The behind-the-scenes politics of music festival posters, from Coachella to Osheaga

The 2017 music festival season kicks off this weekend with Coachella, one of the biggest and most-hyped festivals in the United States.

Lady Gaga, Radiohead and Kendrick Lamar are headlining this year's event, which takes place over two weekends in the Colorado Desert. And there will be plenty more music festivals to follow.

North America's festival scene has exploded in recent years, meaning music fans could have a tough time deciding which events to hit this year.

For music promoters, the lineup poster — and the big-name headliners— are one of the most reliable ways to draw fans in.

But for every A-list performer whose name appears in block letters at the top of the page, there are dozens of lesser-known acts jostling for position in the increasingly tiny text that comes below.

Graham Williams is a veteran music festival promoter. He's the co-founder of Fun Fun Fun Fest in Austin, and the new Sound on Sound Festival in McDade, Texas.

He says the process of building a music festival poster is one of the most stressful parts of his job.

              
Poster politics

The process of building a lineup poster starts off simply enough, Williams says.

"If you're trying to sell tickets, you want to put the biggest artists at the top, and medium artists in the middle and smaller artists at the bottom,"

But while it might sound straightforward, once you start lining up the middle acts, things can get messy.

"When you see those acts in the middle, there tends to be a lot of arguing with booking agents over where artists get placed," says Williams.

Musician Jen Ferrer is familiar with those tensions. Ferrer was one of the last artists listed on this year's Coachella poster. And while she's come to terms with her own position in the lineup, she says not all artists are so forgiving.

"There's higher competition as you get  higher up on the lineup," says Ferrer. "I'm sure there are some pretty cut-throat agents who have gone after [the big promoters], trying to leverage their artists to be higher and to look like they are more popular or important than those other acts."

Bands see their lineup placement as a marker of their success relative to other acts, and use that as leverage when negotiating fees for future appearances.

The bigger they are, the higher they are billed on a poster, the better a look it is for them in the future.- Music promoter Graham Williams

According to Williams, a higher poster placement can give a real boost to a musician's brand.

"You want your band to be perceived to be as strong as they can be," he says. "The bigger they are, the higher they are billed on a poster, the better a look it is for them in the future."

Still, negotiating with agents isn't always a pleasant experience.

"I've been in the music business and booking shows for over 20 years now," says Williams. "I would say [the poster would be] in the top ten most stressful things."

Some festivals opt to sidestep the whole dilemma by simply listing all the bands in alphabetical order. But that can pose problems of its own.

"You know, that could work if you're a festival that's guaranteed to sell out and you don't care about the lineup or if you're more of an industry fest," Williams says

"But for the most part, if you're trying to sell tickets … you can't really do that if it just looks like a page torn out of an encyclopedia with a bunch of words written on it [that] doesn't really stand out."

Williams says poster lineup politics are becoming a bigger issue as music festivals gain popularity and become a major revenue source for performers.

"In the early days of doing a festival, there wasn't a lot of pushback," he recalls. "Now, it's picked over ten times ... I think that's just a big part of the growth of what a festival is."

To hear Graham Williams' take on the politics of music festival posters, download our podcast or click the 'Listen' button at the top of this page.