Tips for submitting a great application

Applications close October 23. There's no fee — it's a free festival, and it's free to apply.

Norman Music Festival puts more than 200 sets on stages across downtown over three days: about 55 slots on the big outdoor stages and another 170 or so at partner venues throughout the district. One application puts you in front of all of it.

Before you start:

• Set aside the time to finish in one sitting or leave your browser tab open if you need to take a break! You can't save a partial application and come back to it later. The good news is the form doesn't time out — so leave the tab open, go find that Bandcamp link, and come back to it. Nothing will disappear.

We get more than 800 applications a year, and the number keeps climbing. That's a good problem — it means Oklahoma is making a lot of music — but it does mean each application gets a focused look rather than a leisurely one. These things help us hear what you actually do:

• Music we can listen to immediately. Embeddable links from Bandcamp, SoundCloud, or Spotify. Bandcamp and SoundCloud are best, since not every reviewer has a Spotify subscription. We'll walk you through getting us what we need.
• A good photo of your group. One clear image that looks like you and communicates your vibe.
• Every link we ask for. Yes, it's a lot of fields — music, socials, all of it. Fill them in anyway. If you're chosen to play, those links become your artist profile: they're how a stranger scrolling the lineup finds you, hears you, and follows you home. Ten minutes of copy-pasting now is a working page later.

Some of what follows is optional. We ask anyway because the more we get, the better our small team can get to know you and your music. But don't stall out on something you don't have yet or can't figure out.

Gather these things: Have these ready before you begin and it'll go quickly.

• contact info for your primary contact
• artist bio
• artist photo
• details about your latest gigs
• a link to a video of a recent gig (if you have it)
• a description and/or diagram of your stage plot
• links to all the things (no worries if you don't have all of these)
  • streaming links
    • Bandcamp
    • Soundcloud
    • Spotify
    • Apple Music
    • Amazon Music
    • Youtube Music
  • web links
    • your website
    • Bluesky
    • Youtube
    • Facebook
    • Instagram
    • Tiktok
  • tip jar links
    • Cashapp
    • Venmo
    • Paypal
    • Patreon

What happens next

Everyone who applies hears from us. If you're selected for an outdoor stage, you'll be notified by Feb 1st — and we'll aim to have word out well before that. Partner venue bookings will follow on their own timeline.