Check out the latest event tenders and news of contract wins
17 TAKING EBL TO A HIRE LEVEL
Event Buyers Live has appointed a new production partner
19 COUNTING THE COSTS
Is the festival industry forgetting the essence of promotion and becoming too commercialised? Festival promoters and directors discuss the business of festivals – the challenges, ticket sales, and why customer experience is everything
22 WILD MOVES
Out and Wild festival’s Polly Shute talks about lessons learned and how the small festival is evolving in 2025
27 SMOOTH OPERATIONS
New site designs, campsite overhauls, toilet plans, and infrastructure improvements. Event and festival professionals give StandOut the
lowdown on operational changes at festivals that will vastly improve the customer experience this summer
34 KNOW YOUR WORTH
Freelancers are essential to events and festivals. Here, event freelancer Russell Pate discusses optimum day rates, the importance of honesty in client relationships, and the ultimate goal – a full diary
37 HAPPY TO HELP
StandOut shines a light on crewing trends, crew rates, and welfare
43 QUEEN OF CULTURE
Culture Creative’s founder Zoe Bottrell looks back on 20 years of delivering and producing major events
48 JUST THE TICKET
Why has one festival opted to partially refund some of its customers that have bought tickets for 2025? Organisers talk ticketing strategies
17 TAKING EBL TO A HIRE LEVEL
48 JUST THE TICKET
43 QUEEN OF CULTURE
19 COUNTING THE COSTS
22 WILD MOVES
APRIL 2025
hen was the last time that you turned round to a client and said “No”? In fact, when was the last time you declined to work with someone because of their inability to organise themselves? There comes a point when you have had enough. Whether that’s because you are fed up with moving goal posts or they have taken the mick with timeframes far too often, it doesn’t matter. You get to a stage where you value your own business and the wellbeing of your employees too much that no amount of money is worth the hassle.
I appreciate that revenues are a challenge and some people don’t feel they have a choice other than to tolerate tricky customers, especially as we continue to navigate a cost-of-living crisis. But until you learn to say “No”, no one will ever understand the enormity of those two letters or begin to recognise their failings.
I believe that there is power in saying “No”. It can drive hype, push ticket sales, and change people’s perceptions, but most interesting is that people don’t like being told that they can’t have something.
Only last month, whilst attending an industry event, I chatted with a supplier who said that pushing back with clients was the only why they have garnered their respect. Particularly when the “red line”, that final, final cut-off point, which has been communicated, has been pushed – and ignored – too many times. It perpetuates a cycle of stress and chaos when quite frankly, there are already too many pressures as it is.
Unfortunately, we’re in a situation where there are suppliers and organisations promising cheaper options – or claiming to be an expert in everything – that are ready to jump in. Wearing too many hats doesn’t enable you to focus on what you’re good at and undercutting leads to unsustainable margins, animosity, and price wars. None of that is good for the wider ecosystem. So what’s the solution? Honest comms? Cutting your losses? Accepting things will never change? It is what it is?
Let me know your thoughts and if you’ve been brave enough to walk away. It all comes down to knowing your worth and valuing your experience and time. Which is a point that freelancer Russell Pate makes in this very issue (page 34). Make a brew and have a read. He raises some good points.
A former board member of Pride in London, Polly is a partnership and sponsorship expert and now co-founder of Out and Wild Festival. She is passionate advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community and wants to create inclusive events across the country. A speaker, activist and influencer on gender and LGBTQIA+, last year, Polly was shortlisted for a Lifetime Achievement Award at the British LGBT Awards. Previously, a fundraising and campaign project director at the British Heart Foundation, Polly now works hard to develop Out and Wild, a small festival that she created to ensure queer women are free to connect and be themselves. In this issue, Polly talks honestly about her plans for 2025, including why she has chosen to relocate the festival to North Devon.
RUSSELL PATE
Previously the production manager at O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester, Russell is a freelance event and festival professional. With more than 30 years’ experience in event and tech production management, Russell has produced and helped to deliver everything from three-day dance and live music festivals to one-off bespoke exclusive shows. This year, Russell is busy, working on 21 events, including Parklife. Turn to page 34, and Russell reveals what it’s like to be a freelancer in the current climate and why the work freelancers do is so important to our ecosystem and should not go unnoticed.
ZOE BOTTRELL
After a long career in the public sector, supporting cultural services and regeneration departments, Zoe decided it was time for a change. In 2004, she founded Culture Creative, a creative project and production management company, and has been managing the delivery of large-scale events, creative installs, festivals, and more ever since. Known for being a leader in the creation of illuminated trails, Culture Creative works on site-specific projects in a multitude of environmentally-sensitive heritage and landscape settings. In this April edition, Zoe reflects on a career in cultural regeneration as well as the lessons she has learned whilst running Culture Creative. The highs and the lows, and the pivotal moments that have transformed her business.
LIVE EVENTS & SAFETY MANAGEMENT
We look forward to seeing you at this year’s
Rebecca Hickman-Chipping is ops manager at Losberger De Boer UK.
Chris Mansell has been promoted to managing director of GL events UK’s seating and stadia division.
Tara Bottomley is the new general manager of Goodwood Racecourse.
Experience12 has promoted George Bateman to managing director.
Hamid Vaghefian has been appointed communities and DEI director at London Marathon Events.
Identity has appointed Ben Laycock as production manager.
Formula 1 made history with its first-ever season launch at London’s O2 Arena. Unveiling the 2025 car liveries while marking F1’s 75th anniversary, F1 75 Live brought together all ten teams and drivers for an evening of high-energy entertainment. The event was brought to life by STUFISH Entertainment Architects in collaboration with production partner 1826. STUFISH reimagined the stage as a long central runway extending into the crowd. The stage measured 55 metres, was covered in LED video tiles, and had to be built in two halves by The Next Stage. But towering above the stage was the largest ever screen used at The O2, embedded with lighting effects, which served as a visual storytelling canvas.
LINKEDIN POST OF THE MONTH
Dave Sammons, director of Events Resilience Group
Event managers, crisis responders, control room people, let’s get real. Preparation isn’t weakness, it’s your oxygen. Your battle-tested systems, rehearsals, and protocols? They’re the scaffolding. But when hell breaks loose, scaffolding cracks. That’s when we see who you really are.
Yes, you need those plans. But leadership isn’t validated by a policy, it’s vindicated when the screens go dark and the crowd turns frantic. You’ll never have “enough” data. The “right” decision? A myth. Weak leaders freeze. They dive for documentation. True leaders shine, they know those documents backwards. Did your tabletop give you the guts and defiance to reroute 10,000 attendees from a suspect package? Did your rehearsals fuel the instinct to cut the mic on a rogue speaker with a smirk?
That’s leadership. Not polished PowerPoints, but primal instinct. Not avoidance of failure, but command of the avalanche. Your legacy isn’t built in calm rooms. It’s carved in the theatre of chaos.
NEWS IN BRIEF
NaCTSO and NPSA have released guidance for organisers on the use of temporary vehicle security barriers as part of a HVM scheme.
Pink Bows Foundation has launched a Showstop Procedure training course to help prevent event-related fatalities and injuries, such as those that occurred at Astroworld.
In the March edition, we wrongly
Alex Lane is now director of Show of Hands Festival.
Judy Bec is festival director of Shambala and will oversee operations, production, and site management.
Looking for new business? Find news of the latest event tenders and contract wins
The City of Edinburgh Council has issued a prior information notice for a concession contract. It seeks an experienced event producer or organisation to develop and manage a programme of performances at The Assembly Rooms over a five-week period in August from 2026. This opportunity will be worth £504,000. Email aga.wieczorkiewicz@edinburgh.gov.uk
Carbonite Traffic Solutions has been awarded the contract to provide traffic management services to RHS Chelsea Flower Show.
The ACC Liverpool Group has signed a partnership agreement with 2CL Communications that will see 2CL become the security innovation partner to the city’s waterfront events campus.
Limerick City and County Council require an event controller and event management services for a Limerick City Centre - Christmas. This tender is divided into three lots. The deadline for this tender is 12pm on April 21. Email michelle.orourke@limerick.ie
London Stadium is looking to create a framework for stewards for events. This tender is divided into lots: Crowd safety services,
hospitality, stewarding dog teams and traffic management. The closing date for this tender is midnight on March 31. Email procurement@londonstadium185.com
The BBC has awarded Premier Production a contract worth £2.5 million to design, create, install, and store large-format branding for a range of high-profile events from studio sessions to music festivals for more than 70,000 people.
Coventry City Council requires event management experience for the on road testing of the Coventry Very Light Rail. The deadline is 1pm on April 7. Email procurement.services@coventry.gov.uk
The London Borough of Tower Hamlets is inviting proposals for a festive winter-themed event to be held in Victoria Park in 2025 and 2026, with an option to host an event in 2027. The submission deadline is 5pm on April 2. Email sue.walcott@towerhamlets.gov.uk
Fáilte Ireland requires event management services for the delivery of Ireland Golf Convention 2025 and 2026. The deadline is April 11. Email procurement@failteireland.ie
We know sustainability and net zero are top priorities for our clients. The Technical Department is fully on board and with this goal in mind we are excited to be installing Hydrogen Generators at several event locations this upcoming season, with our partner Renewable Generation Ltd.
Our chosen solution is a 100kVA hydrogen fuel cell generator. This is a truly green, Hydrid System which cleverly combines the fuel cell with an integral Lithium-Ion Battery Pack, Transformer and Inverter, enabling instant power delivery.
The Hydrogen we provide with the Genset is also “green” as it is produced by electrolysis using solar power and is thus clean and sustainable. This combination ensures that the power you use is not only renewable but also environmentally friendly!
If you’re reading this and wondering how you can help reduce your project’s carbon emissions, you’re in the right place. Keep reading, discover the solutions, and take the next step - give us a call, meet with us, and let us show you exactly how it works!
By choosing hydrogen generators, you’re not just reducing carbon emissions; you’re helping to lead the charge towards a cleaner, greener future.
Let us help you make that transition!
Here are some key facts to consider:
+ 100kVA Generator: Ideal for powering various operations, providing a reliable source of energy without the environmental impact of traditional fuels.
+ A 17kg Bundle of Hydrogen produces 250kWh of power, offering high energy output with a small site footprint.
+ Hydrogen supplied is produced via solar power and electrolysis, further contributing to its green, sustainable nature.
+ The solid-state invertor produces a particularly smooth, sinusoidal 3-phase voltage from the battery.
+ Simple earthing re-configuration to accommodate TNS, TT and IT systems.
+ Diesel fuel, by comparison, produces 2.6kg of CO2 per litre when burned in an internal combustion engine. It creates substantial pollution and significantly contributes to carbon emissions.
+ The carbon offsetting cost for traditional energy sources is approximately £1000 per tonne of CO2. With this cost factored in, it makes green hydrogen a much more interesting and environmentally responsible choice.
+ The hydrogen fuel cell is nearly twice as efficient as a hydrogen combustion engine equivalent
+ There are no fumes, noise or vibration, making it ideal for events of a sensitive nature.
+ Water is its only exhaust emission.
Who can you spot?
Earlier this month, Team StandOut visited MUTA Members’ Day and met marquee and temporary structure professionals, responsible for delivering tents and temporary venues. Who can you spot in our picture gallery?
ARC MARQUEES’ EDWARD SCOVELL (he/him) , RODER UK’S LEE DALTON (he/him) AND MUTA’S JOHN THOMSON (he/him)
NEPTUNUS’ TIM HALL (he/him)
KEY STRUCTURES’ CHRIS MARTELLY (he/him) AND CUSTOM COVERS’ VAUGHN COUTTS (he/him)
DANCO’S BEVERLEY LAURIE (she/her)
ALTERNATIVE STRETCH TENTS’ TOM WILKES (he/him) AND CHARLIE SCOTT (he/him)
COOPERS MARQUEES’ JOHNNY COOPER (he/him), HTS TENTIQ’S GILES HILL (he/him), AND FEWS MARQUEES’ IAN FEW (he/him)
Delivering the magic
Creaplan Group’s recent acquisition of Whitespace Group was just the start of exciting expansion plans to offer clients full turnkey services. Creaplan Group’s Michael Debaveye and Whitespace’s Adam King discuss the future and why consistency is key to creating impactful brand experiences
For more than 30 years, Creaplan Group has been trusted by worldleading brands to translate their values into big moments and experiences on exhibition floors and in retail environments, and showrooms, across Europe.
The Belgium-based creative agency uses innovative and smart design to propel forward the values of its customers, creating the perfect settings and experiences for success.
These expertise were recently showcased at International Confex where Creaplan Group had a strong presence at the industry event. International Confex’s main networking bar was delivered by Whitespace, which Creaplan Group acquired in November 2024. Together, they created a high-end networking space and trade stand that not only demonstrated the group’s strengths and capabilities but also enabled the group to communicate its exciting vision for the future.
FULL TURNKEY SERVICE
The acquisition of Whitespace, a UK market leader in premium modular exhibition stand design and build, is a major step in Creaplan Group’s development strategy. It marked an exciting new chapter for the company, which will see it extend its reach and offer a full
turnkey service to long-standing and highprofile clients across the globe.
Michael Debaveye, CEO of Creaplan Group, explained: “Our aim is to give our clients a hassle-free experience.
“We work with world-leading brands who want to work with premium partners that can bring fresh ideas to the table, fresh designs, and who can introduce them to new materials and really blow their minds with integrated technology, for example.”
Debaveye continued: “If someone makes an effort to travel to an event, they should be given a ‘wow’ experience. Therefore, brands are looking for a supplier that can amaze their customers. We can do that. We want to bring the magic to stands, interiors, and events and that’s possible thanks to all the expertise we have in the group. From anywhere in the world, whether that’s in the UK, in the Netherlands, or elsewhere in the world.”
EXTENSION OF YOUR TEAM
Creaplan Group’s acquisition of the Whitespace Group, comprised of Skyline Whitespace (exhibition stand design and build), Whitespace XPO (full-service organiser contractor), and WhiteboxGo (portable display stands), is significant. Skyline Whitespace has an established client base in London, seen as an important gateway to the
US. This provides Creaplan’s premium clients with access to a UK hub, and subsequently the US, with high-end design and unrivalled customer support as standard.
Adam King, design director of Skyline Whitespace, said: “The experiential market is a big focus for the group. Marketing departments are getting smaller, even within some of the bigger brands. They have less people but we can help and take on some of those roles and responsibilities. We can be an extension of their teams and alleviate some of the pressure by offering a full turnkey service. They want the ‘wow’ factor and we can deliver that with consultation, by working with our clients, and not for them, in a collaborative way.”
SHARED RESOURCES
Debaveye described Creaplan Group’s acquisition of the Whitespace Group as a “natural” match. Both companies have a customer-centric approach, a strong reputation for creative design, and are aligned in their goals.
“What we want is the same and that’s why our partnership was so easy,” explained Debaveye. “We want to work with the same type of clients, we have the same USPs, and we have the same value proposition, so it made sense that we merged.”
ADAM KING (he/him) AND MICHAEL DEBAVEYE (he/him)
Creaplan’s acquisition of Whitespace and its acquisition of ForLive, the AV specialist, in 2021 means that there is a huge range of assets within the group. These shared resources reduce costs and increase efficiencies. However, it’s not the only thing that is being shared.
The level of expertise within the group has grown exponentially. Experiences and knowledge are being exchanged, with all parties bringing insight to the table. This is hugely beneficial to clients that wish to deliver multiple stands, campaigns, and experiences across Europe in multiple territories at the same time.
CONSISTENCY OF DELIVERY
Creaplan Group operates in the Benelux region (20 per cent) and Europe (80 per cent). It recently opened an office in Barcelona but its expansion plans do not stop there. Currently, it has an extensive European strategy to expand its footprint into Southern Europe, particularly Milan and Munich, providing a regional service to all clients. Furthermore, if more opportunities to acquire other businesses present themselves at the “right moment”, then additional growth has not been ruled out.
“Customers want a personal approach and they want consistency of quality,” commented Debaveye. “We want to work all over Europe, but we want to be efficient in our coverage. How can you be efficient? We need to be close to the customer and close
to the venue. If you need to go from London to Barcelona or from Brussels to Barcelona, it doesn’t make sense if transportation costs are already taking up 20 per cent of your budget and it doesn’t work on a sustainability level either.
“We can provide a local solution with the consistency and quality of a European group, whilst still increasing efficiencies, being sustainable, and offering a personal touch.”
King concurred: “If we can have a group of companies that are strategically positioned around Europe and, potentially, the rest of the world, we can guarantee the same quality. Thanks to the weight of expertise and breadth of resources within the group, you’ll talk to the same account manager and your stand will have the same quality and design, but it will be built locally. We’ll take care of everything for you.
“Consistency of delivery is so important especially when there is growing demand for impactful brand experiences,” King added.
CREATING THE MAGIC
It’s just three months since Creaplan Group
acquired Whitespace but already the “vibe” in the organisation is fresh and energetic.
Debaveye said that mergers and acquisitions do not always run smoothly. However, its acquisition of Whitespace has “never been so easy”. That’s because all parties have the same ambition. To work as one cohesive team whilst maintaining strong regional brand identities that are elevated through group innovation and investment.
King concluded: “When you’re part of a group, you have access to people that have been doing their job for many years. We’re talking about new ideas and ways of doing things. When you work in silos, you always think that you are doing something the best way. Then someone shows you an alternative way, you learn again and you continue to evolve.
“With this kind of support within the group and openness to sharing ideas, we can and will take brands to the next level and deliver the magic that customers want.”
For more details about Skyline Whitespace, call 0345 260 5440 or email info@skylinewhitespace.com
Taking EBL to a Hire level
Event Buyers Live has appointed a new production partner
event organisers. EBL facilitates procurement conversations between events professionals and allows organisers to discuss their event plans with suppliers.
Will Smith, managing director of Hire Frequencies, said: “EBL is one of the highlights of our calendar. The format is so clever because it provides event suppliers with a rare opportunity to have genuine conversations with event organisers and connect with agencies that might need help and expertise.”
Smith continued: “We love sitting down with other event professionals and talking to them about what we can do for them at their events, but there’s nothing better than being able to show them what we can do.
“When the opportunity came up to work with the EBL team and showcase what Hire Frequencies can do to make events standout, we jumped at the chance.”
Hire Frequencies will be EBL’s production partner until 2027. The 2025 edition of EBL will be the first year of a three-year deal.
Neil Fagg, co-founder of EBL, welcomed Hire Frequencies on board. He said: “We’re so excited to have Will and his team at Hire Frequencies as the event’s production partner. The team shares our passion and enthusiasm for the event and wants to see it remain as the ‘Rolls Royce of the events industry’. Already, we have some exciting plans and talks are
underway to deliver a great industry event alongside our partners.”
Taking place at Carden Park Hotel and Spa, the luxury country estate near Chester, from November 10-12, the 2025 edition of Event Buyers Live will welcome only 100 of the live event industry’s most respected organisers. Accompanying the 100 will be just 45 event suppliers and venues for networking and pre-qualified face-to-face meetings.
To register your interest in attending EBL 2025, visit www.eventbuyerslive.com or call 01795 509113.
HIRE FREQUENCIES AT EBL
Counting the costs
Is the festival industry forgetting the essence of promotion and becoming too commercialised? Festival promoters and directors discuss the business of festivals – the challenges, ticket sales, and why customer experience is everything
Liverpool’s Africa Oyé was the first festival this year to announce a postponement, cancellation or complete closure in 2025. The news followed a devastating year for the UK’s festival sector when a record 78 events announced that they would not be going ahead – more than double the amount that did so in 2023.
Upon announcing that Africa Oyé will take a fallow year, Paul Duhaney, the festival’s artistic director, cited rising costs of 30 per cent as being unworkable. Unfortunately, Africa Oyé is not the only festival to cancel. Pete Jordan, founder and director of MADE Festival and Weird Science, recently announced that after ten editions of MADE Festival, which sold 150,000 tickets over its tenure, it was time to bow out. The current climate made a multivenue, multi-genre festival “impossible” to work commercially, Jordan explained.
PRESSURES
As StandOut writes, 11 festivals have cancelled or revealed they are taking a year off to re-evaluate their position. They add their names to a growing list of events that have pressed pause on operations.
In recent weeks, Cambridge Folk Festival, Lancaster Music Festival, and Holt Festival have all taken to socials, citing a myriad of reasons for not going ahead. From challenging climates and the cost of living
crisis to rising production costs and artist availability, the pressures facing festival promoters are real.
But whilst not every festival is considered large-scale or one of the more recognised names on the festival scene, collectively they support a wider ecosystem. Therefore, their demise is a concern and should not be ignored.
LESS IS MORE
JBM Music’s Jorge Meehan and Brian Murphy – organisers of Reggae Land – have used the last 12 months to take stock, too. This year, they have opted to take a “less is more” approach and are focusing on key events to ensure their long-term success. Meehan explained: “We’ve decided to take a fallow year in 2025 for all our 5,000-capacity outdoor sites, as they’ve become too risky due to rising costs and many competing events. We calculated that for a weekend festival running Friday through Sunday, we’d need to sell 4,500+ tickets per day just to break even, which represents a huge risk for minimal return.”
Meehan added: “We’re concentrating our resources and efforts on a carefully selected group of our most successful products. These flagship events are currently experiencing unprecedented levels of success, with record-breaking ticket sales and attendance
figures. However, based on current market conditions and extensive analysis of industry trends, we strongly believe that if we had maintained our full roster of smaller scale shows this year, they would have significantly under-performed compared to their historical metrics from previous years.”
SUPPLY AND DEMAND
Murphy explained that the festival market is heavily saturated with similar events, and audiences appear fatigued with repetitive products and formats. Jordan argued that the market is currently dealing with a supply and demand issue. Too many events and not enough people suffering from the blows of a cost of living crisis. However, as events continue to cancel, will demand come back because of the reduction of supply?
It doesn’t quite work like that. People assume that just because one festival cancels, it automatically means that other festivals will benefit and sell more tickets to their events. It’s a point made by Green Gathering’s Steve Muggeridge, director. He said that whilst some festivals might have a similar format, the ambience and ethos can be quite different. As a result, there has never been a stronger argument for delivering a festival experience that is more than music and one main stage, especially as securing talent remains one of the major challenges facing promoters today.
SWEET SPOT
Anton Lockwood, director of live at DHP Family, organiser of Splendour and Bearded Theory, concurred. Huge rises in artist fees remain an issue. As is the number of stadium shows, which is taking money out of the market, he said.
“We’ve got two outdoor festivals, which have got strong line-ups, and we’re selling reasonable tickets for them, so, I don’t want to be overly negative, but at the same time, there definitely are challenges,” he explained.
Lockwood argued that he and his team are trying to book festival headliners “earlier
and earlier” to get ahead of Live Nation and Superstruct. But he also argued that DHP is having to assess what audiences are prepared to pay for a ticket. Therefore, how much does value proposition come into it?
Lockwood continued: “It is still possible to have successful events, and we’re hopeful of having successful events. But there are a number of things that are making that window, that sweet spot, harder to find.
“We’re realising that, yes, you have to have a strong line up but actually, to get people to press the button on buying a ticket, they used to be, you know, prepared to kind of starve in a muddy field and shit in a hedge, but now people want a lot higher standard of experience. The minimum standard, what people will accept before they buy a ticket, has gone up massively.”
NEW SHOWS
Jordan is currently looking at artist availability. Despite calling time on MADE Festival, he has opted to “evolve” and utilise the Digbeth Arena space – which hosted MADE for several years – for a series of artistled shows this summer.
Effectively, he is putting on a series of six one-day “festival-style” shows, which offer him flexibility in terms of artist availability, without any of the events “cannibalising each other”. They will be presented under the MADE Festival and Weird Science brand. But they are not the only festivals to launch this year.
Come Together, Lido, Tunes on the Bay, Forever Now, Tunes on the Shore, and Found Festival are just some of the new events to enter the market from the likes of TEG Europe, and AEG Presents. Whilst AGN Events – an indie promoter – has grown its portfolio, taking Rock N Roll Circus to Norfolk for 2025.
STABILITY
Found Festival is organised by the same team behind Towersey Festival, which bowed out in 2024. Pitched as a boutique festival and as the place to discover “head-turners” and not headliners, Found promises to “enrich” the
festival market with an alternative approach that leaves visitors feeling relaxed, inspired, and “found”.
Mary Hodson, co-director of Found Festival, explained: “Like many other festivals, we struggled to make Towersey sustainable. We kept it going for as long as we could but realised that we needed to do something new and different, to try and attract a new audience, which would give us a bit more stability going forward.
“We have this passion for putting on a really great event as Towersey was, which we didn’t want to let go, and so we thought about what we could do, and thanks to some funding, we were able to launch Found.”
Found, which will take place in Buckinghamshire, on the Steeple Claydon estate, will host 2,000 people. The organising team – which has contracted Curious Tents and Dynamic Stretch Tents to supply structures to the festival – has taken all the best bits from Towersey and blended them with an extended wellness programme to make the festival feel like a true “escape”.
NUMBERS GAME?
Currently, Hodson and the Found Festival team are looking at numbers. From supplier costs and ticket sales to sponsorship and revenue streams. Hodson admitted that sponsorship is a “tricky” area for the festival, especially as the time it takes to build true relationships with brands can be hard for a small team, she said. But that’s the reality for promoters now. It’s a numbers game.
“It’s sad that we as an industry are constantly talking about numbers at the moment,” Jordan commented. “What’s the reach of that artist? How many tickets do they sell? We’ve gone very quantitative rather than qualitative.”
Jordan concluded: “Actually, the pure essence of promotion is this desire to see people have a good time at your event. But we’re getting more and more commercialised. We’re looking at numbers when we should be asking did the artist make good music and did people who come to my event have a good time?”
Wild times
Polly Shute is the founder of Out and Wild, a festival that she created to ensure queer women are free to connect and be themselves. She founded Out and Wild frustrated at the male bias towards LGBTQ+ events. Read on and discover how Out and Wild is evolving, including new moves for 2025 OUT AND WILD
Isometimes wonder how I ever became a festival director in my 50s. Whilst I have always had a passion for organising events, it had been limited to group nights outs and hen dos. Yet here I am, at 57, running the UK’s biggest event for queer women. And I bloody love it.
I set up my festival just as we were coming out of lockdown. After five years on the board of Pride in London, I was frustrated at the male bias of LGBTQ+ events. I also felt that an alternative was required to the crowded streets and alcohol-focused existing Pride festivals.
My research told me queer women and those who are non-binary were looking for fun, safe and supportive spaces to connect with others. Shared experiences and wellness were key focus areas for a community that needed to reconnect with themselves, others, and nature.
I was fortunate to find a beautiful site in Wales, where I could follow an existing festival, benefiting from shared infrastructure. As a new festival, sharing the latter made a big difference to costs and workload.
And so Out and Wild was born in 2022. We enjoyed three years of good audience growth in Wales. We also benefited from Welsh Government funding which allowed us to survive when so many other events did not. But this year, there’s a big change.
SPACE AND COSTS
We do research every year, and I always talk to people at the event. It was clear we had
created a popular and much needed space. But it’s quite a different festival crowd. More than 30 per cent come on their own and many are attracted by the queer female focus as well as overall offer.
Camping did not appeal to everyone and a large London audience means many attendees do not have cars. It became clear we needed a new, less isolated home. Having accommodation nearby and better transport links became a key driver. And I wanted a site with more fixed facilities. Don’t even get me started on the costs of bringing in and servicing toilets!
So, this year, we have a new location –Abbotsham, North Devon. It fulfils the brief and so much more. I found it by accident. I was running a stage and stand at The National Outdoor Show at the NEC last March and met the company [Ultimate Adventure Centre]. After a site visit and a quick look at the figures, I decided to go ahead.
GROWTH POTENTIAL
I cannot emphasise how much networking and talking to people has helped my business. I talk to everyone about Out and Wild, and I’ve made great connections in some surprising places.
The new venue operates as a youth adventure site during the week. So it has accommodation and great fixed facilities. The other attraction was extra sports experiences and a close proximity to Westward Ho beach. Plus, its larger capacity allows good growth potential.
The main operational challenges have been around the site being more spread out. But that’s a positive, as we had issues with noise pollution between zones before. We will just need good maps and more stewards.
HOME SWEET HOME
Tickets have flown, with both the location and on site accommodation proving popular. We are well up on last year. And still have almost four months to go. It’s always risky changing locations, so I am super happy with sales.
In terms of demographics, we have seen more couples and groups attending and a younger audience. These were both key objectives, so I am really pleased. We have also partnered with local Prides to drive more attendance from Devon and Cornwall and we are keen to build a good support base locally because we do want to make Devon our home.
As well as extra sports, we were asked to have more craft-focused experiences, so we are bringing in pottery and jewellery making. Wellness remains our most popular zone, and a key learning is to repeat popular activities like breathwork and forest breathing over the festival weekend.
QUALITY EXPERIENCE
I run mainly on volunteers, with a few contracted staff. Giving volunteers autonomy, especially the curators, who choose acts, has been very important. It’s hard to stand back, but I have learnt my team
value and love owning the areas, and as a result deliver amazing content for me.
I do invest in PR and that has been a good choice. And I pay for some marketing. But nothing beats word of mouth and recommendations. Delivering a quality experience does cost, but it has driven great feedback and repeat custom.
FUTURE PLANS
Getting funding and sponsorship remains hard, especially for smaller festivals. But I have been fortunate to engage brands because I’m so female, queer and wellness-focused. But
ultimately its ticket sales, vendor income and added extras that will keep profitability rising.
It’s also very important to spread work over the year, to make it more manageable. I’m still in a position where I need to have a part time job, but I am hoping that will change soon.
I’m now running pop up smaller retreats and plan to organise another Londonbased festival. In 2023, I also started running Pride Swims, a spin off from seeing the popularity of wild swimming at Out and Wild. These build and engage my audience and drive new revenue.
It’s not an easy life, and I’m constantly learning, and like most festival directors and event professionals, balancing cash flow. But running Out and Wild festival is the best thing I have ever done. It has helped me to grow personally and professionally. I make decisions faster and manage my workload much more effectively than I ever did in a paid job. I hope my success also shows, you are never too old to follow your dreams.
Out and Wild will take place from June 13-16, near Bideford, North Devon.
ULTIMATE ADVENTURE CENTRE
Festivals in 2025 – the best or worst of times?
In 2024 alone, 72 UK festivals were cancelled, postponed, or shut down entirely. Rising costs, unpredictable risks, and tight margins – what options are there to help?
estivals are where memories are made – live music, good vibes, and unforgettable moments. But behind the scenes, it’s a different story. For organisers, festivals are a high-stakes balancing act, where one unexpected event – a downpour, a lastminute artist cancellation, or an engineering fault – can bring financial disaster.
THE HARSH REALITY BEHIND THE FESTIVAL MAGIC
For attendees, festivals feel carefree and effortless. But for organisers, the pressure is relentless: cash flow crises, booking negotiations, risk management, and strict deadlines create a constant battle. Even when ticket sales look strong, a single setback can wipe out months – if not years – of hard work.
So how do you protect your festival? How do you safeguard your income without crippling your finances in the process?
A LIFELINE FOR FESTIVAL ORGANISERS
Enter FestiFLEX, an industry-first insurance solution designed specifically for festival and live event organisers. Unlike traditional insurance policies that demand large upfront payments, FestiFLEX works on a depositbased system, allowing organisers to spread the cost over manageable instalments.
The result? Full cancellation cover, without the financial strain. It’s a simple but powerful way to secure your event against worst-case scenarios – before they happen.
MORE THAN JUST STANDARD PROTECTION
The pandemic devastated the live events sector, yet most insurers have since excluded pandemic-related losses from their policies.
FestiFLEX changes the game, offering an optional add-on to cover future pandemics - something that has been nearly impossible to secure. And that’s not all.
While many policies leave festival organisers exposed to external threats, FestiFLEX includes protection against Terrorism and Civil Commotion as standard. That means your event and your revenue stay protected, no matter what.
WHY TRUST LMP?
LMP understands festivals. Their team has decades of experience designing insurance solutions for the global live music sector – many of which have now become industrystandard policies. But they don’t just follow the standard. They push the boundaries to ensure festival organisers have the best possible protection – they don’t accept standard, and nor should clients.
One of the biggest advantages of FestiFLEX? Your insurance cover starts the moment you make your first payment. No delays, no uncertainties – just peace of mind from day one.
John Silcock, LMP’s Global Head of Entertainment, said: “Our new FestiFLEX policy is another example of LMP going that extra mile for clients. And if your worst nightmares do come true, we’ll be right next to you, 24/7, helping you every step of the way.”
DON’T LEAVE YOUR FESTIVAL’S FUTURE TO CHANCE
FestiFLEX is available now – but not for long. Exclusively for UK-based festival and live event organisers, availability is limited, and demand is expected to be high.
The reality is simple: without protection, your festival is vulnerable. The risks are too high, and the consequences of failure too severe. If you’re serious about securing your festival’s future, don’t wait. Act now. Protect your event from day one with FestiFLEX from LMP Group.
Visit www.lmp-insurance.com, email enquiries@Imp-insurance.com or call +44 (0)20 4540 5056.
LMP. Insurance for the unmissable.
Smooth operations
Several festivals are improving the customer experience with a variety of
operational changes
The cost-of-living crisis and increasing production costs are well-documented issues within the events industry. More and more festival organisers are increasing the price of a weekend ticket to meet escalating price rises whilst others have dropped prices to be more affordable and encourage sales.
It’s clear that organisers are striving to make their events stand out, navigating challenges at every twist and turn. But what changes are organisers and operations teams making to their festivals to improve the experience for everyone involved?
CAMPSITE OVERHAUL
Most recently, Festival Republic, organiser of Reading and Leeds Festival, revealed a long list of changes that it is making to the festivals’ campsites. This overhaul of its camping offer includes more showers, free-to-use get ready with me (GRWM) stations, vacuum toilets, and 24/7 security as well as a comprehensive non-music activity programme within the campsites, all designed to improve the customer experience.
Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, explained: “We’re transforming everything to high new standards not seen at a major UK festival before – with everything from the facilities to adding exciting new entertainment, all the while catering to a variety of preferences across five distinct camping spaces. This will fundamentally change what the Reading and Leeds weekend experience means to so many and serves as
a positive marker for what festivals can and should be offering in 2025 and beyond.
“We’ve seen a fantastic response to the announced overhaul of our campsites. We’ve really tuned into what our audience wants, and how this is significantly shifting towards the model we’re now introducing across both sites. The line-up at Reading and Leeds has something for everyone, so it’s exciting to now extend this philosophy to the campsites.”
POSITIVE SHIFT
Benn argued that this significant investment in campsite facilities signals its intentions. To change the weekend experience at Reading and Leeds for the better, driving a positive shift in UK festival culture across the board. Yet, Festival Republic is not the only organiser tweaking its operations to give festivalgoers more.
Parklife 2025 will feature a new stage called Matinee with a 360° DJ booth, as well as new locations for VIP and backstage areas and Greenbelt is making massive changes to its festival village and site.
Paul Northup, Greenbelt’s creative director, explained the reasons for the change: “The two most common threads of negative feedback we get every year in our post-festival surveys are complaints about the programme clashes because there’s just so much on offer at any one time, and complaints about noise spill because our festival village is pretty compact.
“Separately though, as we battle with exponential production costs, we have gone
back to the drawing board in planning our festival village and its venues for this year, to make sure we’re getting the best value for money out of every single pound we spend.”
Most notably, Greenbelt’s Glade Arena area is going to become the home to both of the festival’s two music stages. But bringing all the music stages into closer proximity means that the festival team will be carefully choreographing the performances so that they don’t cut across one another.
But that’s not all. Greenbelt is also increasing the size of some of its venues and merging others, recognising their popularity and their shared values.
Northup continued: “We’re pleased and proud to be ambitious. But every stage costs us a lot more than it did five years ago.
“So we’ve worked on a plan through the autumn and into the winter, juggling two key principles: to better contain the complexity and cost of what we build, at the same time as retaining the abundance and range of festival programming we’re proud to offer to intergenerational audiences.”
TRANSFORMATIVE
In 2024, JBM Music made several changes to Reggae Land that touched all aspects of the event experience. This included upgrades to the festival’s production specifications, reimagined stage designs and layouts, increased staffing levels, enhanced visitor facilities and amenities, expanded food and beverage selections, and cutting-edge AV.
According to Jorge Meehan and Brian Murphy, directors of JBM Music, these improvements had a transformative effect on the festival’s brand identity and resonated with the festival community. “The impact of these changes became clear when we announced our 2025 festival dates without revealing any line-up information,” Murphy told StandOut. “We achieved an unprecedented early sales figure of 35 per cent of our total capacity, equivalent to 35,000 tickets. This remarkable achievement demonstrates the extraordinary level of confidence that people now place in the Reggae Land brand and our ability to deliver an exceptional festival experience.”
He continued: “Building upon our initiatives from 2024, we’re implementing comprehensive infrastructure improvements for 2025. We’ve added two additional entrance points to dramatically reduce queue times during peak arrival periods. We’ve also added in a temporary bridge across the stream, which will serve as a crucial exit route and significantly improve crowd flow during departure times. These carefully planned infrastructure enhancements are expected to reduce average wait times by approximately 30 per cent compared to previous years.”
BARRIER TO TICKET SALES
JBM Music works with Sygma Safety, UK Events Group, Steelshield, Visual Architects, GAP Group, PS Events Crew, and All in Black. Together, they have helped Reggae Land make significant upgrades to infrastructure and services across the festival grounds.
This year, Reggae Land fans can expect an expanded main stage and larger screens, two new bar areas, more space and better sight lines because of the removal of fairground rides, upgraded accessibility facilities, including improved wheelchair access routes, and an additional large toilet block, effectively increasing toilet capacity by 30 per cent.
Toilets are a key area of focus for festival organisers. Jim Gee, director of Engine No
4 and head of site at Parklife, commented: “I think promoters in general are taking toilets quite seriously. There’s been a series of customer surveys over the last couple of years, and toilets often don’t score very high in terms of positive feedback. There is a general belief that actually it’s a barrier to ticket sales. I think there is a percentage of people out there who would go to festivals if they didn’t have this stigma of dirty toilets attached to them.”
According to Gee, promoters are actively increasing budgets and putting more resource into better sanitation experiences, for camping and day festivals. This explains why he is heavily investigating what he can do to enhance toilet and sanitation facilities on the festivals he oversees. It’s not glamorous stuff, but it’s one of the things you will be judged on. Alongside bar queues and traffic management.
CONSIDER EVERYONE
As well as looking at toilets, Gee is working with the Parklife team to minimise disruption and the amount of space the festival takes up
during the build and break. He is looking at making a few channels through the festival’s Steelshield perimeter so it’s easier for residents to navigate the site during the festival’s tenancy. A process that requires some careful planning to ensure everyone’s experience of the festival (residents included) is considered.
BIG TOPS AND BUZZ
Splendour Festival – organised by DHP – is introducing a stage at this year’s two-day festival and is treating the 2025 event as a bit of a relaunch following its hiatus in 2024.
Bob Bark, operations director of live at DHP Family, confirmed that a big top will act as a new dance tent. Therefore, he is tweaking the site plan to accommodate the new addition, working through different options to make sure the site flows.
Likewise, at Bearded Theory, Bark and his team are making slight changes to the site plans after learning lessons in 2024.
Bark explained: “The big challenge last year was the weather. I mean, we had torrential downpours. The main thing to come out of it was the camaraderie that
LEEDS FESTIVAL – CAMPSITE OVERHAUL
REGGAE LAND
BEARDED THEORY
came from all the suppliers to get through the event and the buzz afterwards but what we learned was the areas of the site that are the worst affected. Our wet weather planning was great and was put into effect and everything worked really well. Now we know the areas of the site that are a little bit risky so we are reallocating an area we would use for parking and campervans and that’s being used for tents.”
HOLISTIC EXPERIENCE
Bearded Theory takes place in Catton Park, Derbyshire, on the last May Bank Holiday weekend (May 21-25). The same weekend that Slam Dunk North (May 25) takes place in Temple Newsam, Leeds.
Last year, Slam Dunk North (30,000-cap) got hit by the same biblical weather that impacted Bearded Theory, which meant that many of the festival’s new traffic management measures and site changes could not be put appreciated by customers.
The night before Slam Dunk North 2024 opened its gates, things quickly took a turn. At the time, Ben Ray, Slam Dunk’s festival director, said that every time he and his team drew up a plan, they were given a different issue. Then, late on the Saturday, before the festival opened on the Sunday, it became clear that the team had to find different solutions for pick up and drop off areas and come up with different hard standing areas. It was unfortunate because Slam Dunk could not show customers the new traffic measures that had been so carefully planned.
Timm Cleasby, operations manager at Slam Dunk North, explained: “We’d lost one of the site’s entrances because the rain just made it impassable, so we had to re-route everyone to a different entrance. And then the pick-up
and drop off area on the sports field, that fell apart fairly quickly.
“We also have a couple of car parks that are on farmers’ fields, which are great if it’s dry. But what we found is that they hold water in really weird places. You’d expect them to hold water at the bottom of the field, but they don’t. We found they hold water at the top of the field, at the entrance.
“We tried to build a road with a load of hardcore and put down ground protection but it just got to a point where we couldn’t operate the car parks.”
A fairly frank conversation ensued which resulted in Slam Dunk moving the festival’s pedestrian ingress route, refunding anyone who had purchased advance parking and creating a shuttle bus service.
For 2025, Cleasby and Ray are working on significant wet weather plans, which include
long trackway runs in the festival’s car parks, access to assistance vehicles, and increased capacity and pick up points on the shuttle bus operation. All of these elements will play a vital role in ensuring Slam Dunk North’s customers will remember the festival for all the right reasons, and not just the weather. It’s operational planning such as this, and the expertise of dedicated events teams, that will ensure festivals continue to be loved by loyal fans, who attend events because they love more than the line-up.
“While we acknowledge that the line-up remains a crucial factor in driving ticket sales, we’ve discovered that it’s the holistic festival experience - the atmosphere, the community, the facilities, and the countless memorable moments - that truly resonates with our audience and motivates them to return year after year,” Murphy concluded.
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Modular and measurable
Introducing VorDec and SpaceBox, two new modular and sustainable structures from Better Green Productions…
vents are evolving. Sustainability isn’t just a bonus tick anymore – it’s expected. But how do you balance creativity, flexibility, and a genuine commitment to the planet?
VorDec and SpaceBox are two new modular structure products available for hire through Better Green Productions. But they are not just sustainable – they are also versatile, brandable, and unique structures that look incredible without breaking the budget. What’s more, Better Green Productions can guarantee a positive social and environmental impact with every hire.
MODULAR AND MODERN
Both structures are highly adaptable, designed for efficiency and impact, and perfect for high-profile festivals, VIP activations, retail spaces, pop-ups, offices, media hubs, and sporting events.
Supplied by Better Green Productions, a trusted name in activation builds for more than 20 years, these modular, adaptable structures meet the demands of the modern events industry.
VORDEC
VorDec is stackable, adaptable, brandable, and an iconic one-of-a-kind event structure. Its modular design allows it to be configured in multiple layouts, up to three stories high.
Easily integrates lighting and technology
Lightweight components for rapid setup and minimal environmental impact
Suitable for diverse event settings
Offers both practical and aesthetic value
40+ pax capacity per floor
SPACEBOX
SpaceBox enables brands and organisers to create the perfect space anywhere. In fact, more pods equal more people. The modular units can easily be connected to form unique spaces.
Energy-efficient
Lightweight aluminium structure
Quick to install
Unique noise-cancelling design
Soft/hard wall options
Atmosphere-enhancing lighting and climate control
WE DON’T JUST PAINT IT GREEN
At Better Green Productions, sustainability isn’t a gimmick – it’s a commitment. Every structure and building is fully carbon offset, and real, measurable sustainability initiatives make a tangible difference. Let’s build something better, together.
Get in touch for a fast, simple quote. Email ed.parsons@better-green.com or visit www.better-greenproductions.com.
VORDEC
Wet Waste is a leading drainage company specialising in effluent services across the UK. As well as working extensively on events for our Loo Hire operation, we also work closely with many other leading toilet and water companies throughout the construction industry, meeting our client’s individual needs with a fleet of specialist equipment and vehicles to transport and dispose of liquid waste.
A1 Loo Hire is the portable toilet division of the A1 Group of Companies - one of the UK’s leading integrated Waste Management Suppliers. Our Extensive range of units are available for hire from our depots in Essex, Wokingham, Portsmouth, Oxford, Coventry, Bridgend and Taunton, for any outdoor event.
Know your worth
Freelancers are essential to events and festivals. Here, event freelancer Russell Pate discusses optimum day rates, the importance of honesty in client relationships, and the ultimate goal – a full diary
reelancers: who are we? What are we? Where do we fit into the structure of the event world? Well, without the army of hard-working freelancers out there, there is no event industry. Every festival you work on this year will be staffed by freelancers from gate managers through to Event Silver, and all the moving parts in between.
I like to think that we provide knowledge and variable levels of experience, but it’s more than that. I think the greatest asset to any festival or event that a freelancer brings is the ability to fit into a team that in all probability is made up of other freelancers, some of whom you’ve never met before. Collectively we’re here to look at the job in hand and work out what we need to achieve together. We don’t have moveable deadlines; we open when advertised as that’s the contract we entered with the public when they bought a ticket. But that is just the end game. How much work are we as freelancers putting in, in the run up to the show, and what are we worth?
It’s a very good question and one I’m sure that every one of my peers asks themselves regularly. We will all have a different pricing structure and – I assume, if anything like me – an optimum day rate that we want to achieve, whether that is in the advancing stage or on site.
Conversely, there is cost line on a budget that has a figure in mind for the role, so how do we marry up those expectations? Do the people that set those budgets know exactly what the role will entail? Are we prepared to accept less than we originally wanted, knowing full well that the “job creep” is likely to happen? I don’t have the answer – falling attendances and rising costs are putting the squeeze on everybody. But what I do know is that the work freelancers do to ensure the existence of our industry should not go unnoticed.
A BETTER WAY
A case in point is how closely a freelancer works with event organisers, being involved in the advance process, and adding value to an event. This is the way my relationship has developed with Engine No 4, producer of Parklife. For seven years, I have managed the infrastructure side of Parklife to reduce
the impact the festival has on the local community, and in that time, the job has grown exponentially. With the unsustainable and soaring costs of infrastructure, labour, and fuel to contend with, how do I make this vital part of the festival work in a 2025 budget?
For me, it’s about building a level of trust with the client where you can have open and honest conversations, relying on my experience on the ground to show them a way to better streamline the operation. Heaton Park is situated on two major arterial routes in and out of Manchester, two routes that are crucial to get where we need to be, which at rush hours become stationary. By taking my advice, allowing us to change where we store our infrastructure and altering the delivery point for the remainder, we can deliver the same job and a real cost saving, and that day rate we spoke about earlier has stayed intact.
Circling back round to adding value, this time in an unseen area, is the engagement we have with the local community. Eightythousand people descending on a park in a residential area is inconvenient, but we have worked at engaging with the community whilst putting the infrastructure in place to reassure them that they are accounted for. If they contact us, we will respond. Although the event is still inconvenient to residents, it is much less hostile because the community feel involved.
NOT MY STYLE
My relationship with Engine No 4 has not been gained by “phoning it in”, neither has the relationship I have with any of my clients. I am very grateful and appreciative of the level of trust and support they all give me. I am in the enviable position where I work for the wonderful APL Event, Luke [Fitzmaurice] and his incredible team at LFX, and Far and Beyond amongst others, each who have the pick of the freelancers on the market. But year on year, they continue to choose me. I hope because I don’t phone it in, but because I put the graft in. I know there are people in our industry who might think the bare minimum is fine, and that’s OK, but it’s just not my style. That said, what I have been pleased to see recently is some great new talent coming
through – people like Jack Wills, Kim Weiss, and Grace Duffy.
FIGHT OR FLIGHT
Inevitably, your career path takes you out of your comfort zone and as a freelancer, we quite often walk into events completely cold, sometimes at a senior level, having never even been to the site. This is your flight or fight moment. You’re a liar if the fight reaction does not manifest itself at some point, but you must get over that imposter syndrome. You’re there because you have been requested to do the job, so make a difference. Last year saw me do that on several major festivals, including Download and Isle of Wight Festival, along with the independent, Lindisfarne. That was like a job interview (more on that later) and what’s the first thing you do – introduce yourself. Basic I know, but people need to know who you are and exactly what your role is. Then make sure you know the site and if possible, always walk it. And here’s a little tip – there is always someone on site who is the font of all knowledge, someone that has been there forever and knows how everything works. Find them. They will be invaluable!
DIARY DATES
So where are we now as I write this at the start of March? Remember the job interview? Well, it went well, so I am currently working my way through the full technical production advance for Farne Enterprises, an independent festival operator, on all 12 of its festivals across the UK, as well as working closely with APL, advancing the upcoming Colchester Castle Series as technical production manager.
The diary looking full is all a freelancer can ever ask for, but we can never rest. I’m sure I am not the only one who is now looking to fill up the diary for the last quarter with regular clients and new opportunities, which for me is working with a great new production company, On in Five, that has introduced me to the world of touring podcasts, looking after their production management needs –who knew?
I hope there’s a little of bit of something in here that my fellow freelancers can relate to. Stay safe and I look forward to reacquainting myself with old friends and making plenty of new ones over the coming months.
N ational & Global Event & Exhibition Crew Supplier
Ge t in touc h, book a c hat? What weʼre about?
Happy to help
Rising costs mean there is a reluctance to use professional crewing companies on event sites. Whilst other event professionals recognise their worth. StandOut shines a light on crewing trends, crew rates, and the importance of welfare
ow you treat a crew member on an event site has always been important, but how you treat them when the weather is baking hot or freezing cold says much more about you and your company’s values and ethics.
Lucy Main, chief operating officer at Site and Stage, concurs. She is talking to StandOut about all things crew. From welfare and teamwork to crew rates and crew trends.
“When people talk about contracting people, we think less about crew as people, and we think more about them as an asset,” she explains. “Unfortunately, some people just see crew as a budget line. Therefore, it’s much easier for them to not provide crew with the right accommodation, catering, or breaks, or even provide them a space where they can rest.”
You can hear the frustration in Main’s voice when she settles to talk about margins that are currently being squeezed. “The people that pay the price are very often the freelancers and the crew,” she continues. “They are turning up and realising the budgets have been cut in the food hall, or they’re only getting two meals a day now instead of three.”
She adds: “We’re constantly negotiating on further provisions at the moment, because budgets don’t stretch to cover them. I am also seeing clients trying to book two four-hour calls or two five-hour calls on the same day with just a one hour gap in the
middle, because they don’t want to pay for an hour’s lunch break.”
SAVING PENNIES TO SAVE POUNDS
According to Main, clients are desperate to save the pennies in a bid to save pounds, but that should not come at the cost of crew welfare. Professional crewing companies understand that there will always be daily conversations around last-minute changes, but as well as daily conversations around rates of pay, there are daily conversations around proper breaks and, catering, says Main. It’s a recurring trend. One that is doing nothing for the industry’s image and does very little for team motivation.
WELFARE
Good crew welfare makes all the difference when you’re asking crew to push through harsh conditions to get a job done. Thankfully, in the last few years, it has become a bigger focus for both event organisers and event suppliers, too. Everyone wants to feel supported when they are working on the ground, often in less than favourable conditions, because great events don’t happen without clear communication, team work, or skilled and experienced teams.
Jordan Curtis, managing director of Optimal Crew, agrees. In an industry that is both physically and mentally taxing, welfare and health and safety are crucial, he says. This
is why, he is investing in more detailed health and safety training and welfare provisions onsite, equipping crew with the knowledge and skills to maintain a safe working environment and enabling the crew to deliver high-quality services while looking after themselves, also.
OLYMPUS CREW
OLYMPUS CREW
FORWARD PLANNING
According to Shaz Teat, client account manager at Site and Stage, who praises IMG for great welfare provision at Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, the best crew teams resemble a Swiss Army Knife. There’s the crew member who can fit into really small places and tie up the scrim at the bottom, there’s the tall crew member who doesn’t have jump to attach the scrim at the top, and then there’s the crew member who’s a really good plant op. Together, they do their bit so that great things can be achieved and that’s why strong partnerships with good crewing agencies are important. With some honest conversations and some forward planning, the best crew teams can be put together.
Dominic Riley, founder and CEO of Olympus Crew, which is currently supplying crew to Bradford 2025, explains: “If you want the best crew, the more time you give the crewing company, the better. Even if it’s a month’s notice, you’re going to get better crew. The sooner you can pencil something in, it doesn’t even have to be confirmed, just the sooner you can let us know that you’ve got something in the pipeline, we can look at your crew requirements and pre-book people.”
RATES
“Book early” has long been the mantra of any event equipment supplier or service provider. Now, with even more pressure on budgets, and with National Insurance (NI) increases about to kick in, the time for more open, and early, conversations is now.
Riley, Curtis, Paz Brennan, commercial director at Spartan Crew, which supplies crew to Victorious Festival, and Paul Grecian, chairman of Gallowglass Group, are all warning event organisers, production companies, and event agencies of rate rises.
“Rates are only going in one direction right now,” comments Brennan. “With the employers NI increase coming into effect in April, this has sadly increased our costs significantly. I just hope this doesn’t push crew companies into paying crew off payroll, as clients could be liable for any unpaid tax and NI should said crew company not be able to foot any bill, and they may get a knock on the door from HMRC. Trying to explain this to clients is difficult, but essentially if you hire crew companies who don’t pay their staff on PAYE then you are taking a huge risk.”
Curtis states that Optimal Crew is working closely with its clients to provide flexible and tailored solutions that meet their financial constraints while ensuring high-quality service. To help, it is adjusting its terms, not necessarily rates, to remain competitive and accessible and is doing everything it can to minimise rising costs.
PARTNERSHIP APPROACH
Grecian says that Gallowglass has increased its rates and clients have asked “why”, but when explanations have been given for the rises, they have been accepted. But rather than work with clients on a project-by-
project basis, the crewing company is keen to “partner” with organisers and production teams and adopt long-term relationships and contract terms that offer more favourable rates. It’s a model that Site and Stage is looking at, too, because it helps all parties to plan for the future. It’s the best way for clients to retain value and retain experience and knowledge in teams.
However, despite the forward-thinking approach to crew of some event organisers, there remains a reluctance by others to work with professional crewing companies. And when asked why, most people cite costs.
MORE EXPENSIVE BUT BETTER VALUE
StandOut asks Teat what she would say to convince someone to use a professional crewing company over temporary agency staff. She explains: “Chris Randall, who’s the site manager for Boomtown, once said to me, you’re more expensive than freelancers, a fair amount of money, but I know that if one of your crew doesn’t turn up by 11am, someone else is going to be there. I don’t have to put a post on Facebook and try and find someone to replace that person. That’s service that you’re getting. You’re not getting 20 WhatsApp messages from different people at 7am. You get one person to communicate with, who you’ve already built a relationship with and so that’s what you get. You get the administrator, the crew and one bill and they are the key things that mean everything to a production company.”
SHIFT IN ATTITUDE
This year, Site and Stage is confirmed to work at Boomtown, All Points East, LIDO,
and BST Hyde Park. Teat says that there is a rise in demand for clean and drug-free crew members with producers specifically asking for confirmation that it’s going to be a clean site. It’s trends like this, which demonstrate a shift in the events industry from “old” and “accepted” ways and lifestyles that saw event professionals, including crew, get through long shifts, using drugs and alcohol to a more professional and less “rock and roll” attitude that has welfare at its heart.
But whilst many contractors are trying to raise standards, there are still too many crewing businesses registered to people’s bedrooms that are casting a shadow on the good companies that can provide hardworking crew with strong work ethics.
“Sometimes I feel the floor of our industry was built off the back of cowboys,” says Main. “I understand that the industry is under increasing pressure to deliver high quality events for a minimal price. But this is hard when you’re trying to provide crew with the right pay, working for clients that are going to appreciate them and treat them like humans.”
Main concludes: “But what’s my best piece of advice for anyone wanting to hire crew? Be transparent. If you are transparent about the nature of your job, we can get an idea of what the crew are going to be doing and then we can get people that are willing to do it. Sometimes we get the really shitty jobs, quite literally the shitty jobs, surrounding toilets, so when you try to brush over that or hide it, because it’s not a great job, you’ll get the people that aren’t willing to do it. So be honest. Give us as much detail as possible, and we will build you the team that will do the job to the best of what you need.”
OLYMPUS CREW IN ACTION
Committed to excellence
Optimal Crew explains why a commitment to excellence and training makes it the perfect event crewing partner for your event
Optimal Crew is a leading provider of event crewing solutions, renowned for transforming ambitious visions into reality. With a rich and diverse portfolio of more than 300 events in the past 24 months alone, its expertise covers iconic locations such as Silverstone and Wembley Stadium, as well as high-profile events like Glastonbury, Boomtown, Hyde Park Winter Wonderland, and the London Marathon. Its commitment to excellence and client-centric approach makes it the ideal partner for any event, big or small.
COMPREHENSIVE SERVICE OFFERINGS
Optimal Crew offers a wide range of services to meet the diverse needs of its clients. Its skilled site crew, experienced telehandlers, forklifts, IPAF operators, and expert carpenters ensure seamless event execution. Optimal Crew also provides robust infrastructure solutions, including scaffolding, truss gantries, fencing, and barriers, tailored to the specific demands of each event. This multifaceted expertise allows the crewing specialist to tackle most, if not all, challenges the event industry throws at it.
CLIENT-CENTRIC APPROACH
Optimal Crew prides itself on its clientcentric approach, working closely with partners to bring their visions to life. Its team’s rich experience and multifaceted contributions ensure that every event it handles is successful. Whether it’s last-minute adjustments, complex logistical issues, or innovative setup requirements, the team can handle it all confidently and efficiently. Furthermore, a commitment to meticulous planning and flawless execution ensures that every detail is handled with precision.
TURNING CREWING INTO A CAREER
Optimal Crew is dedicated to transforming the crewing experience into a rewarding and sustainable career path. Recognising the high turnover rate in the industry, it is committed to addressing this challenge by
investing in the growth and development of its crew members. By fostering a supportive environment, it aims to build a loyal and skilled workforce that enhances the business’ service offerings and quality.
Optimal Crew believes that understanding its crew members’ individual needs and aspirations is key to reducing turnover. Through one-on-one conversations, it can identify career goals and provide tailored development plans to facilitate growth and learning, helping crew members progress in their careers within the events industry.
To support career advancement, Optimal Crew invests in a range of training programmes, including plant and rigging training, Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) training, Institution of Occupational Safety and Health (IOSH) training, and management training.
By investing in these training programmes, Optimal Crew enhances the skills of its crew members and opens up new career opportunities. Crew members can progress to specialised roles, supervisory positions, and management roles, benefiting both the individuals and the organisation. Optimal Crew’s commitment to reinvesting in its crew creates a win-win situation. As crew members grow and advance, they bring enhanced skills to the team, allowing Optimal Crew to offer higher levels of service to clients.
WELFARE PROVISIONS AND COMPLIANCE
Optimal Crew prioritises the welfare of its crew members to ensure they can deliver the best possible service. It is massively increasing HSE training programmes to ensure the safety and longevity of work for its crew and to comply with ever-important health and safety standards. This initiative equips crew with the knowledge and skills necessary to maintain a safe working environment and deliver highquality service.
If you would like to know more about Optimal Crew, visit www.optimalcrew.co.uk, email jordan@optimalcrew.co.uk, email enquiries@optimal.co.uk or call Jordan Curtis on 07375 843976.
• SITE CLEANING & WASTE: Toilet Rolls, Cleaning Supplies, Litter Pickers & Work Gloves
EVERY
Queen of culture
Culture Creative’s founder Zoe Bottrell looks back on 20 years of delivering and producing major events that have been enjoyed by millions
I’ve been in four cities in eight days, and done about 16 site visits,” says Zoe Bottrell, founder and managing director of Culture Creative, the creative project and production management company. Bottrell has just returned from Australia when we settle to chat about the last 20 years of Culture Creative, the highs, the lows, and the “splits in the road”.
She has been Down Under to discuss plans for Lightscape, a series of light trails in the southern hemisphere, and before that she was in Amsterdam checking out the annual light festival. Pinning her down is tricky. She’s a woman in demand, but it’s a jet-setting lifestyle that’s pretty much second nature since she has grown her business into the behemoth that it is now.
“I still see us as a little company, you know?” she explains. “I don’t see us as a big company. And yet, we’ve actually got a lot of staff, and we do a lot of projects, we’ve got a lot of turnover, and we work in big places with big budgets and big audiences. When we got the end of year statistics through a few weeks ago, we put 3.2 million people through trails this last year across the world. That’s me and my team of two (at the time) that actually programmed all of those experiences.”
SHOW NOT TELL
Bottrell continues to be amazed by the numbers of people that enjoy the events that Culture Creative is responsible for delivering. Born in the south of England but having lived a long life in Northumberland, Bottrell is very much a northern powerhouse. Straight talking but humble. Almost embarrassed to talk about her successes, particularly those of the last decade. “Our success is because we have continued to
work really well with some very high profile venues who want us to constantly come back, and there aren’t very many companies out there that have got that reputation,” Bottrell adds. “That’s what makes Culture Creative successful. We quietly get on with it. We are honest with our partners, we want to do the best that we can, and we don’t always get it right, because we are human beings at the end of the day. But I don’t want to do the big sell.
I want to show the world how good we are at it, and by showing the world, we get asked to do more.”
NICE LITTLE PROJECTS
Bottrell’s career started in the public sector. After leisure and sports development roles, cultural regeneration was part of her remit when she joined Castle Morpeth Borough Council. She had the most catchy job title –principal regeneration and culture manager – but this led her to be seconded into the Northumberland Strategic Partnership, which was part of One North East at the time. Bottrell was introduced to the world of events and following a five-year stint, she left the public sector and went freelance, setting up Culture Creative.
“I didn’t want to manage large amounts of staff, I didn’t want to spend time doing budgets, and I’d been in the public sector long enough that I didn’t want to be beholden to elected members who, quite honestly, didn’t really know what I did for a living,” Bottrell explains, laughing. “I thought, I’m going to set up a nice little freelance career. I’m going to do these nice little projects as and when and become much more focused on what I want to do. So I built a business where I’ve now got 40 full-time employees, 100 associates working across every time zone in the world, which means we’ve got more clients than I ever had elected members, and stare at more spreadsheets than ever wish to consider, so it wasn’t exactly a plan that came to fruition,” she says, still laughing.
PASSION
For 20 years now, Bottrell and her team have produced, developed and delivered everything from Cultural Olympiads and music festivals to pyrotechnic shows, such as the Titanic Belfast launch, and art exhibitions, as well as hundreds of sitespecific projects in a range of heritage venues and quirky landscapes.
Bottrell believes her passion for heritage and cultural development and being outdoors came from her Dad; a big historian who took her as a child to visit “every pile of stones known as a castle across the UK”.
“I guess I just went another way, but still telling stories in an historic landscape,” she reflects. “I think that passion has become more prevalent as I’ve got older and as the younger generation are more fed by this electronic thing in their hand, whether it’s a game console, whether it’s a phone, whether it’s an iPad, I actually just want to find ways to engage families, not necessarily young people, per se, but families to enjoy the outdoors. Now, if that means putting a Christmas lights installation into Kew Gardens, then great. But actually, you have to stare at the Palm House, you have to stare at the Temperate House, you have to look at the treetop walkway, because we kind of force you to from the installations that we create. So yeah, that’s my passion.”
EXTRAORDINARY MEASURES CONTEMPORARY ART EXHIBITION
CHRISTMAS AT WESTONBIRT
BRADSHAW EVENT VEHICLES
NICE DAY OUT
For almost two years, it was just Bottrell before she gradually built up a team of good people around her. Culture Creative’s first pivotal moment came when Bottrell was standing in Thetford Forest delivering Electric Forest. One of her team rang and explained that a lady from Kew Gardens had called and wanted Bottrell to go and meet her. “Oooo nice”. Bottrell thought. She toddled into London, having never visited Kew. If nothing else, it will be a nice day out, Bottrell recalls.
“I got put in a buggy, went round the site with Louise Burton [now general manager of Christmas at Kew] and Adam Farrar [head of visitor programmes and venue hire at the time]. So I’m thinking, I’m this two-bit company from the North East of England, they’re not going to ask me to do anything at Kew Gardens. So, I’ll have a nice day out, and I’m sure it’ll be a nice conversation, and that’ll be it. So of course, two weeks later, I get a phone call saying we’d like you to become the producer for what has now obviously become Christmas at Kew.
“I didn’t believe anything was going to come of it. I was just very relaxed about it. There was nothing to hide and I wasn’t bidding for the work but looking back, it definitely was a pivotal moment, and the team began to grow. Then when Raymond Gubbay [now known as RG Live and a division of Sony Music] started to develop and grow the portfolio, we got asked to come along for the journey, which was a new another wide split in the road.”
BIG DECISIONS
Bottrell often talks about splits in the road. They are moments where you have to make a decision. You look left, you look right and you make a decision for the right reasons at the time. And sometimes you regret them and wish you could “stick things in reverse”.
Two years ago, she had to make a decision and accepted an offer to partner with Sony Music and RG Live. The partial acquisition meant that they now own a big percentage of the company. Bottrell continues: “Going back to my plan and why I started Culture Creative. Was it what I planned? No. Am I proud of what we’ve created? Absolutely I am.
“Does it provide us with lots of opportunities to work in fantastic places over the world? Yeah, and being part of a big multinational does provide a level of comfort.
“The bigger we grew, the more employees we had. It made me sleep less at night, because essentially, I’m responsible for all of their mortgages, but because we’re successful, we’re largely left to do things as we were.”
BALANCE AND THANKS
Whilst being known for being a leader in the creation of illuminated trails, Bottrell is keen for Culture Creative to be seen as more than that. In fact, she is actively developing other strands of the business and seeking new work. She is doing this between programming Christmas at Kew content for 2025 and sticking her head in budgets.
“I’ve now got a team of four programmers, a head of lighting, and a fire producer so they do most of the day to day programming,” Bottrell comments. “I still oversee five or
six sites, and I’m in that privileged position where I get all my nice ideas down on a piece of paper, and then I don’t have to do the legwork. But then, have I spent two and a half hours in a finance meeting, today? Yes, I have. I suppose I create that balance.
“If I just did creative programming, I probably wouldn’t be so successful at it, because you can also overthink things if you’re a creative programmer. Earlier, we talked about making decisions but sometimes you have to make decisions because your gut is actually the right decision, as opposed to all of the reasons why you shouldn’t do something.”
Bottrell says that she can programme a whole site very efficiently when “she’s in the mood” because even she can get the equivalent of writer’s block. When she has no idea where to start, the best thing she can do is walk away and go and do a budget. But what she can’t walk away from is the huge business that she has created. That’s a weight. Yet she believes in her team and believes that trusting her team has played a huge part in getting Culture Creative to where it is today. That, and the supply chain.
Bottrell concludes: “I would like to thank everybody that we’ve worked with all the way through the last 20 years, and hope that some of them might want to work with us for the next 20 years.
“We can only be as successful as the wider partnerships that we have. And I know that’s something that’s said by a lot of people, but it’s true. There’s a very big group of people that circulate around us constantly, and who trust us, and if it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be as successful as we are.”
NORTHUMBERLAND LIGHTS – ONE OF CULTURE CREATIVE’S FIRST PROJECTS
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Just the ticket
Why has one festival opted to partially refund some of its customers that have bought tickets for 2025? Read on, and discover all, as organisers talk ticketing strategies, affordable tickets, and payment plans
When the Las Vegas Grand Prix launched in 2023, tickets to the F1 extravaganza were some of the most sought after in the events calendar. The race sold out. Therefore, you’d expect momentum to continue. It didn’t.
This week, Formula One Management admitted that the 2024 race under-performed on ticket sales and fell short of financial expectations. Hence, Las Vegas Grand Prix, Inc has now revealed a raft of ticketing changes for 2025.
You would expect the Las Vegas Grand Prix to sell out, given the fanfare and exclusivity that is associated with F1. But if F1 feels the need to look at how it can attract more people to experience the excitement of the event, it raises serious questions for everyone else around affordability, ticket pricing, and access to events and culture.
PAY-IT-FORWARD
In 2022, Greenbelt festival recognised the impact of the cost of living crisis on its attendees and subsequently decided to change its ticket pricing structure. For the 2023 festival, Greenbelt disguarded the usual tiered pricing that most festivals use during the year to drive sales. Instead, it introduced a pay-it-forward ticketing initiative with Supported, Standard, and Supporter ticketing options. The idea being that those who could afford to pay more bought a Supporter ticket, which subsidised the Supported tickets.
This year will be Greenbelt’s third year of operating the pay-it-forward system. So, how’s it going? “It’s going well,” explained Derek Hill, MD of Greenbelt, the arts, faith and justice festival that works with Kaboodle, the ticketing company. “In year one, it was a total unknown. I estimated that seven or eight per cent of our audience would buy Supporter tickets based on the number of our audience that donated their tickets through the pandemic. But we ended up selling 23 per cent. In 2024, that figure was 21 per cent and this year, I’m budgeting for 20 per cent.”
TRACKING SALES
Last year, Greenbelt reintroduced a tiered system – still only selling the Supported, Standard and Supporter ticketing options – because the festival team recognised that “everyone loves a deadline”. The tiered system – which enables festivalgoers to buy tickets through an interest-free payment plan – drove sales in the last few days of each period, but rather than have four incremental price increases, this year, Greenbelt has three (Christmas, Easter and just before the festival) with a larger gap between each jump.
Hill said: “Our comms have been around those dates and we found that at Christmas, we sold more in that first period than we would expect to. I’m going to be really, really interested in the Easter deadline because I have been tracking ticket sales for years and so I will get a pretty good sense of how things are going.”
NO BARRIERS TO CULTURE
Hill said that any organiser with a loyal audience, who would like to introduce a payit-forward initiative, should take a chance and test the generosity of their community. Kate Carter, director of audiences at Edinburgh International Festival (EIF), concurred.
At the heart of EIF 2024 was a commitment to ensuring that cost was not a barrier to cultural discovery. More than 50 per cent of tickets were sold at £30 or less, and more than 5,000 targeted £10 tickets were sold – a 100 per cent increase on 2023. Additionally, double the number of free tickets were taken up by NHS staff, charity workers, and lowincome benefit recipients through the Tickets for Good programme.
Carter explained: “Our vision is to provide the highest level of art to the broadest possible audience, and to give them the highest level of experience. That’s in every decision that we make.”
AFFORDABILITY
EIF takes place at the same time as Edinburgh Fringe. Therefore, the noise for ticket sales is huge. It means that EIF must carefully communicate the festival’s “quality and internationalism”.
“Last year, we committed to selling half of our tickets at £30 pounds or less,” Carter continued. “We introduced this because I think there was a perception that we were more expensive than we actually were. We wanted to make people aware of how many
tickets were available at a range of prices because there are people who want to come to the festival who have a real range of budgets.”
In 2024, EIF introduced a £10 ticket option for every single performance. No proof of eligibility was required to purchase the “affordable ticket”.But not all of the £10 tickets were snapped up.
Feedback suggests that the £10 options were not easy to find so for 2025, the EIF website is being tweaked to make it easier to navigate. However, what that also demonstrated to Carter and her team is that people did not abuse the system.
TRANSPARENCY
The F1, EIF and Greenbelt are not the only festivals to make changes to their ticketing policies and plans for 2025.
Manchester Pride has entered into a ticketing partnership with Skiddle, which has been working closely with the team on new events that have been added to the festival weekend to ensure maximum visibility, engagement, and ticket conversions.
Similarly, Gloworm, the family-friendly festival that works with Gigantic, recently revealed it has reduced the price of its weekend camping ticket for a family of four by £90 following an honest reassessment of incremental price rises and supplier costs. But interestingly, it made the decision to refund those who had already purchased the ticket option at the higher price.
Richard Walpole, founder of Gloworm, explained: “When we issued the statement about the refund, the weird thing was that it felt like there was a bit of anger. A, I don’t think customers were expecting it and B, I think over the years, there’s been so many flash offers, it just frustrates the customer. So I think initially, when they saw it, they thought it was a bit of a gimmick. But once they had time to fully read our statement, they were quite surprised.”
Walpole continued: “I’ve always had a bit of a bee in my bonnet about transparency. And actually, if people have been loyal to us in terms of purchasing early, which is really helpful because it allows us to programme strategically and roughly know where we are, then I’m not then, further down the line, going to put them in a position where they are hindered.
“We’ve got to think on a long term basis,” Walpole added. “What’s a customer going to do next year if they’re at a point now where they look at us and think, it would have been cheaper for me to buy in December than it would have been in August because we go on sale after the festival. They’re not going to buy in August. They’re going to wait for an offer. And so if we don’t refund those customers who have paid more, then my fear would be that people will hold off thinking that prices are going to drop. By refunding customers, it means that customers can buy confidently when we go back on sale and we’ll maintain that level of loyalty.”
NUMBERS
Gloworm sells roughly three-quarters of its tickets via payment plans. According to Skiddle data, last year alone, the number of festival tickets purchased using split payment methods (payment plans such as PayPal’s Pay in 3) increased by 62 per cent, highlighting just how much the cost of living crisis continues to impact the event industry. In addition, Skiddle research says that festival ticket sales rose by 21 per cent in January and February compared to the same period in 2024, highlighting a desire to secure tickets earlier, and potentially spread costs over a longer period.
Walpole has long-term plans for Gloworm, which all feed into ticket sales. He’d rather attract and maintain a larger pool of people who will pay a bit less for a ticket then have fewer customers paying more.
Walpole continued. “It’s all about making Gloworm festival more accessible. Accessibility has always been a huge thing for us, but now, I think there’s pressure around marketing. Making sure our marketing increases to ensure we get the numbers through the door.”
He concluded: “I hope ticket sales will get easier because we have made the festival more affordable but when you think about it, when you’ve spent an entire year planning an event, the only thing that really matters is how many people enjoy it and by reducing ticket prices, I hope that’s the case.”
GREENBELT
Creating boundaries
Barrier and fencing experts discuss the upcoming event season, latest trends, best practices, and new products
The British Grand Prix is major highlight of the event season that attracts 480,000 people to the Silverstone circuit over the Grand Prix weekend.
With hundreds of thousands of people attending the event, it’s critical that people are kept safe, and that includes a substantial amount of fencing panels and barriers.
Due to its high profile, the volume of equipment required, safety requirements and time constraints, the event is challenging. It’s one huge jigsaw puzzle, with last-minute changes, that requires meticulous planning and thousands of barriers that need to be mobilised and demobilised within hours.
At the 2024 event, Sunbelt Rentals installed 15,000 metres of crowd control barriers, along with 1,000 metres of police barriers to help control the flow of people, prevent heavy crowd surges and create a secure environment. In addition, more than 7,000 metres of mesh fence panels were also installed around the perimeter of Silverstone for site security.
MINOR SITE TWEAKS
The above is just one example of how important fencing and barriers are to the safe delivery of events and festivals across the UK. From police barriers and ped barrier to temporary hoarding and picket fences for hospitality areas, barriers and fencing products come in all shapes and sizes. Some barriers are designed to direct and control pedestrian traffic whilst others are more
suited to higher security situations to create sterile zones. Whatever their use, fencing and barrier solutions are essential items of event infrastructure and without them organisers would not be able to create safe and efficient event and festival sites.
For instance, Jim Gee, director of Engine No 4 and head of site at Parklife, is currently looking to minimise disruption and the amount of space the festival takes up during the build and break. Therefore, he is looking at making a few channels through the festival’s Steelshield perimeter so it’s easier for residents to navigate the site during the festival’s tenancy. Likewise, Timm Cleasby, operations manager at Slam Dunk North, needs barrier because he is introducing new entry lanes to get more people through the site’s two entrances faster. Plus, he is making some minor tweaks to the position of crowd barrier to make it easier for the festival team to access vital infrastructure.
HVM
Barrier position is key as is barrier selection and movement. New guidance from the National Counter Terrorism Security Office (NaCTSO) and the National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) raises pertinent questions over barrier position and selection. It seeks to support local authorities and event organisers on using temporary Vehicle Security Barriers (VSBs) as part of a Hostile Vehicle Mitigation (HVM) scheme and signposts organisers to
further vital information and resources. Again, demonstrating the vital role that barriers play.
DETERRENT
Such guidance will help organisers to plan what infrastructure they need, especially as the introduction of Martyn’s Law will only increase the security measures needed in busy city centres and at event venues.
Dave Cahill, head of operations – fencing and barriers at Mojo Rental UK, says that if money wasn’t a problem, every site would have some form of security fence. However, no fence is impenetrable, but they are a deterrent and can make a site feel a bit more like a venue.
WHAT AND WHERE
Mark Henton-Smith, director of Augusta Event Support, says that he has been having some painfully honest conversations with organisers about payment terms and deposits. Similarly, Cahill is talking to event professionals, too.
Cahill’s main frustrations are centred around procurement departments that are determined to save money without fully understanding the consequences of what happens when you strip back essential items.
Cahill says that if more people understood more about the products they were asking for and understood more about where they are going to be installed, it would massively help fencing and barrier suppliers specify the best products for the job, at the right price.
“Ringing up and saying, ‘I need 800 metres of fencing here’ is where a lot of people slip up,” explains Cahill. “People need to understand the products that are available to them and understand the demographic of the site that they’re working to. Some sites might not need a high fence because it’s not suitable for that market.
“If people understand the products a bit better and what they need to use them for, and why they need to use them, then that would make their life easier across the board.
“Also, you need to understand site restrictions, because some sites in London have caveats around hours of working. So, for example, if a client gives us a target of installing 1,000 metres of barrier in one day
but they don’t allow enough time to build it, it has a huge impact.”
NEW PRODUCTS
According to Cahill, fencing is one of the most important things on a site because it secures infrastructure for everyone else. However, it’s also a necessity that doesn’t generate any revenue for a client and therefore, the price of fencing and barriers is always something that is heavily scrutinised.
Brent Mitchell, managing director of Events Crew, concurs. He describes the market as competitive and says that rates are being squeezed, but there is still plenty of work around for “good contractors” who have quality equipment.
This year, Events Crew is supplying fencing and barriers to Ironman UK, Teddy Rocks, TCS London Marathon, ABP Southampton Marathon, and Gone Wild Festival. Plus, it has won new contracts, including Powderham Presents for Cuffe and Taylor, and North Devon Show.
The company owns 10,000 ZND SmartWeld barriers and will soon add a temporary hoarding solution and picket fencing to its portfolio. Similarly, Augusta Event Support –which is supplying barriers to Boardmasters, Shambala, and South Facing – has invested heavily in new barriers from ZND, and Mojo Rental UK – which supplies fencing and barrier products to BST Hyde Park, Isle of Wight Festival, and Boomtown – is currently tweaking some of its original products, such as T-Shield and T-Hoard, by adding different bracing, pin and hard standing systems, which will make transportation easier. Plus, Mojo Rental UK is looking to develop new product ranges – including fencing products – within the five different divisions that now comprise the business.
HONEST COMMUNICATION
Mitchell believes that there are a raft of products within its portfolio that are not overly popular but once organisers use them, they hire them over and over again. For example, many organisers are “unaware” of the impact that Concorde Cycle Barriers have, he says. Likewise, Mitchell argues that feet stillages for mesh fencing are a “hidden benefit” that enable safe distribution and storage. Much comes down to education, communication, and leaving enough time to decide what barriers you need and where.
“We can do anything if people book their equipment in January, especially if it’s a considerable requirement,” concludes HentonSmith. “Everyone just needs to be transparent about what they want and what they actually want it for because fencing and barriers are such an essential part of any gig.”
EVENTS CREW
Barriers and fencing – enhancing safety at your live event
aving worked at Sunbelt Rentals for more than 27 years, I’ve seen firsthand how equipment rental plays an important role in ensuring the safety and efficiency of large-scale events. When I first joined the company in 1997, our team provided crowd control barriers for Princess Diana’s funeral. Since then, we’ve been trusted to install barriers at major events such as the Tour de France (twice), the London 2012 Olympics, NHS testing centres during the pandemic, Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, and the coronation of HRH King Charles III. Long-standing partnerships built on trust and reliability also mean that we support our customers with plenty of regular repeat events, such as Farnborough International Airshow, Notting Hill Carnival, and the TCS London Marathon.
One of the biggest logistical challenges in event planning is the sheer scale of temporary infrastructure required. Last July alone, we installed around 300 kilometres of barriers and fencing, which is a real-life example of Sunbelt Rentals’ huge scale and capacity.
Large-scale public gatherings, such as the Tour de France, Notting Hill Carnival and the London Marathon, require meticulous planning, often years in advance, to ensure smooth operations. Events like the Great North Run, which attracts around 60,000 runners, is also a good example of how quickly an event can be turned around and the need for strategic coordination. Many participants and spectators may not realise the work happening behind the scenes for an event of this scale. The finish line is set up in advance since it’s off the main road network, and barriers along the route are stacked, ready for installation on the morning of the event. However, the biggest challenge is the start point. The road must be closed, set up, and then we must wait until the last runner has just left before we can quickly dismantle it to safely reopen the highway.
Sustainability is also becoming increasingly popular when considering event planning. There is increasing interest in reusable and durable equipment, such as Police barriers that are designed for longevity. The quality of these products not only enhances safety but also reduces waste and offers extreme longevity, making them a more environmentally responsible choice.
MARK FISHER (he/him)
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What benefits does appointing a non-executive director bring to an event business? Richmond Event Management’s Ben Hardy, managing director, reveals all
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Transform an empty field into a show stopping festival village! Set the stage for unforgettable moments with our world class infrastructure and seamless logistics; safe, reliable and packed with festival flair. Create something extraordinary.
