This month, I’ve been recovering from a small operation that has left me sitting in a chair, staring out the window, and watching the rain. Whilst I’ve kept my surgical stockings dry, I have spared a thought for every event professional trying to deliver a show in relentless conditions that have hampered operations.
Bluedot. Brighton Pride. Loose Festival. Festival of British Eventing. Goodwood Festival of Speed. Tiree Music Festival. I have watched every event report horrendous conditions and have seen events unfold on social channels as festival fans and eventgoers share both frustrations and understanding. No event organiser wants to make the difficult decision to cancel an event or delay opening gates but sometimes it’s the call you must make.
Last year, we were swamped by blistering heat, but this July has been a washout. It has made sites challenging and has only cemented the importance of robust weather planning and strong supplier relationships.
Let’s face it… when the weather turns bad, you need more trackway and wood chippings, and when the sun decides to turn up the heat, your water supplier is your best friend.
Suppliers are inevitably the variable that can make or break an event. In this very issue, NW Live’s Joe Nichols talks about the importance of supplier relationships and quite openly says that as a production company, you are only as good as the suppliers you bring in.
Contacts and connections matter more than anything, which is timely. Registration for Event Buyers Live opens on September 1 and we’re inviting the best event organisers to sign up for one of only 100 places. We have a cracking content programme lined up for guests, so turn to page 26 and discover what’s in store and how to register. Plus, in this issue, you will also find interviews with the teams behind Tramlines, South Facing, Kendal Calling, and UCI Cycling World Championships. It’s another jam-packed edition, so you know the drill… brew up and open the Bourbons.
Happy reading,
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10 EVENT TENDERS
Looking for new business opportunities? Discover the latest event tenders and news of contract wins
13 METHOD IN THE MADNESS
This summer, Method Events delivered Tramlines, Truck Festival, and South Facing, implementing several changes at each outdoor show. StandOut went behind the scenes with Method to discuss everything from new operational teams to site redesigns, improved access facilities and more…
23 BEACH DAYS
Louder Entertainment and Joy Concerts expanded On the Beach. Here, NW Live’s Joe Nichols discusses the growing concert series he was asked to deliver
26 EVENT BUYERS LIVE
Find out how you can sign up to attend Event Buyers Live
29 UNDER COVER
Organisers and agencies are using a wide range of temporary
structures to deliver a wide range of customer experiences. Here, we discuss how temporary structures can transform the look and feel of an event and reveal new products hitting the market
43 FROM CUMBRIA WITH LOVE
Queuing traffic, the psychology behind litter, line-ups, and more. From the Fields’ Andy Smith, co-founder of Kendal Calling, reveals all about this year’s festival, which welcomed 40,000 people to Lowther Deer Park. Check out this great Q&A.
47 POWER OF THE BIKE
UCI Cycling World Championships’ Kate Steven, director of operations, looks back at the monumental cycling event
51 FLUSHED WITH PRIDE
Do your toilets make a statement? Loo hire doesn’t need to be bog standard. Here, event toilet professionals talk about toilets and best practice loo hire
54 COMPETITION
Win £400 worth of marquee training courses with MUTA
Born in Dundee, Kate has worked around the world converting ambitious concepts into successful sports operations. As a director of both private and public sector businesses, she has delivered world record campaigns, a new national sport organisation and, most recently, the operations of the UCI Road World Championships 2019.
As head of operations for the 2019 UCI Road World Championships in Yorkshire, Kate was responsible for the operational strategy, structure and team delivering the championships’ operations. The nine-day championships, which included the new ParaCycling International format, were delivered in collaboration with nine local authorities and covered more than 1,000 kilometres of public highway. In this issue, Kate talks about her role as director of operations at the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships in Scotland, the mammoth sporting event.
Andy began organising concerts for his Nirvana tribute band at the age of 15 because – perhaps unsurprisingly – no one else would. Launching Kendal Calling, three years later in July 2006, he has gone on to co-found Jodrell Bank’s Bluedot festival and the creative agency From the Fields, which is responsible for organising a variety of concerts, tours, and events, including Christmas at Bute Park (140,000 capacity), Newcastle’s Northern Lights (120,000 capacity), Bournemouth Arts By the Sea, and Cleethorpes’ Festival of the Sky.
James is managing director of Method Events and has a long career in live and outdoor events. James launched Method Events in 2019 with Will Holdoway and created an event production and delivery company that is now responsible for producing large-scale festivals, such as Tramlines, Truck, and South Facing.
Previously in operational roles at Ground Control and Broadwick Live, James’ extensive experience has seen him delivering live events to thousands of people. In this edition, James joins Will to discuss the huge changes made on-site at several festivals that Method Events delivered this summer, improving access facilities, team culture, and site designs.
A giant ball pit featuring 700,000 balls has opened at Bluewater Shopping Centre in Kent, providing families with a fun summer experience. The Hide N Seekers activation from Haribo – created by Sense Marketing with the help of Ball Mania – enables visitors to win prizes, but only if they can seek the specially branded balls hidden in the pit. The activation, which runs until August 28, aims to be as accessible as possible. The first session of every day is tailored especially for those with sensory sensitivities. This includes reduced queues, waiting times, lower volumes on music and microphones, and an overall smaller capacity.
Festivals are now to be represented at Government level thanks to the formation of an All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Festivals. It will be chaired by Giles Watling MP.
Organisers are urged to give feedback on a new draft chapter of The Purple Guide that focuses solely on environmental sustainability for events. You have until September 1 to comment on the guidance that has been written by Vision 2025.
As a freelancer, it is so important to have downtime between events, the minimum for me is always 48 hours.
Day one is dedicated to rest, catching up on any sleep and food deficit. Day two is for adventuring in my closest mountains, national park, beach, or lake. Either way, it is 48 hours without my phone or emails. (Nope, a day travelling between jobs does not count as a day off!)
This allows me to arrive at my next event refreshed and ready to roll. There is nothing worse than the fatigue of back-to-back events affecting your performance. I cannot recommend enough looking after yourself and taking the time off between gigs. How do you spend your time off?
#Rest #Welfare #Freelance #Events
A pilot programme to raise the profile of the events industry and deliver careers guidance, job insights, and work experience to 11-19 year-olds has been awarded a £10,000 Purple Guide Grant by the Events Industry Forum.
The Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) is seeking to establish a multi-operator framework agreement for general event management services, including infrastructure and equipment. If you are interested in this £200,000,000 tender, the deadline is 12am on February 29, 2024. Email commercial@dcms.gov.uk
Wigan Council is looking for an event management company to curate, deliver and manage the entire stage programme for Wigan and Leigh’s Christmas events. The deadline is 12pm on September 4. Email ashleigh.jones1@wigan.gov.uk
The British Library requires an experienced event production company to work with its events team to plan and deliver any technical production required to deliver its large and complex events. Interested? Email nikki.drydale@bl.uk – the deadline is 12pm on September 1.
Portsmouth International Port is looking to work with an events organiser to support the planning, organisation, and management of the British Ports Association conference 2024. This tender is worth £280,000 – £330,000. The deadline is 12pm on August 30. Email procurement@portsmouthcc.gov.uk
Arena will provide temporary overlay services to at least 13 competition venues and sites at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Paralympics.
Renfrewshire Council has awarded Lochview Theme Park the tender to deliver and project manage Paisley town centre’s Winterfest event, comprised of a covered ice rink, a big wheel, a mix of fairground rides, and a Christmas market.
Bristol City Council wish to appoint an experienced event professional/company to deliver, manage, and produce Bristol Harbour Festival 2024-2027. The deadline for this £1.32 million tender is 12pm on September 5. Email ritu.mundray@bristol.gov.uk
The University of Worcester has signalled that it will soon be tendering for event management services for two large events. Email Nicola Brecknell on n.brecknell@worc.ac.uk
Innovate UK is looking for an exhibition design company to design, manufacture, install, and derig a stand for the Energy Innovation Summit. Email victoria.parsons@iuk.ktn-uk.org – the deadline is 5pm on September 4.
Wide range of HVO Generators available for nationwide hire, and suitable for various applications across all sectors. Progen Power’s fleet of rental generators range from 18kva, ideal for providing power to smaller sites, up to 500kva appropriate for powering a large main stage, data centre or major construction equipment. We also stock various distribution boards, festoon lighting, and cable available for hire.
Progen Power is built around a team of power experts who support our diverse clientele with dependable Turnkey Temporary Power Solutions.
This summer, Method Events delivered Tramlines, Truck Festival, and South Facing, implementing several changes at each outdoor show. StandOut went behind the scenes with Method to discuss everything from new operational teams to site redesigns, improved access facilities and more…
n 2021, Tramlines was awarded Gold Status by Attitude is Everything for its commitment to making the event more accessible. The award shone a spotlight on the metropolitan festival, and as a result, demand for accessible tickets grew.
In 2022, the event returned to Sheffield’s Hillsborough Park. However, facilities at last year’s 40,000-capacity festival did not grow in line with the increase in demand for access provision. It was an area of the festival that Tramlines’ production team knew it needed to improve.
James Dutton, director of Method Events, is Tramlines’ production director and works closely with Superstruct, which acquired the event in 2019. “We were really proud to win the award in 2021,” explained Dutton, who is giving StandOut a behind-
the-scenes tour of the Tramlines site in the pouring rain. “We like that we are seen to be a readily accessible and approachable festival because that’s what we are, but off the back of that increase in popularity with access attendees, we noticed that our on-site provisions hadn’t really grown with the increase in demand. So, we made it a priority to redesign a lot of that access customer journey.”
Tonnes of thought has been put into the accessible journey from where customers park to where they enter the festival to how Tramlines’ access team greets customers. The layout and location of the main stage access viewing platform (AVP) is vast compared to 2022 and has been moved stage right to a completely different area of the site. It no longer wraps around a
delay position, which previously killed the sightlines of other audience members.
Dutton continued: “The viewing platform is three and a half times as big, so the capacity is huge compared to last year. It’s a two-tiered structure and it sits within a whole new access compound that has access toilet provision, an access reception, some covered seating, and a lower bar area.
“The AVP on the second stage has also doubled in size and we’ve created a larger access compound at the back of the tent. Everything’s got a bit more breathing space, everything feels more spread out, more generous, more controlled, and yeah, that’s off the back of us seeing how these aspects of the site were running last year and knowing that there was room for improvement.”
To improve the customer experience and communications even further, Dutton and his team have created new maps which clearly highlight access facilities. However, Tramlines did not communicate the changes preevent too much, as the festival team wanted customers to be “pleasantly surprised” by the new improvements.
“We’ve put so much effort into the provision this year,” Dutton commented. “Tramlines has such a positive reputation in the city; it sells a huge number of tickets the day after the show takes place for the following year with no line-up or anything. There’s a huge following and I think off the back of that success, it’s nice to be able to invest in trying to improve the customer journey for people that you might find it hard on other sites. It’s nice to try and create an environment that works for everyone and we’re really proud to be able to tell people about it.”
The festival’s access facilities were not the only element to get a makeover. Method Events also developed Tramlines’ VIP area, moved the location of event control, used solar to power the festival’s production compound, and utilised drones to monitor crowd movements and egress. Star Link was deployed specifically for off-site camera locations on the edge of Zone X and then there’s Tram Gate, which despite sounding like some sort of political traffic management hoo-ha, is the name of a new and dedicated exit route.
“The city’s trams are integral to the festival not just in the namesake but also because it’s a very popular way to get to and from the festival,” Dutton explained. “The challenge we have is that when the stage goes down at the end of the night, everyone leaves at once. Forty-thousand people turn around and decide how they’re going to leave.”
Dutton continued: “We close a lot of the main roads in the area to safely get people back onto the footway in a more controlled manner. A lot of people walk into town. But there are a lot who want to get a tram. In previous years, we’ve had fiddly exit routes where people enter a queuing system to be loaded onto trams to be fired back into town. But the location of that gate last year was in one of the site’s main thoroughfares for egress. We were monitoring it on CCTV and on the ground and what we saw just didn’t look that smooth.”
The gate was fine, and it functioned, but it was an area that the Tramlines team thought could be better. So this year, more separation was created. Dutton added: “We’ve created this new Tram Gate, clearly signed at the back of the main arena, that doesn’t interfere with the thoroughfare to gate one and just creates more separation between those egress routes.”
It’s yet another example of the detailed planning that goes into creating a successful festival. Dutton – working alongside Timm Cleasby, operations director, Frankie Astle, operations manager, and Matt Harrap, festival director – has spent months planning the perfect festival site. In just four days, the site will welcome thousands of festival fans who love Tramlines’ musical line-up and ethos that’s just very “Sheffield”.
Dutton continued: “Every year is a school day, and you never stop learning. There’s always something you can do better or smarter or more efficiently and that’s why we’re here. I think that’s what’s good about our industry; it’s really dynamic.”
As StandOut chats to Dutton, it’s clear he is keen to see the changes that have been made but the rain keeps on coming. “I feel like we’re really lucky to have found some really good people that really enjoy working on
the event,” Dutton concluded. “That kind of camaraderie on site, especially when you’re battling weather conditions like this, is so important. I feel very lucky to be able to share the site with a great bunch of people. This is one of the first shows that Method Events delivered, and I suppose I feel responsible for what it looks like now and proud to see it working.”
When Method Events was formed in 2019, it wished to work on several events. Truck Festival – now owned by Superstruct – was one of them. Both Dutton and Will Holdoway, also a director of Method Events, were successful. They won the contract to deliver Truck, but a small thing called COVID got in the way. 2022 was the first year that Method delivered Truck.
Holdoway explained: “2022 was really hard. We had a totally new team. The team wasn’t just new since 2019. The team was new in 2022, as well. The freelancers who are working on it in 2020 went on to do different things in 2021 when Truck wasn’t happening.
“By 2022 the show had grown a lot, but it had grown through the years that it hadn’t actually happened. More tickets had been sold, and so we had a jump in capacity.”
Truck’s capacity in 2019 was 18,000 and by 2022, it was 25,000. A new team and
supply chain woes made the 2022 quite a challenging one to deliver and Holdoway was the only person on-site with any institutional knowledge of what the show had looked like previously. Truck was now a big complex camping show and it had grown too much to do too many things too similar to 2019. .
Truck was pushed into new territory where things needed to be thought about differently. In 2022, a new main stage was introduced, and stage two grew by 50 per cent. This year, Holdoway, production director, and the Truck team – John Badcock, operations manager, Hannah Russell-Yarde, operations coordinator, Polly Wickham, operations assistant, James Bramley, site manager, and Kim Bickell, site office manager – welcomed new suppliers on-site. “We had a new site team this year and a new site management team structure,” explained Holdoway. “Truck Festival had previously been able to operate with a site manager, a site office manager plus crew. I said to the promoter that we had reached the end of where we could get to with that. We needed a site manager, site office manager, assistant site manager, and two or three site coordinators.
“We brought in John Badcock, and it felt like a bit of a coup having him on Truck as
it’s a much smaller show than he’s used to doing. Alex Lane [previously at Green Man] also joined Truck in April as festival manager, so again, we had a new site team, a new operations team, and a new client.”
Holdoway explained that the team gelled on site. It was his goal to establish a good team culture and working environment, which is exactly what’s needed to retain people. Implementing a vertical structure helped with that goal as did a budget that enabled changes to take place.
Being a camping show, Truck is a 24/7 operation. Method identified the need to provide the festival with 24-hour cover from an operational point of view. Again, this was another new move for Truck.
“We’ve never planned in 24/7 cover before but some of the issues we had with audience behaviour in 2022, we knew that we needed to,” Holdoway said.
“We needed to plan to cover everything 24/7. People were being kept up staying on shift and people were working too long hours, so we built a team that didn’t have to stretch into ridiculous hours in order to operate the show. That’s another thing that really helps with the culture on site; the structure of the teams but also enabling people to work just 12-hour shifts.”
Holdoway admitted that he and the team were prepped for rubbish weather in some ways but not in others, so it’s something that he will look at for 2024. Plus, if Truck wishes to grow again to 30,000-capacity then the main arena will need a redesign. It’s a process that Holdoway is familiar with, as he redesigned the site at South Facing 2023.
Co-promoted by Live Nation and Marcus Weedon, South Facing launched in 2021. LS Events delivered the event in 2022 before Method Events took over, winning the contract to deliver the 2023 outing.
StandOut chats to Holdoway and Dutton, as they prepare for the last weekend of shows at South Facing, Crystal Palace Park. Dutton commented: “The site itself is quite small and very compact – you have to be hyper-efficient with it to make 10,000 people work in Crystal Palace Bowl. We saw what the predecessors had done with the layout. Some bits we have completely redesigned and moved but there are other bits that we have kept relatively similar.”
Holdoway was responsible for the initial site design. He added: “The site plan was created very much in conjunction with both of us. I look after Truck and James looks after
Tramlines so it’s really nice at South Facing for both James and I to be fully back on a project together.”
Dutton and Holdoway are supported onsite by Mia Barrett (operations coordinator), who – in a three-week period – nailed South Facing’s procurement and tender processes.
“Our client hadn’t actually instructed us to redesign the site, and they hadn’t flagged any particular issues,” said Holdoway. “By the end of January, we’d assembled the team, we’d outlined all the procurement, so everything was quoted and kind of ready to go. We went to a meeting, produced the site plan, and basically just took them through the site planning. From our own intuition, we wanted to do some improvements.”
According to Dutton, there is not a square inch of the South Facing site that does not have “fantastic” sightlines. He said: “What we’ve really enjoyed about this project is the client has allowed us to be fairly autonomous with the planning of the site and the delivery of the event, which is what’s been really liberating.”
Both Holdoway and Dutton have been supported on site by Ben Wray, operations
manager, James Crute, site manager, and Simge Uncular, site office manager. Together they have delivered a new look site with operational efficiencies and there has been a massive uplift in technical production and production values.
Dutton explained: “I came to the show last year and last year, where I’m sitting now, behind the stage, there was a VIP area. It had its own separate entrance tucked away but the route to get from the arena to the VIP area was this kind of heras walkway that had to go through all these working areas, and then it spit you out in the VIP area. The VIP area itself was on a bit of a slope and the ground wasn’t great.
“The production village was at the top of the site at the opposite end to where we are now, so the biggest shift that we made this year was to flip the two. Now, the VIP area sits at the top of the hill, and there are VIP lanes within the main gate structure.”
He continued: “The VIP area is bigger; it’s got more breathing space. There’s a nice stretch tent in there and seating and a dedicated food trader and all the plush toilets you would expect in VIP.
“It’s allowed us to turn this back-of-house area behind the stage into our production
village. And it’s just lovely. There are trees, festoon, picnic benches, sunshine, and grass. It’s a dream place to work from.”
Smaller tweaks have been made to ground protection, vehicle management, and storage spaces. Holdoway told StandOut that he and Dutton have learned quite a lot during the build. Site plans were tweaked right up until the last minute, but the pair now believe they have a format that will work for South Facing 2024, with an odd tweak here and there.
So what’s next for Method in 2024 and what will Dutton and Holdoway take away from 2023?
Dutton said: “I think hiring Mia has really had a profound change on how we operate as a company and how we view ourselves. I think now we’re responsible for more than just myself and Will, it makes you think about company culture and looking after staff. Wanting people to feel supported has been a huge thing for us this year.”
Holdoway concurred: “I think the big theme for me this year is teamwork. We’ve delivered everything really well. At Tramlines, we have a team that’s been doing the show for a few years. They’re really solid and know exactly what’s going on. Truck, there was a lot of rebuilding of the team and South Facing has a completely new team. But I think in all three delivery teams, there’s just really good camaraderie now and we want to be able to continue working with those people and develop the events even further.”
Health and safety – LFX Events
Marquees – Shield Marquee Manufacturing,
A&J Big Tops, Stretch Tent Scotland, and Milestone Marquees
Power – Project Power
Drones – Crowded Space Drones
Radios – 2CL
Security – Showsec and Titan Risk Management
Tower lighting – Illumin8
Sound and lighting – Zig Zag Lighting, Stage
Audio Services, and Sound of Music
Fencing – Arena and Steelshield
Staging – Star Live
Internet and CTTV – Let’s Tech
Toilets – GAP Group
Traffic management – The Traffic Management Company
Water – TESS
Trackway – EPS
Waste – KCM Waste Management
Accreditation – Eventree
Portable buildings – Wernick Events and
Banner
Event control – Chronosoft
Water – Liquiline
Security – Showsec
Crew catering – Green Tea Live
Noise management – Three Spires
Welfare – Event Wellbeing
Stewards – Wicked Events
Radios – Roadphone NRB
Audio (Stage 1-3) – Southby Productions
Risers, audio, and lighting (Stage 4-8) – EPS
Oxford
Special effects – ForceFX
Temporary structures – A&J Big Tops, Yes Tent, Shield Marquee Manufacturing, Dynamic, and Event In A Tent
Portable buildings and plant – Sunbelt
Rentals
Fencing and barriers – GAP Group and Steelshield
Toilets – Fortis Hire, Natural Events, and Vacant Event Hire
Showers – Gigloo
Site crew – Yard Boiz
Vehicles – Enterprise
Furniture – BE Event Hire
Power – Project Power
Fire safety –EMFS
IT and CCTV – Noba
Medics – Festimed
Security – G4S
Traffic management – Last Mile
Welfare – TLC
Bars – Stedman Brothers
Traders – Venn Street Market
Audio – SoloTech
Lighting – Siyan
Crew – Spartan
Portable buildings – Wernick Events and Sunbelt Rentals
Plant – Yardlink
Buggies – OBH
Fencing – GAP Group, EPS, and Steelshield
Water – Liquiline
Noise management – Vanguardia
Power – Project Power
Radios – Roadphone NRB
Stage – Star Live
Waste management – iKlean
Furniture – BE Event Hire
Toilets – Vacant Event Hire
Safety management – Harrier
This year, Louder Entertainment and Joy Concerts expanded On The Beach. Here, NW Live’s Joe Nichols discusses the growing concert series he was asked to deliver
housands of music lovers descended on Brighton last month, as Louder Entertainment and Joy Concerts’ On The Beach took over the much-loved city.
In 2022, the event took place over one weekend and welcomed 8,500 fans each night. For 2023, the event series expanded significantly. Headlined by Chase and Status, Carl Cox, Eric Prydz, Above and Beyond, Royal Blood, and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, On The Beach took place across two weekends, drawing more than 60,000 fans across six days.
Having delivered the event in 2022, NW Live, the event production specialist, returned to On The Beach with more ideas and detailed plans, including new sustainability measures, additional bars, and a redesigned back-of-house area.
“2022 was a big success,” explained Joe Nichols, managing director of NW Live. “As soon as we finished on site last year, we knew that they [Louder Entertainment and Joy Concerts] wanted to expand this year’s programme and asked us to come back to produce this year’s show.”
On The Beach launched in 2021. The first year was a hit. Louder Entertainment and Joy Concerts approached NW Live at the back end of 2021 and asked it to look at the 2022 event, which marked the 20th anniversary of Fat Boy Slim’s infamous “monster” Big Beach Boutique performance on Brighton Beach.
Both Louder Entertainment and Joy Concerts had ambition. They wished to grow On The Beach and create a concert series that featured dance music and live bands.
Nichols continued: “Louder and Joy wanted to create a concert series and feature live music and not just dance music. It was nice to have a slightly different programme, but bands do come with more stuff.”
NW Live provided full event production and operations management. Meticulous planning was needed to accommodate the tricky site and access restrictions at Brighton Beach, including the operation of a heritage railway. “Volk’s Electric Railway operates from 10am until 5pm and so we had a very small
window in the morning and the evenings to get the infrastructure in, unloaded from trucks, and onto the beach,” said Nichols. “Once the railway was open, we couldn’t get any vehicles near our site. We could move vehicles from 6am and had to work hard to crack on with the build.”
The build began on July 10 with a small team of 12 and local crew. Nichols oversaw the project and worked alongside Adam Fellows, operations manager, and Will Crysell, production manager, to deliver the event on a narrow stretch of pebble beach.
“We reported into Louder Entertainment’s Christie Liddicott,” continued Nichols. “This year, the main changes were a new backof-house design and working space, an additional bar, which provided the site with more facilities, and a VIP platform as well as a VIP tent. We also added delay video screens because we have a long and skinny site meaning you have to think about the site’s design every half a metre.
“Our site is sandwiched between the end of a zip wire and a new swimming pool. All of these things are permanent features so we
VIP AREA
had to factor in these attractions and facilities into our site plans.”
Nichols described the site as “challenging” to work on, but that did not stop the team from introducing new ideas and trialling new things. For example, NW Live replaced 158 one-tonne concrete ballast blocks with Spirafix, cutting transportation costs, shrinking transportation movements, and reducing On The Beach’s carbon emissions. Plus, On The Beach welcomed mixed and glass recycling and trialled Energy Management Solutions (EMS) Sustainable Power system – a solar-charged battery system – which powered four production cabins, event control, the box office, and a welfare tent. Nichols added: “We’re lucky that we have a good pool of suppliers that
we use every year. As a production company, and as a production manager, you are only as good as the suppliers you bring in. Those relationships prove important when you face challenges.
“We trialled the use of Spirafix on our marquees and stretch tents and during the first weekend of the build, we had 55mph winds on site, but they performed perfectly.
“Now, we’ll look at 2023, have a debrief, and start planning for 2024,” Nichols concluded. “We have dates for next year, we know we’re back over two weekends and we’re exploring what we can do mid-week. The aspiration is to have the site open midweek, hold some community days, and not go dark for a few days. We will now look at this for next year.”
Watch this space.
Health and safety – Harrier
Trackway and portable buildings –Sunbelt Rentals
Fencing – Entertee and Steelshield
Crew – Site and Stage and BTN Crew
Power – Energy MS
Water – Temporary Water Solutions
Staging – Acorn
Technical production – Eye of the Storm
Security – NDST
Temporary structures – Intent Marquees, Brooks Marquee Hire, and WH Silverbacks
Traffic management – CTM
Comms and CCTV – Redbox Events
Welfare – TTK Welfare
Medical cover – Epione Medical Services
Sponsored by Eneregy Management
If you are responsible for procurement and need event infrastructure for 2024, EBL is the event for you. Plus, if you value thought-provoking roundtable discussions, practical workshops, and networking then EBL is definitely the one industry event you must attend.
Brought to you by the same team behind StandOut magazine, EBL takes place from November 13-15 within the grounds of the beautiful Carden Park Estate. With eight editions of the industry event already under their belt, the experienced organising team is once again ready to welcome live event professionals to EBL 2023.
Janine Walmsley, Event Buyers Live’s delegate manager, said: “We say it every year, but if you have not yet experienced EBL for yourself then you really must come. We’ve worked really hard to create a format
that we think serves our amazing industry. All the team are dedicated to helping our guests have the most productive time on site, which is why I want people to register and come along to EBL 2023.”
INCLUSIVE AND POSITIVE
EBL connects event organisers with event suppliers and facilitates pre-arranged oneon-one meetings.
In previous years, event professionals from LS Events, Kilimanjaro Live, Avantgarde, Amplify, Cuffe and Taylor, Organised Chaos, Proud Events, Green Man, WOMAD, Royal Horticultural Society, IMG, Bristol City Council, Identity, Southampton Boat Show, LimeLight Sports, and London Marathon Events have attended. This year, EBL wants even more event professionals to experience the event and discover what all the excitement is about.
[which combine networking and walking] and more, there really is something for everyone at Event Buyers Live.
“We want everyone to be included, which is why all event itineraries are personalised. If anyone has any questions about the event’s format and what it entails, I would be happy to walk anyone through the process. That’s what I and the team are here for; to make everyone’s EBL experience as productive and inclusive as we possibly can because we want everyone who attends to feel comfortable and have a really positive time. So, if you would like to attend, jump online now and register for EBL 2023. You will not be disappointed,” Walmsley concluded.
To register for Event Buyers Live 2023, visit www.eventbuyerslive.com or call the team on 01795 509113.
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Organisers and agencies are using a wide range of temporary structures to deliver a wide range of event and customer experiences. Here, event professionals discuss how temporary structures can transform the look and feel of an event and we reveal new products hitting the market
When MCH Group announced in January that it had taken the decision to cancel the 2023 edition of Masterpiece London, the news sent shock waves through the art world. The art fair was one of the jewels in the art and antiques market; its wrapped façade an indication of the high standards and attention to detail that its organisers upheld.
MCH Group cited escalating costs and a decline in the number of international exhibitors for the cancellation and said that it was not commercially viable to run the annual event. However, Harry Van der Hoorn and Thomas Woodham-Smith, the original founders of Masterpiece London, disagreed that there was no market for an art fair on the prestigious grounds of Royal Hospital Chelsea. Subsequently, they launched The Treasure House Fair, a five-day event featuring more than 50 of the best British and international arts and antiques dealers.
At more than 3,000 square metres, The Treasure House Fair was much smaller than Masterpiece London, which was previously housed in two huge Evo structures from Neptunus. The temporary structure specialist was called on once again to work with the team behind The Treasure House Fair.
Ben Keast, managing director of Neptunus, explained: “The Treasure House Fair was built using Alu Hall and Alure Globe structures to make the most of the setting. This included the wonderful Obelisk at the centre of the site where visitors were able to sit on an open terrace in the sunshine. The fair was entered through an open clear roof structure from the north end of the site utilising an alternative entry route to the river-side entrance previously used for Masterpiece London. This immediately gave a very different feel to the event.”
The grounds of Royal Hospital Chelsea remain one of the key event locations that Neptunus supplies temporary structures to each year. Home to the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Neptunus has been supplying the Royal Horticultural Society’s main hospitality infrastructure for more than a decade.
2023 saw Neptunus awarded a further three-year extension to its contract that saw the business provide hospitality facilities for the show’s VIPs, corporate clients, and exhibitors.
Keast continued: “We worked closely with the RHS and their new caterer, The Eventist Group, to make improvements to the show’s Ranelagh
Gardens hospitality facility. We invested in new roof skins for the main dining area to allow more light in and created a brighter environment for diners. We also provided a space in the very tight confines of the site for toilets to be built within a structure, as well as refining the back-ofhouse areas to be more efficient.”
Sarah Jerrold, operations manager at the RHS, said that Neptunus’ solution-focused approach enabled the organisation to enhance the quality, look, and feel of the hospitality offer at Chelsea this year.
This is a common thread amongst event professionals, particularly those that organise large-scale and high-profile events where demand for hospitality is high. Organisers constantly strive to offer guests the best facilities and stand out in a marketplace that is all competing for the same disposable income.
Arena – which is currently building 43 temporary structures (22,000 square metres) for the Ryder Cup at Rome’s Marco Simone Golf and Country Club – recently delivered 104 structures, totalling 32,000 square metres, at Hoylake for The Open. Plus, it built 5,825 square metres of covered structures at LIV Golf.
THE PROBLEM:
Pro-Aktiv were tasked with the provision of outdoor cover as contingency for a June wedding by way of a stretch tent. Nothing problematic there. We specialise in such things. In an enclosed courtyard. Not an issue to us. We are experts in the quirky and the unusual. With three large mature multi-trunk silver birches standing in our way, too tall to go over and with no plans to top them.
We had to think innovatively and plan meticulously to design the tent shape around the very tall silver birches. Measurements and photographs were taken, stitching specialists were engaged with, plans were drawn up, scale models produced and tested, details and proposals agreed. This assignment stretched our creative and productive minds.
After shedding much sweat and tears a stunning bespoke cutout tent made to fit the space and with three large holes fitting snugly around the branches of the trees creating wonderful sunlight tubes into the tent perfectly complimenting the mix of festoon and fairy lighting. Our clients were delighted, and the environment was set for their special occasion.
Arena provided three different styles of hospitality structures – all on scaffold subbases up to three metres high with tiered viewing decks on two of the structures – and also completed the fit-out.
Ross Robertson, managing director (UK and Europe) of Arena Structures, said: “LIV Golf is continually looking to take its event to a different level.
“We won the project just before Christmas and provided LIV with structures and full fitout. When you look at the design renders and the finished photos, it was hard to tell which is which. It looked sensational.”
The use of quality temporary structures can radically change an event. This year, Royal Holloway, University of London (RHUL) chose to drastically change the way it delivered its graduation ceremonies. RHUL engaged First Sight Media to produce and deliver the ceremonies and move away from using a permanent venue.
Sarah Tridgell, events officer at RHUL, explained: “Our vision was to build a highend temporary structure in the grounds of our beautiful Founder’s building.
“We moved to a temporary structure to enable us to deliver student-centred ceremonies. This move allowed all our students and guests to enjoy the ceremonies together rather than across two venues.”
The ceremonies were housed within a 25m x 30m structure from Losberger DeBoer that could seat 800.
Rich Belcher, managing director at First Sight Media, who managed the ceremonies’ technical production, said: “All along, our key deliverable was production values. RHUL didn’t want them to drop because we were somewhere new. In fact, the opposite was true – they wanted to create something memorable, worthy of a graduation ceremony.”
Tridgell added: “The structure has exponentially changed the way we deliver graduation. The structure allowed us to design a space that would be fit for purpose with the student, staff, and guest experience as a number one priority.”
First Sight Media had just three months to pull the project together. During this time, it created eight versions of the floor plan;
detailed planning and the right suppliers were key to delivery.
Robertson concurred. Arena has had a busy summer and has spent months looking at logistics, schedules, and plans. Robertson said that the team placed The Open in the centre of its scheduling calendar and scheduled all event builds prior to The Open and after The Open from that central point. That required meticulous planning. Robertson continued: “It was important for the operations team to integrate with the project teams to create schedules in conjunction with our clients, who are exact in what they want.”
Arena Group has recently invested just under £3 million in new kit, including new Manhattan structures, as well as standard stock such as A frames and curved roofs.
It’s indicative of the market, as temporary structure suppliers now feel more confident about the market and have taken steps to launch products and invest in new structures.
Fews Marquees, 10 x 15, Neptunus, English Marquee Company, GL events UK, and Losberger DeBoer all have new structures available for hire or about to enter the market.
For example, 10 x 15 – headed up by new managing director Tom Basnett – has taken stock of the largest Sperry Tent in the world [20m x 70m], GL events UK will unveil a structure at the Ryder Cup called QWAD, Neptunus has launched the Alure Globe Dome, a circular structure with a free span of 20 metres, side wall heights of 3.85 to five metres, and 314 square metres of floor space, and English Marquee Company has added a UK-built glass marquee product (up to 30 metres in length) to its portfolio.
Sam Peters, managing director of English Marquee Company, said of the new glass marquee: “Due to their modularity, glass marquees look stunning on their own, or can be combined with our other structures to create a dynamic set up with almost endless variants. The glass marquee can be used as a porch to a frame marquee to create a dramatic entrance to a structure. We then have the ability to connect a series of clearspan structures to the frame tent, creating covered walkways and spaces for production and green rooms. The whole set up can be raised using our scaffolding system to counter any variance in ground height.”
Fews Marquees has introduced two structures to the market, the Orangery, and the Wave. The Orangery – a graphite grey aluminium event structure – is available in up to 25-metre widths, three-metre or four-metre leg heights, and is a premium structure that can be adapted with deck-level cassette floor and sliding doors. Plus, the structure can be “winterized” with double glazing, insulated walls, and a twin-skin thermos roof.
Alternatively, the Wave is a new megastructure, available in widths of 55 and 70 metres, and it’s perfect for hosting largescale events, as it has an internal height of up to 22 metres.
Ian Few, managing director of Fews Marquees, says that the Orangery is the perfect canvas for a high-end dinner or party, maximizing available light and a flexible space with the windows adding an extra layer of quality. He said: “We have three key products that give us a point of difference in the UK market, two of which are new in 2023.
“The Orangery is an exciting new product for us. It’s a very popular structure type and it allows us to offer a unique space to event organisers in the UK. In addition, it can provide a more permanent solution for venues that want an attractive additional space for weddings, parties, and other gatherings.”
He continued: “Wave is simply one of the biggest structures currently available, providing the kind of vast event spaces required by festivals, product launches, and major exhibitions.
“From a strategic perspective, the introduction of these new products is critical to the future growth of the business. While they represent a significant investment for Fews, they offer a point of difference, giving us the ability to serve the event industry with many types of structures, and allowing us to enter different markets which may not have been previously open to us.”
Keast added: “It’s vitally important to keep innovating and refreshing our offer to our clients. While the events sector in the UK remains strong, eventgoers are being more selective about what they go to. Consequently, suppliers need to ensure standards are high, budgets are met, and deadlines are reached whilst still offering that point of difference that
makes an event stand out from the crowd. This is why we are introducing a new product to our extensive temporary structure range, a new Alure Globe Dome.”
Lee Dalton, sales director of Roder UK, and president of MUTA, described 2023 as an “interesting year” and said that the industry has been able to quote with more confidence.
He commented: “It certainly feels as though we have caught up on the backlog of work from COVID, which isn’t a bad thing, as we’ve been able to plan workloads and quote with a little more confidence.
“In addition to the run of festivals and shows, it’s been great to see MUTA members provide structures for key sporting events throughout the summer including Wimbledon, Goodwood, The Open, and Silverstone.”
In late 2022 Star Live won a multi-year contract with The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) to supply temporary structures for The Championships at Wimbledon, Wimbledon Park, and the Qualifying Competition at The Bank of England Sports Centre.
The brief from The AELTC was clear: improve on-site build times to minimise disruption, create structures with a premium aesthetic and
an air of permanency, deliver improvements across structure specifications, and integrate sustainability at the heart of the solution.
Over a ten-week period, Star Live delivered nearly 50 temporary structures across three Wimbledon sites – a mix of PVC roofed structures and Star Live’s modular structure –the StarBox. The use of StarBox proved a major success. The product was extensively deployed for a variety of uses across SW19, including hospitality, media, partner activations, and retail and the same StarBox units will be used as hospitality suites at the Ryder Cup in Rome.
Another key focus for The AELTC in 2023 was enhancing the Southern Village to create a destination that would rival the popularity of the hill in terms of attracting visitors. Part
of the solution Star Live delivered included consolidating the Southern Village onto a single level, resulting in a seamless transition from the bar and seating areas, across the decking, and into the temporary structures that housed retail outlets and brand activations from names such as American Express, Ralph Lauren, Vodafone, and Babolat.
Another highlight in terms of structures was the Centenary Restaurant, a double-deck temporary building measuring 15m x 30m. Originally introduced to Wimbledon in 2022 to commemorate 100 years of Centre Court, this year saw Star Live work with the branding team at AELTC to deliver multiple
enhancements to harmonise the aesthetics of the structure with the permanent facilities onsite. Through the addition of cladding, fascias, custom green window frames, complemented by a low-curved roof, the structure blended into SW19 and was representative of the iconic Wimbledon brand.
Grahame Muir, CEO of Star Live, said: “We are seeing more and more clients wanting temporary structures that don’t look and feel like traditional tented solutions. Structures that are fast to build with minimal on-site construction required, combined with the flexibility to transform the appearance, and create the illusion of a permanent building is what event organisers, promoters, agencies, and venues are looking for.”
Rob Statham, head of UK and Europe at Spacecube, the modular structure specialist, concurred with Muir. He believes that there is a big push from organisers and agencies to move away from big white marquees.
He explained: “Clients want a clean and cosmetic finish and modular is the building block to do that.
“Modular gives you so much choice. In fact, on one recent project, there was 30 to 40 iterations before a design was signed off because it gave a client options; options to create a space that suited what they were trying to achieve. They weren’t trying to fit an activation into a predefined space.”
Spacecube built seven structures at Silverstone for the British Grand Prix, creating hospitality units for Peroni, Red Bull, and
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Ferrari on behalf of Match Hospitality. Plus, after meeting at Event Buyers Live, the company also worked with LS Events to create a two-storey, 300 square metre summer house within the VIP area of BST Hyde Park. But that’s not all. Spacecube also delivered several activations at Goodwood Festival of Speed (FoS), working with Avantgarde for MG, and Reactor Group for Pirelli.
Statham commented: “It was great to be back at Goodwood FoS. The grid was great, and it felt as though it was back to its heyday. There was a move away from brands stuffing their stands full of cars. No stand looked like they had just dumped a dealership on it. Agencies were more experimental, and it was clear that agencies had taken a different route in terms of the creative. Goodwood showed that people were pushing boundaries and moving away from more traditional structures.”
Hyundai engaged Collaborate to produce its activation at FoS that comprised stand build, the global launch of its IONIQ 5 vehicle, and live broadcast of the launch.
Luke Daniels, operations director at Collaborate, said: “Our brief was to ‘win at FoS’ which gave our entire creative department the freedom to go down the bespoke route and to the extent of producing a custom structure.”
Hyundai’s three-storey activation with roof terrace featured the hard work of 23 “rock star” contractors that worked collaboratively to deliver the space.
Daniels says that Collaborate’s ethos is to work with the right people to deliver the best results. But Hyundai’s stand was not the only project that Collaborate managed at FoS. The agency delivered activations for eBay, Roger Dubuis, and Aston Martin plus others, using end of use shipping containers, structures from Showblock and Losberger DeBoer, and Spacecube respectively.
“We have a good relationship with structure companies and the likes of Showblock and Losberger,” Daniels continued.
“As an agency, relationships are key and so is the ability to have a short conversation and a chat about availability. I want to get under the hood of what a structure can do, understand its limits, and see how far you can push the system. I want to see what hasn’t been done before, so that we can create interesting things for our clients.
“We want to work with the experts in the areas that we are not so that we can understand what is feasible and what isn’t,” he concluded.
Introduced to the UK market by Star Live in 2022, StarBox has quickly become a game-changer in the world of modular structures. This versatile and innovative product has made its mark across a broad spectrum of sectors and works seamlessly across Star Live’s four pillars: Design and Build, Sport, Entertainment, and Brands. The flexibility of StarBox is evidenced by its role in various projects, from prestigious royal gatherings and global sporting events to essential infrastructure projects for Government.
StarBox is a 15 square metre modular structure that can be configured in almost an infinite number of ways: from two-storey structures with interchangeable windows, walls, doors, roof terraces, handrails, and HVAC, through to a range of lighting and flooring solutions. The flexible and customisable nature of StarBox delivers
the ultimate in bespoke structure design. With a high-quality level of finish coming as standard, the requirement for additional overlay is significantly reduced.
One of the many standout features of StarBox is its seamless integration with Star Live’s broader asset portfolio. StarBox has been incorporated into grandstands as hospitality suites at BST Hyde Park and the Ryder Cup and has been elevated on raised load-bearing structures as media studios for The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and King’s Coronation. Collaborations with agency partners have resulted in impactful activations for globally recognised brands like American Express, Barclays, Pimm’s, and Paramount.
The most recent win for Star Live and StarBox was securing a multi-year contract to supply temporary structures to The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) for The Championships, Wimbledon.
Over a ten-week period, Star Live delivered almost 50 temporary structures across three sites – a mix of StarBox units alongside PVC roofed structures. The use of StarBox was imperative to Star Live’s success in this competitive tender. The AELTC benefited from these modular structures being rapidly deployed and seamlessly installed in a single day. Another key benefit was less on-site construction as well as delivering an immediate visual impact wherever they were used. The luxurious finish and design of the StarBox structures perfectly complemented the overall aesthetic of the site, providing a “permanent” look and feel with temporary structures.
Such is their versatility, the use of StarBox extends to the business’ Design and Build pillar, where it has played major roles in the delivery of semi-permanent and permanent infrastructure projects. A recent example is Star Live supporting the UK’s Defence Infrastructure Organisation in the Ukrainian war effort. As part of Star Live’s scope of work, 50 modular, demountable classrooms were provided through 100 StarBox units. This comprehensive solution covered everything from climate control to flooring, ensuring optimal learning environments.
Simon Broyd, chief commercial officer at Star Live, commented: “From short-term event-use, through to permanent install that meets all required building regulations, clients are increasingly looking for structures to be able to be flexible enough to deliver against a range of use cases.
“From royal occasions, the world’s most iconic sporting and live music events, through to practical applications in the semi-permanent and permanent built environment, StarBox has proved itself time and time again as a flexible, fast, sustainable, and customisable solution.”
As Star Live continues its international expansion with the opening of its business in Saudi Arabia to complement its offices in Shanghai and Kuala Lumpur, it has major ambitions to roll out StarBox in these important markets.
Broyd continued: “There is a wealth of opportunity for StarBox outside of the UK and we are currently servicing incredibly exciting multiple enquiries from our international clients. From luxury accommodation facilities or garage structures at major motorsport events, the opportunity for StarBox in the Middle East, South East Asia and beyond is significant.”
Alongside its investment in the actual kit, Star Live is investing in the wider resource required for its rapidly growing StarBox division. The business has recently employed Jamie Southam as design and build manager to work with James Anderson, Star Live’s business development director, who heads up StarBox at Star Live.
Anderson said: “With Jamie’s experience delivering tailored solutions for brands such as Jaguar Land Rover, Fortnum and Mason, BMW and Boeing, as well as his heritage in the commercial, aerospace, government and educational sectors, we see a bright future for StarBox and are looking forward to driving the business forward.”
In a changing world with increasing demands from a range of clients and customers, StarBox is the future of modular structures. Combine this with Star Live’s best-in-class project management, innovative design and engineering, and unrivalled in-house event infrastructure, and you have the most integrated and comprehensive option available to you.
Could StarBox be the right option for your project? Visit www.stargrouplive.com. Alternatively, email James Anderson on j.anderson@stargrouplive.com or Jamie Southam on j.southam@stargrouplive.com
Star Live: technically creative and rapidly deployed solutions.
What did you learn about the 2022 festival and what changes did you make to the 2023 event?
There were multiple small tweaks made to the festival – far too many to list, but one of the big changes was entry to the festival. In 2022 some of our audience got caught in terrible traffic jams of up to five hours and this needed resolving swiftly to ensure people would still return to the festival!
The local roads are notorious on a Friday, as commuting traffic combines with tourism, so encouraging the bulk of our audience to arrive on Thursday was crucial. This was achieved in two ways – communication, and by really going to town on the line-up and massively increasing the talent budget for the Thursday evening. Alongside a refined traffic management plan, we’re pleased to say it was a success – the longest time spent in a queue was 90 minutes (with ANPR cameras at major points this was easy to track) and we’ve identified a new route next year, which should bring this down to near zero.
What site changes did you make this year and what impact did they have on operations?
In 2022, we moved our main stage location for the first time in 11 years. We wanted to bring in a larger structure for the level of artists we’re now working with. For most festivals operating in large flat fields, this might not be a big deal, but our festival site is all slopes and 200-yearold oak trees, so moving anything causes a ripple effect. We were nervous but it worked really well, with a few exceptions. It created two pinch points – one being that people entering the arena had to walk through the main stage amphitheatre. We put in some alleyways – cutthroughs – enabling people to quickly get from the main arena entrance and skip the main stage amphitheatre and this really worked.
Sustainability is a big thing for Kendal Calling. In 2022, you launched the Leave Nothing But Memories campaign. What did you learn last year and what changes did you make for this year’s show?
We spent a lot of time reading about behavioural change and litter control. There
are a number of great research papers on the subject: Synthesizing the Economist’s and the Psychologist’s Approaches to Litter Control for Sustainable Waste Management, Field Experiments in Litter Control, Social and Environmental Influences on Littering Control… and many others. Required reading for anyone interested in this subject is Keep Britain Tidy’s The Little Book of Litter along with Litter-ology: Understanding Littering and the Secrets to Clean Public Places, which offers insight into the psychology of litter and study how people are influenced to litter – or not – based on the design of public places. Being written by a pair of environmental psychologists, it approaches the challenge from an interesting angle.
One of our learnings told us that litter is more prevalent in areas that already have litter, where you know it’s being cleaned by someone else, when you’ve had a few beers and when everyone else is doing it. This accurately describes a music festival.
Firstly, we needed to reduce the amount of litter, and that meant banning single-use plastic containers across the site, which
included plastic cups on our bars. Switching to reusable cups, we immediately wiped out the majority of litter in the arena with one decision. The hope was a clean arena might make for a cleaner campsite.
Similarly, we went to task on the other triggers of littering behaviour. We had to break the mentality that littering was acceptable because everyone else does it, so some of our communications appealed strongly to herd behaviour and reinforced the notion that litter is dropped by a minority of people.
This worked really well so this year we ran a campaign along similar lines but also looked to create some more enjoyable stunts. After all, you can’t expect the same marketing plan to be as successful the second time around. We wanted to create engagement and memories, so launched an online computer game whereby one flies around the Lake District picking up abandoned tents, which have been blown away by the wind, and secondly, we had our festival favourite The Lancashire Hotpots write a song and create a music video disparaging litter. Being enjoyable content made it more likely to be shared, and shared it was with more than
100,000 unique views on the game and video! By creating memorable moments which stick in the mind we hope this will change behaviour in the fields.
This year’s waste was slightly higher than last year, but that can be ascribed to the weather on the Monday. Last year, it was sunny when people left the site. This year, we had sideways rain. Considering people would have been rushing to get home and dry, to be only a few percentage points worse off is something we’re happy with.
How did this year’s show go? What challenges did you face and how did you overcome these challenges?
Fantastic result, best feedback by the audience ever, and our best ever on-sale for 2024. We’ve managed to raise a record amount for charity as well, which is important as we wish to be recognised as a force for good in the region even to those who chose not to attend music festivals.
Challenge-wise, there were a number but nothing Engine No 4, our production partner, couldn’t easily handle. The weather does wear you down in the build and break, but that’s just life in Britain.
You are actively working with the landowner to preserve the Kendal Calling site, including rewilding areas. How are you working with them?
There are a number of aspects of rewilding that work for the festival but also against it, often at the same time.
The creation of roundels – groups of trees in what otherwise used to be a large empty field, vital for increasing bio-diversity – reduce the amount of available space but do make the festival site more interesting.
We still cut the grass, but we keep it a lot longer than we used to. This is great for creating a carpet which holds out against the mud, whilst also reducing carbon as the grass is trampled back into the soil which forms a carbon trap. As for how successful the latter is, we’re awaiting results from carbon monitoring across the site.
What stood out about this year’s festival?
What a wonderful team we have and just how fortunate we are to be working with them. Running two festivals back-toback [Bluedot] is no easy feat, but with the experience and passion shown by Sarah Rowland [production manager], Jim
Gee [site manager], Will McHugh [event director], Engine No 4 and contractors, who we’ve worked with for many years, eliminates 99 per cent of worries.
The decor across the site also stood out. We work with a fantastic Manchesterbased team called Visual Architects, who decorated the interior of all our tents, and it makes such a difference when you see creativity and colour in every corner. It doesn’t sell tickets in the first instance, that’s the line-up’s job, but it’s something that improves the festival and sets Kendal Calling apart and that’s what ensures people come back every year.
What plans do you have for Kendal Calling 2024?
We’re looking at new traffic layouts to eliminate any traffic woes along with a refresh of some of the stages at the festival in order to keep things exciting. No matter how many times you attend a festival, and for a lot of our audience they come back every year, we need to create multiple moments of discovery which means a constant requirement to be developing new content and ideas.
Fresh off the tracks, UCI Cycling World Championships’ Kate Steven, director of operations, looks back at the monumental cycling event and talks management structure and budgets
he Women’s Elite Road Race brought the curtain down on the inaugural UCI Cycling World Championships. The sporting event saw 653 medals awarded and an estimated one million fans tune in to watch the cycling action.
No sooner had Belgium’s Lotte Kopecky claimed the final medal and rainbow jersey, event professionals began the huge task of dismantling vast amounts of temporary overlay that had been needed to deliver the huge spectacle in seven locations with the help of 4,000 volunteers.
Kate Steven, director of operations of the 2023 UCI Cycling World Championships, headed up the competition’s operations team, whose remit was to deliver the event’s central facilities and national operations. That meant working closely with national agencies, Police Scotland, Transport Scotland, and UCI to ensure the overall championships provided a great event experience for the athletes, as well as key delivery partners, such as SweetSpot Group, GEM Events, and Pennine Events, that were called on to help deliver various elements of the championships.
“I have been in my role since 2021 and my first job was to look at team and
management structure,” said Steven. “It was the first time that the inaugural event has seen 13 UCI World Championships combined into one mega event so we had to think about how it was going to run, what the structure would look like, and what sports companies should we work with.
“The first few months were spent writing the rule book, determining the resource, looking at budgets and procurement and then putting that into play.”
Thirteen UCI World Championships were held together in one location for the first time. Instead of having each UCI World Championships held across various parts of the world, the new format brought the cycling family together to celebrate the Power of the Bike.
The championships’ operations team worked alongside the sports team, which was responsible for each individual championship and ensuring fair and authentic competition.
“I am fortunate enough to have worked on a number of major events, but this role was… testing,” Steven laughed. “Coming out of COVID and then working out what
agencies were available, and working on Microsoft Teams at first added to the complexity of the event.”
Steven continued: “Coming out of COVID, our timescales were compressed and so we were always pushed for time.
“Plus, the word inflation kept coming up in conversation, so we had to review our operations budget throughout. Costs increased significantly and we were tasked by the Government to keep a close eye on the budget.”
GL events UK, ADI, and CSM Live were contracted to deliver infrastructure and expertise to the event, including temporary overlay, sports presentation services, audio, lighting, and branding. For example, ADI provided services to the event, including event presentation programmes, ceremonies, content, interactivity, and LED screen technologies across five venues. Describing Glasgow Life’s Lauren McKenna, event manager – event presentation and cultural programme, as an “unsung hero”, Thomas Taylor, global head of sales at ADI, explained that the company introduced new aspects to some disciplines such as music on the last lap of the elite road races that created hype and uplifted audiences.
EY has been commissioned to conduct a qualitative social and economic impact assessment for the event to detail the value that it has brought to Scotland. Furthermore, David Lappartient, president of UCI, stated that the inaugural event has now set a benchmark for future editions of the championships. It’s believed that the new format will continue with France hosting the next championships in 2027.
This year’s championships adopted a different model to previous outings comprised of a smaller international organising committee that drew on the expertise of smaller specialist companies and event delivery partners. Steven added that it would be interesting to see if this method of working will be carried forward, as well as other learnings and additions.
Steven continued: “We wanted our fleet operations to include a set of bikes that would complement our car fleet. We wanted anyone [agencies, staff, dignitaries] to have access to our bike fleet.”
The championships used 40 bikes, which were “well utilised”, said Steven. They helped various stakeholders to traverse the city and its seven competition venues, including Glasgow Green, George Square, and Glasgow BMX Centre. Some venues needed more overlay than others.
“We were all cogs in a chain that made this event work,” concluded Steven. “Some of the processes that we set up early gained momentum across the championships, but it was essential that we got the early steps right. It was about getting the building blocks in the right place and strong collaboration was key.”
According to new study by trailer manufacturer Diamond Trailers, Glastonbury has the best festival toilets. The study’s authors calculated that the largescale festival would need 2,742 toilets and urinals to serve its 210,000-capacity, but with more than 4,000 on-site loos, Glastonbury is more than serving the needs of its audience.
Edinburgh International Festival and Radio 1 Big Weekend finished second and third respectively in Diamond Trailers’ poll, which recommended that festivalgoers take their own toilet paper and sanitiser to an event because festivals are notorious for their loos.
However, to say that all festival toilet experiences are bad would be doing our industry a disservice. An increasing number of organisers and operations teams are working hard to reduce the queues for event and festival loos and eventgoers also have the option to upgrade to luxury washroom facilities with all the comforts of home.
“Nobody likes to queue, but it’s one of those things as a nation we are good at,” comments Laurence Wigfield, operations director at Ontrax Rentals UK. “Helping to reduce queues is important. We look at layouts and throughput to minimise the queues where possible. Having our washbasins and vanity mirrors separate from the toilets means cubicles are not occupied for as long as they
can be compared to cubicles with internal sinks. When located in high-capacity main arenas or busy campsites, this can make all the difference between a long wait for the loo or a quick drop off!”
This year, Ontrax Rentals provided toilets to Ascot Racecourse for Royal Ascot, Isle of Wight (IoW) Festival, and Pink Moon Glamping at Latitude Festival. IoW Festival asked Ontrax to look at some new areas of the festival and Ontrax provided the organising team with toilets and showers.
Wigfield continued: “We spend a lot of time helping to design toilet layouts with our clients. We know by experience how best to lay the toilet blocks out not only for operational simplicity but also to allow a quicker throughflow for guests. At the IoW Festival this year, we completely re-designed one of the main stage toilet blocks based on feedback from 2022 – it worked really well and was obvious during the ‘live’ that crowd numbers were dispersed quickly.”
Ontrax provided IoW with 480 “seats” compared to 390 in 2022 and 60 showers. According to Wigfield, this number is likely to grow for the 2024 season.
Ontrax has added showers to its portfolio, which he said are a “big hit”. He added: “We
do have some other products in the pipeline, which I can’t go into too much detail right now. Our research and development team are working on some innovative waste transfer solutions which will be very useful at some of the festivals we work at.”
It’s not the only new development in the marketplace. Lucy Woodward, sales and marketing manager at Loos For Dos, explained that loo hire doesn’t need to be bog standard: “2023 saw the launch of our new range of contemporary style trailers, available in various sizes to suit any kind of event. These loo trailers were built and customised in-house by our very own #LooCrew experts, combining years of technical knowledge with modern fixtures and the latest trends. These new loo trailers have proved very popular this year and we can see them making a big bang in 2024.”
Just Loos is currently building new vacuum units, increasing its stock by a fifth for 2024. The increase is driven by demand from key customers that wish to up their vacuum proportion of kit on-site.
Just Loos recently won a multi-year contract to supply mobile toilets, disabled toilet units, vacuum pods, modular washrooms, and showers to the Goodwood Estate for events, including Goodwood Festival of Speed and
Goodwood Revival. The contract covers 2023, 2024, and 2025. Plus, it has signed a threeyear deal with RHS too to provide toilets and washrooms to RHS Chelsea Flower Show and RHS Hampton Court Palace Garden Festival.
Richard Crawley, general manager of Just Loos, said: “This year, the footprint at RHS Hampton Court changed slightly. We supplied fewer toilets, but they were spread over a smaller area, but the key thing was that we were asked to provide vacuum toilet facilities as they use less water, and you can put people through the facilities more quickly.”
Portable Toilets Limited (PTL) – which supplied toilet facilities to the King’s Coronation for Identity – is also investing in more vacuum pods and accessible toilets. Both of these types of units are in product development as enquiries for accessible and sustainable toilets increase.
Ben Cruise, sales director at PTL, told StandOut that the toilet provider is working on-site at All Points East with LS Events, before preparing for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, and Lapland UK.
Of the current marketplace, he said: “Our experience of procurement in 2023 has not been the same experience of 2022 and that’s because we’ve been open and honest with clients. To maintain prices, we have to know about an event early otherwise transport, accommodation, and labour cannot be booked in advance.
“Our clients have been fair and have booked as long as we have allowed some room on numbers. For example, plus or minus ten per cent and for our regular clients that’s no problem,” he continued.
Crawley concurred and concluded: “I would advise event organisers to talk to their toileet supplier soon and book early. Listen to the advice you are given by the professionals giving it to you, as usually there is a reason for the advice they are giving.
“Also, be prepared. Make sure you have facilities on-site ready for us. We can’t deliver a toilet to the middle of a field if there’s no trackway. We need power, water, and drainage. Sometimes, these things are never thought of so be prepared to have the appropriate facilities available that need to sit alongside us.”
A simple solution for those who need temporary communications. This solution has proven to be invaluable for sectors such as event organisers, council teams, TV and film crews, security and parking to name but a few, with both short and longterm contracts available.
Organising any event or general on-site communication requires total dedicated support and at DCRS, there is always a team on-call or on-site ready to assist you. Call FREE: 0800 043 2688 email: sales@dcrs.co.uk www.dcrs.co.uk
WE BOAST A COMPLETE HIRE SERVICE INCLUDING:
Bespoke radio solutions for large, wide area events
Motorola digital and analogue radios, mobiles and repeaters
Wide area Nationwide coverage WAVE PTX POC LTE & ICOM portables
A full range of audio accessories, radio allocation systems and voice recording available
Free radio license or free programming to your own frequencies Delivery and collection to your specified addresses
On-site support and out of hours call-out, 24/7 if required
MUTA is the UK’s only trade association dedicated to marquees, tents, and temporary structures. For more than 100 years, it has supported manufacturers, suppliers, and hirers, and represented the interests of the wider events industry.
MUTA’s mission is to raise industry standards. To help achieve this, the association recently introduced an e-learning course, MUTA Instruct – Frame Marquee, designed for those involved in the erection of frame marquees.
With four key modules and videos throughout, the course covers the fundamentals of how to erect a frame marquee safely and effectively.
At the end of each module, candidates need to complete a short series of assessment questions before progressing. If the candidate answers the questions correctly, a certificate is issued.
The course has only been live for a few months but it’s already proving to be a great resource for marquee erectors.
Chris Martelly, managing director of Key Structures, said of the new course: “MUTA Instruct – Frame Marquee is a fantastic tool for our site team, particularly new starters. It’s imperative that our site crew understand the fundamentals of how to erect a frame marquee and this course does exactly that.”
To celebrate its success, MUTA is giving one StandOut reader the chance to win ten MUTA Instruct – Frame Marquee courses. For more information visit www.muta.org.uk, call 01379 788673, or email info@muta.org.uk
To enter, simply visit www.standoutmagazine.co.uk/monthlycompetition and fill in the coupon online. The closing date is September 19, 2023.
The winner is entitled to ten MUTA Instruct – Frame Marquee courses. All ten courses must be used within 12 months of the winner being announced. There is no cash alternative, and the prize is nonexchangeable. Only one winner will be selected at random. Standard terms and conditions apply.
Event Hire Association
2450 Regents Court, The Crescent, Birmingham Business Park, Solihull, B37 7YE
T: 0121 380 4600
W: www.eha.org.uk
E: membership@eha.org.uk
AV, SOUND & LIGHTING
Event Production Services
The Pack House, Drayton St. Leonard, Oxford, OX10 7BG
E: info@epsoxford.com
T: 01844 278446
Press Red Rentals Limited
Unit H11, Halesfield 19, Telford, TF7 4QT
T: +44 (0) 1952 587049
W: www.pressred.biz
BALLOONS, BUNTING & FLAGS
B-Loony Ltd
Cape House, 105 Bellingdon Road, Chesham, Buckinghamshire, HP5 2HQ
T: 01494 774376
E: sales@b-loony.co.uk
W: www.b-loony.co.uk
BUGGY HIRE
Instant Marquees
T: 01840 213063
www.instantmarquees.co.uk
Ace Plant Blackpit Farm, Silverstone Road, Stowe, Buckinghamshire, MK18 5LJ
T: 01908 562191
E: hire@aceplant.co.uk
W: www.aceplant.co.uk
Bradshaw Event Vehicles
New Lane, Stibbington, Peterborough, PE8 6LW
T: 01780 782621
E: enquiries@eventvehicles.co.uk
W: www.eventvehicles.co.uk
Twitter: @Bradshaw_EV
Electric Wheels Ltd
Units C1 & C2, Neaton Business Park, Watton, Thetford, IP25 6JB
T: 01953 882175
M: 07711 648707
M: 07725 761970
E: info@electricwheelshire.co.uk
W: www.electricwheelshire.co.uk
Event Buggy Hire
BAR
Bar Live Events
Unit D215, Parkhall Studios, London, SE21 8DE
T: 0208 761 8424
E: nick@barlive.co.uk
W: www.barlive.co.uk
Cambridge Event Bars
T: 01223 785401
M: 07837 707057
E: Info@cambridgeeventbars.co.uk
W: www.cambridgeeventbars.co.uk
Pop-up-Pubs
T: +44(0)1993 832155
E: info@pop-up-pubs.com
W: www.pop-up-pubs.com
Symonds Event Bars
Drakewell, Stoke Lacy, Bromyard, Herefordshire, HR7 4HG
T: 01885 490267
E: info@eventbars.co.uk
W: www.eventbars.co.uk
T: 0113 393 4100
E: brian@eventbuggyhire.co.uk
W: www.eventbuggyhire.co.uk
Hopkins Machinery
T: 01633 680754
E: hire@hopkinsmachinery.co.uk
W: www.hopkinsmachinery.co.uk
Qdos Event Hire Ltd
Fernside Place, 179 Queens Road, Weybridge, Surrey, KT13 0AH
T: 0845 862 0952
E: enquiries@qdoseventhire.co.uk
W: www.qdoseventhire.co.uk
Twitter: @QdosEventHire
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/Qdos-Event-Hire/
Instagram: @qdoseventhire
Wernick Events
Joseph House, Northgate Way, Aldridge, Walsall, WS9 8ST
T: 01922 472 900
E: events@wernick.co.uk
W: www.wernick.co.uk/events
Twitter: @WernickEvents
Instagram: @WernickEvents
CAR PARKING
Event Traffic Control Limited
Baldersby Gardens, Ripon Road, Baldersby, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, YO7 4PS
T: 08000 246 800
E: info@eventtc.com
W: www.eventtc.com
Just Event Services Unit 7 Broadway Green Farm, Lightwater, Surrey, GU18 5SU
T: 01276 590325
E: contactus@justeventservices.co.uk
W: www.justeventservices.co.uk
CARPENTRY SERVICES
Crewsaders Carpentry
T: 0345 094 4884
W: www.crewsaders.com
CLEANING & SUPPORT SERVICES
Falcon Cleaning and Support Services Ltd
Specialised Cleaning and Support Services (Nationwide)
31 Oldbury Road, Enfield, EN1 3QN
T: 0208 798 2699
E: events@falconcss.co.uk
W: www.falconcss.co.uk
COFFEE BARS
Markey Ltd
39b Park Farm Ind Estate, Buntingford, Hertfordshire, SG9 9AZ
T: 01763 271110
E: info@markey.co.uk
W: www.markey.co.uk
CORPORATE CREW
Ace Crew Ltd Units 3 & 7, Princess Court, Horace Road Kingston upon Thames, KT1 2SL
T: 020 7924 6569
M: 07947 88 66 99
W: www.acecrew.co.uk
Rodeo Crew 128 Wey House, 15 Church Street, Weybridge, Surrey, KT13 8NA
T: 020 8075 7799
E: bookcrew@rodeocrew.uk
W: www.rodeocrew.uk
Crewsaders Ltd
T: +44 (0)345 094 4884
W: www.crewsaders.com
S3K Group
The Old Mill Building, Rookery Farm, Bognor Regis, West Sussex, PO22 6EP
T: 0845 299 7991
E: office@s3kgroup.com
W: www.s3kgroup.com
LinkedIn, Facebook & Instagram: @s3kgroup
Site and Stage Ltd (SAS)
Festival and Event Crew Nationwide
T: 0207 205 2434
M:07770 521521
W: www.siteandstage.co.uk
Trojan Crewing Solutions Ltd
57 Eastbourne Avenue, Acton, London W3 6JS
T: 07341 922974
E: chris@trojancrew.com
W: www.TrojanCrew.com
Iventis
Think Tank, University of Lincoln, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL
T: 01522 837205
W: www.iventis.co.uk
E: info@iventis.co.uk
Eamon Kerrigan:
E: Eamon.kerrigan@iventis.co.uk
ENTERTAINMENT
Odin Events Ltd
Unit 1 RoundHouse Farm, Marston Meysey, SN6 6LL
T: 0800 030 6881
E: info@odinevents.com
W: www.odinevents.com
EQUIPMENT & INFRASTRUCTURE
The Renegade Group
Unit 6a , Mostyn Road Business Park, Mostyn road, CH8 9DQ
T: 01244 631224
E: info@therenegadegroup.co.uk
W: www.therenegadegroup.co.uk
EVENT ACCOMMODATION
Airstream Facilities Ltd
T: 01885 400223
E: info@airstreamfacilities.com
W: www.airstreamfacilities.com
Bunkabin
Tweedale Way, Oldham, OL9 7LD
T: 0345 456 7899
E: hires@bunkabin.co.uk
W: www.bunkabin.co.uk
Zoo Events Group Ltd
Stockton Dairy, Stockton, Warminster, BA12 OSQ
T: 01258 840233
E: info@zooeventsgroup.co.uk
W: www.zooeventsgroup.co.uk
EVENT CONTROL, RADIO & WI-FI SERVICES
Controlled Events
T: 0203 286 6392
E: info@controlledevents.com
Symphotech
Safety. Production. Noise Management
Claire Feeney
T: 0871 711 5264
E: claire@symphotech.co.uk
Award
Winning Results
W: www.controlledevents.com
Halo Solutions Ltd
T: 0800 920 2014
W: www.halosolutions.com
First class Resilience, Readiness, Communication & Control for incidents or pre-planned events.
E: hi@halosolutions.com
EVENT MANAGEMENT
LFX Events
Stockport BIC, Gtr Manchester, SK5 7DL
T: 0161 408 2220
E: enquiries@LFXevents.co.uk
W: www.LFXevents.co.uk
Victorious Events
E: info@victoriousevents.co.uk
T: 07869 701 616
W: victoriousevents.co.uk
EVENT PLANNING
www.controlledevents.com
OnePlan
Kemp House, 152-160 City Road, London EC1V 2NX
W: www.oneplanevents.com
E: hello@oneplanevents.com
E: sophie.mcallister@oneplanevents.com
EVENT PRODUCTION
Productions Hire Limited
Unit 20, Glebe Farm, Fathinghoe, Brackley, NN13 6DN
T: 01280701117
E: Louise@productionhire.com
W: www.productionhire.com
Symphotech
Safety. Production. Noise Management
Claire Feeney
T: 0871 711 5264
E: claire@symphotech.co.uk
EVENT STAFF
Festivall Services
The Circle, 33 Rockingham Lane, Sheffield, South Yorkshire, S1 4FW
M: 07547 509 409
T: 01144 055 044
E: hello@festivall.services
W: www.festivall.services
Moorepeople Event Staffing Agency
1st & 2nd Floor, 169 A High Road, Loughton, Essex, IG10 4LF
T: 0208 508 0555
E: bettina@moorepeople.co.uk
W: www.moorepeople.co.uk
EVENT STAFFING SOFTWARE
uTRAC
24A Lower Abbey St, Dublin 1, Ireland
T: 0808 189 0334
E: hello@utraconline.com
W: www.utraconline.com
EXHIBITION TRAILERS & MOBILE UNITS
DWT Exhibitions
Trailer Hire, Sales & Management
Jubilee Park, Honeypot Lane, Colsterworth, Lincolnshire, NG33 5LZ
T: 01476 860833
E: pip@dwt-exhibitions.co.uk
W: www.dwt-exhibitions.co.uk
Inchmere Event Design Ltd
Swan Close Studios, Swan Close Road, Banbury, OX16 5TE
T: 01295 661000
E: alastair@inchmere.co.uk
W: www.inchmere.co.uk
TCM Trailers Ltd
Watery Lane, Lichfield, Staffordshire, WS13 7SE
E: emily@tcmtrailers.co.uk
EVENT SAFETY
Eep Safety Team Unit 42, Dunsfold Park, Guildford, Surrey, GU6 8TB
T: 01483 266486
E: tom@eepteam.com
W: www.eepsafety.com
LFX Safety
Stockport BIC, Gtr Manchester, SK5 7DL
T: 0161 408 2220
E: enquiries@LFXevents.co.uk
W: www.LFXevents.co.uk
W: www.tcmtrailers.co.uk
FENCING & BARRIERS
MOJO Rental UK Ltd
Unit 3-6 Longpond Works, Wrotham, Borough Green
Kent TN158DE
United Kingdom
T: 01708 687440
W: www.mojorental.com
Sponsored by CTN Exhibitions Limited
FESTIVAL GAS
Festival Gas
Priors Revel, Church lane, Middleton, Nr Tamworth, B78 2AL
T: 07930 758893
E: simon@festivalgas.co.uk
W: www.festivalgas.co.uk
FIRE COVER
Aero Fire & Rescue Ltd
27 Old Gloucester Street London WC1N 3AX
T: 0330 111 3635
E: contact@aerofireandrescue.co.uk
W: www.aerofireandrescue.co.uk
Red Rose Fire Solutions Ltd
6 Brissenden Close
New Romney
Kent TN28 8JD
T: 01995 503504
E: info@redrosefiresolutions.co.uk
FLAGPOLE HIRE
Fuchsia Exhibition Services Ltd
13 Oak Park Industrial Estate, Chelmsford Road, Great Dunmow, Essex, CM6 1XN
T: 01371 644800
E: info@fuchsiaevents.co.uk
W: www.fuchsia-exhibition-services.com
Gigtent UK
Sonas House, Button End Harston
Cambridge, CB22 7NX
T: 01223 870935
E: info@gigtent.co.uk
W: www.gigtent.co.uk
FURNITURE HIRE / SALES
Furniture On The Move
Unit B, Canada warehouse, Chittening industrial estate Worthy road , Avonmouth, Bristol, BS110YB
T: 0845 459 9875
E: info@furnitureonthemove.co.uk
W: www.furnitureonthemove.co.uk
GBJ Event Hire
Graham Jones
T: Office. 0207 205 4226
E: hire@gbjeventhire.co.uk
W: www.gbjeventhire.co.uk
HEATING & COOLING SYSTEMS
FLAGS
Instant Marquees
T: 01840 213063 www.instantmarquees.co.uk
FLOORING & FLOOR COVERINGS
Coir Store
E: andy@coirstore.co.uk
T: 07884303082
W: www.coirstore.co.uk
CTN Exhibitions Limited
Unit G3A, Halesfield 19, Telford, Shropshire, TF7 4QT
T: 01952 680423
E: Sales@ctn-uk.com
W: www.ctn-uk.com
Event Flooring Solutions Ltd
T: 01509 768 252
E: sales@efseurope.co.uk
W: www.efseurope.co.uk
BiemmedueUK & Arcotherm
Unit 12, Wilson Road, South Wigston
Leicester LE18 4TP
T: 01773 836999 | E: sales@biemmedueuk.com
W: www.biemmedueuk.com
Cooling and Heating Solutions Ltd
T: 01590 681 434
E: sales@candhs.co.uk
W: www.coolingandheatingsolutions.com
Spica Temperature Control Solutions Ltd
20 Crowsport, Hamble, Hampshire, SO31 4HG
T: 02380 453841
M: 07780 638976
E: kay@spicasolutions.com
W: www.spicasolutions.com
INSTALLATION & RECYCLING OF FLOORING
CTN Exhibitions Limited
Unit G3A, Halesfield 19, Telford, Shropshire, TF7 4QT
T: 01952 680423
E: Sales@ctn-uk.com
W: www.ctn-uk.com
Arc International
St. Clare House, 30-33 Minories, London, EC3N 1PE
T: 0207 977 7637
W: www.apex-ins.co.uk/arcinternational
Tysers Insurance Brokers
71 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3M 4BS
T: 0203 037 8000
E: tim.rudland@tysers.com
W: www.tysers.com
Alternative Stretch Tents
Building 15, Gateway 1000, A1 (M) jct 7, Stevenage, SG1 2FP
T: 01920 830256
E: info@alternative-stretch.co.uk
Event In A Tent
The Malthouse Business Centre, Regent Street, Llangollen, LL208HS
T: 01978 661449
E: info@event-in-a-tent.co.uk
W: www.event-in-a-tent.co.uk
LASER & FX
Laser Grafix Unit 4A Stratton Park, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, SG18 8QS
W: www.lgfx.co.uk
UK office: 01767 315948
Dubai office: +971 4887 9808
LED SCREENS
EMF Technology Ltd
Unit 27 Freemantle House, Kingsclere Business Park, Kingsclere, Hants, RG20 4SW
T: 020 8003 3344
E: info@emftechnology.co.uk
W: www.emftechnology.co.uk
Lightmedia Displays
Mobile & Modular LED Screen Hire
T: 0333 600 6000 - 24 hour response
E: sales@lightmedia.co.uk
W: www.lightmedia.co.uk
Tech AV Ltd
London, Essex, Birmingham
T: 0345 257 9969
E: lee@techav.events
W: www.techav.events
YSLV
London & York
T: 0800 080 3310
E: hire@yslv.co.uk
W: www.yslv.co.uk
LIGHTING
PART OF
Illumin8
Nick: 07593437891
E: sales@illumin8lights.co.uk
W: www.illumin8lights.co.uk
Fews Marquees
Chessgrove Park, Ditchford Bank Road, Hanbury, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, B60 4HS
T: 01527 821789
E: info@fews.co.uk
W: www.fewsmarquees.co.uk
Gigtent UK
Sonas House, Button End Harston
Cambridge, CB22 7NX
E: info@gigtent.co.uk
W: www.gigtent.co.uk
Instant Marquees
T: 01840 213063 www.instantmarquees.co.uk
Marquee Magic
137-139 Nathan Way, London, SE28 0AB
T: 0800 085 1405
E: info@marqueemagic.co.uk
W: www.marqueemagic.co.uk
TT Tents Ltd
North Waltham Business Centre, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG25 2DJ
T: 01256 397 551
E: sales@tttents.co.uk
Tentickle Stretch Tents UK Ltd
Langley Brook Business Park, Unit 3B London Rd, Tamworth, B78 2BP
T: 0121 7401385
M: 07826 843099
E: jorg@tentickle-stretchtents.co.uk
W: www.tentickle-stretchtents.co.uk
Top Cat Big Tops Tents & Marquees Ltd
The Old Stable Yard, Gasworks Ln, Achynlleth, SY20 8BY
T: 01654 700030
E: info@topcatbigtops.co.uk
W: www.topcatbigtops.co.uk
Yes Tents
4b Hall Farm Business Park, London Road, Weston, Beccles NR348TT
T: 07932 642689
E: paul@yestents.com
W: www.yestents.com
Sponsored by CTN Exhibitions Limited
safety and medical
AlfaMed Specialist Emergency Care and Training
T: 07920 851 232
E: ben@alfamedsect.co.uk
W: www.alfamedsect.co.uk
Alliance Pioneer Group Event Medical, Frontline Ambulance & Patient Transport Services
Hawthorne House, 2nd Floor 25 Darklake View, Estover, Plymouth, PL6 7TL
T: 01752717720
E: mail@alliance-pioneer.co.uk
W: https://alliance-pioneer.co.uk/ Instagram: @alliancepioneergroup
Twitter: @AlliancePGUK
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Alliance.
Pioneer LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/company/ alliance-pioneer-group
Canopy Medical Services Ltd
T: 07514 780025
E: jules@canopymedicalservices.co.uk
W: www.canopymedicalservices.co.uk
Enhanced Care Services
Unit H9, Adanac Park, Adanac Dr, Nursling, Southampton SO16 0BT
T: 02380 201561
E: admin@enhancedcareservices.co.uk
W: www.enhancedcareservices.co.uk
First Aid Cover Ltd
T: 020 8875 5758
E: enquiries@firstaidcover.co.uk
W: www.firstaidcover.co.uk
Location Medical Services Ltd
The Medical Centre, Shepperton Studios, Studio Road, Shepperton, Middx, TW17 0QD
T: 0870 750 9898
E: mail@locationmedical.com
W: www.locationmedical.com
Medirek
8 Primrose Place, Portsmouth Road, Godalming Surrey, GU7 2JW
T: 07776 128 409
E: ryan.soper@medirek.co.uk
W: www.medirek.co.uk
MET Medical Ltd
T: 0203 627 9042
E: info@met-medical.co.uk
W: www.met-medical.co.uk
Trident Medical Limited
Based in Essex, cover events all over the UK
T: 01279 319039
M: 07379 244718
E: events@tridentmedical.co.uk
W: www.tridentmedical.co.uk
NOISE MANAGEMENT
Symphotech
Safety. Production. Noise Management Claire Feeney
T: 0871 711 5264
E: claire@symphotech.co.uk
PHOTOGRAPHY
Aniseed Event Photography
E: jt@aniseedpr.com
W: www.aniseedphoto.com
Twitter: @aniseedphoto
Instagram: @aniseedeventphotography
PLANT HIRE
Ace Plant Blackpit Farm, Silverstone Road, Stowe, Buckinghamshire MK18 5LJ
T: 01908 562191
E: hire@aceplant.co.uk
W: www.aceplant.co.uk
Hopkins Machinery
T: 01633 680754
E: hire@hopkinsmachinery.co.uk
W: www.hopkinsmachinery.co.uk
PORTABLE TOILET HIRE
Four Jays Group Barling Farm, East Sutton, Maidstone, Kent ME17 3DX
T: 01622 843135
E: enquiries@fourjays. co.uk
W: www.fourjays.co.uk
LOOS FOR DOs Ltd
Bakers Court, Forge Road, Kingsley, Hampshire GU35 9NZ
T: 01420 588 355
E: info@loos.co.uk
W: www.loos.co.uk
Just Loos
Paddock Barn, Manor Farm, Itchen Stoke, Hampshire, SO24 0QT
T: 01962 867808
E: office@justloos.com
W: www.JustLoos.com
Ontrax Rentals
Elmwood Farm, Bampton OX18 2PL, England
E: hello@ontraxrentals.com
W: www.ontraxrentals.com
Site Event
The Depot, The Avenue, Lasham, Hampshire GU34 5SU
T: 01256 384 134
E: event@site-equip.co.uk
W: www.site-equip.co.uk
Zoo Events Group Ltd
Stockton Dairy, Stockton, Warminster, BA12 OSQ
T: 01258 840233
E: info@zooeventsgroup.co.uk
W: www.zooeventsgroup.co.uk
CB Potts Electrical
Rose Cottage, Watergore, South Petherton, Somerset, TA13 5JQ
T: 0780 8049034
E: ben.potts@zen.co.uk
W: www.cbpottselectrical.co.uk
Fourth Generation Ltd
220 Cricklewood Lane, London, NW2 2PU
T: 020 8450 2943
M: 07741 052565
E: tweed@fourthgenerationltd.com
W: www.fourthgenerationltd.com
Gofer Ltd
Unit 7 Arkwright Road, Hadleigh Road Ind. Est, Ipswich, Suffolk, IP2 0UB
T: 01473 282530
E: info@gofer.co.uk
W: www.gofer.co.uk
IDE Systems
T: 01543 574 111
E: enquiries@idesystems.co.uk
W: www.idesystems.co.uk
Head Office & Manufacturing Centre
Unit 3, Swaffield Park Hyssop Close, Cannock Staffordshire, WS11 7FU United Kingdom
Lifos Advanced Battery Technology Ltd
Stafford Park 5, Telford, TF3 3AS
T: 01952 200198
E: hello@lifos.co.uk
W: www.lifos.co.uk
Midas Productions (UK) Ltd
Unit 1, Uplandside, Manor Road, Clopton, Suffolk, IP13 6SH
T: 0333 772 0772
M: 07949 007 603
E: info@midas-uk.co.uk
Newburn Power Rental Limited
Unit 36 Lidgate Crescent, Langthwaite Business Park, South Kirkby, Pontefract, WF9 3NR
T: 0845 077 6693
E: info@npr-uk.com
Power Events
T: 01277 424800
E: enquiries@powerevents.co.uk
W: www.powerevents.co.uk
Power Revolution
23C Shepherds Grove Ind Est, Stanton Bury St Edmunds, IP31 2AR
T: 01359 256 265
E: info@power-revolution.co.uk
W: www.power-revolution.co.uk
PRINTERS
Powerline
Knowle Hill Farm, Beeks Lane, Marshfield, Chippenham, Wiltshire, SN14 8BB
T: 01225 892336
E: info@thepowerline.co.uk
W: www.thepowerline.co.uk
Progen Power Ltd
Belvedere House, Pynes Hill, Exeter,Devon, EX2 5WS
T: 0330 165 5720
E: info@progenpower.co.uk
W: www.progenpower.co.uk
Stuart Power Ltd
Stuart House, Hargham Road, Shropham, Norfolk, NR17 1DT
T: 01953 454540
E: enquiries@stuartgroup.info
W: www.stuartgroup.ltd.uk/power
UK Flyers
Suite 210, Victory House, Somers Road, North Portsmouth, HampshirePO1 1PJ
T: 023 9229 3050
E: sales@ukflyers.com
W: www.ukflyers.com
PRODUCTION AND PROJECT SUPPORT
Smartrad Creative Ltd
5 George Street, Snaith, DN14 9HY smartradcreativeprojects@gmail.com www.smartrad.org
T: 07711469787
PROJECTION
EMF Technology LTD
Projection Mapping, Water Screens, Flame Effects, Lighting, Mains Distribution
T: 020 8003 3344
E: info@emftechnology.co.uk
W: www.emftechnology.co.uk
RADIO COMMUNICATIONS
2CL Communications Ltd
Unit C, Woodside Trade Centre, Parnham Drive, Eastleigh, Hampshire, SO50 4NU
T: 0800 389 2278
E: contact@2cl.co.uk
W: www.2cl.co.uk
DCRS
Edison Road, St.Ives, Cambs, PE27 3LH
T: 0800 043 2688
E: sales@dcrs.co.uk
W: www.dcrs.co.uk
SFL Mobile Radio
6 Woodway Court, Thursby Road
Bromsborough, CH62 3PR
T: 0151 334 9160
E: sales@sflmobileradio.co.uk
W: www.sflmobileradio.co.uk/
REUSABLE CUPS
Green Goblet Ltd
Unit 1A Walrow Industrial Estate, Commerce Way, Highbridge, TA9 4AG
T: 01278 238390
E: info@green-goblet.com
W: www.green-goblet.com
Blue Planet Washing Solutions
Unit 15 GIDC, Cobham Way, Crawley, West Sussex, RH10 9RX
T: 01293 302007
T: 07917 040044
E: info@blueplanetws.co.uk
W: www.blueplanetws.co.uk
Staged Events Ltd
Meadow View, Newnham Lane, Old Basing, Hampshire, RG24 7AU
T: 01256578055
E: info@wearestaged.com
W: www.stagedevents.com
Zoo Events Group Ltd
Stockton Dairy, Stockton, Warminster, BA12 OSQ
T: 01258 840233
E: info@zooeventsgroup.co.uk
W: www.zooeventsgroup.co.uk
SEATING
Ace Seating Hire
T: 01832 279333
E: info@aceseating.co.uk
W: www.aceseating.co.uk
SECURITY
McKenzie Arnold Grove House, Faulkbourne, Essex, CM8 1SH
T: 01376 350999
E: martin.jackson@mckenziearnold.com
W: www.mckenziearnold.com
Newman Event Services Ltd
Crowd Management, Festival & Event Security/Stewarding.
Bloxham Mill, Barford Road, Bloxham, Oxfordshire, OX15 4FF
T: 01295 722844
E: enquiries@newmanevents.co.uk
W: www.newmanevents.co.uk
Protegimus Security Ltd
Unit 1, Station Terrace,Station Road, Kegworth, Derbyshire, DE&$ 2GE
T: 01509 670424
T: 01332 792991 (voicemail)
E: admin@protegimus-security.com
W: www.protegimus-security.com
Right Guard Security
Experts in Crowd Management and Event Security
T: 01227 464588
E: info@rightguard.co.uk
W: www.rightguard.co.uk
Concept Products Ltd
10 Cary Court, Somerton Business Park, Somerton, TA11 6SB
T: 01458 274020
E: ben@conceptproductsltd.co.uk
W: www.conceptproductsltd.co.uk
The Stage Bus
19 Prestwood Road, Birmingham, B29 5EB
T: 0121 585 9264
E: info@thestagebus.com
W: www.thestagebus.com
Road Traffic Solutions
60-64 Oswald Road, Scunthorpe, DN15 7PQ
T: 01724 848 246
E: dan@roadtrafficsolutions.com
W: www.roadtrafficsolutions.com
Cap Trac Limited
The Stables, Loke Farm, Weston Longville, Norwich, NR9 5LG
T: 01603 880448
E: info@captrac.co.uk
W: www.captrac.co.uk
Event In A Tent
The Malthouse Business Centre, Regent Street, Llangollen, LL208HS
T: 01978 661449
E: info@event-in-a-tent.co.uk
W: www.event-in-a-tent.co.uk
Fews Marquees
Chessgrove Park, Ditchford Bank Road, Hanbury, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, B60 4HS
T: 01527 821789
E: info@fews.co.uk
W: www.fewsmarquees.co.uk
Gigtent UK
Sonas House, Button End Harston, Cambridge, CB22 7NX
E: info@gigtent.co.uk
W: www.gigtent.co.uk
LH Woodhouse
Wolds Farm, The Fosse, Cotgrave, Nottingham, NG12 3HG
Delivering successful events
T: 01159 899 899
E: sales@lhwoodhouse.co.uk
W: www.lhwoodhouse.co.uk
Losberger De Boer
Castle Park, Boundary Road, Brackley, Northamptonshire, NN13 7ES
T: 01280 846500
E: sales.uk@losbergerdeboer.com
W: www.losbergerdeboer.com/uk
Mehler Texnologies UK Ltd.
Hollinwood Business Centre
Albert Street, Oldham, Lancs. OL8 3QL
E: info-uk@freudenberg-pm.com
W: www.mehler-texnologies.com
NEPTUNUS Ltd
Cob Drive, Swan Valley, Northampton NN4 9BB
T: 01604 593820
E: sales@neptunus.co.uk
W: www.neptunus.co.uk
Tentickle Stretch Tents UK Ltd
Langley Brook Business Park, Unit 3B London Rd, Tamworth, B78 2BP
T: 0121 7401385
M: 07826 843099
E: jorg@tentickle-stretchtents.co.uk
W: www.tentickle-stretchtents.co.uk
The Dome Company
T: 07876673354
E: info@thedomecompany.co.uk
W: www.thedomecompany.co.uk
The Theatre Tent Company
Unit 4 Grimes Close, Birstall, Leicester LE4 3EN
T: 01162674151
E: sayhello@theatretent.eu
W: www.TheatreTent.co.uk
TT Tents Ltd
North Waltham Business Centre, Basingstoke, Hampshire, RG25 2DJ
T: 01256 397 551
E: sales@tttents.co.uk
W: www.tttents.co.uk
Worldwide Structures Ltd
Ayrshire Farm, Sharcott, Pewsey, SN9 5PA
T: 01672 565 060 / +44 (0) 7875 027369
E: enquiries@w-sl.com
W: www.worldwidestructures.com
J & J. Carter Ltd
Unit 2, 34 Walworth Road, Walworth Business Park, Andover, Hampshire, SP10 5LH
T: 01264 721630
E: sales@jjcarter.com
W: www.jjcarter.com
Citizen Ticket
84 Commercial St, Leith, Edinburgh, EH6 6LX
E: info@citizenticket.co.uk
W: www.citizenticket.com
RedBox Events
Balbir House, Norton Green Road,Stevenage, Herts, SG1 2LP
T: 0333 242 7920
E: info@RedBoxEvents.com
W: www.redboxevents.com
Skiddle Ltd
Ashley Hall Farm Inglewhite Road, Goosnargh PR3 2EB
W: www.skiddle.com
All Weather Access Ltd
County Farm, High Roding, Dunmow, Essex CM6 1NQ
T: 01371 700510
M: 07801 751137
E: henry@all-weatheraccess.co.uk
W: www.all-weatheraccess.co.uk
GT Trax Ltd
High Tree Farm House, New Road, Warboys, Cambridgeshire, PE28 2SS
T: 01487 823344
E: info@gttrax.co.uk
W: www.gttrax.co.uk
Twitter: @GTTrax
TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT
Event Traffic Control Ltd
Baldersby Gardens, Ripon Road, Baldersby, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, YO7 4PS
T: 08000 246 800
E: info@eventtc.com
W: www.eventtc.com
Right Guard Traffic Management
Event Traffic Management
CSAS Accredited Traffic Officers
Car Parking
Event Signage
T: 01227 464588
E: info@rightguard.co.uk
W: www.rightguard.co.uk
Road Traffic Solutions
60-64 Oswald Road, Scunthorpe,DN15 7PQ
T: 01724 848 246
E: dan@roadtrafficsolutions.com
W: www.roadtrafficsolutions.com
TRANSPORTATION & LOGISTICS
Stagefreight
Evanston Avenue, Leeds LS4 2HR
T: 0113 238 0805 / 0113 279 7898
W: www.stagefreight.com
VEHICLE HIRE
Bradshaw Event Vehicles
New Lane, Stibbington, Peterborough, PE8 6LW
T: 01780 782621
E: enquiries@eventvehicles.co.uk
W: www.eventvehicles.co.uk
Twitter: @Bradshaw_EV
VENUE MAPPING
Iventis
Think Tank, University of Lincoln, Ruston Way, Lincoln, LN6 7FL
T: 01522 837205
E: info@iventis.co.uk
Eamon Kerrigan:
E: Eamon.kerrigan@iventis.co.uk
W: www.iventis.co.uk
WATER & PLUMBING SERVICES
Liquiline Ltd
Ash Tree House, Tarrant Hinton, Blandford, Dorset, DT11 8JA
T: 01258 830324
DRINKING WATER
PURE & SIMPLE
E: office@liquiline.co.uk
W: www.liquiline.co.uk
MTD (UK & Ireland) Ltd
Unit 1 Westerngate, Hillmead Enterprise Park, Langley Road, Swindon, SN5 5WN
T: 01264 773 818
E: sales.uk@mtd.net
W: www.mtd.net
Wicked Event Water Services
Kevin: 07909 771996
E: info@wickedeventwaterservices.com
W: www.wews.biz
WIFI, INTERNET & STREAMING
Attend2it
Unit 8 Park Farm Industrial Estate, Ermine Street, Buntingford, SG9 9AZ
T: 01763 877 477
T: 01763 878 086
E: info@attend2it.co.uk
W: www.attend2it.co.uk
Fli-Fi Ltd
UK Wide
T: 020 3778 0454
E: enquiries@fli-fi.com
W: www.fli-fi.com
RedBox Events
Balbir House, Norton Green Road, Stevenage, Herts, SG1 2LP
T: 0333 242 7920
E: info@RedBoxEvents.com
W: www.redboxevents.com
SimpliWifi
Unit 13, Leominster Enterprise Park, Leominster, Herefordshire, Hr6 0LX
T: 0800 298 9434
E: hello@simpliwifi.agency
W: https://simpliwifi.agency
Editor Caroline Clift caroline@standoutmagazine.co.uk
Publication manager
Sarah Bourne sarah@standoutmagazine.co.uk
Account executives
Holley Wilkinson holley@standoutmagazine.co.uk
Will Smith will@standoutmagazine.co.uk
Marketing executive
Katie Goldsmith marketing@standoutmagazine.co.uk
Design and production
Jonathan Graham
Colin Swaffer
Jemma Heslop studio@standoutmagazine.co.uk
Digital and web developer
Matthew Coppard
Credit control
Janine Walmsley creditcontrol@standoutmagazine.co.uk
Publisher
Neil Fagg neil@standoutmagazine.co.uk
T: 01795 509101
Managing director
John Denning
StandOut Multimedia Limited, Park Grange, Evegate Business Park, Smeeth, Ashford, Kent, TN25 6SX
T: 01795 509113 www.standoutmagazine.co.uk
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