Issue 43 September 2010 £4.75 Festivalgoers boosting UK tourism trade By Christina Eccles MAJOR outdoor events are boosting the UK’s tourism industry by encouraging festivalgoers to explore the surrounding areas and stay for longer. According to research from stonewool insulation producers Rockwool, the UK will host 2,820 days of major festivals throughout 2010 – taking place up and down the country. And tourism bosses are increasingly marketing events as a reason for people to visit an area or to extend their break. Visit Peak District and Derbyshire is one area benefiting from this – using the popularity of events such as the Buxton Festival and Derby Festé to attract visitors. Head of marketing David Thornton said: “The Peak District and Derbyshire is growing in popularity as the ideal place to enjoy all kinds of arts and music festivals. “And because they’re staged through- out the year, they offer lots of opportu- nities to come here for a culture-packed short break.” The Mouth of the Tyne festival attracts about 150,000 people to North Tyneside and organisers have noticed an increase in the number of people attending who live outside the region. North Tyneside Council’s tourism and events project officer Laura Picton added: “Year on year, the event has a growing attendance from the wider North East region and beyond, and sta- tistics from a visitor survey showed that six per cent of attendees were from out- side of the region. “This event is an example of how we use the coastal lifestyle and stunning tourist setting to engage residents and visitors in exciting events and festivals that can provide economic and social benefits to the area.” At the Green Man festival in Wales, visitors can buy a ticket which allows them to stay for an extra four days – turning their trip into a holiday. Organiser Fiona Stewart added: “Festivals have changed a lot. Music is still at the heart but there is now an expectation to do more and they are seen as much more of a holiday. “We don’t get anything out of [the hol- iday ticket] as festival organisers but it really adds value and quality to the tick- ets. “And when they stay longer, they buy food and go to restaurants or attrac- tions so it’s a win-win situation. “Festivals can reach so many sorts of people and can really drive tourism in an area.” Organiser wins legal fight A FESTIVAL organiser has won a legal battle against Manchester City Council fol- lowing the cancellation of a music festival he was staging in the city. Mike Forrester, director of Gold National Events, brought legal action against MCC after he was granted permission to stage the Bob Marley Tribute Festival at Platt Fields Park in 2008, which was later with- drawn. The council claimed they were acting on police advice but Det. Chief Supt David Keller of Greater Manchester Police said in court that although he had reservations as to Gold National Events safely organ- ising the festival, he had not advised its cancellation. Mike said: “MCC had given no adequate reasoning for their refusal to honour the contract and this has cost my company £500k from legal costs and loss of earnings. I am very proud of this positive outcome of the case as it rep- resents an important land- mark for the ‘ordinary man in the street.” It is hoped the court will set a date this month for the award of damages and costs. Alice Cooper was one of the star attractions at the UK leg of Sonisphere, which took place at Knebworth Park. The festival – now in its second year – was headlined by Rammstein and Iron Maiden and was enjoyed by an extra 15,000 fans after organisers decided to increase its capacity to 55,000. ■ Full story, Round up, starting on Page 13 The Main Event is the official magazine of the National Outdoor Events Association
Transcript
Issue 43 September 2010 £4.75
Festivalgoersboosting UKtourism tradeBy Christina Eccles
MAJOR outdoor events are boosting theUK’s tourism industry by encouragingfestivalgoers to explore the surroundingareas and stay for longer.
According to research from stonewoolinsulation producers Rockwool, the UKwill host 2,820 days of major festivalsthroughout 2010 – taking place up anddown the country.
And tourism bosses are increasinglymarketing events as a reason for peopleto visit an area or to extend their break.
Visit Peak District and Derbyshire isone area benefiting from this – usingthe popularity of events such as theBuxton Festival and Derby Festé toattract visitors.
Head of marketing David Thorntonsaid: “The Peak District and Derbyshireis growing in popularity as the idealplace to enjoy all kinds of arts andmusic festivals.
“And because they’re staged through-out the year, they offer lots of opportu-nities to come here for a culture-packedshort break.”
The Mouth of the Tyne festival attractsabout 150,000 people to North Tynesideand organisers have noticed anincrease in the number of peopleattending who live outside the region.
North Tyneside Council’s tourism andevents project officer Laura Pictonadded: “Year on year, the event has agrowing attendance from the widerNorth East region and beyond, and sta-tistics from a visitor survey showed thatsix per cent of attendees were from out-side of the region.
“This event is an example of how weuse the coastal lifestyle and stunningtourist setting to engage residents andvisitors in exciting events and festivalsthat can provide economic and socialbenefits to the area.”
At the Green Man festival in Wales,visitors can buy a ticket which allowsthem to stay for an extra four days –turning their trip into a holiday.
Organiser Fiona Stewart added:“Festivals have changed a lot. Music isstill at the heart but there is now anexpectation to do more and they areseen as much more of a holiday.
“We don’t get anything out of [the hol-iday ticket] as festival organisers but itreally adds value and quality to the tick-ets.
“And when they stay longer, they buyfood and go to restaurants or attrac-tions so it’s a win-win situation.
“Festivals can reach so many sorts ofpeople and can really drive tourism inan area.”
Organiser winslegal fightA FESTIVAL organiser haswon a legal battle againstManchester City Council fol-lowing the cancellation of amusic festival he was stagingin the city.
Mike Forrester, director ofGold National Events, broughtlegal action against MCC afterhe was granted permission tostage the Bob Marley TributeFestival at Platt Fields Park in2008, which was later with-drawn. The council claimedthey were acting on policeadvice but Det. Chief SuptDavid Keller of GreaterManchester Police said incourt that although he hadreservations as to GoldNational Events safely organ-ising the festival, he had notadvised its cancellation.
Mike said: “MCC had givenno adequate reasoning fortheir refusal to honour thecontract and this has cost mycompany £500k from legalcosts and loss of earnings. Iam very proud of this positiveoutcome of the case as it rep-resents an important land-mark for the ‘ordinary man inthe street.”
It is hoped the court will seta date this month for theaward of damages and costs.
Alice Cooper was one of the star attractionsat the UK leg of Sonisphere, which took placeat Knebworth Park.The festival – now in its second year – washeadlined by Rammstein and Iron Maiden andwas enjoyed by an extra 15,000 fans afterorganisers decided to increase its capacity to55,000.� Full story, Round up, starting on Page 13
The Main Event is the official magazine of the National Outdoor Events
THE organisers of the Tall ShipsRaces in Hartlepool have achievedtheir ambition of becomingEngland’s biggest free event of theyear after attracting an estimated970,000 people.
Crowds descended on the townover four days to see the tall shipsas well as a busy entertainmentprogramme, which included livemusic from acts such as Echo andthe Bunnymen and Doves, a worldmarket, celebrity chefs, street the-atre and fireworks displays.
Project manager Michelle Dauratfrom Hartlepool Borough Counciltold The Main Event it was an‘overwhelming success’, which willhopefully pave the way for moremajor events to come to the area.
And she said that part of this suc-cess was down to careful planningand studying previous tall shipsraces to see what they could learn.
She explained: “We did a lot ofresearch into previous host portsand talked to the organisers of theoverall races, Sail TrainingInternational.
“We went into more detail in theBritish ports to understand theirexperiences and to learn fromthem. But every port is different sowe also had to understand our ownarea.”
The town was the only UK host
port this year and also the finalport of call so the team was taskedwith making sure the event wentoff with a bang.
Michelle added that the ‘Piratesof the Caribbean’ style ships pro-vided a magnificent spectacle forvisitors and was also complement-ed by a free event programme,which was also a good draw.
She added that overall everythingwent really well but as always whenrunning a major event, there werelessons to be learned along theway.
“The scale and size of the event
was our biggest challenge and thefact that Hartlepool is only a smalltown.
“There are two main roads in andout of town, which meant we hadto think carefully about car parkingand traffic management and makesure we had good crowd manage-ment in place.
“We are now wrapping up thisevent and then we will start look-ing at our future events pro-gramme.
“We have shown we can attractlarge scale events and would nowlike to hold more.”
Hartlepool event sailsinto record books
The Projection Studio’s Ross Ashtondesigned and produced an eye catch-ing array of images appearing on thewalls of Edinburgh Castle for theEdinburgh Royal Military Tattoo.This year marked the 60th anniversaryof the show and featured over 1000 performers choreographed in a livelyand energetic mix of music, song,dance and drama.Ross said: “It's always a great privilege to be asked to work on sucha unique and high profile a show likethis.“Even more so as the true potential ofprojection has proved itself and has a real commitment from theorganisers.”
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FIONA has been credited as one ofthe founders of the ‘boutique’ festi-val phenomenon because of herwork on both the Big Chill andGreen Man festivals.
Her varied career has also includ-ed working for the Foreign Officeand the Home Office, assessingcrowd behaviour at large scaleevents before making the moveinto organising events herself.
She told The Main Event that overthe years, the festival market haschanged a lot and that the bou-tique element is becoming increas-ingly popular with festivalgoers.
She explained: “I went to eventswhich were quite basic and thefood there was also quite basic. Ilike good living and I love food andcouldn’t understand why that offer-ing was never there at festivals. Itjust seemed obvious.
“There are now some brilliantevents out there. I tend not to go tomany myself but there are somegreat ones such as Bestival andLatitude.
“But we have to be careful theydon’t all become the same andkeep themselves unique and inter-esting.”
Fiona added that one of herbiggest achievements is changingthe way which people view goingto festivals.
She added: “I am proud of chang-ing people’s attitudes about events.At Lulworth Castle – which was theprevious home of the Big Chill – itwas a difficult event site and it wasquite bigoted. We had to go for
endless meetings. At that time,local councils could stop organis-ers from having big events by hav-ing a big licence fee. The Big Chillhad had its problems the yearbefore and that reputation had gotto the event site.
“But the event turned out to bereally successful. A lady came up tome afterwards and embraced meand said that she had lived there allher life and had never seen any-thing like that.
“Running a festival is like being atown planner. My backgroundhelps from the point of view ofdesigning the event and I have alsobeen very lucky to be able to putevents on in such beautiful places –we have always used the area’s nat-ural beauty within the festivals.”
The Green Man festival hasbecome one of Fiona’s biggest suc-cesses and since joining the festivalin 2005 has grown it from a capaci-ty of 1,000 people to an estimated15,000 this year.
And she added that althoughsponsorship may be the right routefor some organisers, The GreenMan prefers to do things different-ly.
“People don’t like hypocrisy. Ifthey know at the event, there isgoing to be a presence from spon-sors they are usually fine about it.But they don’t like to be lied to.
“We’ve never really gone downthat route with the Green Manbecause we’ve never found theright sponsor or brand. At the fes-tival we offer very good food and
have had a lot of offers from spon-sors, which have been really tempt-ing. But ultimately it would meanthat people who have been goingfor years would end up getting lessthan they do anyway and theywould notice.
“It would be silly to say we wouldhave no sponsorship completelybut any sponsor would have to be a
good fit with the event. “But it’s a hard thing running a
festival and people have to findtheir own way.”
� The Main Event will be catchingup with Fiona on site at this year’sGreen Man Festival. See nextmonth’s festival round up for a fea-ture on the event.
Fiona Stewart has worked in the industry for over 20 years and is the woman behind some of the UK’s mostsuccessful festivals. Here she shares her experiences with The Main Event.
Events must keep themselvesunique and interesting
Fiona Stewart
Robbie Williams, James Blunt and Alexandra Burke areamong the first acts announced for an historic concert toappreciate the country’s military heroes. The concert willbe held at Twickenham Stadium in front of 60,000 fans –with all proceeds going to the Help for Heroes charity.
DBN Lighting overcame someunusual challenges when work-ing on a spectacular outdoorevent in Liverpool.
The company supplied stagelighting to two recent high profileLiverpool City Council events – AWave At Picasso and Dance Onthe Waterfront – working for cre-ative producers, Walk The Plank.
The free events took place onand around the Pierhead area ofdowntown Liverpool and werepart of a lively programme ofpublic shows and installationsstaged throughout the summer.
Staged in Salthouse Quay anddirected by Mark Murphy, Waveat Picasso was an imaginativecombination of canoeists, coor-dinated swimmers and dancingboats, together with fire perform-ers, pyrotechnics, sound and pro-jections, all choreographed into adaring performance.
Stephen Page from DBN wasasked to create a lighting designfor the show which incorporatedillumination of the docks and the
surrounding environmental ele-ments like jetties, as well as light-ing the performers on the water –with the audience viewing fromaround three sides.
He said: “Walk the Plank showsare always interesting, varied,experimental and fun, and oftenin great site specific locations.One of the many physical chal-
lenges of this one was that therewere no rigging points for light-ing.”
This meant all the lighting kithad to be positioned around thedock – a large area measuringover a kilometre all the wayaround – in a very narrow spacebetween the crowd barriers andthe dock wall.
Another challenge was theweather as it was extremely hos-tile on the dress rehearsal night,delivering gale force winds andtorrential rain, resulting in thewater level of the dock increasingconsiderably for the show day. Tocombat this, much tweaking wasneeded to get lights pointing inthe right positions.
Despite the challenges, every-thing went smoothly on the nightand the show was enjoyed byaround 50,000 spectators overthe weekend.
A few weeks later the companyreturned to Liverpool to work onanother Walk the Plank event –Dance on The Waterfront.
Lighting firm overcomes challenges
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05 Event Insurance 27/8/10 11:20 Page 1
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THERE are a number of client expec-tations that any professional crewingcompany should meet. These rangefrom providing prompt quotes, beingable to deal with last minute ordersand amendments effectively, to offer-ing a 24-hour service and additionalcrew to cover unforeseen problems,and having enough vehicles to movecrew around the country within tightdeadlines.
Just as importantly, it is to beexpected that any crewing companyworth its salt should be offering adedication to on-going, recognisedhealth and safety training, with crewtrained in the right competenciesand equipped with the necessarytools, prepared to tackle – withinhealth and safety boundaries –what-ever needs to be done to allow thejob to run smoothly.
In addition, health and safety is fur-ther assured by team leaders who areprofessional and trained in how tolead an effective crew.
These are all obvious offerings for acrewing company, but I believe thereare a few less obvious factors thatcrewing companies should master tobecome truly professional.
Crew must have to have a willing-
ness to learn; and understand whatclients expect of them.
They also need to be aware of thehealth and safety factors that applyto a wide variety of equipment, andof the possible hazards.
This can be achieved by workingwith clients to provide training inother aspects of the industry, givingan insight into the various disciplines– such as staging, lighting, AV, power– that are encountered on site.
In this way clients are able to relyon crew to do so much more thanmerely carry heavy kit – and do it in asafe and effective way.
Beyond this initial type of training, Ifirmly believe in a system of on-sitementoring for all new crew.
New members should always workalongside an experienced senior crewmember for at least two months untilthey gain enough experience toassess and recognise hazards.
It should also be remembered thatexperienced crew are a resource, and,if used correctly, a very valuableresource.
Crews work on hundreds of jobs ina year. This means that they have aunique insight into health and safety
and operations on-site as they haveseen numerous and perhaps similarjobs executed in a variety of ways. Inaddition, crew come from many dif-ferent backgrounds.
We have plumbers, electricians,chippies, firemen and engineersworking for us.
They have a wealth of knowledgeabout efficient and safe methods ofworking that may be useful at noadditional cost.
Regular client contact and feedback
is also important in evaluatingwhether crew are operating efficient-ly and safely.
In this way, the service that is trulyrequired is delivered and any issuesresolved at an early stage.
Taken together, the result of propertraining and client feedback is consistency of crew quality, safecrewing, and client confidence thateven when things go wrong the crew-ing company will come up trumpsevery time.
Clients’ expectations within the industry of suppliers and their health and safety standards are steadily rising.Heath Freeman, managing director of Pinnacle Crew, outlines how he believes crews can operate moreprofessionally and safely to go that extra mile and really make a difference to a client.
What you can expect from a crew
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Right ingredientsgive festival itsbest year yetBy Christina Eccles
AN ambitious attitude and securinghigher profile artists helped theRochdale Feel Good Festival achieveits best year ever.
The festival started life in 2008 as ahealthy living event supported by theNHS, which included a small foodmarket.
But organisers soon noticed thepotential for the festival to grow andover the last two years have expandedits offering to include music – thisyear the headline act was theLightning Seeds – and demonstra-tions from celebrity chefs such asGino D’Acampo.
And the decision to do this madethe festival more popular than ever asit attracted a record number of visi-tors this year – over 10,000 peopleacross two days.
Organiser Mark Roberts said: “Thisyear we dramatically increased thescale of the festival. There was a lotmore music – we went for higher pro-file acts with a more popular appeal –and there was more on the food side.We also started to think bigger andbecome more ambitious.”
To promote the festival, warm upevents were held throughout the bor-
ough in the weeks running up to themain event.
42,000 festival brochures were alsodistributed to local residents and adedicated Facebook fan page set upto raise awareness of the festival.
Mark added that the combination ofhigh quality food and top music actshas helped the festival to becomewell established and attract visitorsfrom all over the North West region –a tradition which organisers hope tocontinue.
He added: “At festivals normally thefood is quite basic, but we have intro-duced gourmet food which is a goodmix.
“Being free is also fundamental. Wehad a good line up and for people notto have to pay for tickets was a fan-tastic draw.
“Feedback has been fabulous and asit becomes more successful we havehad more businesses coming to ussaying they want to be involved.
“The event also encouraged peopleto come into the town centre andshop locally and the street entertain-ment and theatre really brought it tolife. I can’t think of any other way wecould get so many people in thetown. It was brilliant.”
Golf success for event companyHERTFORDSHIRE based event pro-duction company Smyle will producethe prestigious opening and closingceremonies for the 2010 Ryder Cup.
The company will be taking respon-sibility for show production, stagingand set design for both ceremonies –working closely with ES Group toassist with the staging and in con-
junction with Sky Sports on the showproduction.
Managing director Rick Staintonsaid: “We are very proud to beinvolved with this globally televisedevent, particularly as it is one of theworld’s leading sporting events beingheld in the UK this year.”
The event takes place next month atThe Celtic Manor Resort in Wales.
Expanded conference details announcedORGANISERS of the Festival AwardsUK Conference have announceddetails of this year’s event.
The conference has expanded forthis year – with new media partnersBrand Republic and Audience onboard – as well as an increased
number of panel discussions.Topics up for discussion include
making your festival profitable andanti crime initiatives at events.
It takes place on November 18 atthe British Music Experience, partof The O2 in London.
Coventry’s Ricoh Arena has reached a mile-stone fifth anniversary.Since opening in 2005, the award-winning£113m venue has had over seven millionvisitors – including about 334,000 spectators who have watched concertsfrom acts including Take That, pictured,
and Bon Jovi.Chief executive Daniel Gidney said: “Thereis absolutely no doubt that the RicohArena has taken the standard of sporting,conference, exhibition and entertainmentfacilities to a new level within theMidlands.”
DE Boer joined the biggest namesand the finest cars in motorsport atthis year’s Goodwood Festival ofSpeed – supplying temporary show-rooms for some of the world’s leadingmotor manufacturers.
The company provided services tofive exhibitors at the event, includingmain sponsor Alfa Romeo, where iterected an Alu Hall measuring 20m
by 25m for the Italian car maker.The De Boer team, who were on site
for six weeks prior to the show start-ing, also provided last year’s mainsponsor Audi with a scaffolding sub-base for its showroom covering 2,700square metres. As part of the project,the company installed flooring, deck-ing tiles, hand-rails, staircases,entrance ramps and cladding.
De Boer geared for Speed
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THE London Olympics; if youbelieve what you read in variousnewspapers is either the saviour ofthe country and will pull us fromrecession, or it is a total waste ofmillions of the taxpayers’ money.
So what does it mean for theevent industry? I don’t use the termUK event industry, as it will beopen to all.
The Olympics in 2012 will havemulti-millions of pounds’ worth ofcontracts up for grabs whichshould be fantastic to the UK eventindustry in these recessionarytimes. But before we all go out andbuy a new Toyota Prius (as youneed to be sustainable if you wantto fit in with LOCOG guidelines)there are questions that need to beasked.
Will tenders be selected on lowestpossible price? It may be stated‘best value’ but that is usually aparaphrase for ‘rock bottom price’.Does that preclude the extremelygood smaller companies who needto make a certain proportion ofprofit and benefit the bigger com-panies who can sacrifice profit to
buy the work for the marketingbenefits?
Will non-disclosure and non-mar-keting rights agreements fromLOCOG prevent winning biddersfrom exploiting their associationwith London 2012 – especially ifthey have had to sacrifice profit towin a bid?
Also, are the tenders pre-decidedbefore they even go out? This iscertainly something I am sure mostof us have felt over the years withlocal authority and governmenttenders, that the winning party ten-ders just to make the system lookfair – or am I being far too cynical?
I wonder, will the whole processof working on London 2012 be apleasure or a pain? Let’s not forgetit is committee driven with numer-ous civil servants in the drivingseat, as opposed to event profes-sionals. We all know the saying:“…is a camel a horse designed bycommittee?”
The London 2012 Olympics willcome into our ‘green and pleasantland’ for one year only before flyingoff again to another continent,
leaving the country with moreinner city sports facilities for thenext decade or so. However let usnot forget, didn’t the Vikings do thesame; came in, plundered and left?
There will still be plenty of workin 2012 for the events industryfrom all of our current clients thatyear in year out employ us to pro-duce their annual events. Yes, somemay take a year off because of thesupposed impact of the Olympics,but most will still be there as theywere in 2011 – and will be in 2013.We as an industry still have to giveour ‘bread and butter’ work thebest professional service possible,as this is long term.
There is also the massive amountof overseas work that UK compa-nies take on every year and this willnot be affected by the Olympicscoming to London.
I hope that the London 2012Olympics bring us all just rewards,but prior to spending money andtime on tenders there has to bequestions asked – certainly I won’tbe trying for the 100m dash!
With the 2012 Olympics less than two years away, all eyes will be on the UK and how the country stages amajor event. In this month’s column, Andy Cotton explores the impact it may have on the industry.
London 2012: a pleasure or a pain?
Andy Cotton
Pixie Lott has beennamed the hottestfemale festival starin a poll by Viagogo.Black Eyed Peassinger Fergie andThe Saturdays’Frankie Sandfordwere voted secondand third, followedby Cheryl Cole infourth place.Other acts in the top10 included DianaVickers and LilyAllen.
NEARLY 20,000 fans defied the weather at this year’sFairport’s Cropredy Convention.
Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the festival took placein Oxfordshire and despite intermittent rain on all threedays and a torrential downpour on the Saturday, a largecrowd enjoyed the weekend.
Festival director Gareth Williams said: "The festival was ahuge success and we had a bumper crowd. But for thevery wet weather on Saturday we would have sold out: asit was, the rain meant we still had a few tickets left at theend of the day. But the thunderstorms did nothing todampen the audience's spirited enthusiasm and verynearly everyone stayed until the music finished at mid-night.
"I'm always amazed at how enthusiastic our crowd is - Itake my hat off to their fortitude. But Cropredy is all aboutthe music and our festivalgoers enjoy the performancescome rain or shine."
Thunderstorms failto dampen spirits
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How many people did the festival attract?The event attracted over 150,000 peo-ple, across Tynemouth and SouthShields. Were you pleased with how it went?The festival was a brilliant successwith thousands of people turning outto enjoy themselves. People of allages soaked up the atmosphere, fromyoung children performing in thepageant to grandparents enjoying thejazz music. As a result of collabora-tive working between local authori-ties and arts practitioners, perform-ers from around the world gatheredfor a celebration of world-class streetentertainment, live music and specialone-off performances.
Local residents supported it,schools got right behind it, local busi-nesses embraced it and most of alleveryone benefited from it in someshape or form. The communityaspect is vital and is always at theforefront of our mind when organis-ing the festival.What were the most popular events?The Saturday evening concert isalways the event that attracts themost attention and is the only ele-ment of the festival that is a ticketonly, paid for event. This year, JamesMorrison wowed crowds with a fan-tastic performance at TynemouthPriory and Castle – an EnglishHeritage property. Past performershave included Beverley Knight andThe Script.
Other highlights of the 2010 festival
included a spectacular parade andfireworks and a pageant involvinghundreds of local schoolchildren.What were your biggest challenges whenpulling the event together?The biggest challenge we faced thisyear was managing the event on amuch tighter budget and still meet-ing visitor expectations.
We countered the reduction in mar-keting spend by attracting sponsor-ship. We also made the budgetary sit-uation clear to prospective perform-ers who were all asked to make theirfees as reasonable as possible. How is the event good for tourism? Year on year, the event has a growingattendance from the wider NorthEast region and beyond, and statis-tics from a visitor survey showed thatsix per cent of attendees were fromoutside of the region.
Data capture from ticket sales viaTicketmaster for the James Morrisonconcert showed that people travelledfrom throughout the UK and Europeto attend.
Local hoteliers, B&Bs, restaurants,bars, shops and other local amenitiesbenefited from the festival. Researchshowed that visitors spent an averageof £7 each during their visit. Thisevent in particular is an example ofhow we use the coastal lifestyle andstunning tourist setting to engageresidents and visitors in excitingevents and festivals that can provideeconomic and social benefits to thearea.
The Mouth of the Tyne festival is one of the North East’s mostpopular events – and an annual success story for organisers NorthTyneside Council. Tourism and events project officer Laura Pictonanswered our quick questions.
Talk of the Tyne ...SUPPLIERS on site at Latitude man-aged to work with a number ofunusual performance spaces at thisyear’s event.
Innovation Power supplied electri-cal power – working in every areafrom the campsite to the main stage.
And managing director RobHutchinson told The Main Event thatLatitude is different to your averagemusic festival because of the numberof diverse spaces which organisersare programming in.
Managing director Rob Hutchinsonsaid: “Latitude is a very complex
show, which is quite tricky to do sotakes longer than normal. The eventhas a massive amount of infrastruc-ture, with stages on the lake and inthe woods so it is not your normalshow.”
Protecting the environment wasalso high on the agenda for Rob andhis team who introduced green ini-tiatives wherever possible.
He added: “We reduced about 30per cent of our overall fuel use byusing biodiesel and we try to improvethings where we can.”
Complexities of Latitude
SUPPLIER of the leading Revostageproduct Panel Systems has reported ahuge response to its portable stagingsystem, with greater interest thanever before from events companies,schools and choirs.
Revostage, which is made inSheffield, is a lightweight, portablestaging system that is suitable for awide variety of different professional-ly staged events, including the educa-tion, arts and leisure, hotels and ent-ertainment industry. In fact, PanelSystems were recently proud to sup-ply Revostage to The Royal AlbertMemorial Museum. It is designed tobe extremely easy to erect and dis-mantle, requiring minimum storagespace, as well as offering the flexibili-ty of many different layout options.
The productcan be orderedonline throughthe new web-site. Here,users can finda wealth ofinformationabout Revostage itself, including howeasy it is to erect and dismantle andhow it can be stored in the minimumamount of space. Another usefuladdition to the website is the stagedesigner tool which enables cus-tomers to build a stage online to suittheir size requirements – and it evencalculates the price as you design.
For more information visitwww.revostage.co.uk
or call (0114) 249 5635
Huge response to portable staging system
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AMONG the delighted visitors to thisyear’s festival was Bill Morris – direc-tor of culture, ceremonies and educa-tion for London 2012 – who wantedto find out more about the event.
He was one of an estimated 6,000people gathered on the town’s TowerEsplanade on the Friday night to seemagical flying drummers, TranseExpress – an event which took placeon the eve of the Olympics openingweekend, marking two years until thestart of 2012.
The following night about 16,000people were treated to the story ofPerle by Plasticiens Volants.
The event involved a parade ofgiant, helium-filled sea creatures,which travelled along Grand Paradebefore the firework finale and switch-on of Skegness’ illuminations.
According to organisers, EastLindsey District Council, the wholefestival was really well received byboth residents and visitors and marksa change in perceptions about whatSkegness has to offer as a destinationfor arts, culture and major events.
As little as two years ago, the coun-cil was going down the route of a tra-ditional illuminations switch on butafter introducing the SO Festival tothe town last year, discovered a realappetite for major events and cultur-al experiences – and Skegness hasnever looked back.
The council’s business manager(health, arts and events) SemanthaNeal explained: “This year we werechallenged to do a much bigger eventand deliver a really different pro-gramme. We started with Traffic Arton display in the town, which wasreally inspiring and got people talk-ing about the event in the run up toit.
“There was huge interest and it wasgreat promotion for the rest of thefestival.
“Normally on a Friday night here,not a lot happens but traders said at11.30pm they were still getting busi-ness. The SO Festival has encouraged
people to come out and stay out.“We also branched out with visual
arts, dance and challenging theatrepieces and coordinated a programmeat the Embassy Theatre.
“Traffic Art worked very well as didthe dance programme. We includedthings such as ballroom, dance andjive and held the programme in dif-ferent venues – deliberately targetingdifferent locations and genres.”
As the festival grew in size and rep-utation this year, the council broughton board some valuable helpinghands.
A new festival director – RobinMorley – was appointed, fundingsecured from the Arts Council and PRcompany Lava PR ensured the festi-val got a large amount of positivecoverage.
But pulling such a detailed pro-gramme together was not without itschallenges and the team learnedimportant lessons which will be car-ried over to next year’s festival.
Semantha added: “Our biggest chal-lenges were in the early stages – wehad employed a new PR company
and festival director and as we arelocal government, we are not alwaysin a position to do things quickly.
“We also had challenges with theinfrastructure as you don’t know howmany people to expect or how much car parking you are going toneed.
“We were also trying to get extratrains put on but it was going to cost£5,000 per train. So the last train wasabout 9pm – if you are running amajor event, that’s not helpful.
“We have had a lot of very con-structive feedback and one or twoniggles. One was that the parade wasa European style where the crowdmoves with the performers. People’sexpectations were that they couldarrive early and get a spot and thenget a really good view of the wholething as it came past. We probablydidn’t explain that very well.
“But we are trying to do things thatare a bit more edgy and it’s a hugechange. We are being innovative butalso keeping some of the traditionalelements.”
Semantha and communications
officer James Gilbert told The MainEvent that the wheels have alreadybeen set in motion for next year’s fes-tival and they already looking as farahead as 2012. As the event has tradi-tionally marked what will be theOlympics’ opening weekend, it maybe moved in 2012 so as not to clashwith the event.
“The focus is shifting for next year.Although it is really important to dothe big spectacles, we also want localpeople to own the festival and per-form and take part. It is about gettingthat balance.
“We are already thinking ahead tonext year as we need to make sure wehave the dates confirmed. Anotherchallenge is what we do in 2012. Thelogical thing may be to move to theMay/June half term.
“This year we have done more,done it bigger and delivered some-thing more challenging.
“We are really pleased. The eventwas everything we wanted to deliverand it has been a really good learningcurve for the future.”
An estimated 30,000 people took to the streets of Skegness for four days of spectacular entertainment at the SOFestival. Christina Eccles found out more.
Festival changes perceptionof what Skegness has to offer
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LOCAL AUTHORITY SPOTLIGHT 11
COMMUNITY engagement and unit-ing different cultures are the keythings on the agenda for BarnsleyCouncil’s events team.
Local people know what they like,so the challenge is to deliver eventsthey feel comfortable with while alsointroducing more creativity into theprogramme.
According to community and artsdevelopment officer James Brunt andarts and events manager LynnMealings, the appetite for majorevents in the town is growing – withthe council’s flagship events, such asthe annual Christmas light switch on,becoming a must see for local people.
The team is also working hard tointroduce more culture and arts intothe lives of locals and have found thata good way to do this is through itsevents programme.
In the run up to major events suchas the Summer Carnival, unoccupiedtown centre shops have been trans-formed into galleries and showcasesfor art – allowing people to come intoa space which they feel comfortablewith to discover new things and getinvolved for themselves.
Lynn explained: “Communityengagement is very important. Wehave a very cohesive community andwith the right activities, there is a def-inite willingness to take part. Thelocal community has been very sup-portive.
“If you are programming in venues,you are relying on the same peoplewho go there.
If you are going shopping, you arenot planning to walk into a gallery.But if you stumble across it and it is afamiliar space there are no barriers.
“We have had to consider that ifpeople aren’t planning the visit intotheir day, how much time can theygive it? But people have been takingtime out and are engaging with whatwe are doing.”
The council organises one majorevent each season and having themspread throughout the year meansthere is plenty of time to plan andpromote what they are doing.
Another important aim is to getlocal businesses more involved whocould benefit from an increasednumber of people using the towncentre when an event is on.
And Lynn added that recently theyhave noticed an upturn in the num-ber of businesses who do want to getinvolved.
She added: “We are living in a diffi-cult climate but Barnsley is showingcultural unity. With this year’sSummer Carnival there was a lotmore involvement from local busi-nesses who wanted to engage withthe programme. But we would love tosee more partnerships with them.”
From developing community arts toliaising with external partners andthe emergency services, every mem-ber of the team has a clear anddefined role – something which theyfeel plays a part in its success.
“We all have key roles which sup-port the whole structure. This meanswe can then plan, develop and evalu-ate our events with all the correctknowledge. Logistics are key. Keeppeople inspired with events but keepthem safe. It is really important to getthat right.
“Our events are pulling more peoplein. The Barnsley word is spreading.”
Events and culture in Barnsley are on the up – with morepeople than ever engaged with what the town has to offer.Christina Eccles met the people making it happen.
‘The Barnsleyword isspreading ...’
A FOUR-METRE high living flower archformed the centre piece of this year’s SummerCarnival.
The event pulled in crowds of about 7,000and had a theme of health and well being –with the arch acting as its symbol.
James added: “We were really pleased withthe carnival. This year we had the opportunityto redecorate the town centre and this enabledpeople to see it in a new light.
“The theme was around health and wellbeing so we had a large scale project lookingat healthy eating and lifestyle changes.
“We produced some amazing artworkincluding the centre piece and we were alsoable to distribute the plants used among com-munity groups.
“We had real engagement on all levels frompeople wanting to be part of it. This event hasnow created the benchmark so plans for nextyear are really exciting.”Picture: Jane Richmond
Flower power
One of the council’s newest event spaces is a local car park, which ithopes to use as a site for major outdoor events.The first event held there was the Love Music Hate Racism Carnival –which brought acts including Chipmunk and Roll Deep to the town.And Lynn said they hope it will offer an alternative venue to mostmusic festivals which take place on green field sites.She added: “We staged the Love Music Hate Racism concert in theCounty Way car park and the concept was to encourage working withdifferent physical spaces as visitors’ experiences of festivals may havebeen mostly in a field.“The challenge was to get people to come to a festival on a hard sur-face in the town centre. But people did come and they enjoyed theevent and we now want to use the space further.”Picture: Mark Tighe
A PARTNERSHIP has also beenformed between Barnsley Counciland the London Borough of Newham– one of the 2012 Olympics host bor-oughs.
The Barnsley – Newham partner-ship involves a range of community
activities and exchange programmes,which are allowing young people inBarnsley to experience the sites andsounds of London while those whoare used to inner city life can visit thetown’s green spaces and heritagesites.
Partnership brings exchange programmes
Flagshipevents ...
Barnsley Council’s flagship events for2010:� Love Music Hate Racism concert� Summer Carnival� Diversity Festival� Christmas light switch on
LAST year’s Christmas light switch-onwas attended by about 23,000 people– making it one of the council’s mostpopular events.
The switch-on marks the start ofBarnsley’s festive programme – whichalso includes the annual GermanChristkindelmarkt – and has grownrapidly in recent years to attract morepeople and bigger name acts, such asBritain’s Got Talent finalists StavrosFlatley and girl group The Saturdays.
Lynn explained: “Barnsley decidedto grow the Christmas light switch-onthrough the community’s attendance,so we had to develop what was onoffer. As far as the entertainmentindustry is concerned, if there is a
large audience, the artists will wantto come.”
The event also provides a valuableboost for local traders as it bringspeople into the town to experience itsChristmas late night shopping offer-ing. Lynn added: “Our Christmasevents start with the lights switch-on,which leads into a linked pro-gramme, designed to animate thetown centre. It is no longer just thelights but a whole programme, whichsupports the town’s retail offeringand increases footfall. If you come toa Christmas lights switch-on, youexpect to be wowed. Going to seeFather Christmas and coming homewith a balloon isn’t enough.”
Picture: Porl Medlock
So much more than a light switch-on
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2 12
ORGANISERS Andy Smith and BenRobinson have watched the festivalgrow from a few hundred people tothe event that is has become today.
Challenges along the way haveincluded moving sites to LowtherDeer Park when the festival out-grew its previous site and growingthe event gradually without itbecoming too big, too soon.
Every year the event has grown –this year expanding from 6,000 to8,000 people and also introducing alarger camping area – and the sitehas room for this trend to continuein future years.
One of the biggest issues Ben andAndy faced this year was losingtheir production manager when hiswife went into labour during thebuild and his second in commandhad to take over his duties.
But pulling together and strongrelationships between organisersand suppliers ensured that every-thing went up smoothly.
The current site is a disusedtheme park – which Ben used tovisit as a child – and he said thatthe beautiful site has become theperfect home for the festival
He said: “The festival has grownevery year – in our first year, we hada capacity of 900. This year, we soldout three weeks before. But wedon’t want to go too far, too fast.
“We have learned an amazingamount. Organising a festival is asteep learning curve and you learnon the job. But we have a reallygreat team and can’t thank every-one enough for the work they do.
“It’s been a fantastic weekend. Thecrowd and the atmosphere hasbeen really lovely.”
Performers at this year’s festivalincluded Doves, The Coral andCalvin Harris and according to Benwhat sets Kendal Calling apart fromits rivals is the effort that goes intoevery area of the event.
He added that having a core teamwho have worked on the festivalfrom the start has built up a senseof pride and ownership in the festi-val – which allows him and Andy todelegate tasks easily, knowing thatthey will be in safe hands.
Having a fairly small team of peo-ple who are not just working on thefestival for financial gain alsoallows organisers to keep ticketprices down – creating a win-winsituation for them and for festival-goers.
Ben added: “We also try and keepour bar prices down and this alsomakes a big difference to how thecrowd feels. They feel as thoughthey are getting good quality andvalue for money so they are happyabout it.”
Kendal Calling celebrated its fifth birthday this summer with 8,000 excited festivalgoers. Christina Ecclesjoined them.
NEW for this year was also theCroissant Neuf area where festival-goers could enjoy a range of activi-ties. The area also helped KendalCalling to improve its environmen-tal credentials as everything inthere was solar powered.
ContractorsAd LibAJ Big TopsDr LoosIndian Marquee CompanyUmbrella VisualsFGH SecurityFest Staff
Solar boost
Festival loses its productionmanager to dad duties
SUCCESSFUL events starring SimplyRed and X Factor finalists StaceySolomon, Olly Murs and DanylJohnson paved the way for the finalconcert in Newbury Racecourse’sParty in the Paddock trilogy.
The concert – starring crowdpleasers Westlife – also markedladies’ day so racegoers were invitedto dress to impress.
A record 30,000 spectators camethrough the gates to watch an after-noon of racing followed by the con-cert – with 1500 fans also choosing todance the night away in a speciallyconstructed Hawaiian themed cock-tail bar at the official after party.
According to the venue’s head ofsales Nicola Butler, this ‘apres racing’concept is a great way to add value toa day out at the racecourse andattract a new audience who maynever have considered visiting.
She said: “The racecourse was look-ing at how we could enhance thecustomer experience and extend theday out and we saw we had beenmissing a trick with the concerts.
“We started off with the Party in thePaddock events and joined forceswith Gorilla Events to put the con-
cept together for the Hula Bar at theWestlife event.”
The structure had a build scheduleof two to three days with the company taking a similar approachto the work they have done at other outdoor events such asGlastonbury, The Big Chill and theHenley Regatta.
The quality of the products beingserved was vital to the Gorilla Eventsteam with the Hawaiian theme evenextending to cocktails served in freshpineapples and coconut shells.
Gorilla Events’ director Dan Baxteradded: “This is a summertime eventso the theme suits it well. Racing istrying to add value as people arelooking for more of an experienceand this makes a proper day of it.
“But if you have something at anevent like this which people aren’tused to you have to get the productand the price right.”
Nicola also said that holding theconcerts and after party is helpingNewbury Racecourse increase its sec-ondary spend and showcase facilitiesto visitors who may then return tobook the venue for a conference orevent.
And she said the idea is one whichhas the potential to grow and grow.
She added: “We can definitely buildon the concept and build the eventup more but also we don’t want toupset our regular market so it is abalancing act.
“But a lot of our members have said they like to see more young people here enjoying themselves andit creates much more of an atmos-phere.”
A chart topping band, a best dressed competition and a specially created cocktail bar added sparkle to this year’sladies’ day at Newbury Racecourse. Christina Eccles went along.
‘Apres racing’ a sure winner
Above: Westlife on stage, below, is the Hula Bar after party
12 27/8/10 11:25 Page 1
THE festival took place in over 50of the city’s venues and outdoorspaces – including a main stageprogrammed on the Saturday bylocal radio station Hallam FM –with performances from the likesof Tinchy Stryder, X Factor finalistOlly Murs and Professor Green.
After 35,000 people turned up tothe first festival last year, organis-ers predicted they would doublethis figure.
But 125,000 fans came across theweekend, which was put down toword of mouth following the suc-cess of last year and utilising thefestival’s presence on social net-working sites such as Twitter andFacebook.
Twitter was also used throughoutthe event – notifying people whenvenues reached their capacity andencouraging festivalgoers whocouldn’t get into their first choiceto try somewhere else, whichhelped to spread out the crowds.
To make sure that certain areas –particularly the main stage onDevonshire Green – didn’t become
overcrowded it was also importantto choose the right artists.
Festival director Dave Healyexplained: “I think we got the billspot on. We were nervous aboutthe Saturday whether we would betoo big as we had 60,000 peoplethere. We had to make sure thebilling was at a sensible level andnot get carried away.”
Head booker James O'Haraadded: “You have to book the rightacts for the size of the venue. Withso many people at the outdoorstage you have to get it right. If asa festival we want to put biggeracts on in future then we wouldhave to find the space where wecould do that.”
The ethos of the free festival is tosupport local businesses andshowcase Sheffield while also giv-ing up and coming local bands thechance to perform.
And James and Dave added thatusing Sheffield-based companieswherever possible and getting ven-ues involved gives them a sense ofownership of the event and creates
a great feeling of goodwill andsupport from the city.
Dave added: “The original pointof the festival was to support localvenues and showing off the city.
“We have a target that 75 percent of the event is delivered bySheffield companies, which cre-ates a good atmosphere and senseof ownership.
‘We are also going to be sellingshares in the event to the organi-sations involved in running thefestival so it will always be ownedby the people who are putting iton.”
James added: “We have got ahigh level of expertise from peoplewho are native to Sheffield whohave that level of pride in an eventin their own city.
“The footprint of the city centreis also relatively small so festival-goers can walk or use the bus toget wherever they want to go. Itworks like a festival site becauseeverything is fairly close together.In other cities you would lose thatfeel.”
Social media keeps cityfestival on the right track
Word of mouth and clever use of social media helped to draw crowds of 125,000 to Sheffield city centre for the second Tramlines Festival. Christina Eccles discovered why the event is going from strength to strength.
Olly Murs
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SONISPHERE
Picture: John McMurtrie
Picture: PG BrunelliPicture: PG Brunelli
Picture: Andy Parker
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SONISPHERE
ContractorsFestival director – StuartGalbraith, KilimanjaroFestival manager – Zac Fox,KilimanjaroSite manager – Steve Hill,EmoUKSite manager and artist liai-son – Sarah Cole, SCProductionsProduction manager – NickLevitt, Live GalleryProductions Campsite manager – AnthonyBurkeFOH manager – JennieStogdon, JMS Events.Artist and guest area catering– SanctumBig Tops – AJ Big TopsCabins and toilets – SearchCampsite information – TheBetter Festival GroupCatering concession – D&JCateringCCTV – InFocusFencing and barriers – WightFencingFire cover – Event FireServicesFunfair – MathewsGuest big top furniture –Inner SanctumLighting – outdoor stages –PRGLitter services – EstateCleanersMarket traders – RosieBabingtonMarquees and artist/guest big
top – CarlindenMedical – NHS, St JohnMerchandise – BrosMerchandisingMojo barriers – Mojo National press and PR – IdeaGenerationNoise management consult-ant – Vanguardia DenPA – outdoor stages – BritRowPA and lighting – indoorstages – STSParamedics – MedrocPhones and internet – EventGeeksPlumbing – TempsitePower – BuffaloPublic bars – Creative EventsRigging – Pete the GreekRock press and PR – The NoiseCartelRock royalty bar and food –SodexoScreen visuals – BlinkSecurity – G4SSite and event safety – MRLSite crew – Chris CaddySponsorship production – Getin BedStage crew – Stage MiraclesStaging – Star EventsT Shield – EnterteeTraffic and car parking – SEPEventsTrakway and terraplas – EveTrakwayVolunteer Staff – FestaffWelfare – Ministry of Welfare
Non-clashing policygives value for moneyBy Christina Eccles
AN extra 15,000 fans were ableto enjoy Sonisphere 2010 afterorganisers decided to increasethe capacity of the event.
Although the UK leg of thefestival is only in its secondyear, last year proved to besuch a success that the eventwas expanded – allowing55,000 fans to experience per-formances from the likes ofIron Maiden and Pendulum.
Festival director StuartGalbraith from Kilimanjarosaid that apart from allowingmore people through the gatesthis year, they were happy withthe overall formula of theevent so just made slight alter-ations to improve the experi-ence for festivalgoers.
He explained: “It is only oursecond year but we haveincreased in size both in termsof numbers and the length of
time people are staying at thefestival.
“We tweaked the patternfrom last year and added twomore stages – the Strongbowrooms and the Red Bull Jam.
“Over the weekend we hadover 130 bands, which wasgreat for us helping to breaknew bands.
“We also managed to repeatthe atmosphere from last yearand the audience respondedto the great environment ofKnebworth Park. It’s a beauti-ful estate and it’s differentfrom other rock festivals as theenvironment is much nicer.”
The event is one of 11Sonisphere festivals whichtake place all over Europe –between them selling over700,000 tickets.
And Stuart added that one ofthe festival’s main sellingpoints is that the acts on both
of the two main stages neveroverlap – meaning that festi-valgoers don’t have to pickwhich acts they want to seeand miss out on others.
He added: “People like theethos of not clashing the twostages as it means they get fullvalue for money. Also we makesure that the line up is strong.I have worked on rock festivalsfor over 26 years and have abooking team who know ourcustomers and will bring greattalent to the event.”
Stuart also said that socialnetworking has been useful tohelp organisers communicatewith fans.
Sonisphere has over 300,000fans on Facebook – with85,000 fans of the UK event –and the team has been usingthe site to gain their feedbackand take on board commentswhich they will use whenplanning next year’s festival.
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LEEDS PARTY IN THE PARK
The biggest ever line up at Party in the Park included:Dizzee Rascal, The Saturdays, The Script, Pixie Lott,Alexandra Burke, Beverley Knight, Craig David,Example, Lee Ryan, Gabriella Cilmi, Eliza Doolittle,Alesha Dixon, Basshunter and Tinchy Stryder
All 70,000 tickets for this year’s Party in the Park were snapped up within two days– meaning a large number of visitors to Temple Newsam for the event.Sylvia added: “We have quite a young audience profile but we also get a lot offamilies coming to the event.“It is very busy but has a good atmosphere and having families here helps to balance it out a lot.”
Acorn Event SolutionsControlled SpaceFrisby Technical ServicesYorkshire AudioLight Media DisplaysLion Trackway
THIS year’s Leeds Party in thePark was extended by an hourafter organisers managed tosecure performances from arecord number of acts.
Performers who took to thestage in front of 70,000 excit-ed fans included headlinerDizzee Rascal, Pixie Lott andThe Saturdays – with the fungoing on until 7pm to accom-modate all 30 acts.
The annual event is organ-ised by Leeds City Councilwith support from Radio Aireand according to event man-ager Sylvia McCann, it getsbetter every year.
She said: “The event hasnow got such a good reputa-tion that record labels andpromoters are keen to seetheir artistes here as it is goodexposure for them.
“We had some really goodacts this year – Dizzee Rascalplayed Glastonbury. It’s a fan-tastic event but we always tryand improve things. We neverjust stay still.”
The event has also beenheavily promoted on RadioAire and its website as well as
on social networking sitesTwitter and Facebook.
The station also took a stag-gered approach to revealingthe acts playing – choosing toname them on the event’shosts’ JK and Joel’s morningradio show a few at a time –which built up levels ofexcitement and anticipationfor the event.
Sylvia added: “We have got areally good team at RadioAire who have done a fantas-tic job and we are reallypleased with this year’s event.It’s gone really well and itseems to have been a lotsmoother, which is surprisingbecause of the number ofartistes we have. But it’s beenreally calm.
“I’m lucky that I’ve got anexcellent team who are reallyhard working and we havebuilt up good relationshipswith suppliers which alsohelps.”
Improvements this yearincluded expanding theartiste village to make sure allthe needs of performers weremet.
More acts join Party in the Park
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BEN & JERRY’S SUNDAE
By Christina Eccles
ABOUT 25,000 people enjoyed livemusic, sunshine and free ice cream atthis year’s Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on theCommon.
The two-day event on London’sClapham Common was headlined byDoves and Scouting for Girls andaccording to organiser Andy Ashton,its village fete feel and £15 per dayticket price helped to bring in thecrowds.
Unusually for a festival, tickets areonly valid for one day and visitors arediscouraged from buying one forboth days.
And Andy said that the line-ups arespecifically programmed to appeal todifferent demographics – allowingtwice as many people to enjoy the funand enabling Ben & Jerry’s to show-case their products to larger audi-ences.
In its six-year history, Andy said thefestival has always been fortunatewith the weather and this year was noexception.
He explained: “We were verypleased with this year’s event. This isour sixth year and every year we havebeen very lucky with the weather.
“It really helps when you get a niceweekend and as our event is reallychilled out, a lot of it relies on peoplebeing able to laze around on thegrass.
“So it would be worrying if theweather did turn bad as the wholedynamic of the event would change.”
Andy also explained what Ben &Jerry’s achieve by hosting the eventand that the company was also happywith how things had gone.
He added: “Ben & Jerry’s wereincredibly pleased. The idea behind itis a big thank you and a chance foreveryone to try all the company’sflavours.”
Andy also said that when organisingthe event, a great deal of thought isput into every area – from the music,to the activities, the number of toiletsand the food – to ensure the festivalprovides a value for money experi-ence for festivalgoers.
For the first time this year, organis-ers also trialled e-ticketing instead ofthe traditional paper method –something which Andy said workedreally well.
Other improvements included theaddition of a second acoustic stageand new family activities.
Sun shines on chilled event
ContractorsProduction – Sevens 7Security – Specialized SecuritySafety – MRL PA – Britannia RowLights – SiyanTents – WAAPToilets – Loos for Do’sTicketing – Maynard Malone/IntashopPower – Innovation PowerNoise Monitoring – VanguardiaChildren’s Area – Nipperbout
THE Main Event also caught up withAP Security’s John Phillips andTommy Michalis on site whoexplained how close partnershipworking is keeping visitors safe.
The company has worked on theevent for the last eight years and hasmanaged to build up great relation-ships with organisers and local policeto ensure the smooth running of theevent.
Leading up to the event, regularliaison and table top exercises meanthat everyone knows what their roleis and how they fit into the overalloperation. And planning the mela is ayear round process – with severalresponse team meetings taking placeand contingency plans arranged inadvance.
Tommy explained: “Our biggestchallenge is identifying people who
may spoil the event and and liaisingon this with the police. We have builtup a really good rapport with themand know we have got their support.AP also make sure they send a verystrong management team down andthis is key.
“This is also the second year wehave had alcohol on site but that hasbeen very successful and there hasbeen no trouble whatsoever.
“The organisers put the programmetogether and deliberately cascade itso that the top acts are on before theclose so that we have never got thecrowd on a high right at the end.
“It has progressed into a very familyorientated event and has growntremendously over the years. And it’snot just an Asian community event –it is very multicultural and has a greatatmosphere.” John Phillips and Tommy Michalis
Team work is keeping visitors safe
THROUGHOUT its eight-year history,the organisers of the London Melahave worked hard to give the event areputation as a safe, family friendlyand great value day out which can beenjoyed by all sections of the localcommunity.
Attractions on offer included music,visual arts, dance, children's activi-ties and food inspired by south-Asianculture and creativity.
And with record numbers descend-ing on Gunnersbury Park this sum-mer, it appears the word is spreading.
Producer Julian Rudd explained:“Melas have got a history of beingpoorly resourced and often havingissues with crowd management.When we started we were reallydetermined we didn’t want the eventto fall into that stereotype.
“We have built a sense that this is ashared endeavour and we all feel thatthe Mela and the way which all thedifferent agencies involved worktogether is a model of good practice.
“Every stage manager feels that ifthey have a problem that their super-visor is there to help. They feel confi-dent that they can go to security andget the response they need and dealwith the issue very quickly.
“There is a good atmosphere on siteas the audience respond to that kindof crowd management.”
The event is produced by EalingCouncil, with support from theMayor of London and LondonBorough of Hounslow plus BBC AsianNetwork which programmes themain stage.
To ensure the event remains free,sponsorship also plays a vital role –with O2 becoming headline sponsorthis year.
The company came on board forthe first time last year but since then,its role had grown massively.
Julian added: “This was our bestever year for sponsorship. We startedlast year with O2 but at a much lowerlevel – we were basically testing thewater.
“Last year they were an associatesponsor but this year had title spon-sorship. We did get some counteroffers but went with 02 because theyhave got a great history of sponsoringlive events.
“Sponsorship is about quality ofplacement and we are very pleasedwith how it went. The sponsors had abrand presence on site and we gavethem visibility but without it beingoverpowering.
“We have got a three-year deal withO2 and think it will be a great part-nership. In the environment we arein, to have such a significant invest-ment is really important. It will
enable us to survive.”Highlights of this year’s festival
included an eclectic music pro-gramme with performances byBollywood favourite Javed Ali,Bhangra legends Apna Sangeet andformer Eastenders actress PreeyaKalidas.
And Julian added that the team wasdelighted with how the event wasreceived.
“We had great weather, a fantasticaudience and a great reaction fromthe police, security and productionstaff on site.
“After eight years of running anevent, you build up a team and arelationship with your partners andproduction crew and sometimes youare lucky enough that all the ingredi-ents come together and create a fan-tastic event. I feel very privileged tohave had such a day.”
Attendance at this year’s O2 London Mela has been estimated at a record 90,000 people.Christina Eccles spoke to the people behind the scenes.
Mela: the word is spreading
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LAMBETH COUNTRY SHOW
HELD in Brockwell Park, the eventsuccessfully combines areasincluding music, agriculture andfood to create the perfect familyday out.
To produce the event, WholeNine Yards was required to workclosely with everyone involved –from the London Borough ofLambeth and Metropolitan Policeto the London Ambulance Serviceand event safety coordinatorsCapita Symonds – as well as awider stakeholder group compris-ing 20 different departments andagencies.
One of the biggest challenges theteam had to face was staging theevent in a central London park –which was also open to the publicthroughout the build, show andbreakdown.
Director Ben Price explained:“The event is a lot more demand-ing in terms of scale than a musicfestival. It has been running forover 30 years and local residentsare pretty big stakeholders. Thereare a lot of subtleties in the sitedesign as we need to keep peoplehappy.
“Brockwell Park also remainsopen to the public so as we arebuilding in open parkland, safetymanagement has to be 100 percent.
“We are working for a localauthority, so the whole eventneeds to reach the highest stan-dards and be an example of bestpractice.”
The event features over 270 mar-ket traders and exhibitors as wellas four main entertainment areasand Ben added that the variety ofattractions on offer is one of theshow’s biggest draws.
He added: “We had a greatturnout this year and the show is going from strength to strength. There as a variety ofentertainment on offer – fromsheepdog displays to a flowershow – and the park is a beautifulvenue.
“The event was brought in housein 2008, so this year was the cul-mination of the council’s three-year plan to get it at a level whereeverything is done at the higheststandard.”
The Lambeth Country Show is one of the biggest free events in the South of England –attracting more than 150,000 visitors over the weekend. The Main Event found outmore from event producers Whole Nine Yards Production.
ContractorsProduction – Whole NineYards ProductionsInfrastructure – EventWizards.Marquees – Piggotts.Event safety coordination– Capita Symonds.Crowd management – MJEvents Support.Medical: M&L Ambulance.Staging – Star EventsGroup.Tannoy systems and radios– Direct Telecoms Services.Audio and power distribution – CentreStage.Potable water and plumbing – Watermills.Car parking and trafficmanagement – FestivalGates.Local crew – Crewsaders.Furniture – RSVP EventHire.Fire extinguishers – FireSafety Services.
From sheepdogs to flowers
PIGGOTTS, the UK’s leading marquee, festive lightingand branding company was the sole supplier of mar-quees at this year’s Lambeth Country Show.
Sales and marketing manager Gary Smith said: “This isthe first time Piggotts has worked on the LambethCountry Show. It was a fantastic project which saw usinstall 25 clearspan marquees which covered a massive5,250 square metres. We had 23 men on site to completethe build which lasted three days. The structures wereused for a variety of purposes including the Mayor’s area,food halls, complementary therapies section and back-stage for the artists.
“This year we have expanded our live event roster doingeight festivals and live events including Rewind and theIsle of Wight festival.
“The Lambeth Country Show worked really well for avariety of reasons; there was uniform look to the wholeevent rather than a mish mash of different structures,plus having achieved ISO 18001, health and safetybecomes a simple thing to deal with and we are still oneof the few marquee companies to have achieved this. Iam pleased to report that Lambeth Council was delightedwith Piggotts and we’re looking forward to working withthem again on future events.”
Sole supplier givesuniform look to event
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NOEA 21
Diary Dates
Northern Ireland Conference September30 – October 1, Portstewart, NorthernIrelandTHE Northern Ireland NOEA confer-ence will take place at theFlowerfield Arts Centre, ColeraineRoad, Portstewart, Northern Ireland– about an hour from Belfast – onThursday September 30 and FridayOctober 1. The event is being spon-sored by Coleraine BoroughCouncil. There is a wide variety ofspeakers attending from the policeand the ambulance services. Alsospeakers from the EmergencyPlanning College and BelfastMetropolitan University.
Some of the topics to be discussed
will be licencing, PRS and trainingas well as the Young ProfessionalsInitiative. We are hoping to arrangean informal do with music in theevening for networking opportuni-ties as well as enjoying a few drinksin the teepees.
The event is open to members andnon-members and there are oppor-tunities for exhibiting as well. Theevent will finish early afternoon onthe Friday which will give attendeesthe opportunity to explore thisbeautiful area.
Booking forms available on thewebsite or for for further details,please contact Susan at the NOEAoffice on 01749 674 531
September 21 – 22 Event UK NECSeptember 30 – October 1, Northern IrelandConference, Port Stewart.October 20 – 21 – Showman’s Show,NewburyNovember 25 – Regional Conference andAGM, New Bucks University, High Wycombe.
Dear Auntie,We are being pushed by our localauthority to work quickly towardsBS 8901: Sustainable Event Man-agement in 2011. This is somethingwe embrace ourselves and have,for many years, developed a greenpolicy for our annual event held ona public park. However, over thepast years, we have tried manyapproaches including banks ofrecycling bins for our punters touse and then manned positions toprevent contamination of separat-ed waste. Still, we are left with tonsof rubbish to get off the parkquickly in order to restore the parkfor the residents, sports activitiesand dog walkers. HELP!
Harvey, Midlands
My, my Harvey,It’s a dilemma many event organis-ers are facing. It is, of course, fur-
ther compounded if your event isheld in a public place and youhave not got the luxury of takingtime in the clearance whereby youcan make several ‘sweep throughs’for different waste, thereby han-dling the waste just once withproper pickers. It sounds as thoughyou’ve put the effort into encour-aging your audience to recycle andeven thrown human resources into aid this. But, let’s face it, untilsociety embrace simple litter dis-posal and take individual responsi-bility, we are all left with whateverour great British public choose tosimply drop on the ground.
You need to weigh up your‘greenest’ option. After all, if yoursite is close to a waste sorting facil-ity, you can maintain those greencredentials by clearing all wasteand transporting it a short distancefor machine sorting. But, these
facilities are both costly and few innumber across the country. Do youwant to transport waste 100 milesto be sorted? Can you really riskyour litter pickers’ safety by havingthem sort waste once scooped up –needle pricks are no fun. You won’twin – the park remains unusablefor you to do the job in the green-est way or you do your very best inproviding big enough facilities onsite for attendees to use at the timeand accept that by lifting theremaining tons and transportingthem for recycling you may beincreasing your carbon footprint.2011 may be a deadline, but socie-ty and local services need to beembracing the ethos also. Perhaps,you could ask your encouraginglocal authority or police to assistby issuing ‘on the spot’ fines for lit-tering? Keep Britain Tidy.
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) coursesTHE University of Derby on behalf ofthe National Outdoor EventsAssociation (NOEA) is conductingresearch to ascertain the need for andinterest in Continuing ProfessionalDevelopment (CPD) courses fromNOEA for those already working inthe events industry and who are miss-ing skills and/or qualifications.
The last 10 years has witnessed aproliferation of undergraduate andpostgraduate events managementdegrees throughout the UK with some63 institutions now offering differentforms of events related study. As amember of the Association of EventManagement Education, theUniversity of Derby has helped toshape the benchmarks to which allfuture degrees should adhere.However, the trend to date has beensupply led thus resulting in themajority of the 63 organisations pro-ducing graduates for the market withlittle regard for those already inemployment.
The survey will enable theUniversity of Derby and NOEA to seeif there is a demand for courses forthose in employment, and to lookinto key areas where organisationsfeel that CPD would be appropriatefor them. To take part in the surveygo to the NOEA web site home page.www.noea.org.uk
New benefits for NOEA MembersNEW benefits for NOEA membershave been arranged for the year start-ing September 1 2010. In partnershipwith Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Expressand Crown Plaza Hotels (Intercontin-ental Hotel Group) NOEA memberswill be able to have discounts of up to35 per cent off accommodation inhotels in the group in Europe and theUK. A real financial benefit for members,many of whom use hotels throughoutthe event season.
Other new benefits are discounts onadvertising in The Main Event andnew other benefits are being investi-gated such as a discounted insurancescheme for all members.
If you are not a member and wouldlike to know more please contactSusan on 01749 674 531 and if you area member look out for your hotelcode when you renew your member-ship this September.
Networking Event At Event UK September 21,NEC BirminghamNOEA members are being invited for anew networking event at the Event UKshow in Birmingham which will givemembers a chance to meet for a net-working breakfast at around 9.30 am andafter the show for drinks – all compli-mentary to NOEA members, anotherreason to join!
NOEA will be exhibiting at the showand members are invited to attend aspart of the NOEA area. There will be apod system and for £1400 ex vat you canhave a presence on the stand. This feewill cover the stand fee and all graphics,you provide your literature. If you wouldlike to join NOEA’s stand contact Susan.
Event Risk, Safety and Security Conference September 20-23 2010Olympia Conference Centre, London
NOEA is supporting this event andmembers who wish to attend will beentitled to a 15 per cent discount. TheEffective Strategies to Manage EventRisk, Safety and Security Conference(ERSS) 2010 is a unique platform forsharing best practice and effectivestrategies to manage critical issues ofrisk, safety and security.
For further information please contactChris Trainor. T: +971 4 3365161
