Issue 29 June 2009 £4.75 Collapse puts event’s future in jeopardy By Christina Eccles THE future of a Derbyshire music festival is in doubt after freak weath- er caused a stage to collapse, injuring two of the event’s staff – and leaving organisers with a £15,000 bill. Organisers of the Bearded Theory Festival had only allocated £1,000 for health and safety expenses but the clean-up and investigation costs have soared to 15 times more than their original budget. And while fans have pledged to raise money to ease its financial plight, organiser Rich Bryan admitted the incident – caused by winds gust- ing to more than 50mph – has com- promised its future. He said: “You don’t really expect a tornado, so you don’t budget for one. We have a £15,000 deficit which to some events may not be a lot of money. But it is to us.” A member of the security team and one of the crew were injured when the roof of the stage was blown off. Both suffered minor injuries but a full investigation has been launched by the local council and the Health and Safety Executive. Rich added: “This has given us a wake up call and made us realise we need a good contingency fund, which is part of next year’s plan.” Proceeds from previous events have been donated to charities but now the festival itself is in need of finan- cial help. Fans are organising benefit gigs in the summer to offset the deficit but Rich added: “We can’t be too reliant on the gigs because any happening in August or September are not going to help us in the short term.” He added he was happy with how the matter had been dealt with on- site – with a helicopter arriving just two minutes after the stage collapsed – and the festival did have a compre- hensive health and safety plan in place. A full accident and emergency plan had been drawn up and Rich said it worked successfully, earning praise from police and paramedics. The event continued despite the drama and co-organiser James Willis added: “True to the festival spirit, personnel and festival goers pulled together to ensure the continued running of the festival. “Organisers worked hard to accom- modate the acts which were due to appear on the main stage at other points during the festival.” Concert postponed due to poor ticket sales A FESTIVAL which organis- ers hoped would raise over £1m for the British Armed Forces has been postponed due to poor ticket sales. Festival for Heroes was to take place at Blenheim Palace– with a line up including Lulu and Gabrielle. But organisers pulled the plug after deciding the market was too tough to launch a new festival. Festival director Jack Knowles said: "We had a great line-up of artists, a great location, and a great cause. What we didn't have was a great box office.” Proceeds were pledged to the Royal British Legion and spokesman Russell Thompson added: "Much as we tried to help this event to succeed, we have to be realistic. It's a tough year to launch a break- through festival.” Organisers hope to reschedule at a later date. As head of live events at BBC Radio One, Jason Carter was responsible for organising the Big Weekend, kick- ing off the festival season in Swindon. In an exclusive interview with The Main Event, he talks about how the event has evolved and the chal- lenges that come with putting together something so successful. For full story, page 10 The Main Event is the official magazine of the National Outdoor Events Association
Transcript
Issue 29 June 2009 £4.75
Collapse putsevent’s futurein jeopardyBy Christina Eccles
THE future of a Derbyshire musicfestival is in doubt after freak weath-er caused a stage to collapse, injuringtwo of the event’s staff – and leavingorganisers with a £15,000 bill.
Organisers of the Bearded TheoryFestival had only allocated £1,000 forhealth and safety expenses but theclean-up and investigation costshave soared to 15 times more thantheir original budget.
And while fans have pledged toraise money to ease its financialplight, organiser Rich Bryan admittedthe incident – caused by winds gust-ing to more than 50mph – has com-promised its future.
He said: “You don’t really expect atornado, so you don’t budget for one.We have a £15,000 deficit which tosome events may not be a lot ofmoney. But it is to us.”
A member of the security team andone of the crew were injured whenthe roof of the stage was blown off.Both suffered minor injuries but afull investigation has been launchedby the local council and the Healthand Safety Executive.
Rich added: “This has given us awake up call and made us realise weneed a good contingency fund,
which is part of next year’s plan.”Proceeds from previous events have
been donated to charities but nowthe festival itself is in need of finan-cial help.
Fans are organising benefit gigs inthe summer to offset the deficit butRich added: “We can’t be too relianton the gigs because any happeningin August or September are not goingto help us in the short term.”
He added he was happy with howthe matter had been dealt with on-site – with a helicopter arriving justtwo minutes after the stage collapsed– and the festival did have a compre-hensive health and safety plan inplace.
A full accident and emergency planhad been drawn up and Rich said itworked successfully, earning praisefrom police and paramedics.
The event continued despite thedrama and co-organiser James Willisadded: “True to the festival spirit,personnel and festival goers pulledtogether to ensure the continuedrunning of the festival.
“Organisers worked hard to accom-modate the acts which were due toappear on the main stage at otherpoints during the festival.”
Concertpostponeddue to poorticket salesA FESTIVAL which organis-ers hoped would raise over£1m for the British ArmedForces has been postponeddue to poor ticket sales.
Festival for Heroes was totake place at BlenheimPalace– with a line upincluding Lulu andGabrielle.
But organisers pulled theplug after deciding themarket was too tough tolaunch a new festival.
Festival director JackKnowles said: "We had agreat line-up of artists, agreat location, and a greatcause. What we didn't havewas a great box office.”
Proceeds were pledged tothe Royal British Legionand spokesman RussellThompson added: "Muchas we tried to help thisevent to succeed, we haveto be realistic. It's a toughyear to launch a break-through festival.”
Organisers hope toreschedule at a later date.
As head of live events at BBC Radio One, Jason Carterwas responsible for organising the Big Weekend, kick-ing off the festival season in Swindon.In an exclusive interview with The Main Event, hetalks about how the event has evolved and the chal-lenges that come with putting together something sosuccessful.For full story, page 10
The Main Event is the official magazine of the National Outdoor
Local authority spotlight Pages 16&17Notts County Show Pages 18&19NOEA Page 29
Traffic Management Page 14
Safety first atAbu Dhabi’s
first festivalPage 12
By Christina Eccles
ORGANISERS of an event in Sheffieldare contemplating its future afterattendance figures plummeted fromlast year.
After 23,000 people turned up to2008’s Highland Fling Town andCountry Fayre, organisers decided toextend it to a two day event, takingplace over the May Day bank holiday.
But now its future has been left indoubt after only 3,500 paying adults –children could enter for free – camethrough the gates.
According to Gary Smith, of produc-ers Green City Events, a combinationof factors were to blame including therecession, poor weather conditionsand important football matches forlocal teams being televised live overthe same weekend.
He told The Main Event that thecompany’s priority now is to makesure all suppliers and people whoworked on the event are dealt with –although he admits they will not be
able to pay out the full amount owed.Gary said: “We took a financial hit
and have warned suppliers there willbe problems.
“We will settle up with people asclose to the amount as we can but weare short of being able to pay every-one involved in full. We are lookingafter people as best we can.”
Gary also said the directors havemet to discuss whether the event willreturn this year but as yet have notmade a final decision.
He revealed they had been lookinginto staging another event later in theyear if the Highland Fling had made aprofit and also ploughing funds backinto community festivals – but thiscan no longer happen.
He added: “This has had a knock oneffect and it is now impossible for usto make a contribution to communityfestivals.
“We were disappointed for all thepeople who put a lot of hard workinto it but you can’t force peoplethrough the doors.”
Fayre’s future indoubt afterpoor attendance
THE Wizard Festival has moved datesthis year in order to make it easier forvisitors to attend.
The event will take place in line withthe August bank holiday weekend onFriday 28 and Saturday 29 August andorganisers expect about 4,000 people.
Other changes for this year includea new event website and a submis-sion process for local acts to send
demos in and win the chance to per-form at the festival.
Organiser Roy Thain said: “It’s greatto be back for a third year. The buzzaround the festival just gets biggerand bigger every year so we thoughtthe time was right to make our firstmajor announcement about the datechange, new website launch and thedemo submission process getting
under way.“Each year it gets harder to compete
with the previous year’s acts but interms of headliners and supportbands already confirmed, 2009’s bill isshaping up to be a real treat.”
The festival takes place at New DeerShowground in Aberdeenshire andbands performing include TheCharlatans and The Buzzcocks.
Festival hopesto attract morevisitors withdate change
MUSICIAN and TV presenter MyleeneKlass is getting ready for a busy sum-mer season after signing up toappear at several major events.Myleene will be performing and com-pering at the Glastonbury Abbey clas-sical concert, where she will be joinedby the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.She will also open a new beauty andfashion event – 10 Years Younger Live– which takes place at Earls Courtnext month.
2 4
By Christina Eccles
A FESTIVAL in Cornwall has foundan alternative way of marketing theevent – by signing up students tosell tickets at their universities.
Beach Break Live – which was setup as an event for students – doesnot advertise through traditionalmeans such as billboards andleaflets but instead signs up festivalfans to promote the event and selltickets around campus.
So far, almost 1,000 student repshave signed up, who are given
incentives of free tickets to theevent and commission dependingon how many tickets they manageto sell.
Organiser Celia Norowzian said:“We don’t spend money on directadvertising instead we have a net-work of promoters who are incen-tivised by commission. There arealmost 1,000 of them out there inthe universities.”
The festival also has a big onlinepresence on social networking sitessuch as Facebook and is currentlyrunning a competition to get at
least 10,000 Facebook members tochange their profile picture to theBeach Break Live logo for 24 hours– with prizes up for grabs includingVIP festival tickets, £500 cash andKopparberg cider.
Celia also said that sites such asthese are great marketing toolswhich other festivals could alsobenefit from using.
She added that if people becomefans of the festival online they caninvite their friends to become fanstoo, which means more and morepeople get to know about it.
She added: “Anyone not usingFacebook is missing out on anopportunity. Most of our marketingtakes place on there.”
This year’s festival has a capacityof 10,000 and is on course to sellout and according to Celia, itsgrowing popularity is down to themfinding a gap in the market.
“The event has found a niche thatreally works. Those who come arewith a whole group of people whoare at a similar stage in their lives. Itis almost like a holiday and that’swhat sets it apart.”
Festival organisers Celia and Ian
Student idea proves just the ticket ...
Event safety plans at two events in Henley will be provided by Capita Symonds. The company will provide risk assessment and event safety plans at the Henley Royal Regattaand risk assessment, event safety plans and full safety co-ordination at the HenleyFestival. This year’s Henley Royal Regatta takes place from July 1-5 at Henley-on-Thamesin Oxfordshire and the Henley Festival is held from July 8-12.
A free event istaking placelater thismonth in Kentwhich includesan appearancefrom the RedArrows.Margate’s BigEvent is hap-pening at PalmBay andincludes bothland and airattractions –with others onoffer includinga concert andfirework finale.
2 6
Glasgow move gives festival boostBy Christina Eccles
A SCOTTISH music festival hasmoved sites to a new venue in theheart of Glasgow city centre – givingit a unique selling point over itsrivals.
Retrofest has swapped its oldhome at Strathclyde Country Parkto a new one, Glasgow Green,which is within walking distance ofthe city’s main train station and awide range of accommodation.
Organiser Malcolm Cannon saidhe believes the move will be
appealing to the event’s crowd asthey are not a typical festival audi-ence and may find the city centrelocation more convenient.
He said the site having good raillinks will encourage visitors to usepublic transport while the largerange of Glasgow hotels will mean agreater choice for those who do notwant to camp.
The move also enables the organ-isers to make some improvementsto the festival’s layout and the newsite has the capacity to hold up to
30,000 people over the weekend.He said: “There are so many bene-
fits that come from being in a city.In Lanarkshire, the hotels increasedtheir room rates over the weekendof the festival but there are so manyhotels in Glasgow it will be morecost effective for visitors. If theycome into Glasgow Central Station,they are also within walking dis-tance of the site. In terms of trans-port, access and camping it is verycost effective.”
Malcolm also revealed why he
thinks the festival is flourishing in amarket where some of its neigh-bouring festivals have struggled.
Recent casualties in the Scottishfestival industry include theOutsider, Homecoming andConnect festivals but Malcolm isconfident that Retrofest will survivea challenging market. He added:“The festival market in Scotland isin a serious downturn but our nichemarket is unique and less financial-ly under pressure so ticket sales arepositive for this year.”
Festival is cancelledfor second yearSCOTTISH festival The Outsider hasbeen cancelled due to the recessionand poor ticket sales.
The event – which would havetaken place at the end of June inRothiemurchus, Aviemore – startedin 2007 but was forced to postponelast year because of financial diffi-culties.
Organisers had hoped it wouldreturn this year with a reducedcapacity and a smaller line-up buthave now decided it will not goahead.
In a statement they said: “Due to
the unremitting economic downturnand audience numbers now projected we feel that we cannot produce an event that provides youwith a festival experience at the level that is expected anddeserved.
“Clearly a recession is not the time to realise this bold new concept but we still believe theOutsider was right for its time andperfect for its place and are hugelydisappointed that it is not goingahead.”
A music festival has taken place in Stoke to campaign against racism. The Love Music HateRacism festival took place at Stoke City FC’s Britannia Stadium and included performancesfrom Kelly Rowland (pictured), Beverley Knight and N-Dubz. The festival was organised byLove Music Hate Racism, Stoke-on-Trent City Council and Stoke City Football Club and sup-ported by Kick It Out, football's anti-racism charity. Last year, the event took place inLondon’s Victoria Park and was attended by over 100,000 people.
Glastonbury festival teamsup with Orange againVISITORS to Glastonbury will gethelp to navigate their way around thesite thanks to a partnership betweenthe festival and Orange.
After proving successful at lastyear’s event, Orange has broughtback the GlastoNav – a downloadablemobile application which providesan interactive guide to the festival.
Once downloaded, the service iscompletely free and available acrossany mobile network on the majorityof UK handsets – over 15,000 festival-
goers downloaded it last year.Orange UK’s head of sponsorship
Ian Smith said: “Glastonbury is ahighlight in Orange’s music event cal-endar and this year’s line up is one ofthe best ever.
“Orange is proud to be involvedwith the nation’s favourite music fes-tival and look forward to announcingsome more exciting initiatives forGlastonbury 2009 in the comingweeks.”
7
THIS will be the year boutique festi-val Standon Calling gets the recogni-tion it deserves, according to itsorganiser.
The event started life in 2001 as abirthday party for Alex Trenchard buthas grown into something attractingup to 3,000 people.
And Alex said he feels 2009 is theyear when the event – which takesplace in Hertfordshire – can make itsmark on the festival calendar.
He said: “There is a real sense thatwe can make this year our year and
we want to be the emerging festivalfor 2009. We offer something that no-one else does.”
The event has made some changesthis year and Alex feels althoughthere are a lot of festivals out there,Standon Calling has the ability tocompete.
He added: “We are taking a step upin terms of the line up and givingacts longer sets so people feel theyhave seen proper gigs.
“I think it is going to be a huge yearfor all types of festivals. The big festi-
vals will all be very popular but Ithink a lot of people will be lookingto find something more affordable.
“We have been growing slowly andexpanding at a manageable pace.This year people will be staying in theUK and looking for alternative eventsand we are best placed to offer that.”
Alex admitted that in the beginning,he didn’t set out to create a new festi-val but increasing demand has led toStandon Calling becoming a leadingboutique festival.
“We didn’t have any plans to grow
into a festival but did the same partyevery year and we wanted to givepeople a bit more.
“We have got more people involvedand every year have improved andtaken a step up.
“But it is still an intimate festivaland even though we have gone from30 to 3,000 we have managed to keepthe intimate feel.”
New additions for the festival thisyear include some independent the-atre and a secret area which peoplecan enjoy after midnight.
The festival and, pictured centre, organiser Alex Trenchard.
Alex ready to make hismark on festival calendar
Success for castle caterers ...GUESTS attending an event in thegrounds of Windsor Castle left well fedthanks to catering company ChilliPepper.
Chilli Pepper catered for the site’sthree hospitality areas – which servedvisitors to the Royal Windsor HorseShow in the day and Windsor CastleRoyal Tattoo in the evening.
The team worked closely with eventmanagement and production compa-ny The HPower Group to create a dif-ferent menu for each of the hospitalityareas catering for over 4,000 guests
and a menu selection for the publiccafé to serve up to several thousandguests.
Managing director Glen Chadwicksaid: “This year we built on the suc-cess achieved at the 2008 event anddeveloped the menu choices to suitthe temporary venue and guestrequirements. Once the site is set up,the challenge is the logistics of gettingthe food from the kitchens to the dif-ferent areas.”
In total, the events welcome around70,000 visitors across five days.
2 8
By Christina Eccles
FESTIVALS which want to be seenas family friendly should allowchildren to attend free of charge,according to the man behindCamp Bestival.
Rob da Bank launched the festivallast year in Dorset with an empha-sis on organising an event whichcaters for the whole family.
As part of this, under 12s can gofree and there is a reduced ticketprice for teenagers aged 13-15 andfor students.
He said the festival will be stick-ing to this policy because it wouldbe unfair for parents to have to payfor children who may not be inter-ested in the bands that are playingthere.
He said: “Why should a 12 yearold pay for music that they are notgoing to watch? Also if you offer afestival where the kids go in forfree, parents see it as a bonus.Particularly with the recession, themore people who can save moneythe better.”
Rob also said the key to creating afamily friendly festival is ensuringthere are enough activities to keepthe kids happy but also makingsure there are also things nearby tokeep parents entertained.
He added: “You need to have a lotof things for kids to do such asworkshops, fancy dress and facepainting to keep them busy – anddon’t try to charge for them. Weknow as parents that bored kidscan be a nightmare. Also have lots
of toilets and clean facilities andmake it as easy as possible for fam-ilies.”
Last year there were 3,500 under12s at the event and according toRob, it can be a challenge creatinga festival which is suitable for thewhole family.
“We didn’t anticipate that peoplewould bring so much gear withthem. We discovered that one par-ent was driving down with thetents and camping gear and theother was driving down separatelywith the kids, which threw off ourplans for car parking.”
He said that as last year was thefirst event, this year will be aboutfine tuning some of the issues thatcropped up.
Let kidsin forfree saysfestivalorganiser
THE Performance Textiles Associationhas changed its name and will now beknown as MUTA in order to focus onits largest membership – the marqueeand tent industry.
The name was chosen as it is thebrand that resonates most with theindustries that the association repre-sents.
MUTA remains: ■ The only professional body with
an HSE approved accreditationscheme for marquees (MUTAmarq)and inflatables (PIPA).
■ The only association with a dedi-cated health and safety complianceofficer.
■ The only association with an NVQassessment centre for temporarystructures.
President Tony Marsh said: “The rea-son that our organisation has sur-vived for so long is because we havebeen able to evolve and adapt astimes change. Our 2008 membershipsurvey and a series of internal discus-sions have led to a renewed focus onthe issues that matter most to ourmembers, such as health and safety,NVQ training and the recognition ofthe skills and experience base of ourmembership.
“In adopting MUTA we are demon-strating that the priorities of theAssociation have moved on. In 2009,MUTA aims to become the essentialresource for information, assistanceand support for all of our existingmembers as well as a host of newones.”
Associationchanges name
The Event Hire Company issponsoring a fundraisinggala ball to raise money forAction Against Hunger.
The company will supply all marqueeequipment required forthe event from tablesand chairs to boilers,
ovens and fridges.The ball will take place in athemed marquee inHampshire and guests willbe treated to a performancefrom Strictly Come Dancingstars Camilla Dallerup andIan Waite.
GLASTONBURY founder MichaelEavis has lent his support to a rivalfestival by urging those who can’t geta ticket to his event to visit the GladeFestival instead.
The event has been a part ofGlastonbury for 10 years and devel-oped the first standalone GladeFestival in Newbury in 2004.
Now in its sixth year, the festivalmakes its debut at Matterley Bowl,Winchester, Hampshire in July after
outgrowing its previous site.Michael said: “The Glade Festival
has lots of Glastonbury connectionswith thrills and feelings not dissimilarto our own, including programmingand atmosphere that has form andreputation. If you couldn't get a ticketfor our show here at Glastonbury,thank you very much for trying, butwould you mind me suggesting thatyou give Glade Festival a try? I don'tthink you'll regret it.”
Eavis lends support to rival festival
2 10 RADIO 1 BIG WEEKEND
When BBC RadioOne brought its BigWeekend toSwindon,organisers wereresponsible forputting on thebiggest event thearea had ever seen.Mary Fergusonspoke to the peopleinvolved.
Lydiard Park welcomesmusic’s biggest names
SNOW Patrol, Dizzee Rascal, LilyAllen and The Prodigy joined someof the biggest names in music forthe two-day show held at LydiardPark in May.
Four stages and widespread cover-age on the radio and TV meant theBBC and event producers SJM hadto work closely with SwindonCouncil to make sure everythingwent to plan.
Jason Carter, head of live events atRadio One, spoke exclusively to TheMain Event. He said: “We cover a lotof festivals but we wanted to create awholly-owned event that epitomiseswhat the station is about.
“It’s public service at its best andthere is no sponsorship, with eventhe artists performing for free. Wehave relationships with the artistsright from when they start out so formany of them, performing is a wayof saying thank you.”
When the Big Weekends began in2003 they took place at major citiesincluding Manchester andBirmingham but the aim now is totake the event to smaller towns thatdon’t normally attract the big artists.Last year, Madonna performed inMaidenhead and Preston hosted theevent in 2007.
Ticket priority is given to people inthe area with 65 per cent of themallocated to Swindon. Listeners areinvited to text in for a chance to gettickets a fortnight before the event,with winners selected at random.
“When we used to do One BigSunday anyone and everyone wouldturn up and although having 60,000people there was great, they werenot all Radio One listeners. The DJ’slove the Big Weekend because theyfeel they are seeing the people theytalk to every day on the radio.
“In terms of its value and credibili-ty it’s got stronger and stronger andit’s now part of the staple diet ofrecord companies.”
Jason said the event production onthe ground has evolved, as well asartist hospitality.
“Ten years ago we would have hada blow up tent and a bowl ofpeanuts but now we want to makesure the artists’ experience is as pol-ished as it is at festivals likeGlastonbury and Reading.”
He claims nothing major has evergone really wrong, but this year cer-tain areas needed to be refined.
“The biggest thing for me recentlyhas been because the event has suchlarge scale BBC coverage both on TV
and the radio, the whole backstagearea gets very hectic. Last year, alongwith the TV trucks and other equip-ment there was also too many peo-ple and it was extremely busy.
“We tightened the area this yearand people flowed through morelike tumbleweed. We introduced astricter pass system and restrictedaccess to the stages. We also stoppedvehicle movement backstage andput barriers up to create walkways.”
The other thing addressed this yearwas the out-front production at themain stage.
“I wanted to move forward withour sound and lighting rig anddevelop a set design, so we put aheader up at the top of the stage. Wegot Brian Leitch from Siyan in tocreate some really stunning lightingand it made a huge improvement.”
Work on next year’s Big Weekend isabout to begin and Jason hinted thatthe 2010 event may be in the north.
He added: “We do know that ratherthan a bland green field site ourfuture events will be inspired by hownice Lydiard Park was. Because it’s afairly small festival, it makes it easierto find a good site.”
WE very much took a one-teamapproach, working with a number ofpartners – some for the first time – andhad a number of meetings with everyoneinvolved, so communication was good.
We had some issues with the M4 beingdue to close on the weekend of the event,ironically because of another councilproject. But we talked it through with theHighways Authority and the significanceof it closing and it was agreed to delay theclosure for a week, which preventedpotential problems.
We are particularly proud of how thepark and ride system operated. Initially,
the police had some concerns aboutwhere people would be coming to thearea from and because the BBC didn’tallocate tickets until the last minute, weonly found out a week before the event.
We had to plan on assumptions but itall worked out well and at the end of eachday, we managed to clear 11,00 peoplefrom the site in under 90 minutes byloading a number of buses at a time.There were no queues.
We restricted a number of roads andclosed three completely for the wholeweekend, and some farms nearby thepark were affected when we turned roads
into one way systems. So we stationedsomeone at the end of their drivewaysand every time machinery needed to getin or out, we stopped the traffic.
We have held big events at Lydiard Parkbefore but nothing on the scale of the BigWeekend and although there were someinteresting challenges, we learned a lotalong the way.
It’s been a great opportunity to show-case Lydiard Park as an events site andwe are now talking to the BBC about howwe can support the next town theychoose for the Big Weekend, by passingon our experience to their council.
Mark Hopkins, programme director for Swindon Council, headed up the team that worked onthe Big Weekend in partnership with the BBC.Contractors
listSuppliers at the eventincluded:
Power: Buffalo Power Cabins and Buggies:Search Big tops: Kayam Marquees: WaapSecurity: G4SWater tankers: TESSToilets: Portaloos
11
THE first ever Monarchy Live takesplace at Ragley Hall in July – on thesame weekend as the free GodivaFestival in nearby Coventry.
But according to organiser SimonJones from SMR Entertainment, thetwo events are so different that thisshouldn’t be a problem.
The event aims to provide a bou-tique experience which is availableon several levels depending on theticket which a visitor wants to buy.
As well as standard entry and VIPpackages, festivalgoers have alsobeen given the opportunity to pur-chase VVIP tickets, costing £500each. With only 300 of these avail-able, tickets include champagne, avariety of food and drink and thechance to mingle with the bandsand djs performing.
Simon told The Main Event thatthe luxurious feel of the festival willbe enhanced by its stately homevenue – something they are hopingto include as much as possible, evendown to the event’s falcon logowhich is also part of Ragley Hall’screst.
Simon said: “We are trying to givepeople something that isn’t outthere at the moment – something Iwould personally want to go to.
“Our biggest advantage is the
stately home itselfwhich is amazing.And if this year is suc-cessful, we should beable to use it for thenext 10 years. Thevenue is allowing usto use the great hall sowe will have all theVVIPs in there. A lotof people don’t go tofestivals because theyfeel they are notcatered for – we aretrying to create a dif-ferent experience.There are VIP areas atmost festivals butthere will be nothinglike Ragley Hall.”
Simon also said thateven though the festival is launch-ing in what could be a challengingtime for the events industry, he feelsconfident that it will do well.
To ensure it gets as much publicityas possible, he has sent members ofstaff up and down the country tohand out flyers and spread theword.
He added: “Being a new festival itis going to be hard work getting itout there. We have advertised heavi-ly and have poster campaigns all
over the country. We will keep pro-moting and pushing as hard as wecan. Even in a recession people stilllike to enjoy themselves.
“The Godiva Festival is going to becompetition but we feel as thoughas long as we create a differentexperience, ours will be a differentstyle of festival.
“We are trying to outline areas thatpeople are dissatisfied with at otherevents, listen to what they like andput that in place.”
A new festival is being launched in Warwickshire this year which, according to organisers, could attract up to8,000 people. But in an already crowded market and with a free festival taking place simultaneously just afew miles away, how will they succeed? Christina Eccles found out.
Simon Jones
Ragley Hall playing host to VVIPs
Ragley Hall
2 12 MIDDLE EAST
GULF Air has been confirmed as theofficial carrier for the BahrainInternational Airshow which takesplace next January.
A sponsorship agreement wassigned between Gulf Air senior man-agement and Civil Aviation Affairs in aceremony held at CAA headquartersin Bahrain.
Companies already signed up toparticipate in the show – the formatof which will focus on business-to-business meeting opportunities –include Rolls-Royce, BAE Systems,TAG Aeronautics Ltd, Bell HelicopterTextron Inc, Cessna and BahrainAerospace.
Spokesman for joint organisersFarnborough International LtdAmanda Stainer said: “We are delight-ed that alongside CAA we are able toconfirm Gulf Air as the official carrierfor BIAS 2010.
“Gulf Air also hosts the other majorevent the country is home to, theFormula 1 Bahrain Grand Prix and itis very pleasing indeed to welcomethem on board for BIAS which will bethe only event of its type in the wholeof the Middle East. We are certain theairshow will prove itself to be as anexciting event in Bahrain as themotor-racing has over the last fewyears.”
Airline iscarrier forairshow
SAFETY was the biggest priority forTESS when the company worked onAbu Dhabi’s first WOMAD Festival.
Abu Dhabi had never hosted a fes-tival of this sort before, so carefulevaluation of crowd safety and pro-duction risks was a key part of theplanning.
Detailed assessments were madeof every feature of the event,including site layout, crowd dynam-
ics and access control and chal-lenges faced included the 40 degreetemperatures and the fine beachsand – which was not ideal for fork-lifts or construction.
TESS director Tim Roberts said:“Much of the public element of theevent was unknown. As it was thefirst free event of its type in thecountry, there was no way of know-ing how many people would turn
up. So we maintained a constantcount of the numbers of peopleentering and exiting to ensure wedidn’t exceed safe capacity.
“Many people stayed for a fewhours rather than the whole show.Dipping in and out to sample whatwas on offer; rather than staying atthe pit barrier for the whole event.”
Over 82,000 people attended theevent during the three nights.
PRODUCTION Freight has been han-dling Live Events since 1993.
We understand the meaning of alive event and our goal is to fulfillyour delivery criteria
With our experience in live events
and the knowledge of the equipmentyou need to move we can tailor theservices we offer to the unique situa-tion you face.
Production Freight were happy to beinvolved with the shipping of the
temporary structure for the WOMADfestival in Abu Dhabi recently, as wellas equipment for the Kylie Minogueconcert in Dubai, the London Bussent over to Beijing and many othervaried events worldwide.
Company ships temporary structure
TESS director Tim Roberts and Abu Dhabi’s first WOMAD Festival
Safety key for Abu Dhabi’s first festival
13
Innocentscraps itsvillage feteINNOCENT has scrapped its VillageFete in order to concentrate on mar-keting its products.
The event – which has been held inLondon’s Regent’s Park for the pasttwo years – had attracted crowds ofabout 50,000 and included family ori-entated activities ranging from danc-ing and live entertainment to moreunusual activities such as duck herd-ing and ferret racing.
But Innocent has now revealed theevent will not return this year as thecompany has decided to focus onother projects.
A spokesman said: “We like doingnew things. We held our Fruitstockfestival for four years, then our VillageFete for the past two – and now weare on the lookout for something newand exciting.”
The company said it is still thinkingabout organising outdoor events andis working on developing new ideas.
The spokesman added: “We are onthe look out for something new andexciting for next year. We don't knowexactly what but we are working upideas as we speak.
“In the meantime, this summerwe'll be busy working on a TV ad thatwill be focused on communicatingthe health benefits of our smoothies.”
By Mary Ferguson
A HUGE pyrotechnics displayaccompanied a performance by‘free runners’ to mark the openingof a new bridge in the North East.
Durham-based events companyShe’s Gott It! were contracted toorganise the unveiling of InfinityBridge in Tees Valley and broughtin Parkour – or ‘free running’ pro-fessionals – to close the event witha bang.
Parkour is the urban activity ofrunning along streets using bins,benches and walls as natural obsta-cles. It has its roots in music andShe’s Gott It! brought in Salford-based Walk The Plank to deliver theperformance.
A boat rigged with pyrotechnicssailed under the bridge, shootingfireworks to ignite the structure,and the lighting was designed tohighlight the design and emphasiseits curves.
The free runners then appearedfrom the centre of the two arches,as the soundtrack – put together byfamous composer Sandy Muttgens– began with the sounds of heavy,rasping breathing.
After letting off flares, the per-formers started running and climb-ing along the bridge, their head-cameras beaming images onto bigscreens.
Director Nicky Gott told The MainEvent: “The free runners were a real
performance piece and we cameup with the idea inspired by theopening ceremony for theOlympics. There was a real sense ofpride involved with the unveiling ofthe bridge so the similaritiesworked well.”
To make sure it was dark enough,the pyrotechnics display didn’t kickoff until 9.40pm which is why theevent was held in May, instead oflater in the summer when it stayedlighter even longer.
Two months into the planningprocess the budget was halved,meaning Nicky and the team hadto scale down their ideas.
“It was disappointing but it justmeant we had to be more cleverwith money.
“I think we are lucky that theevents industry still seems to beticking along in the recession, butwe have noticed budgets being cutelsewhere too. It’s frustrating butthe event was still a big success.”
During the lead-up to the finalperformance, the 20,000 onlookerswere entertained with fairgroundrides and street performers and alocal radio DJ stirred up the atmos-phere. Candy floss, doughnuts anda chocolate fountain added to thecarnival atmosphere.
Opening goes with a bang
2 14 TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
The journey to and from an event is an important part of the overall visitor experience but can causeheadaches for organisers. In a special feature for The Main Event, The Highways Agency reveals how to gettraffic management right...
GETTING to and from an event isimportant for visitors and keepingcongestion to a minimum is impor-tant for a venue’s relationships withlocal residents and businesses.
The Highways Agency – which hasa growing role to manage England’smotorways and trunk road network– can help both festivalgoers andpromoters.
A key task is to provide road userswith the accurate, up-to-date infor-mation they need to make informedchoices about their journey. Thismay mean setting out at a differenttime, taking a different route or sim-ply allowing enough time to arriveat their destination with a minimumof stress.
Live traffic flow data from sensorsand incident reports from controlcentres allows the agency to provideup to the minute travel news towebsites, broadcasters, phone serv-ices and its own digital messagesigns on the roads and motorwaysthemselves.
Helping visitors arrive stress-free isimportant because the journey ispart of the customer experience.The happy memory of a day out orweekend away can be tarnished if
too much of the time is spent inqueuing traffic.
Live traffic information can beadded to an event website as part ofthe ‘how to get here’ pages – as theBloodstock Open Air festival hasdone. A hyperlink to the HighwaysAgency can show average trafficspeeds on the approach roads,information about incidents androadworks, the messages being dis-played on overhead signs and eventhe view from CCTV cameras.
For major events, the HighwaysAgency will work with organisers tohelp get visitors to and from thevenue and reduce delays for every-one.
An example is recent Oasis con-certs in Manchester – attended byabout 210,000 people over threedays.
The agency supported the pro-moters, working closely with localcouncils to deliver a traffic manage-ment plan for local roads andmotorway routes.
To ease access to the venue andreduce congestion on surroundingroads there was no access from thenearest motorway junction to thepark. Fans driving to the event were
instead directed off at the next junc-tion towards a Park and Ride shut-tle. Signs were used to provideadvice warning and there were alsoextra temporary signs at the keyjunction.
In cases like this, extra traffic offi-cer patrols can be deployed to tack-le motorway traffic managementissues while colleagues in theRegional Control Centre can moni-tor conditions on cameras and setelectronic signs to advise drivers.
Up-to-date information is key
The agency provides up to the minutetravel news.
Helping visitors arrive stress-free isimportant.
A NEW traffic management plan atthe Leeds Festival will make a ‘sig-nificant difference’ to both festi-valgoers and local residents,according to the event’s organiser.
Festival Republic’s Melvin Bennsaid the decision to bring trafficstraight off the motorway to thefestival site will mean cars are nolonger diverted into the city andback out again as they have beenin previous years.
He claimed this will be beneficialfor visitors as it will reduce traveltime and also to local residentswho won’t have to deal with thepresence of a large volume of traf-fic.
Melvin said: “This will make asignificant difference on two lev-els. One will be for attendees whowill definitely get in quicker thanlast year. The other will be for localresidents on the eastern side ofLeeds who will be largely unaffect-ed by traffic this year.”
Melvin also said that traffic man-agement is an issue every year atfestivals but he says it is some-thing that he is always looking toimprove on.
Headded:“What I am doing at Leeds isbringing 70,000 people into anarea that may otherwise have1,000 people – this causes a signifi-cant impact.
“It is something we look at yearon year. We encourage people touse the train and shuttle them intothe festival on buses and we alsohave a proportion of tickets onsale which can only be boughtwith coach tickets.”
To help devise a new traffic planfor the event, Festival Republicbrought in the expertise of trafficmanagement experts FaberMaunsell – and Melvin said he wasdelighted with the results.
Organiser hopestraffic plan willmake a difference
Melvin Benn
15
ORGANISERS of the boutique BloomFestival have decided to drop ticketprices this year, despite gearing upfor their biggest ever show.
Weekend tickets are now availablefor just £75, ten pounds cheaper thanlast year, for a festival featuring sevenstages, entertainment and its biggestever line-up.
Olivia Chapman, organiser, said:“We decided to reduce pricesbecause it is really important to usthat we remain affordable.
“Obviously it is risky on our part,but hopefully it will give a lot of peo-ple the chance to get to a festival thisyear, even if money is tight.
“We also have a very loyal, localcrowd as well as visitors from all over
the country, and we like to make surewe offer the best value possible.”
The festival has also had to relocatethis year, after 2008’s summer of badweather caused havoc on the previ-ous site.
It is now set to take place in WestLittletown Down and will offer shut-tle buses from nearby towns includ-ing Bristol and Cheltenham to helpkeep visitors’ car journeys to a mini-mum.
Olivia added: “Our last site wasalmost ideal, but when it came to thefestival the weather was awful – wehad gale force winds blowing tentsaway. People still had a great time,but logistically it was a nightmare.
“This year we are really excited
because we feel that we have beengetting better every time and now wehave got things just the way we wantthem.”
Attractions at this year’s festivalinclude a groove garden completewith gnomes and a music shed, aconverted DJ bus and a cabaret tentfeaturing burlesque performances,comedy turns and bingo.
For a break from the music, organ-isers have also set up a workshoptent where visitors can get involvedin kung fu, tai chi, mask making,knitting, flamenco classes and evenleave a message in the video diaryshed.
The weekend has also beendesigned to be completely family
friendly, with a dedicated kids’ zoneincluding activities, games and alibrary corner.
Olivia added: “I think if you are pay-ing to be somewhere for the wholeweekend then you are going to wantvariety – even the most enthusiasticmusic lover doesn’t just want towatch bands the whole time.
“People are expecting a higher levelof entertainment when they go outthese days and that applies to festi-vals too.
“We try to provide something foreveryone – so that anyone can comealong and have an amazing time.
“Basically we just try to organisesomething that we are really excitedabout going to ourselves.”
A BOUTIQUE festival has kept highquality food a number one priority,despite expanding rapidly during itsfour year history.
The Bloom Festival, held in WestLittletown Down, near Bristol, hasbecome well known for its high-endcatering and is planning on expanding its offering again this year.
Organisers sift through hundreds ofcatering applications to find thehighest quality providers and many
are selected based on their local, eth-ical and organic credentials.
Organiser Olivia Chapman said:“Providing great quality food hasalways been very important to us –right from the beginning when wewere only catering for 1,500 people.
“We want to offer high end, gour-met food that is locally sourced andorganic wherever possible.
“We also help our traders to findnearby farms for supplies so that wecan keep our food miles as low as
possible.”Food on offer at this year’s festival
in August will include wood-fired piz-zas, sushi, French pancake stands,pie or sausage and mash, a hugerange of vegetable curries and othervegetarian dishes, organic fish andchips and much more.
Olivia added: “There will always bea market for the traditional burgersand pasties at some festivals, but wehave found that our visitors love thehealthy and organic options and it is
one of our unique selling points. “It is well known that, if they can,
people will always moan about threethings at festivals – the food, the loosand the queues.
“We pay special attention to all ofthese so there is no cause for com-plaint!”
There will also be a selection ofBloom Bars on site serving alcoholicand soft drinks as well as a range ofcocktails specially created for theoccasion.
Organisers cut ticket pricesfor biggest show ever
Gourmet stays on boutique festival menu
2 16 LOCAL AUTHORITY SPOTLIGHT
CENTRAL Hall is a unique historicbuilding offering elegant marble foy-ers and stairways leading to a widevariety of event spaces.
Throughout its history, Central HallWestminster has played host toevents of national and internationalimportance:
■ The Suffragettes – campaigning forthe vote for women – met there in1914.
■ Mahatma Gandhi addressed theTemperance movement in 1931.
■ In 1940 during the Second WorldWar, General de Gaulle used thevenue to announce the foundation ofthe Free French movement to theworld.
■ In 1946 the Inaugural Assembly ofthe United Nations was held in theGreat Hall.
In 1998, Michel Sharp, who is bothchairman of ACE and on the board ofHCCE, joined the existing team todevelop Central Hall as the modernday venue ideal for all types of events.
It now offers facilities for confer-
ences, AGMs, graduations and ban-quets just to name a few.
Following a refurbishment coveringtwo years from 2004 – 2006, the venuenow boasts over 30 individual meet-ing rooms and the jewel in the crownof Central Hall is the Great Hall seat-ing up to 2,160 people – ideal for useas a concert hall.
Still to this day at Methodist CentralHall, church services are held onSundays as well as mid-week and thevenue works hard to support the localcommunity – it is truly one ofWestminster’s most unique event ven-ues.
From film premieres to triumphant sports parades, there is never a dull moment forthe events team at Westminster Council. Dominic Musgrave found out more.
Fireworks spectacularhighlight of a packedcalendar of events THE events team at the London bor-ough council is made up of nine peo-ple and headed up by events managerTim Owen.
There are more than 400 events and200 protests and marches takingplace in the area every year, culminat-ing in the largest celebration of all,the New Year’s Eve fireworks on theRiver Thames which attracts approxi-mately 500,000 people and isscreened live on the BBC.
Annual events include the BAFTAS,Notting Hill carnival, the ChineseNew Year, Trooping the Colour,Remembrance Day and the annualChristmas light switch-ons on bothOxford and Regent Street.
Tim said the council plays a morefacilitating role in events, rather thanan organising one.
He said: “All events use pretty muchthe same formula, and we have ameeting a month to discuss any
issues. “We have a licensing, operational
and safety planning group for events,which will include the organiserwanting to stage the event, represen-tatives from the emergency and thetransport services.”
The meetings for the New Year’s Evecelebrations also involve the ownersof the London Eye and nearby hotels,as well as the Port of LondonAuthority and neighbouring councilsaffected by the event
Tim added: “The transport servicesare key to all events, but particularlyon that night. It is a slow build-up butonce the fireworks have finishedeverybody just wants to go homequickly. How we do that is somethingwe are learning every year, and youcan guarantee that something hap-pens that we weren’t expecting.
“The group looked at the roles ofboth the stewards and the police at
the event, as well as things like howmany trains can you get on a platformat a station and how many people canyou get on a train. They also looked athow big a footprint should it have,and how big a responsibility for itshould the organisers have.”
The council only puts on one eventof its own annually - West End Live -which takes place on a June weekendin and around Leicester Square.
Tim added: “All of the musicals,ranging from Oliver to Mamma Miaand the Sound of Music, put on a 10-minute show in the gardens.
“We also invite all sorts of organisa-tions including museums to havestalls at the event, which is half fund-ed by the council and half by localbusinesses. The gardens can onlyhold around 2,500 people, but weprobably get between 10 and 15,000attending over the weekend.”
Venue has its place in history
Trafalgar Square is one of Westminster’sCouncil’s key venues, with Nelson’s Columnas a backdrop.
TRIUMPHANT sports parades by returning stars have become fashionable over recentyears.The winning England Rugby World Cup team were the first to tour the city on top of aLondon bus in 2003, and since then the winning Ashes cricket and Olympians have fol-lowed suit.Tim says they now have a successful plan in place should any other sports stars want to dosomething similar.He said: “The RFU were the first, and they became the organiser. They understood whatwas needed and kept us informed “We didn’t want to really talk about winning the competition before it had taken place,but talks had gone on beforehand. We now have plans in place so that we wouldn’t needto talk about it before the competition now.“All an operator would need to do now is say yes we want to do it and we can get thewheels in motion”
ONE of the most unusual eventsTim and his team got involved withwas the ‘secret’ U2 gig for the BBC,which was only confirmed once theband took to the stage.
Tim said: “It was all pretty shortnotice. We knew the BBC were hav-ing U2 day, and the original planwas to have the band performingas a back drop into The One Show,which was scrapped.
“We knew Bono would want to dosomething with a live audience, butuntil he actually walked out ontothe roof of the BBC building andstarted playing we didn’t know it
was going to happen.”He added that what made it most
difficult to steward was the factthat they could not give any priorwarning to the event taking place.
“We hadn’t got anything we couldreally warn people about, becausewe didn’t know much informationabout it ourselves.
“We had plans in place to dealwith the event, which 5,000 peoplecame to watch, but it didn’t reallyaffect Friday night rush hour at all.Some people still aren’t aware thatthe event even took place.”
Secret gig most unusualWill Smith is one of many stars to have performed in the area.
2 18 NEWARK & NOTTS COUNTY SHOWThe Newark and Nottinghamshire County Show celebrated its 126th birthday this year, yet the event shows nosigns of slowing down. Christina Eccles caught up with its organisers to find out why it is going from strength tostrength...
ALTHOUGH this is only the secondyear that show manager SallyDevereux has been involved in theevent, she has already made severalchanges and improvements – withmore in the pipeline.
According to Sally, the key to organ-ising a successful show involveschanging things to keep the event rel-evant while still maintaining its corevalues.
One of the most important changesat this year’s show is that childrenunder 17 could attend for free –something introduced to attract morefamilies to the event.
The decision to do this was receivedwell by the crowds – with paid atten-dance rising by five per cent this yearand a large number of families walk-
ing through the doors.Sally said: “This is something we
wanted to do. Families need a handand something to smile about.”
Estimated attendance at this year’sshow – at Newark Showground – wasabout 55,000 and visitors were treatedto a number of displays and activitiesincluding:
■ Prize winning show jumping■ Animal displays including cattle
and alpacas■ Flower show■ Food arcade ■ Classic cars ■ A youth zone – new for this year.Sally added: “When I came, it was a
successful show that needed a freshpair of eyes.
Sally makes changes butmaintains show’s core values
Heavy horseploughing was afirst at this year’sshow.
Celebrating success at the show.
NEWARK & NOTTS COUNTY SHOW 19
Contractors listHealth and safety Event Safety Planning Power distribution McConnell’sSecurity Back Stage Security Marquees Northern MarqueesCabins PortakabinTPA TrackwayRadios Ace Communications
Continued from page 18“We are going back to our roots and
educating people about agricultureand farming heritage. What we don’twant to do is dilute a good thing.
“An agricultural show tries toachieve so much but the balance hasgot to be struck to appeal successfullyto audiences and make sure stan-dards are right.”
The team also said the show’s last-ing success is down to good commu-nication between all of the partiesinvolved.
A thorough debrief is held after each
show to see what worked well andwhat could be improved for next year.
Chief executive of the show’s pro-moter – the Newark andNottinghamshire Agricultural Society– Adrian Johnston added: “People likecoming to the event and we never for-get who pays our wages. They arenumber one.
“We try to come up with somethingnew every year but we make sure thatany projects or investments are rele-vant to the show. We want it to havethe ‘wow’ factor.”
Organisers aim togive show the‘wow’ factor
THE show prides itself on forginggood communication links to ensurea safe and enjoyable experience forvisitors.
Chris Hall, director of Event SafetyPlanning, told The Main Event thatwhen working on the show, regularplanning meetings with all partiesinvolved is an important part of theprocess.
To make things easier, the companyuploads the event safety plans on toits website, where those involved –such as the police – can sign into asecure area and download them.
Chris said: “We put the latest versionof the plans on our website whichgets around the problem of sending a
large file by email.“We coordinate with the local police
inspector and have police and CSO’sonsite. It is all down to communica-tion – if you can’t give a coordinatedresponse then things are going to gowrong.
“There are really good ground staffso if there are any issues they are usu-ally dealt with promptly. It is impor-tant to make sure everything is keptup to date with paperwork and every-thing is signed off properly.
“The event brought in a new showmanager last year and she has beenvery receptive and keen to make surethings are done properly and carry onthat legacy.”
Communication key to a safeand enjoyable experience
ONE thing which the organisers needto watch out for is that the show doesnot become a victim of its own suc-cess.
Adrian revealed that although anincrease in visitor numbers andentries in the horse classes is obvi-ously a positive for the show, it didcause headaches when it came to carparking.
He added: “There was not enoughcar parking. We introduced the newhorse classes but didn’t realise howmany horse boxes would turn up. Butthis is something we are looking atfor next year.”
Adrian added that they already hadsome options to increase the amountof car parking available at next year’sshow.
Increased numbers causecar parking headaches
Adrian Johnston
Judging the alpaca competition.
2 20 EVENT CLEAN UP
By Christina Eccles
AN online portal has been set up toencourage festivalgoers to clean upafter themselves at events.
Green campaign groupAGreenerFestival has teamed upwith online portal VirtualFestivals.com to develop MyGreener Festival in order to helpvisitors to events reduce their envi-ronmental impact.
A dedicated area on the VirtualFestivals website will contain tipsfor fans on how to reduce theirenvironmental impact at eventsplus energy saving tips, details of
the Greener Festival Award schemeas well as examples of what festivalorganisers around the world aredoing to reduce their carbon emis-sions – including Bestival,Glastonbury and the SummerSundae Weekender.
It will also include a regular Blogpenned by A GreenerFestival co-founder Ben Challis which willinclude rolling commentary on thelatest news and developments inthe green movement.
Ben said: "Our websitewww.agreenerfestival.com hasbeen a resource to support festivaland event organisers, suppliers
and artists but we felt that byworking with Virtual Festivals wecould start to engage with theaudience.
“We already had a partnershipwith Virtual Festivals through ourGreener Festival Award scheme'slink with the UK Festival Awardsand this initiative, linked with ournew Great Big Green Ideas compe-tition to get fans to think about theenvironment, means that we nowcan directly ask the audience to dotheir bit in the fight against climatechange.
Founder and director of VirtualFestivals Steve Jenner added:
“Although many festival organisersare now taking active measures tominimise the carbon footprint oftheir events, by far the greatestnegative impact on the environ-ment is caused by the audience,particularly through their transportto the event and waste generatedon-site.
“Through Virtual Festivals wehave a unique and powerful plat-form to promote awareness of thisand show people the simple, cheapand easy ways in which they canmake a significant difference, notonly in the festival field, but athome too.”
Website encouragesfestivalgoers to cleanup after themselves
Pictures: Claire O'Neill.
FESTIVAL organisers have been givena helping hand to clean up their sitesthanks to footwear company Schuh’snew ‘welly exchange’.
The idea is that when festivalgoersget tired of their muddy and ruinedsandals or trainers, they can visit theexchange to swap them for a brandnew pair of wellies – preventingorganisers from having to deal withthe piles of shoes normally left behindafter events.
The discarded shoes will then becollected by the European RecyclingCompany and shipped to third worldcountries where they can be cleanedup and sold on.
The Schuh welly exchange will beappearing at several major eventsincluding Rockness and Oxegen.
Footwear firmoffers organisersa helping hand
Festivalgoers should notneed incentives to clean upafter themselves and shoulddo so automatically, accord-ing to one organiser.Matt Gough – organiser ofKent based festival Loungeon the Farm – said thatalthough the event pro-motes sustainability andencourages visitors to recy-cle and tidy up the site, itdoes not offer incentivesfor those who do so.Matt said: “Everything atthe festival is as environ-mentally friendly as possi-ble and this is encouraged.But it shouldn’t be reward-ed, it should be automatic.“We place importance onthe environment and expectand hope that our cus-tomers do the same – weare lucky that our audienceis receptive.”
EVENT CLEAN UP 21
FOR many years Grundon has serv-iced some of the most prestigiousevents in the UK’s social and sportingcalendars – including CartierInternational Polo, Formula OneSantander British Grand Prix, HenleyRoyal Regatta, The Championships,Wimbledon and for the first time in2008, the CLA Game Fair.
Operating across the south ofEngland, the company provides thefull range of waste collection andrecycling services, using highlymanoeuvrable waste wheeler con-tainers, rolonofs, skips, compactors ortankers as appropriate.
In particular Grundon’s 'Two Bin’
recycling system is very popular,resulting in a clean, simple to use andeasily managed site. Mixed recy-clables comprising paper, cardboard,cans, plastic bottles and now alsoglass bottles and jars are placed inone container ready for collectionand recycling, whilst a second con-tainer takes the remaining generalwaste.
Available throughout the yearincluding weekends, Grundon servic-es indoor and outdoor events of everysize and type, from corporate func-tions, exhibitions and sporting eventsto festivals, agricultural shows and vil-lage fetes.
ALTHOUGH Colin admits that wastemanagement and site clean up postevent can be a challenge for organis-ers, T in the Park is working hard totake some of the stress away.
The festival’s organisers have devel-oped a number of schemes to make iteasier for festivalgoers to clean upafter themselves including a cupdeposit scheme and separate bins forfood waste and general waste.
Partnerships with sponsors such asDuracell also allow festivalgoers toswap used batteries for new onesrather than just throw them away.
They are also looking at the longterm picture of determining wherethe litter actually comes from and try-ing to reduce the amount broughtinto the site in the first place – as partof this catering concessions usebiodegradable plates.
Colin said that one of the festival’sbiggest challenges with event cleanup is leftover tents but the festival islooking at ways to reduce this.
He said eventually he would likepeople to be able to buy tents onlinein advance with the incentive of beingable to join a fast track line into thecampsite.
The festival is also encouraging peo-ple to keep their tents and customisethem so year on year they end up
with a memento of being at the festi-val.
Colin said: “One of our biggest prob-lems is leftover tents. We are taking aslightly different approach to sustain-ability with tents by encouraging peo-ple to buy one and keep it for a while.There is almost nothing on a tent thatcan be recycled – our biggest enemyis cheap tents. We need to get peopleto appreciate it is a huge problem.”
Colin also said that one if the mostimportant things to consider whenhosting a major festival is that it does-n’t have an impact on local residentsand the surrounding area. The festivalhas been working closely with thelocal council to achieve this.
Colin added: “ We have 85,000 peo-ple within 10 minutes of the nearesttown. We have to get litter off theground and off the campsite so thereis a minimal impact on the local com-munity.
“This is an industry wide issue – ourindustry showing how responsible weare.”
The festival’s success in this area hasled to support from the Scottish gov-ernment which is recognising thatlarge events such as festivals are goodplatforms to communicate messagesabout recycling and sustainability.
Scottish festival T in the Park is leading the way with its policies on event clean upand recycling. Christina Eccles spoke to event manager Colin Rodgers to discoverhow it intends to raise the bar even further in 2009...
Colin Rodgers
Aiming to take the stress awayStakes areraised tocollect cupsA MUSIC festival has found analternative way to reduce thenumber of cups left on site – awooden stake painted up tocollect them.
The Beautiful Days Festivalintroduced the ‘cup stake’ withhelp from waste managementcompany More-Bins andaccording to the company’smanaging director, ChrisNowell the concept is workingwell.
He said: “We introduced thecup stake at Beautiful DaysFestival – this is a wooden stakepainted up to collect large andsmall paper and plastic drinkscontainers.
“This works incredibly well asit takes pressure off the binstock, compacts the cups andprovides an opportunity toquickly separate compostablecups from non-compostables.
“Visitors to an event also likethis method of waste collectionas it is visual, very easy to useand eliminates any confusionover compostable, degradableand biodegradable materialseparation.”
Firm provides waste servicesat prestigious UK events
A VENUE on the Isle of Wight hasstepped in at the last minute to help acharity in need.
Cowes Yacht Haven came to the res-cue of Transplant Sport UK after char-ity organisers planning a weekendlong event realised so many peoplewanted to come to its gala dinner thatthey would not be able to fit into theoriginal venue they had booked.
The venue offered the charity theuse of its events centre, which canseat up to 400 people, to ensure no-one had to be turned away and alsomade sure everything kept to thecharity’s original budget by chargingthem the same rate as the smallervenue.
Events centre manager Ian Gregorysaid: “The work that Transplant SportUK does not only for children who
have had transplants, but for theirfamilies too, is fantastic. We weremore than happy to step in at the lastminute to make sure the whole week-end ran smoothly.”
2 24 LAST MINUTE LIFE SAVERS
By Christina Eccles
DISAPPOINTED ticketholders left outof pocket after a festival was cancelledhave been given a lifeline by a rivalevent which offered them cut pricetickets.
Organisers of the Port Eliot Festivalin south east Cornwall stepped in tohelp visitors affected by the cancella-tion of the nearby Celtic Rally Festival– offering them a rate of £85 for anadult weekend ticket rather than thefull price of £105.
About 12 people have currentlytaken up the offer and according toorganiser Rick Worthy, not only has itattracted a new audience to the festi-val, it has also been good for restoringfaith in Cornwall’s festival market.
Rick said: “We thought it was a goodopportunity to bring some credibilityback to event management in southeast Cornwall. It has been very wellreceived and keeps the notion ofthree day festivals respectable. It hasmade a good story for the credibilityof festivals.”
The festival takes place on July 24-26and organisers are currently puttingthe finishing touches to its line up.After taking a year off last year, Ricksaid both the organisers and the festi-val’s fans are looking forward to itsreturn.
He added: “A year off forced us torethink things. We changed the title ofthe event from LitFest to the PortEliot Festival and have streamlinedthings. Taking a year off does energiseyour audience.”
About 4,000 - 5,000 people areexpected to attend the event whichhas evolved from a literary festivalinto something which incorporates arange of genres including literature,music and comedy.
Rick added that ticket sales aregoing well for the event and havebeen helped by it being held inCornwall, a popular holiday destina-tion, on the same weekend as theschools break up – which encouragesfamilies to tie a visit to the festival inwith a longer break.
Rivaleventofferscut pricetickets
PEPPERMINT Events and Barsknow all too well about last-minuteplanning for events.
The company runs bars at musicfestivals all over the UK - fromScotland to the Isle of Wight - aswell as their own events. This sum-mer they have a dedicated teambased at their head office to dealwith last-minute requirementssuch as VIP/backstage bars, or
sponsored bars that require spe-cialist staff and higher standards ofservice.
Head of operations Alex Brookesaid: “It’s the nature of our industry- the goalposts constantly change,you get used to it. Even with ourown events like Cowes, we’re react-ing and tweaking the event plansright up until the last hour ofbuild.”
Team dedicated to deal withlate requirements for bars
Haven steps in to help charity
LAST MINUTE LIFE SAVERS 25
PURPLE Audio offers a high quality last minute sound solution for all events especiallythose that are leaving it until the last minute for booking services.As well as the highest quality sound systems, Purple Audio supply lighting, stages, securi-ty, barriers, event branding, toilets and more. They have an arrangement with suppliers toprovide full technical production at the last minute to all concerts, events and festivals.Based on the south coast, they cover the entire UK and use highly experienced and profes-sional crew to ensure that all events they work at are to the highest standard.
WATER is a key factor in many eventsand is sometimes overlooked which iswhen it develops into an emergency.
Water is a commodity that we alltake for granted, but when it is shortin supply or not fit for consumption itis only then apparent how importantwholesome water is to us all.
Just ask a resident or business ownerin Cheltenham after their experiencesin the Gloucestershire floods twoyears ago.
Watermills supplied resources tohelp them during that time as well asmany other public incidents beforeand since. The company was estab-lished in the first place to supportcontingency planners and wateremergencies. Managing director
Adrian Mills has provided such spe-cialist services for over 12 years towater utilities and emergency servic-es.
Watermills entered the events indus-try just three years ago, bringing theirexpertise and know how in and pro-viding a quality assured service fortemporary drinking water and wastewater services.
Adrian said: “Naturally it would notbe cool to highlight any particularevent that needed our help. We helpout events regularly when thing gowrong; the show must go on. Wherewe can we try to spot the problemsbefore they happen, sometimes it isn’tpossible. Our strap line is ‘Water inany Event’ and that’s what we do.”
Water is key for many events
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OVER 2,000 event managers made thetrip to Manchester Central for thisyear’s RSVP North.
Visitors could choose from over 140exhibitors who were showcasingeverything from venues and produc-tion to ice cream and pottery.
There were also a range of seminars– with topics including credit crunchevents and opportunities for theevent industry in the North ofEngland during the London 2012Olympics.
Group exhibitions director JohnDare said: “Despite all the mediadoom and gloom about the economywhich is difficult to escape at themoment, we were delighted to see somany people visiting the show andplacing orders and bookings whilethey were there.
“88 per cent of our visitors werelooking for ideas and 70 per cent ofthem either placed an order at theshow or will do in the next sixmonths. It is great to see such a posi-tive attitude in our industry.”
Exhibitor Carli Pollard from TheFinishing Touch added: “We wereimpressed at the quality of visitorswho all seemed to be decision makersrather than just spectators.
“A really vibrant show and whollyenjoyable. It allowed us to meet ourobjectives of raising awareness of ourpresence in the North West and talk-ing to potential new clients. We havelots of new enquiries and counting.We are definitely coming back nextyear.”
RSVP North returns to ManchesterCentral on April 21-22 2010.
2,000 attend annual show LAMATA Contract Furniture is amanufacturer and supplier of awide range of contract furniture.
This includes everything fromfolding trestle tables to outdoorevent furniture and also hotel ban-queting products.
Lamata contract furniture have along history of being industry lead-ers in:
■ Banqueting furniture.■ Café, restaurant and bistro fur-
niture.■ Event and hospitality furniture.■ Pub, club and venue furniture.■ Sports and leisure furniture.■ School and college furniture.LCF has launched a new qualita-
tive website with a new fresh look. The renewed site is very user-
friendly and includes the completeproduct range. The new catalogueis split in to specific product cate-gories – e.g. folding tables, partytables, folding chairs – which
makes the site very easy to use. With just a few clicks you can eas-
ily find the information you need.The site also includes detailedproduct information as well asimages of each item which canthen be downloaded in high resolu-tion.
Not only has the website beenrefreshed but also the collectionhas been considerably enhanced.Lamata now offers a completerange of chair and table covers inall sizes and colours, and also illu-minating tables, modular loungefurniture and beanbags.
Firm supplies wide range
New training academy launchedA NEW academy is being launched toequip the industry with trainedbehind the scenes staff for events.
The Backstage Academy will bebased in South Kirkby, with additionaltraining and workshop space beingsought in the Wakefield andDoncaster areas.
It has been set up to address theneed for the 30,000 new technical
staff the industry will require by 2020.Adrian Brooks, managing director of
Litestructures(GB), the academy'smain partner, said: "Just as the musicindustry is always looking to nurturenew talent for the future, so too mustthe backstage sector look to investingin the next generation - those whowill build the stages of tomorrow.”
NOEA 29
Calendar of events:June 2-3 The CommercialOpportunities from the Olympics inLondon 2012 – COOL2012 IndigO2, TheO2 Centre LondonJune 4 Event Industry Forum – EventSafety Guide meetingSeptember 22-23 Event UK ExhibitionNEC Birmingham – NOEA StandSeptember 22-24 Leisure IndustryWeek, NEC, BirminghamSeptember 24 The Events IndustryGolf Tournament – postponed to 2010October 21-22 Showman’s Show,Newbury - NOEA StandOctober 21 NOEA Local AuthorityNetwork Meeting, Showman’s ShowOctober 21 NOEA Dinner/Disco PartyEvening (tbc)October 27 Event Industry ForumMeeting (venue to be confirmed)November Regional Conferences –Perth, Exeter and Leeds (provisional)
2010January 20-21 The Event Show, London– NOEA StandJanuary 20 Spotlight on LocalAuthorities Seminar (tbc)February Smile-Expo Russia - EAAPA(www.eaapa.com) (tbc)February 24-26 NOEA Convention &Tribute Celebration Evening – venueto be confirmedFebruary 25 NOEA Golf Day(Convention) – being consideredMarch Main Event Exhibition, Glasgow– NOEA Stand (tbc)March/April Regional Conferences –provisionalOther Conferences to include Bath,Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland,Channel Islands and Cornwall,Teesside, Reading and Waverley(Lowestoft) (tbc = to be confirmed)
NOEA calendarEVENT UK 2009 will take place fromSeptember 22-23 2009, as part ofNational Meetings Week, which runsfrom September 21-27.
Event UK and NOEA are working inpartnership to promote outdoorevents and services to event organis-ers at this year’s show and there is anopportunity for all NOEA members tobe involved and meet new buyers.The organisers have created a pavil-ion where NOEA themselves will takea stand and there are just five podareas (4sqm each) available for mem-bers to book.
For 2009, Event UK states that this isthe largest exhibition for theevents/live media market outside ofLondon. With a central location that’seasily accessible from all corners ofthe country, the show is able to pro-vide a marketing platform for venuesand suppliers to meet corporate,
agency and association buyers. Withsuch a diverse visitor base, around4,000 industry professionals creatednew business contacts right acrossthe country last year. The showattracts a broad range of buyers: fromblue chip organisations to medicalassociations and local governmentdepartments to event managementcompanies looking for something abit different.
The visitor analysis from last year’sshow highlighted the seniority of theaudience that attended Event UK.Most significantly:
■ 72 per cent of visitors have budgetapproval or recommendation.
■ 40 per cent of visitors have annualbudgets of between £100,000 to over£1million.
The organisers are offering an intro-ductory discounted rate for NOEAmembers of a 4sqm shell scheme
stand including carpet, wall panelsand fascia name board, a full profilein the Event Guide and product list-ing index, full entry on the Event UKwebsite inc. web link, profile, con-tacts, listing on ‘You are Here’ direc-tional board and complimentary visi-tor tickets for all NOEA exhibitors andNOEA.
For more information or to book apod area, please contact CarolineGourlay [email protected] or on 0207921 8172 as soon as possible.
The Leisure Industry WeekExhibition, organised by the samecompany, is taking place at the samevenue from September 22 – 24 andthis is an opportunity for NOEAMembers to visit this show too! Onceagain please contact Caroline Gourlayfor further information.
Event UK and NOEA inpartnership to promoteoutdoor events and services
ORGANISED by R3 Events and MashMedia, this event aimed to skip thehype and get down to the “nitty grit-ty” of how your business can benefitfrom the 2012 Olympics.
The event was designed largely forkey decision makers from eventorganising companies, venue man-agers from the key indoor and out-door venues around the UK, as wellas event managers from local authori-ties, universities, hotels, entertain-ment companies, event project man-agers, corporate hospitality organis-ers and regional tourism officers.
It featured:■ The views of official sponsors such
as Coca Cola and Deloitte■ Presentations and hands-on work-
shops from Visit London andCompeteFor
■ The chance to meet thoseinvolved in the planning of theOlympic Games
■ A networking exhibition of suppli-
ers to the meetings industry■ Case studies from companies
involved in previous games■ A sports quiz and tour of the
Olympic ParkAccording to a survey conducted
recently by R3 Events and MashMedia two thirds of companies in theevents industry had yet to start get-ting a strategy in place for 2012. Theoverall interest in the LondonOlympics and what it might bring interms of business opportunities istremendous, but with just three yearsuntil “the greatest show on earth”comes to town, the clock is definitelyticking…
A report will appear in the next edi-tion.
Enquiries to:-Rory Ross Russell, R3 Events020 8788 3710 or 07957 [email protected]
Event looks at the commercialopportunities from the Olympics
Richard Limb, NOEA president, at therecent 30th Anniversary NOEA Convention& Tribute Celebration Evening
THERE are many important devel-opments taking place within theAssociation over the next fewmonths and some of these were dis-cussed at the General Councilmeeting held recently at the officesof the University of Derby.
These included the COOLConference held in London June 2& 3 and the Event Industry Forummeeting on June 4, ongoing discus-sions between NOEA and NEAC,progress on NOEA Scotland, partic-
ipation in the EVENT UKExhibition, NEC, Birmingham,September 22 & 23, new conceptsfor the 2010 NOEA
Convention and some re-structur-ing of the activities and services ofthe Association – never a dullmoment with NOEA!
The Event Industry Forum –Special meeting to discuss thefuture of the Event Safety Guide(Purple Guide) on June 4 – a reportin the next edition.
Never a dull momentwith NOEA ...
AT the time of going to press, after sub-stantial rewriting, the BS8901 current draftwas out to public comment. Follow thislink: http://drafts.bsigroup.com/However, the public comment period endedat the end of May 2009.Also the Get Go Green competition (forages from seven to 19 based on planningan event using the BS8901 structure) isopen for entrants- please see http://www.getgreengo.com
