Farren Brooks
Master's Candidate
Entertainment Business
Full Sail University
Recent News
Florida Festivals & Event Association (FFEA)
Farren Brooks November 2012
During your concert experience, as you dance with the crowd…do you ever stop to think about what goes on to make sure this live event is conducted and handled professionally? Annual convention and trade show associations like the Florida Festivals and Events Association (FFEA) have a mission with standards that uphold specific criteria. Florida Festivals and Events Association’s mission is to promote and strengthen the festivals, event and fair strategy in Florida through education, networking, dissemination of information, and the cultivation of high standards for the industry. The Florida Festivals and Events Association, Inc. has reportedly grown to more than 415 members, and represents 750 events throughout the great state of Florida. FFEA also hosts more than 3,300 event organizers, vendors, speakers, and sponsors at its annual convention and trade shows. FFEA presents around 1,000 awards recognizing the creative and technical innovations of its members at these trade shows.
Music, Medicine, & Your Brain
Farren Brooks November 2012
Medicine or music? Law or sports? Something practical...or what we truly have a passion for? These are critical decisions that young adults are having to make every day. World renown TED speaker, Violinist Robert Vijay Gupta performs beautifully for the first two minutes of his lecture. TED is a nonprofit devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading, that started out in 1984 as a conference bringing together people from 3 worlds: Technology, Entertainment, and Design. This lecture is about Robert Gupta who was caught between a career as a doctor and a career as a violinist. Gupta realized he was stuck in the middle of the two worlds, he was ready for both but had a sense of social justice in his heart. In his lecture, Gupta tells an inspirational story about how society's marginalized and the power of music therapy, which can succeed where conventional medicine fails.
SXSW Music Fest Pulling Together For Hurricane Sandy Relief
Farren Brooks November 2012
The South by Southwest (SXSW) Conferences & Festivals are banning together to help bring awareness to the victims of the recent Hurricane Sandy. New York City’s subways alone are experiencing the worst damage in its 108-year-history. According to CNN, over 4.8 million people remained without power on Thursday morning in 15 states and the District of Columbia. The worst affected states are New Jersey with 1,983,694 people out of power, New York with 1,514,147, Pennsylvania with 526,934, and Connecticut with 352,286. SXSW has started a Sandy Relief Fund that ties in with the American Red Cross, they ask you to help raise money to bring aid to those who were affected by Hurricane Sandy in any way that you can.
Craving Fresh Music Festival News?
Farren Brooks October 2012
There are many websites that Google hits when you type in “music festival news” in the search bar. But which news are you looking for? One of the most helpful user-friendly sites I’ve picked up on is Music Festival Junkies. This website has the complete 2012 guide to music and art festivals in the United States, Canada, and throughout Europe. For any interest you may have regarding top festival cities, top free festivals, and unique festivals, you name it this site can be your information tank for it! Music Festival Junkies offer more than just upcoming news and bulletins, they also have contact information listed if you would like to write for them! The pieces I have read so far are most intriguing and demonstrate innovation and creativity for these festivals all over the world. This article by Vito Valentinetti entitled A Good Idea: Science At Music Festivals is from the Green Man Festival located in the Black Mountains of Wales. It is an awesome read if you’re particularly interested in science!
CounterPoint Music Festival Recap
Farren Brooks October 2012
My interest in music & art festivals started in the summer of 2010, when I bought a ticket to Bonnaroo from a friend who couldn’t go at the last minute. I had barely even heard of Bonnaroo at the time, and my knowledge in electronic music and dubstep was very limited. A few months prior to that, I attended three underground electronic music shows in New Orleans in one night. That adventure set me on my path to change everything I wanted to study in school. Before those shows I was a political science/pre-law major, after some serious thought and consideration I changed my major to Telecommunications & Film, pre-law. Which is essentially TV/Film/Radio, and the closet major my college had to the direction I was wanting to go in. Since then I have worked on music festivals and attended several of them. I worked on DeLuna Fest in Pensacola Beach as a camera operator for two years in a row and loved it. Currently, I am working on my Master of Science degree in Entertainment Business from Full Sail University. My goal is to be able to obtain a professional career in producing music festivals nationally. Until then, I will use this blog as a resource for providing readers with new insights on what is going on in the live music & art festival world, as well as new breakthroughs in electronic music.