Tulsa Mayfest
Event Project Management, Operations & Digital Systems
Tulsa Mayfest is one of the region’s largest and longest-running public arts festivals, drawing thousands of attendees to downtown Tulsa each spring. In 2025, I served as Project Manager, working with RumbleDrum as a consultant to support delivery of Tulsa Mayfest on behalf of their client, The University of Tulsa.
My role spanned event operations, budget management, artist and vendor systems, donor engagement, and cross-functional coordination — supporting both the festival’s public-facing experience and its internal delivery.
Our Role
As an embedded Project Manager within the RumbleDrum team, I held responsibility across operations, digital systems, and program coordination, ensuring complex workflows, approvals, and timelines remained aligned throughout the festival lifecycle.
This role required hands-on execution paired with strategic oversight across multiple departments, partners, and institutional stakeholders.
Scope of Work
Operations & Administration
Budget management and financial tracking
Contract administration across vendors and partners
Oversight of insurance, compliance, and security coordination
Planning and execution of donor gifts and stewardship initiatives
Artists, Programming & Participation
Creation and management of registration systems for visual artists, musicians, and vendors
Development of approval processes and facilitation of jurying across multiple artist categories
Primary management of the visual artist program, including coordination, communication, and logistics
Support of the music acquisition team, including artist coordination and programming logistics
Digital Systems, Marketing & Brand Support
Website and platform updates supporting:
Artist and vendor promotion
Program information
E-commerce and registration integrations
Collaboration with graphic design teams on festival assets and communications
Support of brand activations and partner integrations
Collaboration with University of Tulsa students to advance institutional goals around student involvement in marketing campaigns and festival promotion
Special Initiatives
Organization and launch of the first Mayfest 5K, expanding festival programming and audience engagement
Support of headline programming contributing to record-setting attendance, including performances by artists such as Mýa and Kristin Butts
The Challenge
Tulsa Mayfest operates within a highly visible public environment with layered complexity:
Multiple stakeholder groups and approval pathways
Juried artist processes requiring fairness, transparency, and clear documentation
Tight timelines tied to marketing, programming, and public communications
A growing audience and expanded programming footprint
The challenge was not simply execution, but coordination — aligning creative, operational, and institutional goals under pressure.
The Approach
Our approach emphasized structure, communication, and scalability:
Building centralized digital workflows for registrations, approvals, and data tracking
Creating repeatable processes for jurying, contracts, and artist communications
Maintaining clear budget oversight and operational documentation
Coordinating across teams to align programming, marketing, and on-site execution
Supporting leadership with systems that reduced friction during peak production periods
The goal was calm execution — especially behind the scenes.
The Outcome
Tulsa Mayfest 2025 was delivered as a cohesive, multi-day public arts festival serving artists, vendors, donors, partners, and the broader community.
Key outcomes included:
Vendors reporting record sales across food, beverage, and visual art categories
Record-setting attendance, supported by expanded programming and headline performances
Strong donor engagement through coordinated stewardship efforts
Improved internal systems that enabled smoother communication and operational flow during peak festival periods
Why This Work Matters
Large public festivals require more than creative vision. They require:
Budgets that hold
Processes people trust
Systems that scale
Leadership that bridges operations, programming, marketing, and institutional goals
This project reflects the type of work we do best: managing complexity at scale while supporting teams with clarity, structure, and follow-through.
Interested in Event Support?
If you’re producing a festival, conference, or public event and need project management, operational leadership, or digital systems support, we’d love to connect.
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