Her official job title is director of festivals & project management at C3 Presents. But given her educational background, Shelby Goodsell (BS/BME, ’18) often jokes that she is a “festival engineer” for large musical events.
Goodsell may not be working in a field directly correlated to her degree in biomedical engineering (BME). However, many of the analytical skills she acquired while studying at the University of Tennessee are used on a regular basis.
“I’m a unique kind of brain in my industry because I approach things more scientifically and methodically when I tackle a problem,” Goodsell said. “I also feel like I’ve been blessed with seeing things big picture, which is an engineering quality that I probably developed in school. If we have a problem to solve within the festival ecosystem, I can see the downward effects it will have.”
Goodsell is the festival director for several major musical festivals throughout the United States, including Bonnaroo, a four-day event located on a 700-acre farm in Manchester, Tennessee.
She is responsible for helping build something from the ground up, with an expertise on site design and flow. Each festival is a like a miniature city within a city, consisting of multiple departments that involve hundreds of people. The departments range from production and artist relations to merchandise and guest services to food/beverage and ticketing.
“I’m kind of that helicopter over the whole system that is making business decisions,” Goodsell said. “If there’s something that comes up that needs a decision, or if we start getting into something that really overlaps across a lot of different departments, I’m kind of like the glue to make sure that everyone’s talking to each other so that it’s a smooth decision and planning process across all departments.”
Finding a Career Path
Goodsell discovered her love for event planning during her freshman year at UT when she joined the Volapalooza student programming committee. The experience of putting together the annual end-of-year concert captivated her attention.
“It’s all I wanted to work on,” Goodsell said. “It took so much planning and thinking through the complex system of a large event. It’s so challenging, and you’re always having to make a plan, and then completely change it. It satisfied my complex systems brain in a really cool way.”
Rather than explore internship opportunities in biomedical engineering during the summer before her senior year in 2017, Goodsell applied for one at AC Entertainment, a concert promotion company based in Knoxville at the time.
“That’s when I decided that I definitely wanted to do this for my career, and they decided that they definitely wanted me,” she said. “I got a job right out of college, and it’s been off the races ever since.”
Bringing Joy to Others
Goodsell pursued a biomedical engineering degree at UT because “it sounded like the hardest one.”
“I love to be challenged, and I was also interested in curing cancer,” she said. “I wanted to do something difficult and be successful. I love math, so I knew I didn’t just want to be a doctor. I wanted to fold my math brain into whatever I was doing.”
Goodsell never regretted her decision, even after she realized her true passion was event planning. Applying math and science to real-world problem solving during her BME classes gave her a sense of fulfillment, and the relationships she made with fellow students and faculty have endured.
During the Covid pandemic, when festivals and events were canceled, Goodsell considered returning to UT for her master’s degree in biomedical engineering.
“I wouldn’t be in this job if I wasn’t in engineering at UT,” Goodsell said. “It’s just this domino effect that put me in the right spot. It was just such an easy path from point A to point B, strangely enough.”
C3 Presents puts on 30-40 festivals worldwide annually. Goodsell rarely gets to enjoy the music at the festivals she directs because she’s so busy behind the scenes. Her satisfaction comes from the enjoyment of others.
“The whole reason we do it is the reward of seeing the fans be able to unplug from the stressors of life and have a great experience,” she said. “I love the way that fans come together and just love something so much. I love seeing how happy it makes people. It’s my favorite part.”
Contact
Rhiannon Potkey ([email protected])