APPLETON, Wis. — People like Shannon Couillard are the link between musicians and the audience.

She’s a sound technician from Oshkosh who is working one of the venues at the Mile of Music Festival this week in Appleton.

”I’m basically creating a map for the crowd so everyone in the crowd can hear everything correctly,” she said. “If you can’t hear the full parts, like the treble or the bass, then you don’t get the full experience of actually getting to listen to the music.”

She spent about a half hour Thursday being fitted for custom filtered ear plugs.

It’s part of program, called Artist Care, festival organizers offer to artists and sound techs. Services range from dentistry to dermatology.

The ear plugs are a partnership between the MusiCares Foundation and volunteer work by the Fox Valley Hearing Center.

Couillard is looking long term.

“I’m trying to protect my hearing so I can continue to do it for a long time into the future and keep it as my job,” she said.

Dr. Stephanie Long of the the Fox Valley Hearing Center has volunteered for years at the festival.

“I’ve run into musicians later that have had the ear plugs, or told me about how they felt about getting them, and that’s just a really nice connection,” she said. “I feel like I’m really doing something for somebody who is doing something for me: Being here and traveling to be at our festival.”

It’s also her hope the work heads off future problems.

“If we can do something to help prevent problems, I would much rather do that than talk to you about what kind of hearing aid you can do to remediate that,” Long said.

Couillard — along with more than 100 others artists and sound techs —  will get her new ear protection  in a few weeks.

“I kind of wish I had them now because with this whole weekend I’m going to be working super-long days and I’ll be here a lot," Couillard said. "I just can’t wait to get them for the next time I go.”