playlist on Spotify (or your music streaming service of choice). Here’s how:

Talk to friends

The first to do is to work out who you are likely to watch at the festival. Obviously you’ll already know the artists that you would like to see so add a song or two from each onto the playlist. But remember that you’ll probably be with other people for the majority of the day. They might have other bands or performers that they are excited about.

Chat to them about who they don’t want to miss. It’s probably the case that they’ll want to see a few artists you’ve never heard of, so make sure you add a few songs from them onto your playlist (unless your friends have dreadful taste). Then when you’ve gone there and have picked your favourite song you can make a plaque of it! Or as they say in Italian, a Spotify Musica Codice, as a nice little keepsake so you can remember your time there.

Abandon preconceptions

It’s a good idea to rid yourself of any preconceptions you may have of particular artists – you might find that when you see them play, a performer or band can completely win you over. They are on the festival line-up for a reason, after all, so now is the perfect time to give them another chance. Check through the line-up for bands you don’t especially like and add a different track to the ones you already know – you might just not have heard the right one yet.

Don’t just choose the big names

You’ve probably already got a decent idea of what the headliners and other famous names are going to play. It’s a much better idea to check out the other bands on the smaller stages so you can enjoy alternative music at other points during the day. Watching the smaller bands is one of the real joys of going to a musical festival – you might just see the band who’s going to headline the show in five years’ time. Make sure your playlist is populated with plenty of bands you’ve never heard before.

Top tips

Here’s a top tip for you: if you’re not sure which song by a band to put on your playlist, you should check out setlist.fm. Keeping a record of the set list for almost every gig in the world, you can search by artist and work out what songs you’re likely to hear them play at the festival. This will mean you are always putting relevant tracks onto the playlist.

There are also a range of apps that will auto-create festival playlists for you. Equally some festivals have their own Spotify profile and produce playlists you can use. These can be useful if you’re stuck for time but it’s usually a much nicer experience to create your own – you can also have full control.

Set it to shuffle

If your playlist is made up partly of bands you love, and partly of bands you’ve never heard of, it can be tempting simply to listen to those songs you already enjoy. But the point of your festival playlist is to introduce you to new bands as well as remind you of your favourites. So set the playlist to shuffle and leave that skip button alone.

Article provided by Mike James, an independent content writer working together with Serviced Events, the largest and fastest growing reseller of Gigloo’s hygienic solution to facilities at outdoor events.