MACARENA FERNANDEZ | INDUSTRY SPOTLIGHT
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Blending scientific precision with the chaos and creativity of the road, this interview explores the unconventional career path of a tour manager whose journey spans professional dance, nursing, PhD research, and full-time touring. From backstage logistics to data-driven merch strategies and fan-first VIP experiences, she shares how resilience, analytical thinking, and a deep understanding of people has shaped her approach to live events, and why transferable skills can be just as powerful as traditional industry routes.
Your career spans from healthcare research to tour management – how did your journey in music and live events industry start initially, and how has your career evolved since then?
My career in the arts and music industry has been a particular one. I danced professionally while studying Nursing. I had a career-ending injury, which made me follow my nursing career at the time, which brought me to the UK. I went back to Uni, this time to do a combined medical and PhD degree. At this point, I think I was at the right time and the right place (Manchester is a great city for live music), and I started working backstage about 8 years after leaving the stage.
Another unfortunate accident made me start touring full time about 2 years ago. So, my career has evolved a lot. From being on stage, to developing analytical skills, to then being able to apply my scientific training and knowledge of backstage logistics into my day to day. I probably have too an statistical approach to sales, but it keeps me on my toes and makes me think about ways of improving/optimising the tour I am on.
In your view, what makes a tour truly successful beyond the basics of scheduling and logistics?
Scheduling and logistics are the pillars of a good tour. Without proper planning and advancing, the whole boat sinks. How I approach the tours that I am on is: “how can I make the guest leave wanting to come back?”. Curating good and memorable experiences makes guests want more, which, at the end of the day, is what keeps us all doing what we are doing. However, I think that a good tour does not finish when the tour finishes. In medicine, there is a common way of preventing future mistakes: “Root Cause Analysis” and “Reflective Learning”.
At the end of every project, I like to sit down, look at my data, and reflect with these basic questions: “What went well, what did not go so well, and how can I make it go well?”. But I do not do this to focus on negative aspects of the work; it also lets me spot key good events and praise people that have done good work. Sometimes we forget that we work with humans and that we might all be a bit stretched. Keeping good morale is key for success in all aspects of the job.
You also advise on merchandise and VIP experiences; how do you approach creating memorable fan interactions while keeping operational efficiency in mind?
I like to approach it in simple terms, sometimes the smallest interventions are the most impactful. When consulting with clients, I always like to highlight that we are not selling a product/package that we want but the one that the fans would want to spend money on. A good VIP package compliments the merch range and feeds into the thematics of the show which, eventually, generates a whole experience and not three separate aspects of the customer experience.
From a logistics point of view, once the plan is in mind, I believe in thorough advancing. A good spreadsheet to optimise load ins and outs and that allows you to keep track of your sales statistics to then being able to spot projection deviations and reduce deadstock at the end of the tour.
Tour management often requires quick decision-making under pressure. Can you describe a time on the road where your resilience or crisis-management training made a real difference?
Everybody that has worked a front of house role on a tour knows that, sometimes, mailing lists do not operate as we want them too. Technical difficulties can make fans missing out on experiences. Being able to handle customer service complaints from fans is one of those moments where you need to keep everybody happy and make sure that, regardless of the inconvenience, the fans are getting a good experience.
By communicating in collaboration between the team, the local assistants and the fans you can resolve a lot of the trivial issues arising on tour. At the end of the day, we are not performing life or death surgeries, there is always a way to keep everybody calm and find a solution to potential issues.
Switching between scientific rigor and creative industries isn’t something that is heard of often. What challenges, or unexpected advantages have you encountered by working across such different professional cultures?
Perhaps unexpectedly, the high-adrenaline world of touring closely mirrors that of an intensive care unit. I trained as a nurse in Spain before completing a PhD in the UK, and many of the skills I developed are directly transferable beyond communication alone.
As mentioned earlier, I am a very data-driven person. With strong projections from the production team and a clear understanding of size distribution, it is possible to use statistical methods to forecast daily sales and monitor performance throughout the tour. When troubleshooting is required, I run small experiments based on the scientific method. Often, simple changes such as adjusting displays, altering price tags, changing lighting, or adding decorations can have a noticeable effect.. However, if we cannot quantify them, did they really have an impact?
Do you see your involvement in two very different professions as a combined experience that can benefit each other?
When I first started touring full time, my dad said, “All this studying just to sell T-shirts.” However, the more he sees me at work, the more he points out how I apply my scientific training in an unrelated field. I like to think he is right: skills are transferable most of the time, and healthcare and touring are no exception.
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Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mfernandeztouring/
Contact: mfernandeztouring@gmail.com
