I have a friend who used to do sales and marketing for a music publishers. She would spend a couple of weeks in May subsumed in carol arrangements and desperately cheesy choral pieces while they decided what to promote heavily for the Christmas campaign, made promotional recordings, etc. etc.

In a rather similar way, once most gigging musicians have shaken off the New Year’s hangover, the next thing they have to do is start applying for every festival they can think of, and try to find all the ones they’ve never heard of. By way of illustration, The Filthy Spectacula have one festival slot confirmed already and have probably been in touch with dozens of festivals (though admittedly some of them said they weren’t making decisions on lineup till after Christmas).

So the summer really does start in early January for us musos. Now where did I put last year’s list of application details and deadlines …