Building the Operations Behind Railroad Square Music Festival
Railroad Square Music Festival is a free, multi-stage community festival held throughout Historic Railroad Square in Santa Rosa. In my role as Operations Manager, I led the planning, systems development, staffing, site logistics, vendor operations, and event-day coordination supporting the 2026 festival.
The work extended far beyond the event itself. Over the course of the year, I rebuilt workflows, developed operational plans, coordinated with public agencies and service providers, prepared staff and vendors, and translated hundreds of individual requirements into one functioning event site.
Project Snapshot
Client: Railroad Square Music Festival
Project Type: Festival Operations
Location: Santa Rosa, CA
Year: 2026
My Role: Operations Manager
Primary Services: Site Operations, Systems Planning & Optimization
Project Scale
Five performance stages
Over 45 vendors
7,000+ attendees
A multi-block footprint in Historic Railroad Square
Approximately 12 paid staff directly supervised
Roughly 60 additional staff and volunteers coordinated through department leads
The Role
A festival of this size depends on many separate teams, vendors, agencies, documents, deadlines, and physical resources working together. Information collected months before the event ultimately needed to become booth assignments, site maps, staffing schedules, access procedures, equipment placements, safety plans, and clear instructions for the people working on site.
Several existing processes also needed to be rebuilt or formalized. Vendor information was spread across forms, documents, emails, and payment records. Staffing plans needed to account for coverage across multiple days and departments. City, county, and state requirements had to be tracked alongside festival-specific agreements and operational needs.
The challenge was not simply completing each task. It was creating a connected system in which information could move reliably from planning into execution.
The Approach
I treated festival operations as one integrated workflow.
I centralized vendor and staffing information, created repeatable processes, documented responsibilities, and developed written plans that could be shared across departments. Airtable became the primary system for vendor applications, approvals, compliance documents, corrections, payments, booth information, and follow-up.
I also created schedules, maps, agreements, instructions, briefings, and operational plans so that staff, vendors, contractors, and department leads could understand what was expected before arriving on site.
Throughout the process, I worked with festival leadership, city departments, service providers, coordinators, vendors, and staff to identify gaps and turn changing information into practical next steps.
What I Built and Managed
The operational scope included:
Vendor operations: Application, approval, agreement, payment, compliance, booth assignment, load-in, and day-of support for over 45 vendors
Digital systems: Airtable forms, tracking views, dashboards, status fields, document verification, correction workflows, and automated processes
Compliance coordination: Tracking insurance, City of Santa Rosa Business Tax Certificates, seller’s permits, food permits, propane permits, and other required documentation
Site logistics: Vendor zones, equipment placement, traffic routes, access points, parking, load-in, load-out, and infrastructure coordination across a multi-block footprint
Safety and readiness: Safety and medical planning, EMS coordination, security assignments, sanitation planning, ADA considerations, storm-drain protection, and emergency communications
Staffing: Labor planning, shift schedules, role assignments, briefings, training, coverage adjustments, and supervision of paid staff and volunteers
Communications: Vendor instructions, staff announcements, meeting materials, day-of contacts, radio assignments, maps, and a centralized participant information hub
Agreements and documentation: Vendor and sponsor agreements, operational plans, procedures, information packets, schedules, and event-specific instructions
Event-day coordination: Show Office operations, vendor escalation, staff deployment, radio communication, troubleshooting, and cross-department problem-solving
Putting It Into Action
During event week, the planning systems became physical operations.
I coordinated setup crews, infrastructure placement, vendor load-in, staffing assignments, medical and security readiness, communications, equipment distribution, and final site preparation. Vendor vehicles needed to enter through controlled routes, reach the correct zones, unload without blocking traffic, and leave the event footprint before the public arrived.
On event day, I served as the central operational escalation point. I directly supervised approximately 12 paid staff and worked through department leads to oversee roughly 60 additional staff and volunteers. I monitored site conditions, adjusted coverage where needed, supported vendors and coordinators, and helped resolve issues across the festival footprint.
The Result
The 2026 Railroad Square Music Festival brought five stages, over 45 vendors, dozens of staff and volunteers, and 7,000+ attendees into one multi-block event environment.
The work brought vendor management, compliance, staffing, site logistics, safety planning, and event-day communications into a more coordinated operating structure. The systems and documentation created for the festival also established a repeatable foundation that can be updated and improved in future years rather than rebuilt from scratch.
More than any single document or tool, this project demonstrated how detailed planning, clear communication, practical systems, and hands-on leadership come together to support a complex live event.
Planning Something Complex?
Every project begins with a different combination of goals, constraints, people, technology and logistics. Wiecks Media can help turn those moving pieces into a practical plan and a finished experience.
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