Festival Craft

The flagship practical piece — a decision framework for the moment when five things you want are happening simultaneously, covering priority signals, the cost of switching and why the film you didn't choose will haunt you more than the one you did.

Most people attend a festival for three or four days, not the full run — this piece builds a practical approach to constructing a coherent personal programme from a short window, including where to compress and what to sacrifice first.

A drily observed account of what actually happens to your day when you commit to a queue — the time cost, the opportunity cost, the social dynamics — and a set of working rules for when queuing is worth it and when it is simply a way of feeling like you are doing something.

A walk-through of how to go from a published lineup to a personal schedule that balances ambition, stamina and the things you genuinely want rather than the things you feel you ought to see — includes the question of how much to plan versus how much to leave open.

The piece nobody writes — what festival fatigue actually feels like at the perceptual level and how to recognise that the fifth film of the day is not being watched properly anymore, plus a set of honest rules for cutting your day short without feeling like you failed.