Festival Frameworks
about.
The Art of the Advance David Buttrey's hands-on experience across every festival role—culminating in executive producing global events like Tortuga Music Festival and Afropunk—places his festival frameworks and services at the forefront of modern festival design and planning. Using advanced CAD fluency, he creates detailed 2D and 3D models that deliver a complete virtual simulation of the event well in advance. This approach enables significantly faster planning and alignment among stakeholders from the outset. It streamlines on-site builds by removing guesswork and reducing rework. Most importantly, it controls budgets by eliminating expensive last-minute surprises in logistics, spacing, or infrastructure—delivering smoother, more efficient outcomes for events of any scale.
opportunity.
In festival production, CAD is primarily used for site mapping and layout planning, allowing designers to plot every element to exact scale: stages, audio video lighting barricades tents, signage maps, vendor booths, fencing, entrances/exits, emergency routes, power distribution maps, restrooms, virtual visual production schedules per asset, per vendor, and more— on a virtual representation of the venue, whether a field, park, or urban space. David Buttrey has designed and/or executive produced festivals across an extraordinary range of environments with show budgets ranging from 100K to $75M+, with some shows between production, guests, and equipment handling $10B+ worth of assets. Drawing from hands-on experience with events like Tortuga Music Festival on the white-sand beaches of Fort Lauderdale, where stages rise directly from oceanfront shores, dirt lots to 5 star venues across Mumbai, Delhi, and Bangalore....to the museums and courthouses of Johannesburg to the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. He has tackled mountainous terrain through work on Snowbombing Canada in Sun Peaks, with stages built amid alpine slopes and snowy peaks. Desert landscapes, akin to iconic events like Coachella or Burning Man in vast arid expanses, represent another extreme he masters. Open green fields for classic multi-stage layouts to camping festivals across race and inside race tracks at Grid.life And dense urban settings, from Afropunk in Atlanta parks to downtown Manhattan-style productions in bustling city environments. This proven expertise across beaches, mountains, deserts, fields, and urban cores means David's festival frameworks and detailed CAD-driven designs save your firm significant time, money, and guesswork by anticipating every environmental challenge from the start.
Contact David@davidbuttrey.com for a quote from your team your show.
No matter where in the world or what size outdoor event, we have you covered.