The Sweetlife Festival: Lessons in Event Marketing

After a hectic two months of planning, everything came together and sweetgreen’s sweetlife festival became a reality. We partnered with Rock The Vote to create an awesome DC music festival experience featuring a DJ set by Hot Chip, along with U.S. Royalty, The Love Language, Phil Ade, Will Eastman, Grant Shapiro, and Matthew Hemerlein. The festival had 12 sponsors, over 750 people stopped by, and best of all we got a chance to raise money for DC Farm To School, which works to get healthy and sustainable food into the DC public school system.

This festival was also my crash course in event marketing and I wanted to share some lessons I learned along the way:

Start planning early. When people first heard our plans two months ago, everyone was quick to point out “timing issues.” They were definitely right. An event like this requires a lot of preparation – from landing music acts, to securing sponsors, to planning logistics. In the end, everything came together nicely, but having even an extra month or two would have removed much last minute stress.

Making the ticket process go viral. Getting the word out about this festival was fairly easy thanks to our social media reach. Ours fans and followers had to retweet or post a facebook message about the festival in order to gain access to the ticket page and due to this process, tickets sold out in less than a day.

Small details matter. People got really excited when they discovered that their entrance tickets were wooden VIP style passes on lanyards, as opposed to regular tickets. Everyone also received free pins, stickers, and t shirts.

Have custom brand activation options. Different sponsors have different goals and strategies. Make sure you can work together with each sponsor individually to create a custom sponsorship package that works for them.

Breathe. People easily get stressed out from the event planning process. Take a break and relax. Everything will come together.

Have an action plan for the day of the event. This means have written directions by the hour for everyone. Otherwise all efficiency is lost. Also assign general leaders that staff can reach out to if they aren’t sure about what task they should be doing.

Below are some event photos. I am already looking forward to the next festival!

All photos courtesy of Keaton Bedell.

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