Main Event (September 2010)

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Issue 43 September 2010 £4.75

Organiser wins legal fight

Festivalgoers boosting UK tourism trade

By Christina Eccles MAJOR outdoor events are boosting the UK’s tourism industry by encouraging festivalgoers to explore the surrounding areas and stay for longer.

According to research from stonewool insulation producers Rockwool, the UK will host 2,820 days of major festivals throughout 2010 – taking place up and down the country.

And tourism bosses are increasingly marketing events as a reason for people to visit an area or to extend their break.

Visit Peak District and Derbyshire is one area benefiting from this – using the popularity of events such as the Buxton Festival and Derby Festé to attract visitors.

Head of marketing David Thornton said: “The Peak District and Derbyshire is growing in popularity as the ideal place to enjoy all kinds of arts and music festivals.

“And because they’re staged throughout the year, they offer lots of opportunities to come here for a culture-packed short break.”

The Mouth of the Tyne festival attracts about 150,000 people to North Tyneside and organisers have noticed an increase in the number of people attending who live outside the region.

North Tyneside Council’s tourism and events project officer Laura Picton added: “Year on year, the event has a growing attendance from the wider North East region and beyond, and statistics from a visitor survey showed that six per cent of attendees were from outside of the region.

“This event is an example of how we use the coastal lifestyle and stunning tourist setting to engage residents and visitors in exciting events and festivals that can provide economic and social benefits to the area.”

At the Green Man festival in Wales, visitors can buy a ticket which allows them to stay for an extra four days – turning their trip into a holiday.

Organiser Fiona Stewart added: “Festivals have changed a lot. Music is still at the heart but there is now an expectation to do more and they are seen as much more of a holiday.

“We don’t get anything out of [the holiday ticket] as festival organisers but it really adds value and quality to the tickets.

“And when they stay longer, they buy food and go to restaurants or attractions so it’s a win-win situation.

“Festivals can reach so many sorts of people and can really drive tourism in an area.”

A FESTIVAL organiser has won a legal battle against Manchester City Council following the cancellation of a music festival he was staging in the city.

Mike Forrester, director of Gold National Events, brought legal action against MCC after he was granted permission to stage the Bob Marley Tribute Festival at Platt Fields Park in 2008, which was later withdrawn. The council claimed they were acting on police advice but Det. Chief Supt David Keller of Greater Manchester Police said in court that although he had reservations as to Gold National Events safely organising the festival, he had not advised its cancellation.

Mike said: “MCC had given no adequate reasoning for their refusal to honour the contract and this has cost my company £500k from legal costs and loss of earnings. I am very proud of this positive outcome of the case as it represents an important landmark for the ‘ordinary man in the street.”

It is hoped the court will set a date this month for the award of damages and costs.

Alice Cooper was one of the star attractions at the UK leg of Sonisphere, which took place at Knebworth Park.

The festival – now in its second year – was headlined by Rammstein and Iron Maiden and was enjoyed by an extra 15,000 fans after organisers decided to increase its capacity to 55,000.

Full story, Round up, starting on Page 13

The Main Event is the official magazine of the National Outdoor Events Association

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Hartlepool event sails into record books

Don’t miss Part 3 of our 2010 Festival Round-up featuring events like Sonisphere, Leeds Party in the Park, London Mela and Ben and Jerry’s Starting on Page 13 Robbie one of the first to agree to Help the Heroes Page 4

By Christina Eccles THE organisers of the Tall Ships Races in Hartlepool have achieved their ambition of becoming England’s biggest free event of the year after attracting an estimated 970,000 people.

Crowds descended on the town over four days to see the tall ships as well as a busy entertainment programme, which included live music from acts such as Echo and the Bunnymen and Doves, a world market, celebrity chefs, street theatre and fireworks displays.

Project manager Michelle Daurat from Hartlepool Borough Council told The Main Event it was an ‘overwhelming success’, which will hopefully pave the way for more major events to come to the area.

And she said that part of this success was down to careful planning and studying previous tall ships races to see what they could learn.

She explained: “We did a lot of research into previous host ports and talked to the organisers of the overall races, Sail Training International.

“We went into more detail in the British ports to understand their experiences and to learn from them. But every port is different so we also had to understand our own area.”

The town was the only UK host

Local authority spotlight 2012: Pleasure or pain?

Page 11 Page 8

Kendal Calling NOEA Classified

Page 12 Page 21 Page 23

CONTACTS EDITORIAL Group Editor Andrew Harrod Tel: 01226 734639 editorial@themaineventmagazine.co.uk Reporters:

port this year and also the final port of call so the team was tasked with making sure the event went off with a bang.

Michelle added that the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean’ style ships provided a magnificent spectacle for visitors and was also complemented by a free event programme, which was also a good draw.

She added that overall everything went really well but as always when running a major event, there were lessons to be learned along the way.

“The scale and size of the event

was our biggest challenge and the fact that Hartlepool is only a small town.

“There are two main roads in and out of town, which meant we had to think carefully about car parking and traffic management and make sure we had good crowd management in place.

“We are now wrapping up this event and then we will start looking at our future events programme.

“We have shown we can attract large scale events and would now like to hold more.”

The Projection Studio’s Ross Ashton designed and produced an eye catching array of images appearing on the walls of Edinburgh Castle for the Edinburgh Royal Military Tattoo.

This year marked the 60th anniversary of the show and featured over 1000 performers choreographed in a lively and energetic mix of music, song, dance and drama.

Ross said: “It's always a great privilege to be asked to work on such a unique and high profile a show like this.

“Even more so as the true potential of projection has proved itself and has a real commitment from the organisers.”

Christina Eccles (ce@whpl.net) Emma Spencer (emmas@whpl.net) Louise Cordell (lcordell@whpl.net) Dominic Musgrave (dm@whpl.net)

PRODUCTION Studio Manager: Stewart Holt (sth@whpl.net) Tel: 01226 734414 Group Deputy Editor: Judith Halkerston (jhalkerston@whpl.net) Tel: 01226 734458 Graphic designer: Kyle Wilkinson (kw@whpl.net) Tel: 01226 734711

ADVERTISING Group Sales Manager: Paul Allott Tel: 01226 734484 Fax: 01226 734478 Mob: 07500 905717 Email: pa@whpl.net Sales Executive: Mandy Mellor Tel: 01226 734702 Email: mm@whpl.net Sales and Marketing Director: Tony Barry Email: tb@whpl.net

CIRCULATION Kelly Tarff Tel: 01226 734695 email: circulation@wharncliffepublishing.co.uk

www.themaineventmagazine.co.uk

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Fiona Stewart has worked in the industry for over 20 years and is the woman behind some of the UK’s most successful festivals. Here she shares her experiences with The Main Event.

Events must keep themselves unique and interesting FIONA has been credited as one of the founders of the ‘boutique’ festival phenomenon because of her work on both the Big Chill and Green Man festivals.

Her varied career has also included working for the Foreign Office and the Home Office, assessing crowd behaviour at large scale events before making the move into organising events herself.

She told The Main Event that over the years, the festival market has changed a lot and that the boutique element is becoming increasingly popular with festivalgoers.

She explained: “I went to events which were quite basic and the food there was also quite basic. I like good living and I love food and couldn’t understand why that offering was never there at festivals. It just seemed obvious.

“There are now some brilliant events out there. I tend not to go to many myself but there are some great ones such as Bestival and Latitude.

“But we have to be careful they don’t all become the same and keep themselves unique and interesting.”

Fiona added that one of her biggest achievements is changing the way which people view going to festivals.

She added: “I am proud of changing people’s attitudes about events.

At Lulworth Castle – which was the previous home of the Big Chill – it was a difficult event site and it was quite bigoted. We had to go for

endless meetings. At that time, local councils could stop organisers from having big events by having a big licence fee. The Big Chill had had its problems the year before and that reputation had got to the event site.

“But the event turned out to be really successful. A lady came up to me afterwards and embraced me and said that she had lived there all her life and had never seen anything like that.

“Running a festival is like being a town planner. My background helps from the point of view of designing the event and I have also been very lucky to be able to put events on in such beautiful places – we have always used the area’s natural beauty within the festivals.”

The Green Man festival has become one of Fiona’s biggest successes and since joining the festival in 2005 has grown it from a capacity of 1,000 people to an estimated 15,000 this year.

And she added that although sponsorship may be the right route for some organisers, The Green Man prefers to do things differently.

“People don’t like hypocrisy. If they know at the event, there is going to be a presence from sponsors they are usually fine about it.

But they don’t like to be lied to.

“We’ve never really gone down that route with the Green Man because we’ve never found the right sponsor or brand. At the festival we offer very good food and

Fiona Stewart have had a lot of offers from sponsors, which have been really tempting. But ultimately it would mean that people who have been going for years would end up getting less than they do anyway and they would notice.

“It would be silly to say we would have no sponsorship completely but any sponsor would have to be a

good fit with the event.

“But it’s a hard thing running a festival and people have to find their own way.”

The Main Event will be catching up with Fiona on site at this year’s Green Man Festival. See next month’s festival round up for a feature on the event.

Lighting firm overcomes challenges

Robbie Williams, James Blunt and Alexandra Burke are among the first acts announced for an historic concert to appreciate the country’s military heroes. The concert will be held at Twickenham Stadium in front of 60,000 fans – with all proceeds going to the Help for Heroes charity.

DBN Lighting overcame some unusual challenges when working on a spectacular outdoor event in Liverpool.

The company supplied stage lighting to two recent high profile Liverpool City Council events – A Wave At Picasso and Dance On the Waterfront – working for creative producers, Walk The Plank.

The free events took place on and around the Pierhead area of downtown Liverpool and were part of a lively programme of public shows and installations staged throughout the summer.

Staged in Salthouse Quay and directed by Mark Murphy, Wave at Picasso was an imaginative combination of canoeists, coordinated swimmers and dancing boats, together with fire performers, pyrotechnics, sound and projections, all choreographed into a daring performance.

Stephen Page from DBN was asked to create a lighting design for the show which incorporated illumination of the docks and the

surrounding environmental elements like jetties, as well as lighting the performers on the water – with the audience viewing from around three sides.

He said: “Walk the Plank shows are always interesting, varied, experimental and fun, and often in great site specific locations.

One of the many physical chal-

lenges of this one was that there were no rigging points for lighting.”

This meant all the lighting kit had to be positioned around the dock – a large area measuring over a kilometre all the way around – in a very narrow space between the crowd barriers and the dock wall.

Another challenge was the weather as it was extremely hostile on the dress rehearsal night, delivering gale force winds and torrential rain, resulting in the water level of the dock increasing considerably for the show day. To combat this, much tweaking was needed to get lights pointing in the right positions.

Despite the challenges, everything went smoothly on the night and the show was enjoyed by around 50,000 spectators over the weekend.

A few weeks later the company returned to Liverpool to work on another Walk the Plank event – Dance on The Waterfront.

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Clients’ expectations within the industry of suppliers and their health and safety standards are steadily rising.

Heath Freeman, managing director of Pinnacle Crew, outlines how he believes crews can operate more professionally and safely to go that extra mile and really make a difference to a client.

What you can expect from a crew THERE are a number of client expectations that any professional crewing company should meet. These range from providing prompt quotes, being able to deal with last minute orders and amendments effectively, to offering a 24-hour service and additional crew to cover unforeseen problems, and having enough vehicles to move crew around the country within tight deadlines.

Just as importantly, it is to be expected that any crewing company worth its salt should be offering a dedication to on-going, recognised health and safety training, with crew trained in the right competencies and equipped with the necessary tools, prepared to tackle – within health and safety boundaries –whatever needs to be done to allow the job to run smoothly.

In addition, health and safety is further assured by team leaders who are professional and trained in how to lead an effective crew.

These are all obvious offerings for a crewing company, but I believe there are a few less obvious factors that crewing companies should master to become truly professional.

Crew must have to have a willing-

ness to learn; and understand what clients expect of them.

They also need to be aware of the health and safety factors that apply to a wide variety of equipment, and of the possible hazards.

This can be achieved by working with clients to provide training in other aspects of the industry, giving an insight into the various disciplines – such as staging, lighting, AV, power – that are encountered on site.

In this way clients are able to rely on crew to do so much more than merely carry heavy kit – and do it in a safe and effective way.

Beyond this initial type of training, I firmly believe in a system of on-site mentoring for all new crew.

New members should always work alongside an experienced senior crew member for at least two months until they gain enough experience to assess and recognise hazards.

It should also be remembered that experienced crew are a resource, and, if used correctly, a very valuable resource.

Crews work on hundreds of jobs in a year. This means that they have a unique insight into health and safety

and operations on-site as they have seen numerous and perhaps similar jobs executed in a variety of ways. In addition, crew come from many different backgrounds.

We have plumbers, electricians, chippies, firemen and engineers working for us.

They have a wealth of knowledge about efficient and safe methods of working that may be useful at no additional cost.

Regular client contact and feedback

is also important in evaluating whether crew are operating efficiently and safely.

In this way, the service that is truly required is delivered and any issues resolved at an early stage.

Taken together, the result of proper training and client feedback is consistency of crew quality, safe crewing, and client confidence that even when things go wrong the crewing company will come up trumps every time.

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Right ingredients give festival its best year yet

By Christina Eccles AN ambitious attitude and securing higher profile artists helped the Rochdale Feel Good Festival achieve its best year ever.

The festival started life in 2008 as a healthy living event supported by the NHS, which included a small food market.

But organisers soon noticed the potential for the festival to grow and over the last two years have expanded its offering to include music – this year the headline act was the Lightning Seeds – and demonstrations from celebrity chefs such as Gino D’Acampo.

And the decision to do this made the festival more popular than ever as it attracted a record number of visitors this year – over 10,000 people across two days.

Organiser Mark Roberts said: “This year we dramatically increased the scale of the festival. There was a lot more music – we went for higher profile acts with a more popular appeal – and there was more on the food side.

We also started to think bigger and become more ambitious.”

To promote the festival, warm up events were held throughout the bor-

ough in the weeks running up to the main event.

42,000 festival brochures were also distributed to local residents and a dedicated Facebook fan page set up to raise awareness of the festival.

Mark added that the combination of high quality food and top music acts has helped the festival to become well established and attract visitors from all over the North West region – a tradition which organisers hope to continue.

He added: “At festivals normally the food is quite basic, but we have introduced gourmet food which is a good mix.

“Being free is also fundamental. We had a good line up and for people not to have to pay for tickets was a fantastic draw.

“Feedback has been fabulous and as it becomes more successful we have had more businesses coming to us saying they want to be involved.

“The event also encouraged people to come into the town centre and shop locally and the street entertainment and theatre really brought it to life. I can’t think of any other way we could get so many people in the town. It was brilliant.”

Golf success for event company HERTFORDSHIRE based event production company Smyle will produce the prestigious opening and closing ceremonies for the 2010 Ryder Cup. The company will be taking responsibility for show production, staging and set design for both ceremonies – working closely with ES Group to assist with the staging and in con-

junction with Sky Sports on the show production.

Managing director Rick Stainton said: “We are very proud to be involved with this globally televised event, particularly as it is one of the world’s leading sporting events being held in the UK this year.”

The event takes place next month at The Celtic Manor Resort in Wales.

Expanded conference details announced ORGANISERS of the Festival Awards UK Conference have announced details of this year’s event.

The conference has expanded for this year – with new media partners Brand Republic and Audience on board – as well as an increased

number of panel discussions.

Topics up for discussion include making your festival profitable and anti crime initiatives at events.

It takes place on November 18 at the British Music Experience, part of The O2 in London.

Coventry’s Ricoh Arena has reached a milestone fifth anniversary.

Since opening in 2005, the award-winning £113m venue has had over seven million visitors – including about 334,000 spectators who have watched concerts from acts including Take That, pictured,

and Bon Jovi.

Chief executive Daniel Gidney said: “There is absolutely no doubt that the Ricoh Arena has taken the standard of sporting, conference, exhibition and entertainment facilities to a new level within the Midlands.”

De Boer geared for Speed DE Boer joined the biggest names and the finest cars in motorsport at this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed – supplying temporary showrooms for some of the world’s leading motor manufacturers.

The company provided services to five exhibitors at the event, including main sponsor Alfa Romeo, where it erected an Alu Hall measuring 20m

by 25m for the Italian car maker.

The De Boer team, who were on site for six weeks prior to the show starting, also provided last year’s main sponsor Audi with a scaffolding subbase for its showroom covering 2,700 square metres. As part of the project, the company installed flooring, decking tiles, hand-rails, staircases, entrance ramps and cladding.

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With the 2012 Olympics less than two years away, all eyes will be on the UK and how the country stages a major event. In this month’s column, Andy Cotton explores the impact it may have on the industry.

London 2012: a pleasure or a pain?

THE London Olympics; if you believe what you read in various newspapers is either the saviour of the country and will pull us from recession, or it is a total waste of millions of the taxpayers’ money.

So what does it mean for the event industry? I don’t use the term UK event industry, as it will be open to all.

The Olympics in 2012 will have multi-millions of pounds’ worth of contracts up for grabs which should be fantastic to the UK event industry in these recessionary times. But before we all go out and buy a new Toyota Prius (as you need to be sustainable if you want to fit in with LOCOG guidelines) there are questions that need to be asked.

Will tenders be selected on lowest possible price? It may be stated ‘best value’ but that is usually a paraphrase for ‘rock bottom price’.

Does that preclude the extremely good smaller companies who need to make a certain proportion of profit and benefit the bigger companies who can sacrifice profit to

buy the work for the marketing benefits?

Will non-disclosure and non-marketing rights agreements from LOCOG prevent winning bidders from exploiting their association with London 2012 – especially if they have had to sacrifice profit to win a bid?

Also, are the tenders pre-decided before they even go out? This is certainly something I am sure most of us have felt over the years with local authority and government tenders, that the winning party tenders just to make the system look fair – or am I being far too cynical?

I wonder, will the whole process of working on London 2012 be a pleasure or a pain? Let’s not forget it is committee driven with numerous civil servants in the driving seat, as opposed to event professionals. We all know the saying: “…is a camel a horse designed by committee?”

The London 2012 Olympics will come into our ‘green and pleasant land’ for one year only before flying off again to another continent,

leaving the country with more inner city sports facilities for the next decade or so. However let us not forget, didn’t the Vikings do the same; came in, plundered and left?

There will still be plenty of work in 2012 for the events industry from all of our current clients that year in year out employ us to produce their annual events. Yes, some may take a year off because of the supposed impact of the Olympics, but most will still be there as they were in 2011 – and will be in 2013.

We as an industry still have to give our ‘bread and butter’ work the best professional service possible, as this is long term.

There is also the massive amount of overseas work that UK companies take on every year and this will not be affected by the Olympics coming to London.

I hope that the London 2012 Olympics bring us all just rewards, but prior to spending money and time on tenders there has to be questions asked – certainly I won’t be trying for the 100m dash!

Pixie Lott has been named the hottest female festival star in a poll by Viagogo.

Black Eyed Peas singer Fergie and The Saturdays’ Frankie Sandford were voted second and third, followed

by Cheryl Cole in fourth place.

Other acts in the top 10 included Diana Vickers and Lily Allen.

Andy Cotton

Thunderstorms fail to dampen spirits NEARLY 20,000 fans defied the weather at this year’s Fairport’s Cropredy Convention.

Celebrating its 30th anniversary, the festival took place in Oxfordshire and despite intermittent rain on all three days and a torrential downpour on the Saturday, a large crowd enjoyed the weekend.

Festival director Gareth Williams said: "The festival was a huge success and we had a bumper crowd. But for the very wet weather on Saturday we would have sold out: as it was, the rain meant we still had a few tickets left at the end of the day. But the thunderstorms did nothing to dampen the audience's spirited enthusiasm and very nearly everyone stayed until the music finished at midnight.

"I'm always amazed at how enthusiastic our crowd is - I take my hat off to their fortitude. But Cropredy is all about the music and our festivalgoers enjoy the performances come rain or shine."

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The Mouth of the Tyne festival is one of the North East’s most popular events – and an annual success story for organisers North Tyneside Council. Tourism and events project officer Laura Picton answered our quick questions.

Talk of the Tyne ...

How many people did the festival attract?

The event attracted over 150,000 people, across Tynemouth and South Shields.

Were you pleased with how it went?

The festival was a brilliant success with thousands of people turning out to enjoy themselves. People of all ages soaked up the atmosphere, from young children performing in the pageant to grandparents enjoying the jazz music. As a result of collaborative working between local authorities and arts practitioners, performers from around the world gathered for a celebration of world-class street entertainment, live music and special one-off performances.

Local residents supported it, schools got right behind it, local businesses embraced it and most of all everyone benefited from it in some shape or form. The community aspect is vital and is always at the forefront of our mind when organising the festival.

What were the most popular events?

The Saturday evening concert is always the event that attracts the most attention and is the only element of the festival that is a ticket only, paid for event. This year, James Morrison wowed crowds with a fantastic performance at Tynemouth Priory and Castle – an English Heritage property. Past performers have included Beverley Knight and The Script.

Other highlights of the 2010 festival

included a spectacular parade and fireworks and a pageant involving hundreds of local schoolchildren.

What were your biggest challenges when pulling the event together?

The biggest challenge we faced this year was managing the event on a much tighter budget and still meeting visitor expectations.

We countered the reduction in marketing spend by attracting sponsorship. We also made the budgetary situation clear to prospective performers who were all asked to make their fees as reasonable as possible.

How is the event good for tourism?

Year on year, the event has a growing attendance from the wider North East region and beyond, and statistics from a visitor survey showed that six per cent of attendees were from outside of the region.

Data capture from ticket sales via Ticketmaster for the James Morrison concert showed that people travelled from throughout the UK and Europe to attend.

Local hoteliers, B&Bs, restaurants, bars, shops and other local amenities benefited from the festival. Research showed that visitors spent an average of £7 each during their visit. This event in particular is an example of how we use the coastal lifestyle and stunning tourist setting to engage residents and visitors in exciting events and festivals that can provide economic and social benefits to the area.

Huge response to portable staging system SUPPLIER of the leading Revostage product Panel Systems has reported a huge response to its portable staging system, with greater interest than ever before from events companies, schools and choirs.

Revostage, which is made in Sheffield, is a lightweight, portable staging system that is suitable for a wide variety of different professionally staged events, including the education, arts and leisure, hotels and entertainment industry. In fact, Panel Systems were recently proud to supply Revostage to The Royal Albert Memorial Museum. It is designed to be extremely easy to erect and dismantle, requiring minimum storage space, as well as offering the flexibility of many different layout options.

The product can be ordered online through the new website. Here, users can find a wealth of information about Revostage itself, including how easy it is to erect and dismantle and how it can be stored in the minimum amount of space. Another useful addition to the website is the stage designer tool which enables customers to build a stage online to suit their size requirements – and it even calculates the price as you design.

For more information visit www.revostage.co.uk or call (0114) 249 5635

Complexities of Latitude SUPPLIERS on site at Latitude managed to work with a number of unusual performance spaces at this year’s event.

Innovation Power supplied electrical power – working in every area from the campsite to the main stage.

And managing director Rob Hutchinson told The Main Event that Latitude is different to your average music festival because of the number of diverse spaces which organisers are programming in.

Managing director Rob Hutchinson said: “Latitude is a very complex

show, which is quite tricky to do so takes longer than normal. The event has a massive amount of infrastructure, with stages on the lake and in the woods so it is not your normal show.”

Protecting the environment was also high on the agenda for Rob and his team who introduced green initiatives wherever possible.

He added: “We reduced about 30 per cent of our overall fuel use by using biodiesel and we try to improve things where we can.”

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SO FESTIVAL

An estimated 30,000 people took to the streets of Skegness for four days of spectacular entertainment at the SO Festival. Christina Eccles found out more.

Festival changes perception of what Skegness has to offer AMONG the delighted visitors to this year’s festival was Bill Morris – director of culture, ceremonies and education for London 2012 – who wanted to find out more about the event.

He was one of an estimated 6,000 people gathered on the town’s Tower Esplanade on the Friday night to see magical flying drummers, Transe Express – an event which took place on the eve of the Olympics opening weekend, marking two years until the start of 2012.

The following night about 16,000 people were treated to the story of Perle by Plasticiens Volants.

The event involved a parade of giant, helium-filled sea creatures, which travelled along Grand Parade before the firework finale and switchon of Skegness’ illuminations.

According to organisers, East Lindsey District Council, the whole festival was really well received by both residents and visitors and marks a change in perceptions about what Skegness has to offer as a destination for arts, culture and major events.

As little as two years ago, the council was going down the route of a traditional illuminations switch on but after introducing the SO Festival to the town last year, discovered a real appetite for major events and cultural experiences – and Skegness has never looked back.

The council’s business manager (health, arts and events) Semantha Neal explained: “This year we were challenged to do a much bigger event and deliver a really different programme. We started with Traffic Art on display in the town, which was really inspiring and got people talking about the event in the run up to it.

“There was huge interest and it was great promotion for the rest of the festival.

“Normally on a Friday night here, not a lot happens but traders said at 11.30pm they were still getting business. The SO Festival has encouraged

people to come out and stay out.

“We also branched out with visual arts, dance and challenging theatre pieces and coordinated a programme at the Embassy Theatre.

“Traffic Art worked very well as did the dance programme. We included things such as ballroom, dance and jive and held the programme in different venues – deliberately targeting different locations and genres.”

As the festival grew in size and reputation this year, the council brought on board some valuable helping hands.

A new festival director – Robin Morley – was appointed, funding secured from the Arts Council and PR company Lava PR ensured the festival got a large amount of positive coverage.

But pulling such a detailed programme together was not without its challenges and the team learned important lessons which will be carried over to next year’s festival.

Semantha added: “Our biggest challenges were in the early stages – we had employed a new PR company

and festival director and as we are local government, we are not always in a position to do things quickly.

“We also had challenges with the infrastructure as you don’t know how many people to expect or how much car parking you are going to need.

“We were also trying to get extra trains put on but it was going to cost £5,000 per train. So the last train was about 9pm – if you are running a major event, that’s not helpful.

“We have had a lot of very constructive feedback and one or two niggles. One was that the parade was a European style where the crowd moves with the performers. People’s expectations were that they could arrive early and get a spot and then get a really good view of the whole thing as it came past. We probably didn’t explain that very well.

“But we are trying to do things that are a bit more edgy and it’s a huge change. We are being innovative but also keeping some of the traditional elements.”

Semantha and communications

officer James Gilbert told The Main Event that the wheels have already been set in motion for next year’s festival and they already looking as far ahead as 2012. As the event has traditionally marked what will be the Olympics’ opening weekend, it may be moved in 2012 so as not to clash with the event.

“The focus is shifting for next year.

Although it is really important to do the big spectacles, we also want local people to own the festival and perform and take part. It is about getting that balance.

“We are already thinking ahead to next year as we need to make sure we have the dates confirmed. Another challenge is what we do in 2012. The logical thing may be to move to the May/June half term.

“This year we have done more, done it bigger and delivered something more challenging.

“We are really pleased. The event was everything we wanted to deliver and it has been a really good learning curve for the future.”

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LOCAL AUTHORITY SPOTLIGHT

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Events and culture in Barnsley are on the up – with more people than ever engaged with what the town has to offer.

Christina Eccles met the people making it happen.

‘The Barnsley word is spreading ...’

COMMUNITY engagement and uniting different cultures are the key things on the agenda for Barnsley Council’s events team.

Local people know what they like, so the challenge is to deliver events they feel comfortable with while also introducing more creativity into the programme.

According to community and arts development officer James Brunt and arts and events manager Lynn Mealings, the appetite for major events in the town is growing – with the council’s flagship events, such as the annual Christmas light switch on, becoming a must see for local people.

The team is also working hard to introduce more culture and arts into the lives of locals and have found that a good way to do this is through its events programme.

In the run up to major events such as the Summer Carnival, unoccupied town centre shops have been transformed into galleries and showcases for art – allowing people to come into a space which they feel comfortable with to discover new things and get involved for themselves.

Lynn explained: “Community engagement is very important. We have a very cohesive community and with the right activities, there is a definite willingness to take part. The local community has been very supportive.

“If you are programming in venues, you are relying on the same people who go there.

If you are going shopping, you are not planning to walk into a gallery.

But if you stumble across it and it is a familiar space there are no barriers.

“We have had to consider that if people aren’t planning the visit into their day, how much time can they give it? But people have been taking time out and are engaging with what we are doing.”

The council organises one major event each season and having them spread throughout the year means there is plenty of time to plan and promote what they are doing.

Another important aim is to get local businesses more involved who could benefit from an increased number of people using the town centre when an event is on.

And Lynn added that recently they have noticed an upturn in the number of businesses who do want to get involved.

She added: “We are living in a difficult climate but Barnsley is showing cultural unity. With this year’s Summer Carnival there was a lot more involvement from local businesses who wanted to engage with the programme. But we would love to see more partnerships with them.”

From developing community arts to liaising with external partners and the emergency services, every member of the team has a clear and defined role – something which they feel plays a part in its success.

“We all have key roles which support the whole structure. This means we can then plan, develop and evaluate our events with all the correct knowledge. Logistics are key. Keep people inspired with events but keep them safe. It is really important to get that right.

“Our events are pulling more people in. The Barnsley word is spreading.”

Picture: Porl Medlock

So much more than a light switch-on LAST year’s Christmas light switch-on was attended by about 23,000 people – making it one of the council’s most popular events.

The switch-on marks the start of Barnsley’s festive programme – which also includes the annual German Christkindelmarkt – and has grown rapidly in recent years to attract more people and bigger name acts, such as Britain’s Got Talent finalists Stavros Flatley and girl group The Saturdays.

Lynn explained: “Barnsley decided to grow the Christmas light switch-on through the community’s attendance, so we had to develop what was on offer. As far as the entertainment industry is concerned, if there is a

Flagship events ...

large audience, the artists will want to come.”

The event also provides a valuable boost for local traders as it brings people into the town to experience its Christmas late night shopping offering. Lynn added: “Our Christmas events start with the lights switch-on, which leads into a linked programme, designed to animate the town centre. It is no longer just the lights but a whole programme, which supports the town’s retail offering and increases footfall. If you come to a Christmas lights switch-on, you expect to be wowed. Going to see Father Christmas and coming home with a balloon isn’t enough.”

Barnsley Council’s flagship events for 2010: Love Music Hate Racism concert Summer Carnival Diversity Festival Christmas light switch on

Partnership brings exchange programmes A PARTNERSHIP has also been formed between Barnsley Council and the London Borough of Newham – one of the 2012 Olympics host boroughs.

The Barnsley – Newham partnership involves a range of community

activities and exchange programmes, which are allowing young people in Barnsley to experience the sites and sounds of London while those who are used to inner city life can visit the town’s green spaces and heritage sites.

Flower power A FOUR-METRE high living flower arch formed the centre piece of this year’s Summer Carnival.

The event pulled in crowds of about 7,000 and had a theme of health and well being – with the arch acting as its symbol.

James added: “We were really pleased with the carnival. This year we had the opportunity to redecorate the town centre and this enabled people to see it in a new light.

“The theme was around health and well being so we had a large scale project looking at healthy eating and lifestyle changes.

“We produced some amazing artwork including the centre piece and we were also able to distribute the plants used among community groups.

“We had real engagement on all levels from people wanting to be part of it. This event has now created the benchmark so plans for next year are really exciting.”

Picture: Jane Richmond

One of the council’s newest event spaces is a local car park, which it hopes to use as a site for major outdoor events.

The first event held there was the Love Music Hate Racism Carnival – which brought acts including Chipmunk and Roll Deep to the town.

And Lynn said they hope it will offer an alternative venue to most music festivals which take place on green field sites.

She added: “We staged the Love Music Hate Racism concert in the County Way car park and the concept was to encourage working with different physical spaces as visitors’ experiences of festivals may have been mostly in a field.

“The challenge was to get people to come to a festival on a hard surface in the town centre. But people did come and they enjoyed the event and we now want to use the space further.”

Picture: Mark Tighe

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A chart topping band, a best dressed competition and a specially created cocktail bar added sparkle to this year’s ladies’ day at Newbury Racecourse. Christina Eccles went along.

‘Apres racing’ a sure winner SUCCESSFUL events starring Simply Red and X Factor finalists Stacey Solomon, Olly Murs and Danyl Johnson paved the way for the final concert in Newbury Racecourse’s Party in the Paddock trilogy.

The concert – starring crowd pleasers Westlife – also marked ladies’ day so racegoers were invited to dress to impress.

A record 30,000 spectators came through the gates to watch an afternoon of racing followed by the concert – with 1500 fans also choosing to dance the night away in a specially constructed Hawaiian themed cocktail bar at the official after party.

According to the venue’s head of sales Nicola Butler, this ‘apres racing’ concept is a great way to add value to a day out at the racecourse and attract a new audience who may never have considered visiting.

She said: “The racecourse was looking at how we could enhance the customer experience and extend the day out and we saw we had been missing a trick with the concerts.

“We started off with the Party in the Paddock events and joined forces with Gorilla Events to put the con-

cept together for the Hula Bar at the Westlife event.”

The structure had a build schedule of two to three days with the company taking a similar approach to the work they have done at other outdoor events such as Glastonbury, The Big Chill and the Henley Regatta.

The quality of the products being served was vital to the Gorilla Events team with the Hawaiian theme even extending to cocktails served in fresh pineapples and coconut shells.

Gorilla Events’ director Dan Baxter added: “This is a summertime event so the theme suits it well. Racing is trying to add value as people are looking for more of an experience and this makes a proper day of it.

“But if you have something at an event like this which people aren’t used to you have to get the product and the price right.”

Nicola also said that holding the concerts and after party is helping Newbury Racecourse increase its secondary spend and showcase facilities to visitors who may then return to book the venue for a conference or event.

Above: Westlife on stage, below, is the Hula Bar after party And she said the idea is one which has the potential to grow and grow.

She added: “We can definitely build on the concept and build the event up more but also we don’t want to upset our regular market so it is a balancing act.

“But a lot of our members have said they like to see more young people here enjoying themselves and it creates much more of an atmosphere.”

Kendal Calling celebrated its fifth birthday this summer with 8,000 excited festivalgoers. Christina Eccles joined them.

Festival loses its production manager to dad duties ORGANISERS Andy Smith and Ben Robinson have watched the festival grow from a few hundred people to the event that is has become today.

Challenges along the way have included moving sites to Lowther Deer Park when the festival outgrew its previous site and growing the event gradually without it becoming too big, too soon.

Every year the event has grown – this year expanding from 6,000 to 8,000 people and also introducing a larger camping area – and the site has room for this trend to continue in future years.

One of the biggest issues Ben and Andy faced this year was losing their production manager when his wife went into labour during the build and his second in command had to take over his duties.

But pulling together and strong relationships between organisers and suppliers ensured that everything went up smoothly.

The current site is a disused theme park – which Ben used to visit as a child – and he said that the beautiful site has become the perfect home for the festival He said: “The festival has grown every year – in our first year, we had a capacity of 900. This year, we sold out three weeks before. But we don’t want to go too far, too fast.

“We have learned an amazing amount. Organising a festival is a steep learning curve and you learn on the job. But we have a really great team and can’t thank everyone enough for the work they do.

“It’s been a fantastic weekend. The crowd and the atmosphere has been really lovely.”

Performers at this year’s festival included Doves, The Coral and Calvin Harris and according to Ben what sets Kendal Calling apart from its rivals is the effort that goes into every area of the event.

He added that having a core team who have worked on the festival from the start has built up a sense of pride and ownership in the festival – which allows him and Andy to delegate tasks easily, knowing that they will be in safe hands.

Having a fairly small team of people who are not just working on the festival for financial gain also allows organisers to keep ticket prices down – creating a win-win situation for them and for festivalgoers.

Ben added: “We also try and keep our bar prices down and this also makes a big difference to how the crowd feels. They feel as though they are getting good quality and value for money so they are happy about it.”

Solar boost NEW for this year was also the Croissant Neuf area where festivalgoers could enjoy a range of activities. The area also helped Kendal Calling to improve its environmental credentials as everything in there was solar powered.

Contractors Ad Lib AJ Big Tops Dr Loos Indian Marquee Company Umbrella Visuals FGH Security Fest Staff

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Word of mouth and clever use of social media helped to draw crowds of 125,000 to Sheffield city centre for the second Tramlines Festival. Christina Eccles discovered why the event is going from strength to strength.

Social media keeps city festival on the right track THE festival took place in over 50 of the city’s venues and outdoor spaces – including a main stage programmed on the Saturday by local radio station Hallam FM – with performances from the likes of Tinchy Stryder, X Factor finalist Olly Murs and Professor Green.

After 35,000 people turned up to the first festival last year, organisers predicted they would double this figure.

But 125,000 fans came across the weekend, which was put down to word of mouth following the success of last year and utilising the festival’s presence on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook.

Twitter was also used throughout the event – notifying people when venues reached their capacity and encouraging festivalgoers who couldn’t get into their first choice to try somewhere else, which helped to spread out the crowds.

To make sure that certain areas – particularly the main stage on Devonshire Green – didn’t become

overcrowded it was also important to choose the right artists.

Festival director Dave Healy explained: “I think we got the bill spot on. We were nervous about the Saturday whether we would be too big as we had 60,000 people there. We had to make sure the billing was at a sensible level and not get carried away.”

Head booker James O'Hara added: “You have to book the right acts for the size of the venue. With so many people at the outdoor stage you have to get it right. If as a festival we want to put bigger acts on in future then we would have to find the space where we could do that.”

The ethos of the free festival is to support local businesses and showcase Sheffield while also giving up and coming local bands the chance to perform.

And James and Dave added that using Sheffield-based companies wherever possible and getting venues involved gives them a sense of ownership of the event and creates

a great feeling of goodwill and support from the city.

Dave added: “The original point of the festival was to support local venues and showing off the city.

“We have a target that 75 per cent of the event is delivered by Sheffield companies, which creates a good atmosphere and sense of ownership.

‘We are also going to be selling shares in the event to the organisations involved in running the festival so it will always be owned by the people who are putting it on.”

James added: “We have got a high level of expertise from people who are native to Sheffield who have that level of pride in an event in their own city.

“The footprint of the city centre is also relatively small so festivalgoers can walk or use the bus to get wherever they want to go. It works like a festival site because everything is fairly close together.

In other cities you would lose that feel.”

Olly Murs

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SONISPHERE

Picture: John McMurtrie Picture: PG Brunelli

Picture: PG Brunelli

Picture: Andy Parker

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SONISPHERE

Non-clashing policy gives value for money

By Christina Eccles AN extra 15,000 fans were able to enjoy Sonisphere 2010 after organisers decided to increase the capacity of the event.

Although the UK leg of the festival is only in its second year, last year proved to be such a success that the event was expanded – allowing 55,000 fans to experience performances from the likes of Iron Maiden and Pendulum.

Festival director Stuart Galbraith from Kilimanjaro said that apart from allowing more people through the gates this year, they were happy with the overall formula of the event so just made slight alterations to improve the experience for festivalgoers.

He explained: “It is only our second year but we have increased in size both in terms of numbers and the length of

time people are staying at the festival.

“We tweaked the pattern from last year and added two more stages – the Strongbow rooms and the Red Bull Jam. “Over the weekend we had over 130 bands, which was great for us helping to break new bands.

“We also managed to repeat the atmosphere from last year and the audience responded to the great environment of Knebworth Park. It’s a beautiful estate and it’s different from other rock festivals as the environment is much nicer.”

The event is one of 11 Sonisphere festivals which take place all over Europe – between them selling over 700,000 tickets.

And Stuart added that one of the festival’s main selling points is that the acts on both

of the two main stages never overlap – meaning that festivalgoers don’t have to pick which acts they want to see and miss out on others.

He added: “People like the ethos of not clashing the two stages as it means they get full value for money. Also we make sure that the line up is strong.

I have worked on rock festivals for over 26 years and have a booking team who know our customers and will bring great talent to the event.”

Stuart also said that social networking has been useful to help organisers communicate with fans.

Sonisphere has over 300,000 fans on Facebook – with 85,000 fans of the UK event – and the team has been using the site to gain their feedback and take on board comments which they will use when planning next year’s festival.

Contractors Festival director – Stuart Galbraith, Kilimanjaro Festival manager – Zac Fox, Kilimanjaro Site manager – Steve Hill, EmoUK Site manager and artist liaison – Sarah Cole, SC Productions Production manager – Nick Levitt, Live Gallery Productions Campsite manager – Anthony Burke FOH manager – Jennie Stogdon, JMS Events.

Artist and guest area catering – Sanctum Big Tops – AJ Big Tops Cabins and toilets – Search Campsite information – The Better Festival Group Catering concession – D&J Catering CCTV – InFocus Fencing and barriers – Wight Fencing Fire cover – Event Fire Services Funfair – Mathews Guest big top furniture – Inner Sanctum Lighting – outdoor stages – PRG Litter services – Estate Cleaners Market traders – Rosie Babington Marquees and artist/guest big

top – Carlinden Medical – NHS, St John Merchandise – Bros Merchandising Mojo barriers – Mojo National press and PR – Idea Generation Noise management consultant – Vanguardia Den PA – outdoor stages – Brit Row PA and lighting – indoor stages – STS Paramedics – Medroc Phones and internet – Event Geeks Plumbing – Tempsite Power – Buffalo Public bars – Creative Events Rigging – Pete the Greek Rock press and PR – The Noise Cartel Rock royalty bar and food – Sodexo Screen visuals – Blink Security – G4S Site and event safety – MRL Site crew – Chris Caddy Sponsorship production – Get in Bed Stage crew – Stage Miracles Staging – Star Events T Shield – Entertee Traffic and car parking – SEP Events Trakway and terraplas – Eve Trakway Volunteer Staff – Festaff Welfare – Ministry of Welfare

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LEEDS PARTY IN THE PARK

All 70,000 tickets for this year’s Party in the Park were snapped up within two days – meaning a large number of visitors to Temple Newsam for the event.

Sylvia added: “We have quite a young audience profile but we also get a lot of families coming to the event.

“It is very busy but has a good atmosphere and having families here helps to balance it out a lot.”

Contractors The biggest ever line up at Party in the Park included: Dizzee Rascal, The Saturdays, The Script, Pixie Lott, Alexandra Burke, Beverley Knight, Craig David, Example, Lee Ryan, Gabriella Cilmi, Eliza Doolittle, Alesha Dixon, Basshunter and Tinchy Stryder

Acorn Event Solutions Controlled Space Frisby Technical Services Yorkshire Audio Light Media Displays Lion Trackway

Nixon Coopers Marquees Event Post Sunbaba Green Light Traffic Management Steelshield Capita Symonds Mobaloo

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LEEDS PARTY IN THE PARK

More acts join Party in the Park THIS year’s Leeds Party in the Park was extended by an hour after organisers managed to secure performances from a record number of acts.

Performers who took to the stage in front of 70,000 excited fans included headliner Dizzee Rascal, Pixie Lott and The Saturdays – with the fun going on until 7pm to accommodate all 30 acts.

The annual event is organised by Leeds City Council with support from Radio Aire and according to event manager Sylvia McCann, it gets better every year.

She said: “The event has now got such a good reputation that record labels and promoters are keen to see their artistes here as it is good exposure for them.

“We had some really good acts this year – Dizzee Rascal played Glastonbury. It’s a fantastic event but we always try and improve things. We never just stay still.”

The event has also been heavily promoted on Radio Aire and its website as well as

on social networking sites Twitter and Facebook.

The station also took a staggered approach to revealing the acts playing – choosing to name them on the event’s hosts’ JK and Joel’s morning radio show a few at a time – which built up levels of excitement and anticipation for the event.

Sylvia added: “We have got a really good team at Radio Aire who have done a fantastic job and we are really pleased with this year’s event.

It’s gone really well and it seems to have been a lot smoother, which is surprising because of the number of artistes we have. But it’s been really calm.

“I’m lucky that I’ve got an excellent team who are really hard working and we have built up good relationships with suppliers which also helps.”

Improvements this year included expanding the artiste village to make sure all the needs of performers were met.

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BEN & JERRY’S SUNDAE

Sun shines on chilled event

By Christina Eccles ABOUT 25,000 people enjoyed live music, sunshine and free ice cream at this year’s Ben & Jerry’s Sundae on the Common.

The two-day event on London’s Clapham Common was headlined by Doves and Scouting for Girls and according to organiser Andy Ashton, its village fete feel and £15 per day ticket price helped to bring in the crowds.

Unusually for a festival, tickets are only valid for one day and visitors are discouraged from buying one for both days.

And Andy said that the line-ups are specifically programmed to appeal to different demographics – allowing twice as many people to enjoy the fun and enabling Ben & Jerry’s to showcase their products to larger audiences.

In its six-year history, Andy said the festival has always been fortunate with the weather and this year was no exception.

He explained: “We were very pleased with this year’s event. This is our sixth year and every year we have been very lucky with the weather.

“It really helps when you get a nice weekend and as our event is really chilled out, a lot of it relies on people being able to laze around on the grass.

“So it would be worrying if the weather did turn bad as the whole dynamic of the event would change.”

Andy also explained what Ben & Jerry’s achieve by hosting the event and that the company was also happy with how things had gone.

He added: “Ben & Jerry’s were incredibly pleased. The idea behind it is a big thank you and a chance for everyone to try all the company’s flavours.”

Andy also said that when organising the event, a great deal of thought is put into every area – from the music, to the activities, the number of toilets and the food – to ensure the festival provides a value for money experience for festivalgoers.

For the first time this year, organisers also trialled e-ticketing instead of the traditional paper method – something which Andy said worked really well.

Other improvements included the addition of a second acoustic stage and new family activities.

Contractors Production – Sevens 7 Security – Specialized Security Safety – MRL PA – Britannia Row Lights – Siyan Tents – WAAP Toilets – Loos for Do’s Ticketing – Maynard Malone/Intashop Power – Innovation Power Noise Monitoring – Vanguardia Children’s Area – Nipperbout

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LONDON MELA

Attendance at this year’s O2 London Mela has been estimated at a record 90,000 people.

Christina Eccles spoke to the people behind the scenes.

Mela: the word is spreading THROUGHOUT its eight-year history, the organisers of the London Mela have worked hard to give the event a reputation as a safe, family friendly and great value day out which can be enjoyed by all sections of the local community.

Attractions on offer included music, visual arts, dance, children's activities and food inspired by south-Asian culture and creativity.

And with record numbers descending on Gunnersbury Park this summer, it appears the word is spreading.

Producer Julian Rudd explained: “Melas have got a history of being poorly resourced and often having issues with crowd management.

When we started we were really determined we didn’t want the event to fall into that stereotype.

“We have built a sense that this is a shared endeavour and we all feel that the Mela and the way which all the different agencies involved work together is a model of good practice.

“Every stage manager feels that if they have a problem that their supervisor is there to help. They feel confident that they can go to security and get the response they need and deal with the issue very quickly.

“There is a good atmosphere on site as the audience respond to that kind of crowd management.”

The event is produced by Ealing Council, with support from the Mayor of London and London Borough of Hounslow plus BBC Asian Network which programmes the main stage.

To ensure the event remains free, sponsorship also plays a vital role – with O2 becoming headline sponsor this year.

The company came on board for the first time last year but since then, its role had grown massively.

Julian added: “This was our best ever year for sponsorship. We started last year with O2 but at a much lower level – we were basically testing the water.

“Last year they were an associate sponsor but this year had title sponsorship. We did get some counter offers but went with 02 because they have got a great history of sponsoring live events.

“Sponsorship is about quality of placement and we are very pleased with how it went. The sponsors had a brand presence on site and we gave them visibility but without it being overpowering.

“We have got a three-year deal with O2 and think it will be a great partnership. In the environment we are in, to have such a significant investment is really important. It will

enable us to survive.”

Highlights of this year’s festival included an eclectic music programme with performances by Bollywood favourite Javed Ali, Bhangra legends Apna Sangeet and former Eastenders actress Preeya Kalidas.

And Julian added that the team was delighted with how the event was received.

“We had great weather, a fantastic audience and a great reaction from the police, security and production staff on site.

“After eight years of running an event, you build up a team and a relationship with your partners and production crew and sometimes you are lucky enough that all the ingredients come together and create a fantastic event. I feel very privileged to have had such a day.”

Contractors AP Security A1 Loo Hire A Better Service Wernick Hire Beaver 84 PE Generators Remarkable Productions Ealing Council Event Umbrella

Team work is keeping visitors safe THE Main Event also caught up with AP Security’s John Phillips and Tommy Michalis on site who explained how close partnership working is keeping visitors safe.

The company has worked on the event for the last eight years and has managed to build up great relationships with organisers and local police to ensure the smooth running of the event.

Leading up to the event, regular liaison and table top exercises mean that everyone knows what their role is and how they fit into the overall operation. And planning the mela is a year round process – with several response team meetings taking place and contingency plans arranged in advance.

Tommy explained: “Our biggest challenge is identifying people who

may spoil the event and and liaising on this with the police. We have built up a really good rapport with them and know we have got their support.

AP also make sure they send a very strong management team down and this is key.

“This is also the second year we have had alcohol on site but that has been very successful and there has been no trouble whatsoever.

“The organisers put the programme together and deliberately cascade it so that the top acts are on before the close so that we have never got the crowd on a high right at the end.

“It has progressed into a very family orientated event and has grown tremendously over the years. And it’s not just an Asian community event – it is very multicultural and has a great atmosphere.”

John Phillips and Tommy Michalis

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LAMBETH COUNTRY SHOW The Lambeth Country Show is one of the biggest free events in the South of England – attracting more than 150,000 visitors over the weekend. The Main Event found out more from event producers Whole Nine Yards Production.

From sheepdogs to flowers Sole supplier gives uniform look to event PIGGOTTS, the UK’s leading marquee, festive lighting and branding company was the sole supplier of marquees at this year’s Lambeth Country Show.

Sales and marketing manager Gary Smith said: “This is the first time Piggotts has worked on the Lambeth Country Show. It was a fantastic project which saw us install 25 clearspan marquees which covered a massive 5,250 square metres. We had 23 men on site to complete the build which lasted three days. The structures were used for a variety of purposes including the Mayor’s area, food halls, complementary therapies section and backstage for the artists.

“This year we have expanded our live event roster doing eight festivals and live events including Rewind and the Isle of Wight festival.

“The Lambeth Country Show worked really well for a variety of reasons; there was uniform look to the whole event rather than a mish mash of different structures, plus having achieved ISO 18001, health and safety becomes a simple thing to deal with and we are still one of the few marquee companies to have achieved this. I am pleased to report that Lambeth Council was delighted with Piggotts and we’re looking forward to working with them again on future events.”

HELD in Brockwell Park, the event successfully combines areas including music, agriculture and food to create the perfect family day out.

To produce the event, Whole Nine Yards was required to work closely with everyone involved – from the London Borough of Lambeth and Metropolitan Police to the London Ambulance Service and event safety coordinators Capita Symonds – as well as a wider stakeholder group comprising 20 different departments and agencies.

One of the biggest challenges the team had to face was staging the event in a central London park – which was also open to the public throughout the build, show and breakdown.

Director Ben Price explained: “The event is a lot more demanding in terms of scale than a music festival. It has been running for over 30 years and local residents are pretty big stakeholders. There are a lot of subtleties in the site design as we need to keep people happy.

“Brockwell Park also remains open to the public so as we are building in open parkland, safety management has to be 100 per cent.

“We are working for a local authority, so the whole event needs to reach the highest standards and be an example of best practice.”

The event features over 270 market traders and exhibitors as well as four main entertainment areas and Ben added that the variety of attractions on offer is one of the show’s biggest draws.

He added: “We had a great turnout this year and the show is going from strength to strength. There as a variety of entertainment on offer – from sheepdog displays to a flower show – and the park is a beautiful venue.

“The event was brought in house in 2008, so this year was the culmination of the council’s threeyear plan to get it at a level where everything is done at the highest standard.”

Contractors Production – Whole Nine Yards Productions Infrastructure – Event Wizards.

Marquees – Piggotts.

Event safety coordination – Capita Symonds.

Crowd management – MJ Events Support.

Medical: M&L Ambulance.

Staging – Star Events Group.

Tannoy systems and radios – Direct Telecoms Services.

Audio and power distribution – Centre Stage.

Potable water and plumbing – Watermills.

Car parking and traffic management – Festival Gates.

Local crew – Crewsaders.

Furniture – RSVP Event Hire.

Fire extinguishers – Fire Safety Services.

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NOEA

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Auntie NOEA

Diary Dates September 21 – 22 Event UK NEC September 30 – October 1, Northern Ireland Conference, Port Stewart.

October 20 – 21 – Showman’s Show, Newbury November 25 – Regional Conference and AGM, New Bucks University, High Wycombe.

Contact details: Susan Tanner PO Box 4495, Wells. BA5 9AS. (T) 01749 674 531 (E) secreretary@noea.org.uk

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses

Auntie NOEA – send your letters and questions to auntienoea@googlemail.com Dear Auntie, We are being pushed by our local authority to work quickly towards BS 8901: Sustainable Event Management in 2011. This is something we embrace ourselves and have, for many years, developed a green policy for our annual event held on a public park. However, over the past years, we have tried many approaches including banks of recycling bins for our punters to use and then manned positions to prevent contamination of separated waste. Still, we are left with tons of rubbish to get off the park quickly in order to restore the park for the residents, sports activities and dog walkers. HELP! Harvey, Midlands My, my Harvey, It’s a dilemma many event organisers are facing. It is, of course, furNetworking Event At Event UK September 21, NEC Birmingham NOEA members are being invited for a new networking event at the Event UK show in Birmingham which will give members a chance to meet for a networking breakfast at around 9.30 am and after the show for drinks – all complimentary to NOEA members, another reason to join!

NOEA will be exhibiting at the show and members are invited to attend as part of the NOEA area. There will be a pod system and for £1400 ex vat you can have a presence on the stand. This fee will cover the stand fee and all graphics, you provide your literature. If you would like to join NOEA’s stand contact Susan.

Event Risk, Safety and Security Conference September 20-23 2010 Olympia Conference Centre, London NOEA is supporting this event and members who wish to attend will be entitled to a 15 per cent discount. The Effective Strategies to Manage Event Risk, Safety and Security Conference (ERSS) 2010 is a unique platform for sharing best practice and effective strategies to manage critical issues of risk, safety and security.

For further information please contact Chris Trainor. T: +971 4 3365161 chris.trainor@informasportsgroup.com www.eventrisksafetyandsecurity.com

ther compounded if your event is held in a public place and you have not got the luxury of taking time in the clearance whereby you can make several ‘sweep throughs’ for different waste, thereby handling the waste just once with proper pickers. It sounds as though you’ve put the effort into encouraging your audience to recycle and even thrown human resources in to aid this. But, let’s face it, until society embrace simple litter disposal and take individual responsibility, we are all left with whatever our great British public choose to simply drop on the ground.

You need to weigh up your ‘greenest’ option. After all, if your site is close to a waste sorting facility, you can maintain those green credentials by clearing all waste and transporting it a short distance for machine sorting. But, these

facilities are both costly and few in number across the country. Do you want to transport waste 100 miles to be sorted? Can you really risk your litter pickers’ safety by having them sort waste once scooped up – needle pricks are no fun. You won’t win – the park remains unusable for you to do the job in the greenest way or you do your very best in providing big enough facilities on site for attendees to use at the time and accept that by lifting the remaining tons and transporting them for recycling you may be increasing your carbon footprint.

2011 may be a deadline, but society and local services need to be embracing the ethos also. Perhaps, you could ask your encouraging local authority or police to assist by issuing ‘on the spot’ fines for littering? Keep Britain Tidy.

Auntie Noea

THE University of Derby on behalf of the National Outdoor Events Association (NOEA) is conducting research to ascertain the need for and interest in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) courses from NOEA for those already working in the events industry and who are missing skills and/or qualifications.

The last 10 years has witnessed a proliferation of undergraduate and postgraduate events management degrees throughout the UK with some 63 institutions now offering different forms of events related study. As a member of the Association of Event Management Education, the University of Derby has helped to shape the benchmarks to which all future degrees should adhere.

However, the trend to date has been supply led thus resulting in the majority of the 63 organisations producing graduates for the market with little regard for those already in employment.

The survey will enable the University of Derby and NOEA to see if there is a demand for courses for those in employment, and to look into key areas where organisations feel that CPD would be appropriate for them. To take part in the survey go to the NOEA web site home page. www.noea.org.uk

New benefits for NOEA Members

Northern Ireland Conference September 30 – October 1, Portstewart, Northern Ireland THE Northern Ireland NOEA conference will take place at the Flowerfield Arts Centre, Coleraine Road, Portstewart, Northern Ireland – about an hour from Belfast – on Thursday September 30 and Friday October 1. The event is being sponsored by Coleraine Borough Council. There is a wide variety of speakers attending from the police and the ambulance services. Also speakers from the Emergency Planning College and Belfast Metropolitan University.

Some of the topics to be discussed

will be licencing, PRS and training as well as the Young Professionals Initiative. We are hoping to arrange an informal do with music in the evening for networking opportunities as well as enjoying a few drinks in the teepees.

The event is open to members and non-members and there are opportunities for exhibiting as well. The event will finish early afternoon on the Friday which will give attendees the opportunity to explore this beautiful area.

Booking forms available on the website or for for further details, please contact Susan at the NOEA office on 01749 674 531

NEW benefits for NOEA members have been arranged for the year starting September 1 2010. In partnership with Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Express and Crown Plaza Hotels (Intercontinental Hotel Group) NOEA members will be able to have discounts of up to 35 per cent off accommodation in hotels in the group in Europe and the UK. A real financial benefit for members, many of whom use hotels throughout the event season.

Other new benefits are discounts on advertising in The Main Event and new other benefits are being investigated such as a discounted insurance scheme for all members.

If you are not a member and would like to know more please contact Susan on 01749 674 531 and if you are a member look out for your hotel code when you renew your membership this September.

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Access Control Ticket Alternative UK Ltd Unit 333 Ashley Rd. London N17 9LN T: 0800 011 2894 E: orders@ticketalternative.co.uk www.ticketalternative.co.uk

Audio Visual Arcstream AV Unit 22 Nonsuch Industrial Estate Kiln Lane Epsom Surrey KT17 1DH T: 01372 742 682 M: 07813 825 215 F: 01372 737 279 E: neil.m@arcstreamav.com www.arcstreamav.com

Bars

Eagle Event Bars 58-60 Vicarage House Kensington Church Street Kensington London W8 4DB T: 0207 368 3344 M: 07790 614401 E: dyrig@eaglehospitality.co.uk www.eaglehospitality.co.uk

Backline & PA Hire Sensible Music Group 90-96 Brewery Road London N7 9NT T: 020 7700 9900 F: 020 7700 4802 E: studio@sensible-music.co.uk www.sensible-music.co.uk

Car and Van rental Arnold Clarke Rental Head Office Kerse Road Stirling FK7 7RU T:01786 468 700 E: car.rental.sales@arnoldclark.co.uk www.arnoldclarkrental.com

Crowd Management A.P. Security (North) Ltd. 33 Metro Centre Dwight Road Watford Herts WD189SB T: 0870 412 2232 E: johnphillips@apsecurity.co.uk www.apsecurity.co.uk Event Security Solutions Limited B1-B6 The Alison Business Centre 40 Alison Crescent Sheffield S2 1AS T: 0114 283 5948 E: info@eventsecuritysolutions.co.uk www.eventsecuritysolutions.co.uk G4S Events Sutton Park House 15 Carshalton Road Sutton Surrey SM1 4LD T: 0800 085 9899 E: sales@uk.g4s.com www.g4s.com/uk-events

365 - SUPPLIER DIRECTORY Specialized Security 4 Fairways Business Park Deer Park Livingston EH54 8AF T: 01506 442255 E: tom@specializedsecurity.co.uk www.specializedsecurity.co.uk

Event Power BRM Productions Unit 12 Canalside Industrial Park Kinoulton Road Cropwell Bishop Notts NG12 3BE T: 0115 989 9955 M: 07860 285305 F: 0115 989 9977 E: power@brm-productions.co.uk

Event Production Ethix Management 100 Kingsgate Road West Hampstead London NW6 2JG T: 0207 691 1960 E: enquiries@ethixmanagement.com www.ethixmanagement.com

Insurance Services ARC International St. Clare House 30-33 Minories London EC3N 1PE T: +44 (0) 207 977 7630 F: +44 (0) 207 977 7631 E: twaller@arc-int.co.uk Event Insurance Services Limited Event House 20A Headlands Business Park Ringwood BH24 3PB T: 01425 470360 E: info@events-insurance.co.uk www.events-insurance.co.uk Robertson Taylor 33 Harbour Exchange Square London E14 9GG T: 020 7510 1234 E: enquiries@rtib.co.uk www.Robertonson-taylor.com

Marquees Danco Plc The Pavilion Centre Frog Lane Coalpit Heath Bristol BS36 2NW Tel: 01454 250 222 Fax: 01454 250 444 www.danco.co.uk

Medical Management SP Services (UK) Ltd Unit D4, Hortonpark Estate Hortonwood 7 Telford Shropshire TF1 7GX T: 01952 288 999 F: 01952 606 112 E: sales@spservices.co.uk www.spservices.co.uk Paramedico No 1a Storage unit Tannery close Croydon Industrial Estate Beckenham, Kent BR3 4BY T: 02086565956 M: 07515287962 E: events@paramedico.info www.paramedico.info

Portable Kitchens PKL Group (UK) Ltd, Stella Way Bishops Cleeve Cheltenham Gloucestershire GL52 7DQ T: 01242 663000 E: postbox@pkl.co.uk www.pkl.co.uk

Revolving Stages Movetech UK A division of British Turntable Co Ltd Emblem Street Bolton BL3 5BW T: 01204 537682 E: rental@movetechuk.com www.movetechuk.com/rental The Revolving Stage Company Ltd Unit F5, Little Heath Industrial Estate Old Church Road Coventry CV6 7ND T: 024 7668 7055 E:enquiries@therevolvingstagecompany.co.uk

Screen Hire XL Video 2 Eastman Way Hemel Hempstead Herts HP27DU T: 01442 849400 E: info@xlvideo.tv www.xlvideo.com

Sound & Lighting Stage Electrics Third Way Avonmouth Bristol BS11 9YL T: 0844 870 0077 F: 0117 916 2828 sales@stage-electrics.co.uk www.stage-electrics.co.uk

Marquee Stakes and Accessories Staging Ansell Hand Tools 72 Catley Road Darnall Sheffield S9 5JF T: 0114 244 8098 E: ansellhandtools@aol.com www.ansellhandtools.co.uk

Centre Stage Events Unit 108a Leyland Trading Estate Irthlingborough Road Wellingborough T: 01234 783234 E: info@centrestageevents.com www.centrestageevents.com

Daytona Stage Hire P.O. Box 43 Huddersfield HD8 9YU T: 01484 605555 M: 07889 132580 F: 01484 602806 E: daytonastagehire@mac.com www.daytonastagehire.com Steeldeck Rentals Ltd Unit 58 T.Marchant Estate 42-72 Verney Road London SE16 3DH T: 020 7833 2031 E: richard@steeldeck.co.uk www.steeldeck.co.uk

The Stage Bus 19 Prestwood Road Weoley Castle Birmingham B29 5EB T: 0121 603 8367 M: 07738 900 762 E info@thestagebus.com www.thestagebus.com

Trade Associations NOEA Susan Tanner PO Box 4495 WELLS. BA5 9AS T: 01749 674 531 E: secretary@NOEA.org.uk www.noea.org.uk

Venues Fabric London Level 2 Greenhill House Cowcross Street London EC1M 6B T: 020 7549 4844 E: celine@fabriclondon.com www.fabricevents.com Wicksteed Park Ltd. Barton Road Kettering Northants NN15 6NJ T: 01536 512475 F: 01536 518948 E: info@wicksteedpark.co.uk www.wicksteedpark.co.uk

Walkie Talkies Wall to Wall Communications Unilink House 21 Lewis Road Sutton, Surrey SM1 4BR T:020 8770 1007 F:020 8770 9700 E:hire@walltowallcomms.co.uk www.walltowallcomms.co.uk

Water supplies Water Direct Ltd B-26 Earls Colne Business Park Earls Colne Colchester Essex CO6 2NS T: 0845 345 1725 F: 01787 223354 E: enquiries@water-direct.co.uk www.water-direct.co.uk

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POWER SUPPLY

FAIRGROUNDS

TOILET HIRE WASTE MANAGEMENT

MEDICAL

CATERING

VEHICLE HIRE

The Event Medicine Company Unit D, Central Estate, Albert Road, Aldershot, Hampshire GU11 1SZ Tel: 01252 313005 Email: info@eventmedicinecompany.co.uk www.eventmedicinecompany.co.uk

BARS

BALLOONS

STAGE HIRE

EVENT HIRE

RADIO HIRE

EVENT BRANDING

PORTABLE ROADWAY

RECYCLING

LARGE SCREEN HIRE

HEATING & COOLING

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