CARFEST SOUTH
Joy ride CarFest South’s Neil Levene and Andrew Hunter talk supply issues, managing challenges and the joy of watching families have fun
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t’s been an emotional year and tricky at times, explains Neil Levene, operations director at Brand Events. Levene is about to jump on site to deliver another sellout Pub in the Park, but first he is talking to Stand Out about CarFest South. The last few months have been a rollercoaster for Levene and the Brand Events team, organiser of CarFest. Together, they have had to plan for a variety of scenarios, develop several solutions and communicate their decisions to both suppliers and visitors. “It’s been trying and challenging,” says Levene. “We organised a number of successful Pub in the Park shows under Step 3 regulations, so we have not been nervous about running anything in COVID times.” But uncertainty, reopening roadmaps and the reality of the responsibility that
comes with making money for children’s charities has influenced Brand Events’ decision making this year.
SENSIBLE DECISION
In November 2020, Brand Events launched Retro CarFest, a three-day event that was set to take over Bicester Heritage in June 2021. In March 2021 that date was moved to August, but the event was eventually cancelled. “We were excited about Retro CarFest,” comments Levene. “People were excited about Retro CarFest, and we had huge ticket sales, but we had to make a sensible decision and focus on the core events [CarFest North and CarFest South] that raise huge amounts of money for charity.” CarFest North took place just days after COVID-19 restrictions were lifted on July 19. Lessons learned at CarFest North influenced operational
measures at CarFest South. Furthermore, the decision was also made to co-locate Chris Evans’ running event, RunFestRun, at Laverstoke Park Farm alongside CarFest South. Sharing site services and event control, the events took place and were a big hit with audiences. But there were challenges.
YEAR LIKE NO OTHER
Andrew Hunter, CarFest’s operations manager, and Jasmine Hill, operations manager at Brand Events, assisted Levene on the build. CarFest South had a smaller capacity, roughly 26,000 people. This number was bolstered when 3,500 RunFestRun participants joined the CarFest audience in the evening to watch McFly and Nile Rodgers and Chic. “Myself and John Tomlinson of Micromap Events sweated over 46 versions of the site
plan,” comments Hunter, from the comfort of crew catering. “We looked at every moment and every scenario.” The up and down nature of the 2021 events calendar meant that Hunter and the CarFest team had to remain flexible. Many elements had to be replanned and then, there were supply chain issues. “We’ve been fighting for fencing and then finding someone to transport kit at a sensible cost has been a massive challenge,” confirms Hunter. “You don’t want too many infrastructure changes in one hit, in one year, but 2021 has been like no other. “Budgets have been cut across the board because if your capacity is reduced so is your income. The real challenge has been to put on what we planned to put on for less money whilst also facing supply problems. We’ve been trying to circle a square.”
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