Festival Area Coordinator
Job Title: Festival Area Coordinator
Reporting To: Director, Festival Management & Delivery
Department/Team: Festivals
Location: Remote, Global
Travel Required: Yes
Does this role have line management responsibilities?
No formal direct reports. Responsible for managing area staff, volunteers, contractors, contributors, and temporary event personnel within assigned festival areas during planning and event execution.
Does this role manage a budget?
Yes
Summary
The Festival Area Manager is responsible for the business performance, audience engagement, content strategy, and successful execution of assigned festival areas across DreamHack festivals.
This role acts as the business owner and subject matter expert for a portfolio of festival areas, ensuring they deliver value to attendees, partners, communities, and the business. The Festival Area Manager is accountable for developing compelling content and activities, creating commercial opportunities, driving attendance and engagement, supporting marketing efforts, and overseeing the successful on-site execution of their areas.
Working closely with Festival Production, Programming, Partner Integrations, Marketing, and Operations, the Festival Area Manager ensures their assigned areas remain relevant, commercially attractive, operationally executable, and aligned with DreamHack's strategic objectives.
Success in this role is measured through audience satisfaction, attendance, engagement, commercial contribution, partner value, and overall business performance.
What you will do
Reporting to the Director, Festival Management & Delivery, you will own the performance and growth of assigned festival areas across the DreamHack festival portfolio.
You will work closely with internal teams and external stakeholders to develop engaging content, strengthen communities, create sponsor opportunities, and ensure your areas contribute meaningfully to DreamHack's business objectives.
During festival execution, you will oversee the delivery of content and activities within your assigned areas and lead the staff and contributors responsible for bringing them to life.
Key Responsibilities
Area ownership and business performance
Own the performance and long-term development of assigned festival areas, including ensuring participation through outreach to communities and external stakeholders (i.e reaching out to Artists in Artis Alley, Indie game developers, TCG vendors, Cosplayers, local tournament organizers etc)
Develop strategies that increase attendance, engagement, audience satisfaction, and revenue contribution
Continuously identify opportunities to improve content, community participation, commercial value, and overall area performance
Monitor industry trends, competitor offerings, and attendee feedback to inform future development
Content and activity development
Develop compelling content, activities, competitions, programs, and experiences that attract and engage attendees
Doing market research and working with relevant stakeholders to ensure assigned areas remain fresh, relevant, and aligned with audience expectations
Contribute ideas and initiatives that strengthen DreamHack's position as a leading gaming and lifestyle festival
Commercial inventory development
Partner with the Partner Integrations team to develop attractive sponsorship opportunities and commercial inventory within assigned areas
Identify opportunities for branded integrations, premium placements, audience engagement opportunities, and partner activations
Support the sales process by providing subject matter expertise and helping shape commercially viable opportunities
Balance partner objectives with audience value and overall festival goals
Audience engagement and community development
Build and maintain relationships with relevant communities, organizers, contributors, participants, and industry stakeholders
Foster community growth and participation within assigned areas
Ensure assigned areas create meaningful experiences that drive positive attendee sentiment and long-term loyalty
Act as the primary stakeholder owner for communities associated with assigned areas
Marketing collaboration
Work closely with Marketing to ensure assigned areas receive appropriate visibility before and during festivals
Contribute content plans, key messages, promotional opportunities, and audience insights
Support campaign development by ensuring assigned areas are accurately represented across marketing channels
On-site area leadership
Lead the execution of assigned festival areas during event build-up and live operations
Recruit, brief, and onboard area staff, volunteers, contractors, contributors, and day-to-day activities
Ensure content, activities, partner commitments, and attendee experiences are delivered according to plan
Act as the primary point of contact for issues and decision-making within assigned areas during the event
Maintain quality standards and ensure a positive experience for attendees, partners, and contributors
Reporting and continuous improvement
Measure and report on area performance including attendance, participation, engagement, NPS, revenue contribution, and partner value
Conduct post-event reviews and identify opportunities for improvement
Document learnings, recommendations, and best practices to improve future festivals
Support the development of long-term growth plans for assigned areas
Requirements
Experience
5+ years of experience in live events, gaming, esports, entertainment, experiential marketing, community management, audience development, partnerships, or related industries
Experience owning and growing programs, business units, communities, content portfolios, or customer-facing initiatives
Experience working cross-functionally with multiple internal and external stakeholders
Experience managing budgets and evaluating business performance
Skills
Strong commercial awareness and business acumen
Excellent stakeholder and relationship management skills
Experience developing content, communities, programs, or audience-facing initiatives
Strong communication and presentation abilities
Data-driven decision making and performance analysis
Strong organizational and problem-solving skills
Personal Attributes
Entrepreneurial mindset with strong ownership mentality
Passionate about creating exceptional attendee experiences
Community-focused and audience-centric
Commercially minded and results-driven
Highly collaborative and relationship-oriented
Comfortable working in fast-paced, evolving environments
Success in This Role
Success in this role means:
Assigned festival areas achieve strong attendance and engagement
Attendees report high satisfaction and positive experiences
Areas generate meaningful commercial value and sponsor opportunities
Communities continue to grow and strengthen year-over-year
Content remains relevant, innovative, and differentiated
Assigned areas contribute positively to DreamHack's overall business performance
What this role is not
The Festival Area Manager is not a Product Manager, Project Manager, or Production Manager.
Unlike the former Product Manager role, the Festival Area Manager does not own the end-to-end lifecycle, planning, or delivery of festival products.
The Festival Area Coordinator does not:
Lead project management or production planning processes
Own operational delivery, readiness, or festival-wide execution
Manage procurement administration
Create or manage project plans, sprint boards, or operational workflows
Coordinate infrastructure requests, logistics, venue requirements, internet, power, or fabrication needs
Act as the primary liaison between Festival Production and Operations
Manage festival floorplans, or cross-functional production dependencies
Own administrative planning tasks such as catering requests, logistics trackers, or procurement workflows
Own budget for their designated area (the Director, Festival Management & Delivery owns this)
These responsibilities are owned by the Director, Festival Management & Delivery.
Instead, the Festival Area Coordinator focuses on defining what makes their assigned areas successful and ensuring they deliver strong audience value, community engagement, commercial opportunities, and business results.
The ideal candidate for this role is a business-minded content, community, or audience development leader rather than a project manager, producer, or operations specialist.