M3F Fest enhances experience with reimagined stage

M3F Fest is getting closer. On March 6 and 7, the annual event will light up Steele Indian School Park with more than 25 bands. This year’s giant party is heavy on electronic music, including headlining acts Mau P and Peggy Gou.

Oh Wow is the event management and creative direction company working to make the Fest easier to navigate and more aesthetically compelling this year. 

Art Director Norbert Bueno is leading the team in a major effort this year — reimagining the Vista stage to give festivalgoers an ultimate sound and visual experience. This massive endeavor will introduce lighting towers to the Vista stage. 

“My role as director is to think of all the concepts, ideas and activations we can bring to expand the experience on site. This year, one of our biggest goals was to expand the production aspects to the crowd,” Bueno says. “With these new towers, we were so inspired by the lineup this year, it being so dance-heavy.”

“With dance music,” he continues, “if you go to a late-night event or a rave or warehouse party, what makes it special is that you’re there for the music. It’s a very intimate space, and usually it’s dark or dim. It’s like you’re in your own space; you share the dance floor, it’s one solid experience. You’re a part of the room, you are a part of the sound. That’s where the inspiration came about. We wanted to take that energy from an intimate space to the festival setting.”

“We thought, ‘Hey, why don’t we introduce the lighting towers?’ That way we could create a dance floor that, no matter if you’re at the very front of the stage, middle of the stage, or in the very back, you get to experience your own M3F moment.”

The process is highly involved, especially given that each artist generally has a production plan.

“Right away, we started talking with the artists to collaborate with them. They loved the idea and introduced some ideas as well.”

Bueno says that the project takes this main stage and expands it.

“Technically, it’s three different sections. You have the main stage, the middle section with the lighting towers and the backlight. Here, all of it will be one, and they’ll communicate with each other and that’s where I think the magic will happen. I think that will be the surprise element. How everything plays together,” Bueno adds.

Having so many moving parts and pieces isn’t daunting to him or his team at all. In fact, it’s the opposite; there’s a genuine thrill about waiting for it all to come together.

“We’ll have video, as well. They’ll have their own graphics and lighting designers, which makes it exciting for us, being able to collaborate with them in this way, where we are using our art pieces, and they are, too. We think it’s going to create this very different experience for the M3F crowd.”

Bueno and team want everyone to have an unforgettable time.

“Full immersion is what we want. One big dance floor that’s a synergy of everybody being in one moment.”