Learning to Lead Without Leading: Notes from a Festival Organizer
I'm organizing a community music festival, and I'm learning something I didn't expect: the hardest part isn't the logistics. It's figuring out how much to guide and how much to get out of the way. I came into this with ideas. I had a vision for how the stages should feel, how rosters should work, how performers should think about their sets. What I didn't have — not yet — was a real understanding of how this particular community operates. So before I started handing down policies, I went to the open mics . I went to the jams . I listened. That instinct, I think, was the right one. Start with presence, not pronouncements. It's tempting, when you're in charge of something, to establish authority early — to show people you have a plan. But credibility in a community group often works the other way around. You earn it by showing up, paying attention, and demonstrating that you actually care how things already work before you propose changing them. Attending...