June Issue 2026

June 2026

Smashing time

London Marathon Events on record-breaking event developments

BLOODSTOCK

TOUR DE FRANCE

LOVE TRAILS

GREAT BRITISH FARM FEST

page 13

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CONTENTS

13 SMASHING TIME

41 SETTING THE PACE

19 KEEP ON RUNNING

28 BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS

46 CELEBRATING THE HEROES

10 WINNING PITCHES

28 BLOOD, SWEAT, AND TEARS

Looking for new business opportunities? Check out the latest event tenders and news of contract wins

13 SMASHING TIME

This year’s TCS London Marathon was a record breaker. London Marathon Events’ James Taylor, Joe Carter, and Ben Craddock discuss the small changes that had a significant impact

19 KEEP ON RUNNING

Theo Larn-Jones on ten years of Love Trails, the 5,000-cap festival with a big passion for running and wellbeing

23 ESTABLISHING A CONNECTION

Wi-Fi and comms are essential to a customer’s event experience and smooth event operations. Wi-Fi and comms experts discuss connectivity and best practice

For the third year in a row, Bloodstock has sold out. Co-director Adam Gregory talks budgets, fans, and why – after 25 years – passion is still the answer to everything

41 SETTING THE PACE

The Tour de France is known for its gruelling stages but the Grand Départ GB 2027’s readiness team is also transforming the tender stage with a centralised procurement system and early scoping exercises

46 CELEBRATING THE HEROES

How many creative “idiots” should be in an event team? The Great British Farm Fest’s Chris Hughes and Cath Bishop discuss crazy ideas, contractors, and creating an event with heart

50 WAY TO GO

Organisers discuss branding plans for 2026

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EDITOR’S LETTER

JUNE 2026 for the hills last weekend and took my nine-year-old arthritic labrador Bruno to I headed North Yorkshire. It was the weekend we needed. He swam in the river, and I foraged wild

garlic and it was a chance to reset before things go really, really crazy.

Peak season has just got going. How do I know? Because I will be donning my steel toe cap boots not once but twice this week. It means that some lovely event professionals have kindly opened their gates and invited me to take a look at their event sites.

I love getting out and about. It really is the bit that I love most about my job. Come rain or shine. I don’t care. What matters most is that I step away from the desk and discover the realities of life on site. Otherwise, how can I write content that you will find useful, interesting, and relatable unless the conversations are unrehearsed, open, and led by you?

I am currently firming up my diary for the year ahead so if you are working on an event and would love me and the team to come along and check out what you are up to, get in touch.

Just like everyone featured in this June edition – Bloodstock’s Adam Gregory, Love Trails’ Theo Larn-Jones, Great British Farm Fest’s Chris Hughes, London Marathon Event’s Joe Carter, Ben Craddock, and James Taylor, and Tour de France’s Dean Hardman and Matt Hodgson – you should be part of the story. If you have news to share, email caroline@standoutmagazine.co.uk and I hope to see you on site very soon.

Happy reading, Caroline PS: And if you want me to bring some cheese and wild garlic scones with me, just shout...

Cover image: © TCS London Marathon/Shaun Brooks

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CONTRIBUTORS

This month’s

CONTRIBUTORS:

THEO LARN-JONES

Theo is an entrepreneur, festival director, and outdoor experience creator with a passion for trail running, music, travel, and community. As co-founder of Love Trails, he has helped shape a festival that goes beyond traditional running events, bringing people together through movement, adventure, and shared experiences in nature. With a background in live events and outdoor-led experiences, Theo has played a key role in developing Love Trails’ distinctive energy, combining sport, culture, and connection in a way that feels fresh, inclusive, and deeply rooted in the outdoors.

ADAM GREGORY

Adam is part of the team behind Bloodstock Open Air. As festival director, he contributes to the overall vision and delivery of the event, working alongside founder Paul Gregory and co-directors Rachael Greenfield and Vicky Hungerford.

Together, the team has built Bloodstock into a globally respected destination for metal fans, known for its strong sense of community and its support of both emerging artists and major international acts. Adam’s role sits within this collaborative effort, helping to shape the festival’s direction while maintaining the spirit that defines it.

As part of this close-knit leadership team, he continues to help guide Bloodstock’s growth, ensuring it remains a standout event that celebrates heavy music, underground culture, and its dedicated fanbase.

DEAN HARDMAN

Dean has worked in professional sport for more than 20 years and is currently readiness director for Grand Départ GB 2027, overseeing procurement, risk, local authority engagement, and contingency planning. Prior to this role, Dean founded his own sports consultancy, supporting National Governing Bodies and events across project management, event delivery, safeguarding, and compliance. Previously, Dean was the tournament director for the Rugby League World Cup and oversaw the successful delivery of the men’s, women’s, and wheelchair tournaments. He also serves on Badminton England’s disciplinary committee and is an independent non-executive director of Ice Hockey UK.

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INDUSTRY UPDATES APPOINTMENTS OF THE MONTH

PIC OF THE MONTH

Lulu Jenkins is head of events at Hearst UK.

Millie Devereux is director of festivals and place at We Group.

Matt Boswood is senior track and overlay manager at Formula E. Sian Bennett is managing director of Mustard Media.

Heart Productions has promoted Rachel Goode to account director.

Scarlett Mahier has joined TBI Media as an events assistant.

Image: © Emma Drabble

Thousands of people turned out to make Monmouth “merry” when the free Wye Valley River Festival brought music and entertainment to the town last month. Members of the community joined the Merry Monmouth procession down Monmouth High Street in a bid to help the local area recover from severe flooding which impacted the town last autumn. Among the highlights were an eight-foot puppet called Daniel, an ancient man of the earth created by Luke Brown Company, and Flock, a murmuration of giant silk birds made by hundreds of local people in pre-festival workshops.

LINKEDIN POST OF THE MONTH

NEWS IN BRIEF According to research by The Power of Events, every pound of ticket income, sponsorship or grant triggers roughly £1.50-£2.80 in spend by visitors, suppliers, and staff.

Seen Presents has appointed Alex Smith as its first head of operations.

SES Group has promoted Nicholas Bardowell to the role of event manager.

Simran Jassel is events and operations assistant at Silverstone.

Olympia Events has promoted Carly Gibbs to GM of Olympia’s new ICC. Tim Star is senior production manager at Avantgarde Group.

Charles Balchin, broadcast consultant/producer/ live multi-cam director OB and studio So has the Saudi Arabian sports bubble burst?

PIF says it will no longer fund LIV golf.

Matchroom announced the World Pool Championship and the Saudi Snooker Masters has gone. The WTA Finals are dropped and leave Riyadh after this year.

Bids for the 2035 Rugby World Cup and 2029 Asian Winter Games have also been withdrawn.

On the other hand two extraordinary new sports venues are being built and what that says is that the days of outlandish amounts of money being spent on sports that do not directly deliver clear local benefit are gone.

Freemans Event Partners has appointed Tara Warren as its new CEO.

Any organisation wanting to tap in the Kingdom’s undoubted desire to use sport as a vehicle has to be very clear that it is delivering not just for itself but for Saudi Arabia, in measurable and proactive terms.

On The Beach festival generated more than £8.3 million for the local economy in 2025.

The Government has commissioned UK Sport to carry out an initial strategic assessment examining whether the UK could host the Olympics and Paralympic Games in the North of England.

Research by academics from the UWE Bristol has influenced changes for food vendors at two of Bristol’s biggest festivals, improving the experience for festivalgoers living with dietary needs.

An online survey has been launched to assess whether there is sufficient support from the industry to establish a Primary Authority agreement around the Purple Guide guidance.

Attitude is Everything has launched a national project designed to better understand the experiences of deaf, disabled and neurodivergent audiences, artists and professionals within the UK live music sector.

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EVENT TENDERS

GOODWOOD REVIVAL

Image: © Goodwood/Charlie Brenninkmeijer

Winning pitches

View tenders

Looking for new business opportunities? Check out the latest event tenders and news contract wins Kent Cricket has awarded Sodexo Live a new ten-year multimillion pound contract extension. The company will deliver the venue’s hospitality and catering operations. Including matchday hospitality and the conferences and events business.

British Council has published a tender. It requires event production and management services in Qatar. The deadline is 10pm on May 30. Email Joshua.Nzuki@britishcouncil.or.ke Transport for London is looking to contract a single supplier to design and manage its flagship fan festival sites in London for the duration of the UEFA European Football Championship 2028.

The contract is expected to be for circa 25 months to ensure the successful planning and delivery of the fanzones in the capital.

The tender is expected to be published around May 27.

Dublin City Council requires event programming, production and promotion services for the Bram Stoker Festival. The deadline is 12pm on June 9. Email sean.ofionnalain@dublincity.ie

Aberdeen University has appointed Wavemakers Live to deliver its summer graduation ceremonies.

Ealing Council has issued a PIN. It requires an events company to manage Ealing Summer Festivals and Ealing’s Place Services (Events) from September 2026 for five years.

South Ayrshire Council has contracted MSLG Safety Consultants to provide safety services to the International Ayr Show.

City of Glasgow College is preparing to re-tender its events equipment and services contract, which includes the hire of AV and staging equipment along with the provision of technical staff.

Goodwood has introduced Eventflow’s AI-powered solution to support the management of more than 200 partners across its flagship events. The platform will be used across Members’ Meeting, Festival of Speed, and Goodwood Revival to manage approvals, branding compliance, and deliverables.

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LONDON MARATHON

TCS LONDON MARATHON

Images: © TCS London Marathon/Peter Nicholls/Benjamin Gilbert/David Cliff/Felix Diemer

Smashing time This year’s TCS London Marathon was a record breaker. London Marathon Events’ James Taylor, Joe Carter, and Ben Craddock discuss the small changes that had a significant impact October 12, 2019, Kenyan runner O nEliud Kipchoge became the first

person to run a marathon distance in less than two hours. Through the streets of Vienna, he clocked 1:59:40.2 in the INEOS 1:59 Challenge, an event specifically designed to prove that a sub-two-hour marathon was physically possible.

Whilst not an official world record – because the challenge ran under controlled conditions – Kipchoge demonstrated that he could run 352.6 metres every minute for 119 minutes thanks to a perfectly executed strategy and an army of supporters.

London Marathon Events’ Ben Craddock, James Taylor, and Joe Carter were all working in Vienna when Kipchoge broke the two-hour barrier, so it was particularly special that the trio also worked on the 2026 TCS London Marathon when Sebastian Sawe smashed the official record in a “natural environment.”

celebrated and cared for when they crossed that line, too.

Craddock explained: “Creative Technology help build our finish line gantry but this year, we went to them with a bit of a late request.

We asked them [and Codesde] to build a course record clock, and we managed to come up with a solution with just 40 hours to go. There was a chance that world records

were going to be smashed so we wanted to create something that would commemorate that moment. Between us we were able to pull something together and they were instrumental in making that happen.”

This is the perfect example of teamwork and how organisers and event suppliers can work together to deliver those small – but significant – touches that can make all the difference.

RECORD-BREAKING MOMENT

Craddock – senior event experience manager at London Marathon Events (LME) – is the event’s finish line manager. It was his job to ensure that the scene was set, and The Mall was ready to officially record that monumental moment and ensure thousands of runners – including paralympian Richard Whitehead who also broke a world record – were

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LONDON MARATHON However, the TCS London Marathon is not just about elite runners. There are also the masses – the club runners, fancy dresswearers, and charity fundraisers – who took part, running from Greenwich to The Mall in their thousands, with a record-breaking 58,250 having crossed the finish line by 18:15 on Sunday evening. In fact, it was the biggest ever total of finishers to complete the distance.

Carter, a senior manager at LME, worked closely with Craddock. He led on two specific elements of the TCS London Marathon this year – the “back of the pack” process, which looks after all participants who fall outside of the marathon’s eight-hour pace, but who finish before midnight on Sunday night, and LME’s new collaboration with Friday Night Lights, which kickstarted the marathon weekend for the first time with an illuminating and electric 5k event in Battersea Park.

“We’ve been improving our back of the pack process since 2019 when we got a bit of heat for lack of a proper process in that area,” Carter commented. “A lot of hard work has gone into it over the last few years and this year, we gave it a bit more love and attention to take a bit of the pressure off the route guys.

“The tweaks were based on participant feedback, but also on how we felt we were doing. We want to make sure that everyone, regardless of where they are in that bubble, gets as close as possible to the same experience as everyone who finishes on The Mall,” said Carter.

SIGNIFICANT ENHANCEMENTS

Carter liaised with LME’s Sophie Blackett, route manager, and Michelle Wilson, deputy route manager, and a volunteer team led by Jo Gennari, who helped LME manage the volunteers to deliver vital on-ground support.

This year, LME trialled new tracking technology as it’s paramount that the

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organising team bring participants safely over the line. Whether that’s on The Mall until 18.15 or in St James Park when the finish line moves because road closures need to be lifted.

“Because of the size and scale of our event, it’s a resource that’s needed,” Carter continued. “We’ve always maintained visibility of who is where on the route but this year, we worked with Mika Timing to get some real-time data; we knew exactly where our participants were at any one time.

“It was a small-scale trial and there’s more work to do but it’s another evolution of what we’re doing to ensure we know as much as possible about our participants,” he added.

This was not the only use of new tech.

Across the start area, managed by start line manager James Taylor, drones supplied by Batcam were used for CCTV, giving the LME team greater visibility and “flexibility”.

Again, this footage was distributed to an enhanced event control room facility so both the start and finish lines benefitted from dedicated support. A move Craddock described as a “significant enhancement”.

Taylor said: “We’ve always had an event control room at the start, but it needed uplifting. We’ve worked with Batcam for years and they provide a lot of aerial shots so I am sure that relationship will continue to develop so we’re not so reliant on local CCTV cameras.”

He continued: “We did a comparative piece of work and if our 60,000 runners were actually in a stadium, bums on seats, the control room that would be required in a stadium environment would be quite different to what we had.”

WASTE AND WATER

These were not the event’s only developments. Stewart Caithness, Craddock’s production manager at the finish line, completely reviewed LME’s waste

management plan across the footprint, including its ten different waste streams.

The event’s team wished to rigorously segregate waste so opted to go down the “bulletproof” route of sorting tables, meaning everything was brought back to a waste management compound and sorted before it was taken away by Grundon Waste Management to be recycled.

“We also had the ability to tap into mains water supplies and worked with Thames Water for the first time,” said Craddock. “We were able to run piping through the ducts to both sides of the road, giving us access to 64 taps if it was a really hot day. So, if participants wanted more water after they’d finished, they could easily refill their water bottles.”

INCLUSIVE MOVES

Much of LME’s planning this year centred around refinement. Reflecting, Taylor said that he was most proud of the operational efficiencies that have been gradually implemented over the years as the organising team worked towards this year’s recordbreaking moments with almost 60,000 participants crossing the line.

In addition, more than 1,900 participants with disabilities made 2026 the most inclusive London Marathon ever. Again, to help increase that number and make guests feel more comfortable in 2027, Craddock and the team worked with Matterport to use 360 cameras and film areas of the footprint. This will provide LME with helpful footage that can be used next year to give participants and guests a better understanding of what to expect on-site.

UNSUNG HEROES

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LONDON MARATHON 20,000 children) – which also fell under Craddock’s remit – the team will move into a series of hot and cold debriefs over the next six weeks. Including various agency and stakeholder meetings.

Already, there is chat about LME’s hopes to hold the marathon across two days. The idea being that the elite men’s and elite women’s races would take place on separate days with mass races taking place on both days.

With more than 1,338,500 people having entered the public ballot to run the marathon next year, there is clear demand for two largescale mass participation events, which would raise significant funds for charities and build on the event’s already significant economic impact and legacy projects.

“The scale of what we do is just crazy,” said Carter. “Because in the last few weeks, we’ve not only delivered the TCS London Marathon, but we’ve also delivered the third biggest marathon in the UK, in Brighton two weeks before London, and we delivered a bigger Bath Half Marathon a few weeks before that.

“We have two events in quick succession under our belts and so you could forgive people if they let things slip but our ability for the team to also handle a bigger, better London Marathon just amazes me.

“We have an amazing logistics team who turn things around and I think they need to be given a shout out because they are our unsung heroes. They’re out of sight but they’re jumping from one site to the next and still delivering to the level that things need to be delivered at.”

Craddock echoed Carter’s comments. The event’s wider operations team “owned” their roles and areas, he said, because it’s not just about the start and finish venues. The whole route is a jigsaw, and consistency is needed across the event to ensure a certain level of world-class detail is achieved.

Hugh Brasher, event director of the TCS London Marathon and CEO of LME, concluded: “I set targets every year, and this has surpassed anything that I could have imagined. Sometimes you just have to take a deep breath and love what is going on out there.”

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LOVE TRAILS FESTIVAL LOVE TRAILS

Keep on running Theo Larn-Jones on ten years of Love Trails, the 5,000-cap festival with a big passion for running and wellbeing a beautifully sunny morning when I t’sStandOut settles to chat all things Love

Trails Festival with its founder Theo Larn-Jones.

“How does it feel to be ten years old?”

StandOut asks the trail running enthusiast and festival director.

“Well, ten years, it’s raced past, I’m very proud, and really pleased that what started as a 30-person test event has taken on a life of its own,” he says.

Later this year, the four-day running, adventure, and music festival will celebrate its tenth anniversary.

What started as a small test event in 2016 soon grew to a 300-person event the year after. Larn-Jones proved there was an appetite for a multi-dimensional event and ten years on, the event has sold out for the second consecutive year. Plus, there’s already a waitlist for 2027.

“As it’s your anniversary, were you not tempted to increase ticket sales just a little bit?” StandOut enquires.

“It’s a very good question,” he says. “We are tempted to do that next year, but this

year will be our second year selling out at our 5,000-licence capacity. We wanted another year selling out at the same capacity, providing a degree of stability.”

GROWING DEMAND

Love Trails Festival releases tickets in blocks, creating scarcity, and a “real reason for people to buy”, he says. Ticket windows are limited, creating FOMO. I’s a strategy that’s clearly working for Larn-Jones and the Love Trails team, who are witnessing a growing demand for events that leave people returning home feeling recharged after a weekend away rather than depleted.

“The number of people who are interested in running, taking part in running, and who run either with a club, a community, or on their own has really taken off,” Larn-Jones adds. “So, in terms of the pool of people from which we can draw an audience, it’s expanding massively. It’s also happening across all age groups. From the very youngest to the slightly older consumer. And we’re finding that people want to spend their money a little differently.”

A TOUCH OF LUXURY

According to Larn-Jones, Love Trails has witnessed an increase in demand for a more luxury festival experience. In fact, premium ticket sales have doubled since 2025 and there has been an increase in glamping sales, too. All of which have an impact on event management plans and operations.

Larn-Jones continues: “We’ve noticed over the last few years that people are arriving at the festival earlier, so the Thursday is becoming a really big day for us. This year will be the first that we’ve got one of our music headliners playing on the Thursday whereas before it’s been a bit of a chilled one.

“We’re really excited about this change, and we’ve also done some work on the site to consolidate and maximise the use of our structures, working very hard to be very efficient with our structures and site plan.”

GRANULAR DETAIL

In 2025, Love Trails Festival introduced an event control function – run by Verity Henrywood – into the team for the very

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LOVE TRAILS FESTIVAL first time. It was such a success that 2026 will feature an expanded event control department, embedding the function further as the organising team acknowledge the festival’s high degrees of complexity and many moving parts.

“One of the best things about our new event control is that we were able to log everything and that’s become a blueprint for 2026. We got so much granular detail that we’ve been able to create a few structured workshops where we’ve been able to talk about changes that we want to make to the event,” Larn-Jones comments.

THE LOWS

The Love Trails team – which includes Sarah Pritchard, head of operations and production – has brought in many operational improvements and is now looking at its next phase of growth. However, to do that, the team must also acknowledge the low points of the last ten years and learn from them.

Larn-Jones explains: “I think the lows have been the years where we just haven’t had the appropriate resources and so our team has been so stretched. There were definitely some years where the opening time had to be pushed by a couple of hours and that caused a huge amount of stress. But over the last few editions, we have had the appropriate amount of resource and team size on site, and we do keep investing in that now.

“Also, I know no one wants to mention COVID but because of that COVID hangover, we didn’t have the luxury to do we wanted with our event plans,” he admits. “We were on the red line, which was pretty stressful, but we’re out the other side now and I’m excited to see what’s next.”

WHAT’S NEXT

Larn-Jones has big plans for the brand, including international expansion. On a small and intimate scale. Right now, with just six weeks to go until 5,000 music and running fans descend on Wales and the beautiful Gower Peninsula, the team is busy making final preparations for a celebratory year.

“What I’m most excited about this year is

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seeing Love Trails continue to evolve in ways that feel genuinely fresh and culture-led,” he explains. “We’re bringing five of the UK’s most exciting indie race organisers together for the first time. Each has its own unique format, aesthetic, and approach to running culture, which feels like a real celebration of the creativity happening in grassroots running.

“We’ve also massively expanded our sauna and ice bath offering, with six mobile saunas across the festival this year, creating

more space for recovery and slowing down between adventures. And then there’s Timed Out, which is our trademarked immersive race experience format that debuted at Love Trails Croatia last year. It’s a unique format where you ‘time out’ at experience stations, blurring the line between racing, storytelling, and play in a way that feels completely unique to Love Trails. I can’t wait for people to experience it,” Larn-Jones concludes.

Love Trails Festival opens on July 2.

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WI-FI AND COMMS

Establishing a connection

ATTEND2IT

Event comms and Wi-Fi experts discuss how they are helping organisers to create safer and better connected events StandOut writes, event and comms A sprofessionals are working alongside

each other to deliver a major upgrade of the Wi-Fi network at Hillhead. The construction equipment event, organised by QMJ Group, is installing a 1.5km fibre ring across the show site to enhance connectivity, supporting a greater number of free visitor hot spots and giving exhibitors better access to digital solutions across the event’s footprint.

Yet it’s not the only comms upgrade that QMJ has given the green light to. A temporary EE/BT mobile phone mast is set to be installed. Again, strengthening on-site connectivity during the biennial event.

These measures are demonstrative of the moves that organisers are willing to make to improve on-site facilities for visitors, customers, and ticketholders. Whether you’re in a quarry in Derbyshire, a field in Brighton, or by the beach in Cannes.

“Google bring out new products each year, so we create fun demonstrations to show off the new technology.”

Therefore, it’s really important that the Wi-Fi works well. She continued: “This year, we want to track each person that comes onto Google Beach. But it’s more than people counting. We want to understand which demos people have engaged with or if they’ve been to a talk.”

Compton is working with Pylon One on this project, which has created a solution using UHF technology, similar to RFID. It provides Amplify with detailed information that can be tailored exactly to Google’s needs.

“Pylon One are amazing,” Compton added.

“They got a great understanding of all of Google’s weird and wonderful ways and the tech that works. Plus, they have a really good relationship with Google’s internal tech team, which is amazing when you can have the right people talking to each other.”

TAILORED SOLUTION

SAFE PAIR OF HANDS

Biddy Compton is a freelance production manager currently working with Amplify. She is helping to deliver Google’s latest Google Beach activation at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity where reliable Wi-Fi and tech solutions are paramount to the successful delivery of the project.

“The activation has a core design, but we switch things up,” Compton explained.

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Compton described Pylon One’s Jake Lee, network engineer and developer, as a “safe pair of hands” – a person she can approach where no question is too big or too small.

“He’ll always find a solution,” said Compton.

“Which is key. Especially with clients like Google, knowing that there is someone who is reliable, that no matter what, if something goes down, there’s always a backup. To have

a team that is so quick to respond and always has a plan B up their sleeve is invaluable.”

EVENT CRITICAL NETWORKS

John Houchin, director at Pylon One, explained that the company has its roots in IT and networking, and has invested time and money into research and development – creating solutions that meet organisers’ diverse range of needs and “pretty much anything that taps into those networks”. It’s all about connectivity, he said. Everything from scanning and counting to cameras and CCTV. Charlie Brownridge, general manager at PMY Group, which provides Wi-Fi, comms, and tech solutions to Glastonbury, Bearded Theory, RHS Chelsea Flower Show, and Forbidden Forest, concurred. Since COVID, he argued, tech and network requirements are now one of the first things on the agenda because organisers value solutions that deliver priceless data and reassurance.

In turn, this is driving technological advancements in AI and Wi-Fi 7 with organisers adopting a more integrated approach towards comms and network plans.

OPERATIONAL DECISION-MAKING

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WI-FI AND COMMS using CCTV, ticketing, accreditation, pointof-sale and event management systems, along with LiDAR sensors deployed across sites, creating a big operational picture. The data captured was delivered instantly to the event operators through a simple dashboard that enabled a real-time view and supported operational decision making.

EXTRA LAYER OF INFRASTRUCTURE

Indeed, Wi-Fi is just one piece of a huge comms and connectivity puzzle that event organisers need to consider. There’s a whole heap of interconnected functions that rely on an invisible infrastructure network, including event control, CCTV, security, and access. And each event-critical network must be protected.

RedBox Events has been contracted by NW Live to provide Wi-Fi services to Brighton Pride this year. A project that will keep Morgan Denton, director of RedBox Events, and his team busy. “We come out of On the Beach and go straight into Brighton Pride,” Denton said. “One of the new things that the organisers are asking for is to relay the video feed from the main stage into the VIP tents behind the stage and into the accessibility tent so everyone can see what’s going on.

“Normally, the video company would run miles of fibre all around the site, putting in loads of extra infrastructure, but when you’ve got a cohesive Wi-Fi network that’s built to a high standard, it can take that bandwidth.

“We’re just adding an extra layer to our infrastructure and we’re building the ability to transit those video feeds or audio feeds

around the site,” he continued. “I have a sneaky feeling event control are going to go ask for the feed from the stage, so we’ve decided to run a dedicated fibre under the ground. That way we can have a direct, dedicated link to a priority, backed up, powered piece of core infrastructure. So, if they lose the stage, all they lose is a couple of camera feeds, but event control will still see everything going on.”

FREE TO ROAM

Denton is working closely alongside Roadphone NRB, which is providing radio comms to the event. The company has asked for a non-network feed into event control, giving the organising team a comprehensive comms network and peace of mind.

This is paramount because any organiser will agree that reliability is key.

Emin Akbay, director of Marathon Communications, concurred. “We’ve noticed an increase in organisers of new trail running events approaching us who have previously relied on mobile phones, WhatsApp, or backto-back radios,” he said. “They’ve realised that they need a safety critical communication system because their safety advisory group has questioned their communications plan and their solutions haven’t been sufficient. It’s led them to investigate whether radios could solve their issues.

“For some of these clients we recommend LTE technology, push-to-talk radios that roam across the mobile network. So rather than having to put in expensive masts with

engineering support, you use a system that’s already in place. They’re easy to install and take out so this technology is perfect and gives those event organisers access to a cost-effective solution.”

However, LTE tech is not suitable for all scenarios. For example, if you organise a big city-based half marathon where the mobile networks are likely to be congested, it’s not suitable. But for long-distance mass participation events, it’s a quick and easy solution to deploy.

CLARITY AND VISIBILITY

To meet demand, Marathon Communications has invested in more LTE technology.

However, it’s not the company’s only purchase. It has bought new Peltor noise cancelling headsets, which are popular with key personnel based in and around noisy start/finish areas.

“We had 12 sets out on hire at Brighton Half this year,” Akbay explained. “These were used by the start officials, and medical teams based at the finish line. The headsets offer both hearing protection, and improved audio clarity. The high-visibility colouring also helped to clearly identify event officials from afar.

“Plus, we also deployed GPS tracking at Brighton, enabling the multi-agency control room to view the location of the lead vehicle, safety car, sweep bus, and tail walkers in real-time on bespoke mapping software.

All telemetry was handled via the radio system, so there was no reliance on mobile

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WI-FI AND COMMS

ATTEND2IT IN ACTION

CCTV data which can be notoriously unreliable at crowded city centre events.”

ON BOARD

This year, Attend2IT is once again working with the organiser of Rail Live to implement a Wi-Fi solution that will work whilst the event’s site – Porterbrook’s Long Marston Rail Innovation Centre – finalises its modernisation programme.

Rail Live benefits from having access to the UK railways only test loop. Yet, right now, it’s in the middle of improvement works.

“As you can imagine, a train test track is quite a large thing,” said Dominic Hampton, MD of Attend2IT. “But because of the modernisation works, we’ve had to do something a bit different there this year.”

He added: “In previous years, the venue had put a whole lot of fibre in, but when they put the new test track down, some of the fibre was damaged. It will be put back for next year, but for this year, we’ve got a lease line.

“From our point of view, that’s a bit of a step backwards because everything will need to be done with a wireless link, but they need to do it.”

TAKING CCTV SERIOUSLY

Next year will be different, explained

26 n www.2cl.co.uk

RAIL LIVE Hampton, who said the events market was creeping back into old habits and leaving confirmations and purchase orders until the last minute. However, with the impending introduction of Martyn’s Law, lots of people are taking CCTV systems more seriously, he said. Therefore, many more discussions are being had around protected networks, resilience, and reliability.

Again, this opens up the conversation around traders/exhibitors’ use of Starlinks, which needs to be properly managed.

“We don’t ban the use of Starlinks at Rail Live,” Hampton explained. “What we ban is anyone outputting anything in the frequencies that we’re using, which includes 2.4 Ghz and 5 Ghz. Now I’m being a little bit facetious, because I know full well that banning 2.4 and 5 Ghz means I’m effectively banning the use of Starlinks on-site. But it’s not the actual Starlink, I’ve got a problem with.”

Denton concurred. Similarly, he doesn’t not like Starlink systems. When you have a couple in a field, it’s fine. But when you have 800 exhibitors to look after and 150 turn up with Starlinks, and every Starlink “is shouting really loudly”, it can bring an entire network down.

As a result, Denton is now seeing policies being written and put in place that limits exhibitors and traders from bringing a

Starlink to site, or any form of wireless router, without seeking permission first. It’s a move that has been adopted by the organiser of Southampton International Boat Show, which will “fine” those who ignore the warnings.

NET BENEFITS

Denton explained that some exhibitors and traders are pushing back, arguing that a ban on Starlinks is just a way for an organiser to make money. But Denton argued that he wants everyone on an event on-site to experience a good Wi-Fi and comms service. Rogue Starlinks can stop that from happening. “We want everyone to go to an event, and we want everyone to maximise their potential, because if every exhibitor goes there and makes a fortune, they’ll return and the show grows,” he commented.

“Everybody benefits.

“We see ourselves as the small cog in the machine, and without every cog working to its best ability, the machine fails,” he concluded. “We are very, very aware of the fact that all of the ‘money’ at an event or festival is either validated or goes through our Internet connection, and we have to deliver or we can kill a show. So, what we do is important, the network is important, and we need to protect it.”

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BLOODSTOCK

BLOODSTOCK

Images: © Steve Dempsey/Katja Ogrin/Abbi Draper-Scott

Blood, sweat, and tears For the third year in a row, Bloodstock has sold out, and it’s making money. Read on as co-director Adam Gregory talks budgets, fans, and why – after 25 years – passion is still the answer to everything ever met Adam Gregory, I fyouyouwillhaveknow he is not the sort of

person to sit back and let others take the strain. Just like his Dad Paul Gregory, an artist who founded Bloodstock in 2001, he is passionate about his subject – heavy metal; but even more passionate about delivering value for discerning music fans.

“We’re very much at the forefront of what we do, and we make sure we’re connected to our fan base,” says Gregory, festival director of Bloodstock, the heavy metal and alternative music festival, which he now runs with his sisters Vicky Hungerford and Rachael Greenfield.

“We don’t hide behind desks or in cabins backstage,” he continues. “We all play an important role. And whilst myself and Vicky tend to be the face of the festival, Rachael sits behind a screen, doing budgets and numbers. It’s important she gets recognition for the contribution she makes, because if nobody did their bit, Bloodstock wouldn’t work.”

Gregory is straight talking. He has worked his way up through the festival’s ranks.

First, living the dream, clearing out festival dressing rooms in the early 2000s whilst his sisters sold merch. Now, he is living the

28 n www.olympuscrew.co.uk

dream, working out just how the festival is going to “work”, alongside Greenfield whilst Hungerford books the bands.

“None of us had a clue when we started,” he says, reflecting on the festival’s early days as it prepares to mark its 25th anniversary. “We learned a bit every year and I guess, we learned more when SC Productions came on board to do site management and artist liaison. The team became a lot more integrated,” he adds.

HOUSES WERE ON THE LINE

Bloodstock started as a one-day indoor event at the Derby Assembly Rooms with just 700 people in attendance. By 2005, the festival had dipped its toe into the outdoor world before making a giant leap in 2007 to become a three-day open-air festival. Now, 25 years after its first event and Bloodstock welcomes 20,000 fans. This year, it will take place over four days with fans able to pitch their tents at Catton Park from Wednesday, August 5.

“It’s important to note that as a festival, and certainly as an independent festival, we didn’t make money for about 12 to 13, years,” Gregory says, candidly. “We didn’t turn a profit. There was a level of

commitment that was involved in the first few years where houses were on the line, livelihoods, everything, in a blind belief that it would work.”

And it has. For the third year in a row, Bloodstock has sold out. And that’s because Gregory, Hungerford, and Greenfield ensure the event is “all it can be”.

“How do you do that?” StandOut asks.

“We’re very connected to the fans,” Gregory continues, reflecting on the event’s successes. And challenges. “We’re out front with them and experiencing what they’re going through and we’re making sure the festival is as good as we can make it. But I don’t think there’s enough festivals that are connected as they should be. Every festival is a business. Of course it is, but I think you must have a certain level of passion as well. A lot of organisers do, and a lot of independent festivals have because there’s more on the line.”

HUMBLED

Gregory is incredibly humble when he talks about the fans. He recognises that the festival is “fortunate” to have sold out; a fact he doesn’t take lightly. “You’re only as good as the year you’re in,” he comments. “This is our

BLOODSTOCK third year of consecutively selling out and we’re humbled by the level of support from fans, bands, industry, everybody.

“Lineups have obviously played a part in our success and as you become more established, bands are more forthcoming, but the festival is the headliner – it’s not the individual bands – and we’re kind of creating something that we’d enjoy ourselves and we’re only here because the fans have supported us.”

RIGHT THING TO DO

Looking back at the highs and lows, Gregory describes COVID as a brutal period.

Thankfully, the festival was one of the first to come back full-scale with the mighty support of its customers. This is another reason why Gregory and the Bloodstock team are keen to make sure the festival provides value for money and is not “pillaging” the marketplace for all it can get.

“We sold out this year’s event seven weeks after we went on sale,” Gregory explains.

“We could have said, ‘Great, it’s our 25th anniversary, we’ve sold out, let’s keep the same format’, but we didn’t. We went out and spent a lot more money on an extra day, you know, booking bands. And we’ve opened the main stage on the Thursday this year.

“We just felt it was the right thing to do to sort of say thank you to our fans for their continued support.”

COST ANALYSIS

With less than three months to go before Bloodstock opens its gates, the organising team is knee deep in planning. Gregory and Greenfield have just completed a cost analysis project, looking at ticket pricing, and it has opened their eyes even wider to the realities of event promotion and planning.

Gregory explains: “We’re probably one of the cheapest events you can go to. For a four-day festival with camping. We didn’t really appreciate how well our pricing was, but it’s also about making sure you try and bring that across food and drink and everything else, so your experience doesn’t just become a cash cow for promoters to make as much money as possible in the shortest available window. It’s very much around providing value for money and helping people make memories. Because if Bloodstock can be part of that memory process, and in 30 years’ time, if people are sitting, having lunch, talking to the grandkids and regurgitating stories of their youth at Bloodstock then we’ve done our job and that’s really special.”

But what did that cost analysis project prove to Gregory? Well, for starters, since COVID, lineups have gone up 67 per cent and infrastructure has increased roughly 30 per cent. It means the festival is effectively paying double what it was six years ago for the same level of quality and infrastructure.

But it’s not charging customers double the ticket price. Now, this year, Gregory is facing an even bigger diesel bill and therefore, he thinks it’s time the Government stepped in

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BLOODSTOCK

and allowed organisers to use red diesel until world events calm down.

BALANCING ACT

“Those budgets are absolutely vital,” Gregory comments. “They take a lot of balancing, and they take a lot of tough conversations, but me and Rachael work very, very hard with SC Productions to try and deliver a standard without overpaying.”

He continues: “SC Productions do a great job. They’re passionate. They know the event, they understand our audience, and they deliver for us.

“Jake and the team know what makes Bloodstock tick, and they’re always keen to try and help us develop what we do. It’s difficult, because when you’ve got a sold-out event that’s doing what it needs to do, you don’t want to fiddle too much in case you break something. So together, we look at

those areas we can tweak to enhance the value for the fans.

“Also, we like to try and work with the same suppliers where we know we get a good service. It’s not always the cheapest but we want to pay the best and that’s come from many years of working with people and developing what we need as a requirement.”

THE FUTURE

As for Bloodstock 2026, there are a few site changes. Some stages have expanded, some stages have moved to create larger viewing areas, and there are a few surprises planned. Including some for 2027 and a “new potential area”.

“We’ve definitely grown over the years and we’re always happy to talk to our fans about the decisions and choices we make,” Gregory continues. “In the early days, people said Bloodstock would never work and

that we’d be gone in a year or two, so it’s nice to still be here and know that the only reason we are here is because the fans have supported us.

“There’s no magic to it. We’ve got to a level where the fans love what we do, and I think for us, as a family, delivering those moments is more important than anything else, it really is.

“I think if we’d have looked at things purely from a business perspective we’d have given up after two or three years with huge losses, but we didn’t do that. We stuck with it, and made it work. And now we’re in a situation that the festival does okay.

“I’m not going to say we’re making millions because we’re not but it’s doing okay and it’s got a future which is more important.

It’s giving us an opportunity to expand and as long as the fans are loving it, we’ll keep doing it,” Gregory concludes.

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DELIVERING SAFE EVENTS

Putting customers first K4 Group details how its integrated approach helps organisers to enhance safety and improve efficiencies on site Group of Companies has rapidly K 4established itself as one of the UK’s

most dynamic and integrated service providers within the events, security, and crowd management sector. Founded in 2005, the company began by supporting security operations for some of the industry’s leading providers, delivering trained personnel into complex and high-pressure environments across the UK. Through consistency, reliability, and operational excellence, K4 Group quickly earned a reputation as a trusted delivery partner for major venues, stadiums, public events, and national deployments.

Today, K4 Group has evolved into a fully integrated business delivering security, medical, training, workforce, CCTV, and event consultancy services nationwide. Operating across live events, festivals, sporting venues, cultural celebrations, exhibitions, corporate functions, and public sector environments, the company continues to support clients with scalable and professional event solutions tailored to the demands of modern events.

COMPREHENSIVE SERVICES

What makes K4 Group different is its ability to provide complete event support solutions. K4 Group’s event consultancy and operational services include: Event consultancy services, event security planning, event risk assessments, capacity calculations, CAD drawings, stewarding dot plans, queue management designs, barrier design, rapid deployment CCTV control rooms, event security services, event stewards, crew, including pit crew, traffic marshals, first responders, event response officers, access control and search teams, VIP and artist protection, and backstage and front of stage security. Plus, the group has team members trained in crowd management and public safety operations, mobile security and rapid response, medical and welfare support

K4 GROUP – READY TO SUPPORT YOU services and control room coordination and operations. In fact, the organisation can provide a fully integrated security, medical and workforce solution under one roof.

This comprehensive approach provides clients with the confidence, structure, and operational capability required to successfully manage both routine and high-profile events.

ENHANCING SAFETY

Alongside consultancy and planning, K4 Group delivers a wide range of frontline event services including event security teams, event stewards, pit crews, event crew, traffic marshals, first responders, and response officers. Every deployment is supported by structured supervision, experienced management, and a 24/7 operational mindset, ensuring seamless coordination before, during, and after every event.

The company’s people-led approach remains central to its success. K4 Group continues to invest heavily in training, workforce development, and operational technology to ensure clients receive consistently high standards across every service the group delivers. This commitment allows

K4 Group to build long-term partnerships within the events industry while continuously expanding its national capability and service offering. Every solution it provides is designed not just to support an event, but to enhance its safety, efficiency, and overall delivery.

K4 – DELIVERING RESULTS

As the events industry continues to evolve, K4 Group is actively supporting clients with innovative, integrated, and scalable solutions across security, medical, workforce, and event consultancy services. It is currently offering free consultation calls and complimentary site risk assessments, allowing event organisers and venues to understand how its services can improve safety, compliance, and overall event performance. To discuss your upcoming event or operational requirements, K4 Group invites you to connect with its highly-skilled team and experience a fully integrated service designed to deliver results from planning to completion.

If you would like to find out how K4 Group of Companies can help you, call 020 3143 3998, visit www.k4group.co.uk, or email admin@k4group.co.uk.

www.k4group.co.uk n 35

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EVENT MEDICAL CARE

NEW EVENT MEDICAL REGS ARE COMING Image: Unsplash

Get ready for regs Events rely on safe, effective medical care. Which is why event professionals should understand the implications of new proposed guidance that could impact their events changes to event healthcare P roposed requirements could result in

“significant consequences” for both sporting and cultural events if those surveyed in a new report do chose to stop working in event medicine.

A study by Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine UK found that medical providers would be prepared to no longer work in sporting events if the Government pushes ahead with more red tape.

According to the study, some sports – such as horse racing, motorsports, and wrestling – would be disproportionately affected as more than a third of their workforce has said that they may stop working in event medicine if regulation comes into force.

BASELINE CARE AND STANDARDS

Currently, there are two sets of guidance and regulation being taken forward by Government – both designed to “help shape future ways of working”.

Firstly, following recommendations from the Manchester Arena Inquiry, a new Event Healthcare Standard (EHS) is being developed to mandate baseline medical care at sporting and cultural events. This is being considered as best practice guidance and is expected to be published very soon.

But the big change is regarding the Care Quality Commission (CQC), which has recently launched a consultation, outlining new proposals that will bring event healthcare into “scope”. But what does that mean?

It means any event medical provider, except those only providing basic first aid, would need to be CQC registered and meet the standards set out in the Health and Social Care Act. Previously, it was thought that event medical providers would be exempt from CQC regs. However, that is all set to change.

MEETING THE CRITERIA

Treating a disease, disorder, or injury (TDDI)

at sporting or cultural events is being brought into “scope” of CQC regulation. This means that if your chosen event medical supplier provides any health care or treatment at an event site that meets the criteria of the regulated activity of TDDI, they will need to register with CQC. Which will assess a medical provider against the new EHS. Yet the changes are raising many questions. For instance, where does first aid stop and TDDI start and who is going to determine a definition?

The CQC is asking you to share your views.

By June 19. So, if you plan, deliver, or rely on event medical services, now is the time to have your say. Especially if you are a “nonclinical” professional, says Robert Shelswell, an emergency nurse practitioner and founder of the National Event Medicine Observatory.

Why? Because he argues that regulations and their implications need to be understood by all stakeholders – especially those contracting medical providers to work on their events.

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EVENT MEDICAL CARE

FIRST AID POINT IMPLICATIONS

The Faculty of Sport and Exercise Medicine UK’s report warns that CQC regulation will reduce the available workforce, increase burden on the NHS, and raise the risk of event cancellations. Plus, it believes that organisers may consider relocating their events to outside of England. Thus, impacting grassroots events and community participation.

Whilst the report focuses heavily on the implications on sporting events, the faculty’s findings will resonate with many organisers that are already facing significant cost challenges and financial strain.

Medical providers registering with the CQC will need to pay for registration – with many expecting costs to be passed on. Yet it’s not the large-scale organisers that will be impacted. Melissa Way, director and health advisor of Event Care Solutions – who supports Boomtown with governance, harm reduction, and medical readiness – believes small to medium sized events are going to feel the bite.

She also warns that increased costs may tempt some organisers to “downgrade” their medical cover to first aid, which is exempt from regs. Even if a risk assessment or previous data suggests that the cover required on-site is more than that!

TIMELINES

So, what’s next? If your medical provider does not register, it would become an offence to provide event medical services.

In which case you need to ask yourself this, is your medical provider CQC-registered, or is it in the process? Way explains: “This will matter for many events sooner than people

think, particularly where risk profiles are higher.

If your provider isn’t registered yet, my advice is to work with them rather than switching.

They already know your event; you have an established relationship and navigating this together is far better than starting again with someone new.”

CQC registration can take six months. From September 7, providers can start submitting registration applications to CQC and from December 6, 2027, CQC will start regulating TDDI on event sites.

The CQC has already stated that it will take all reasonable steps to undertake assessments and advise medical providers of their application before December 6, 2027. As long as their applications are fully complete if received by CQC on or before March 1, 2027.

GREY AREAS

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) says that there remains uncertainty around the number of providers that need to register but believes that there are almost 90 providers who would be in scope, of which more than 50 are already registered.

Shelswell argues that the industry needs improved standards and regulation. And has seen a draft of the EHS. He describes it as a significant step in the right direction but like CQC regulations, there are many grey areas that need clarification.

For example, Way says that a clinician knows the difference between first aid and TDDI. Particularly if they are working on an event and using their “clinical judgement” to make a decision about a patient and treat them in that moment.

Shelswell concurs and raises a further important point: “If you’ve got a big greenfield festival, and somebody is taken ill at the furthest point away from where your medical facility is set up, and they have to be transported from where they’ve collapsed to the medical facility, the transportation on site – an ambulance vehicle – won’t fall under the regulation. But if a paramedic gets in the back of the ambulance then does that treatment become regulated? Because they’re being looked after by a registered professional.”

He continues: “I’m making light of this but does the paramedic not get in the ambulance and just meets the patient at the medical facility at the other end of the site?

Of course, the paramedic is going to get into the back and accompany the patient from A to B. But why doesn’t the transit come under regulation?”

This very question is also raised by Way, who wonders why transport within a site has been excluded from CQC regulations.

Especially given the fact that medical providers will need to demonstrate at registration that they have the right equipment and capability for the patients they intend to treat.

“Your voice matters,” says Way, encouraging event professionals to have a say in the consultation process. “I really would encourage anyone to have a read and submit feedback on these changes.

“Every event and festival organiser needs to understand what their need is, so talk to your medical provider and get an honest assessment of your event medical needs,” she concludes.

First Aid Cover Ltd, event first aid and paramedic service, is owned and managed by NHS trained healthcare professionals and operates to the highest standards.

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TOUR DE FRANCE

Setting the pace

THE UK PREPARES TO HOST GRAND DÉPART GB 2027 Images: © A.S.O/Pauline Ballet/ Simon Wilkinson/Alex Whitehead/SWpix.com

The Tour de France is known for its gruelling stages but right now, the TDF Grand Départ GB 2027’s operations and readiness team is transforming the tender stage with a centralised procurement system and early scoping exercises

the Tour de France and Tour I nde2027, France Femmes avec Zwift will

both take place in the UK. This marks the first time both the men’s and women’s Grand Départs will take place in the same country (outside France).

England, Scotland, and Wales will host stages of this famous cycling event, making

it the largest free sporting spectacle and public event in British history with millions expected to line the streets as the world’s best cyclists race by.

For events of this magnitude, early planning is critical. Hence, the events’ operations team has got a head start thanks to a large early scoping exercise, and comprehensive

supplier briefings that have helped shape its procurement process.

Matt Hodgson, operations director of Grand Départ GB 2027, and Dean Hardman, readiness director at Grand Départ GB 2027, have worked closely with Liam Worthy, founder of LW Events.

Over the last few months, Worthy has delivered operational planning, production, and consultancy services to Grand Départ GB 2027. Including the initial scoping of critical infrastructure and resources across all six stages of both events – plotting things like barriers, first aid locations, toilets, and traffic stewards on Iventis where appropriate.

While quantities will evolve during the next 12 months of detailed planning with key stakeholders, this early scoping exercise has given the TDF Grand Depart 2027 team the confidence to begin the procurement process, knowing numbers are “accurate enough” to engage suppliers at the right level and identify both national and local providers that have the “resilience” to deliver.

BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS

Grand Départ GB 2027 is the name given to the Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) that will maintain oversight of the delivery of the events and manage public funding on behalf of DCMS, Scottish Government, Welsh Government, and UK Sport. The SPV is a joint venture between British Cycling and UKEL. It

www.olympuscrew.co.uk n 41

TOUR DE FRANCE has created a central procurement process, procuring on behalf of each local authority that the events will pass through. That’s why the early scoping exercise has been so paramount; it has helped the organising team to determine what services and equipment each host local authority has access to. Therefore, influencing what actually needs to be procured across more than 900 kilometres of route.

“The complexity of this project is quite high,” explained Hardman. “It’s important that we start to build relationships. We’re not delivering a stadium event or a one-day show. The complexity of how each day and stage joins onto the next is really important so the more we can build a network of suppliers now is vital.

“We use the phrase bolt in rather than bolt on. These people and suppliers are part of a team, and we need them to work as part of a team and that’s why we want to engage people early.”

EARLY ENGAGEMENT

In April, Hodgson and Grand Départ GB 2027 held a supplier briefing meeting. Hodgson was surprised at the number of suppliers who were actively seeking further information about the tender process.

He said: “I don’t think I expected as many suppliers to attend. If you took some of my previous events I have worked on, like Velo Birmingham, which is a 100-mile closedroad cycling event, you’re actively looking for suppliers.

“But for this, I think the number of suppliers that were looking for more information was significantly higher,” he continued.

“For an event like the Tour De France, for something this big, everyone’s going to have a view of how you do it, but the people that are going to deliver it for you have got equal, if not more, expertise to help shape that.

“The suppliers at the briefing listened and asked questions and we’ve been able to do things slightly differently based on their feedback. Getting that early engagement has been great, and it’s meant we can shape our procurement processes to fit the industry as opposed to dictating and perhaps struggling [to find suitable providers].”

42 n www.olympuscrew.co.uk

EQUAL OPPORTUNITIES

Hodgson and Hardman are clear on what their expectations are. They want to engage with suppliers that have resilience and the capabilities to deliver the event to a high standard, suppliers who also have flexibility, and stakeholders that are understanding and willing to collaborate. Why? Because whilst there might be some single source suppliers that could work on all stages of the event, the scale of the project, the significant number of spectators, and therefore, the levels of infrastructure that need to be installed means there isn’t necessarily a single contractor that can deliver everything.

As a result, there are equal opportunities for large and small to medium-sized businesses to get involved. And just because it’s the Tour de France, no one should feel intimated by the legacy of the event or the enormity of the brand.

“So, what kind of suppliers are you looking for?” StandOut asks.

“I think there’s a balance to be struck of cycling-specific or closed-road event specific expertise, but equally local partners that understand the network and the landscapes that we’re working in,” explained Hardman.

“We want to get the word out that there are opportunities. We’d rather have everybody’s details and have them on a framework that we can send stuff to rather than miss out on a great supplier.”

BIG PICTURE

Currently, the events’ traffic management, stewarding, and barriers tenders are live and in the coming weeks, the team will tender for a creative agency, toilets, signage and wayfinding, and LED screens. Hardman said that all central procurement opportunities can be found on the Grand Départ GB 2027’s LinkedIn page. Yet whilst the organising team is getting ahead and making great progress, there’s still work to be done.

“We’re working with all the local authorities [more than 25] to educate them in terms of what is needed to deliver an event of this scale and therefore, drive what they might need,” continued Hodgson, who said you’d

be surprised by the number of pedestrian crossings in the UK! “I’ve been driving that initial scoping work for all of the tenders and then providing that technical knowledge to shape the scope of works and make sure that we’re engaging the right suppliers at the right levels based on what we’re delivering.

“The procurement element is massive,” Hodgson explained further. “For example, road closures are influenced by the amount of infrastructure you’re putting on the road and the number of people that need to get out; it’s all so integrated. You can’t do the longterm planning without knowing what’s out there and what’s going to be out there and how quickly you can put it in, which is why you need these suppliers on board so early. They will tell you how quickly they can actually deliver on the install, and the de-rig, which influences everything else that comes with it.”

GET INVOLVED

According to Hardman, the Tour de France is very different to a football match. Whilst both are examples of sporting events, the mindset of their respective customers is very different. Therefore, it’s crucial that all suppliers working on the event understand the event, its demographic, and how to give spectators the best possible experience.

Especially how their products and services can support a joyful and safe event.

“We’re not looking for a transactional relationship,” said Hardman. “We need someone who gets the event and understands that we’re spending public money, so we have a real responsibility to do that properly. But also, we have a chance to actually make a real positive difference in the local economy and from a social impact point of view.”

All event suppliers are invited to get involved in the procurement process, and to reach out. “This project is that big we’re looking across the board,” Hodgson concluded. “It varies depending on what we’re looking at, but we’re looking for the same stuff all over the country. There are so many opportunities out there, but there’s also a lot more to come.”

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WE ARE BACK: LIVE

COVENTRY CITY FC CELEBRATE

Coventry rocks Coventry City Football Club celebrated its return to the Premier League with a huge party and open top bus parade. In this Q&A, Coventry City Council’s Jon Hogan, head of events, discusses the planning

City Football Club won C oventry promotion to the Premiership and

marked its return with a big celebration.

Tell us more…

Coventry City Football Club were keen to celebrate their win. Under the title of We Are Back: Live, a big parade and party overlapped timewise but some audience members managed to witness the start of the parade before going to War Memorial Park for the party. The parade had an estimated 250,000 public lining the streets over a 9km route, and the party had a capacity for 43,000 as a ticketed event.

What responsibilities did Coventry City Council undertake?

Coventry City Council took on a supporting role for the parade – responsibility sat with the football club. We took on responsibility for the party in the park.

We established a single event control room for the parade and the party and utilised our event team’s experience of mass music events in the park.

There is a lot of love for the club which has gone through hard times. The promotion was an opportunity for the council to elevate the city and promote the city at large.

How much notice did you have of the parade and party and when did planning ramp up?

We started to look into it before Christmas, keeping an eye on results and run of form.

Of course, back then no one was keen to talk about promotion. But as a council we were

44 n www.olympuscrew.co.uk

keen to float the idea during the budget setting process. That said, from the green light being given to mobilise and plan for the party, having established principles with the club, we had about five weeks.

What challenges did you face?

Time. Keeping all stakeholders up to speed and the SAG was a challenge. Also, the club had never undertaken such a large-scale greenfield event, so it was a learning curve for many stakeholders. We were lucky in that the event was early season, so our trusted supplier and services network was available to us. We also had good weather, meaning the park was in good condition. Although we still did some groundworks. But we had “will”.

There was plenty of willingness to succeed.

From suppliers to governance, everyone pulled together.

Also, one of the biggest concerns was how to process more than 40,000 people through the admission gates. We introduced a curfew to try and attract most of the crowd to the park before the end of the parade. We also finished the parade away from the park to avoid crowds following the parade, overwhelming demand at the park entrance. Both these factors helped to spread the load at the admission gates.

Of course, the elevation in threat level to severe just before the event was a concern.

We were given the all-clear to continue with the event. However, we revisited our security and CT plan.

Which suppliers did you work with?

We worked with some great suppliers,

including Event Support Team, Augusta Event Support, IPS, FGH, Conflux Events, Crowdguard, Event Command, Stage Audio Services, Kingsmead Marquees, Charles Wilson, Barworx, Slammin Events, Steelshield, Sunbaba, Advanced Portable Roadway, ADI, and Stretch Tent Productions.

Are there any team members you’d like to give a special shout out to?

Danny Greene, as council production manager, has so much knowledge and experience of the site that the event could not have happened without him. I’d also thank the safety teams and the control room teams for a solid example of interoperability and Harry Cook at Conflux Events for carrying the weight with some fantastic freelance staff. The operational and Zone Ex management was a complex set of asks, as we also overlayed this event onto a large Vaisakhi event on the park, which took place the day before.

What have you learned on this project that you will take forward to your next event?

Using the voice of the club rather than the council to pass on safety and audience information in advance and on the day. But practical information for future events such as admission flow rates, and the level of actual resource needed are all good learning points.

We are yet to debrief so there will be more to learn. I am always happy to offer any advice and experience to any local authorities facing the same challenge; we certainly took advice and learning form the Liverpool FC parade and its subsequent report.

THE GREAT BRITISH FARM FEST

CATHERINE BISHOP (she/her) AND CHRIS HUGHES (he/him)

Celebrating the heroes How many creative “idiots” should be in an event team? The Great British Farm Fest’s Chris Hughes and Cath Bishop discuss crazy ideas, contractors, and creating an event with heart StandOut arrives at NAEC W hen Stoneleigh, one of the first people

we bump into is WeDraw’s co-founder Theo Mortimer. Standing outside the organiser’s office with brightly coloured flags and GPS, Mortimer is ready to mark out more of the event site that will evolve over the next few days into The Great British Farm Fest.

Like most experienced event professionals, he has marked out his fair share of fence lines and power farms but a giant grid for a new game called Battle Shits. That’s a new one even for him.

“Cow pat lotto is the polite word for it,” explains Chris Hughes, co-founder of The Great British Farm Fest. “Battle Shits is basically a big chess board in a field, and you bet on a square for charity. The cows are released and whichever square gets the first shit is the winner.

“We’ve had to plot that out and mark it up,” says Hughes. Or rather Mortimer has.

It’s just one of the many weird and wonderful ideas that comprise The Great British Farm Fest, which is blending the familiarity and tradition of a country fair with the buzz of a live music festival. Oh, and it’s

46 n www.kjetech.com

got the support of Jeremy Clarkson and his Diddly Squat Farm team.

IDIOT RATIO

Hughes is chuckling about Battle Shits and the thought of such a crazy piece of content.

But as an ideas man, and self-confessed fan of innuendo vegetables, it’s not really that crazy. Especially for someone who is a sponge, who observes people and then contemplates whether a sheep dog could herd Kaleb Cooper lookalikes, or if converted farm machinery really is capable of pouring 72 pints a minute.

“Where do you get your ideas from?”

StandOut asks Hughes, who is happy to analyse the show’s progress alongside Cath Bishop, head of operations at Stable Events.

“Catherine will tell you that there aren’t many sensible ideas,” Hughes laughs. “I never knew anything about food, but I launched Taste of London. I never knew anything about cars, but I went around the world with Jeremy and co with Top Gear Live. I like shows so, I look at other people’s worlds as an outsider and I go, ‘That’s quite interesting’. I just observe people and the ideas come.

“However, silly ideas are fine, but they need things like tech, AV, and safety. I think ops people and production enjoy being part of doing something different, making sure creative people don’t fall flat on their face.

And that’s a beautiful combination.

“Plus, there’s usually far more organised people needed than idiots like me,” he says, smiling. “In any team, you should only have a ratio of one to 20 idiots!”

CELEBRATING HEROES

Hughes is poring over a frothy coffee. He believes that the inaugural three-day event will have the wonderful tradition of an agricultural show but will tell a story of how important farming is to a community that don’t already “get it”.

“We want The Great British Farm Fest to be like a county show but with a bit more tongue ‘n’ cheek – we’re certainly not taking the piss because we love county shows and we love the community but we’re making it Clarkson-esque and we’re consciously telling a story. Then, if you add in all the things we’ve learned about other kinds of events and then add music, you have a big national festival

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THE GREAT BRITISH FARM FEST where the farmers aren’t competing, they’re the heroes. Joyful people who keep lots of the world turning.”

LESSONS LEARNED

The Great British Farm Fest is a collaborative effort between Hughes – who launched CarFest, Top Gear Live, and Pub in the Park – and James Gower’s Stable Events. Their vision has been to recreate an event at the former home of the Royal Show that respectfully nods to a bygone era. And not just through the inclusion of rare breeds, such as a water buffalo called Elvis!

“How are ticket sales going?” StandOut enquires.

“We’ve sold 50,000 tickets – I was hoping for 60,000 and more sales on the Friday but it’s half-term so that was probably a mistake on my part,” Hughes answers honestly, as he also reflects on lessons learned from working with Chris Evans on CarFest and Clarkson on Top Gear Live.

“What have I learned from working with Chris and Jeremy? I’ve realised it’s the joy of a party, being honest, and human connection.

“Everyone regards Clarkson’s Farm [the TV show] as quite a phenomenon, but also quite a surprise. Firstly, a man that had one image suddenly had a softer side. When Jeremy started getting emotional at the birth of lambs, you started to see something quite different. And that, in turn, got a very big chunk of the public thinking about farms differently and caring about them more.

“I started talking to him and people around him about whether there was an equivalent show that represents those feelings that unashamedly tells the story of farming to a wider general public, not just the agricultural community. And there wasn’t.”

Hughes continues, taking a moment to ponder: “Working with Jeremy, I think he’s

hugely committed to entertaining people, hugely committed to doing things well, and he pushes everybody to be the best. I’ve also never seen him care as much about a subject as this. He’s really sincere about this. Having travelled the world with him, he always believed that joy was at the centre of everything, but he also believes in being really professional.”

He continues: “Then Chris, he’s an amazing, emotive host. Standing on stage, producing with him, I learned a huge amount about how honesty with human beings will fix a delay on stage, or an incident in the crowd. But also, real human emotions expressed on stage can make you feel better.”

TEAMWORK

Hughes has a huge amount of experience of launching shows. He has experienced the ups, and downs, of event organisation. Yet still the challenges have not squashed any desires to start a fresh. He says that until he started digging into the detail of The Great British Farm Fest, he didn’t realise how special farming is, which is why he believes this event will feel more special than just another show.

“I think there’s a lot of people with a lot of skill coming together to do something no one’s ever done before,” he comments. “We cannot do this without our amazing supply chain and contractors.”

Bishop concurs. She is joined on-site by Stable Events’ Paul Thompson, event health and safety manager, Ops People’s Andrew Hunter, operations director, and Bethan Bloomfield, operations manager. Together, they are working hard to deliver the muchanticipated event.

“It’s been really nice to work with Chris and James on this project,” Bishop says. “James is very creative, but it’s also been a pleasure to work with Chris and his creative ideas.”

She continues: “This site is a challenge – give me a greenfield site any day. We have HS2 to consider and we’ve had to do a lot of surveys to find out what’s in the ground. That’s a massive challenge.

“This show is new, it’s big, and it’s not straightforward but we’re so lucky to have an amazing bunch of contractors and I’m privileged and they’ve all been amazing.”

When we visit there’s just over a week to go until thousands of ticketholders descend on Stoneleigh, but Hughes is already thinking about the future. There is a plan to take the event forward but first things first. “I think the plan is to get everyone to want to do year two, really,” Hughes concludes. “I think we’re auditioning the venue, I think the event will get bigger, and I think it’s an event that will be significant for the nation. Something that matters, something that’s got legs, and I hope will be around in 20 years’ time.”

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BRANDING AND WAYFINDING

Way to go Organisers discuss their branding and wayfinding plans for 2026

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than 25,000 farmers and 650 M ore exhibitors will attend Cereals 2026

when it opens its gates at Jeremy Clarkson’s Diddly Squat Farm this June.

In October, Comexposium, organiser of the arable event, announced that Cereals would move to a new home with exhibitors and visitors welcoming the “Clarkson effect”.

“When you’re dealing with an event that is so long and storied, you always have to reinvent yourself,” said Alli McEntyre Gaharan, Cereals’ event director, talking about the show’s history and the move. “Comexposium acquired the show in 2019 and over the years, we’ve got into the weeds with customers.

“We have spent time trying to drive the value upwards and I think this year’s show will be one of our largest,” she continued. “We don’t change the core of our show, but we like to challenge ourselves by moving site, which means we have to look at our branding.”

FINDING A MIDDLE GROUND

According to McEntyre Gaharan, Cereals is quite a technical event but this year, the team has had to go a “little more folksy” with its branding to fit with Diddly Squat’s branding guidelines.

“Every year, we tweak our creative,” McEntyre Gaharan added. “We have worked with Lyndsey Yates of Nine Dots Creative, who found a middle ground for us. She created a design that respected Jeremy’s brand and ours, a design that we felt comfortable with.”

Yates got to work on the new branding, combining both brand identities to create a

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FARNBOROUGH INTERNATIONAL AIRSHOW design that worked for all parties. She played with a wheat sheaf ident that was integrated into the Cereals logo, creating a new look that has now been used on hundreds of pieces of branding and wayfinding, including social media assets, email signatures, on-site signage, and the event’s show guide.

It’s been a task made slightly tricky by Diddly Squat, which changed its branding in the lead up to the event. However, Yates and the Cereals team rolled with the changes and now with just a few weeks to go until the event, Fuchsia Exhibition and Conference

Services and Full Vision are preparing to deliver several branding and wayfinding solutions at Diddly Squat.

LESS IS MORE

Yates advised organisers to keep signage simple, making it easy for visitors and ticketholders to navigate your venue or chosen event site. And Ben TheobaldMorgan, head of design, at Farnborough International, concurred.

“I see wayfinding as far more than a collection of signs, it’s a storytelling system

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BRANDING AND WAYFINDING that guides people and, in doing so, delivers a coherent brand journey from the moment they get on-site,” he said.

“We must always design for human use first: clarity, confidence, and flow come before embellishment. When that foundation is right, the branding can be layered in a way that feels purposeful and consistent rather than distracting. That means giving special attention to the moments that matter, such as arrival routes, junctions, thresholds, and other natural decision points where uncertainty can build and time can be lost.

“Finally, simplicity is a strength,” he continued. “With the Farnborough International Airshow, visitors and staff bring many languages and levels of familiarity, so ‘less is more’ should shape the system: clear hierarchies, minimal wording, and a strong, highly legible icon set that transcends language and performs reliably across the entire show landscape.”

VISITORS NEED TO FIND CONTENT

Farnborough International works with Impression Graphics, Showlite, Detail Management Services, SP Graphics, and The Team [formerly Wasserman] on various signage and printing solutions.

Giles Stanford, senior vice president, global events, live at The Team, agreed with Theobald-Morgan. He said that many organisers often look to simplify branding, but the trick is to not make it look too basic.

Branding must be effective, yet there’s a certain standard that everybody wants to achieve.

Which then raises questions around budget.

“I remember, years ago, someone said that once you’ve got a visitor into the exhibition, they’re there,” he commented. “They’ve bought a ticket, done. They said, ‘Why would I need to spend a huge amount of money on them once they’re in the door?’

“I’ve always thought that was a shortsighted view, because people want content

when they get into a show, and I think that’s the bit that takes a bit of a hit. Where are the theatres? Where are the activities? People need to find them. Those are the things that organisers spend money on. They’ll market the content to get people in the door, so visitors need to find it when they’ve arrived.”

SUSTAINABILITY

Stanford and his team – which this year will provide branding solutions to Glasgow 2026, Goodwood FOS, and FIFA – are looking at new and sustainable products that will reduce the amount of waste on event sites and keep waste streams “pure”. For instance, working only with products that are 100 per cent polyester, or 100 per cent cardboard to make sorting and recycling easier.

“I’m off to France to look at how you can take polyester back to its polymers, so you can do more things with it,” Stanford said. “At Glasgow 2026, all the polyester used is going to be RPT material, which is good because it has come from a recycled piece of polyester, or come from a recycled piece of plastic. But what we want to do is make sure, downstream from us, our fabrics are getting properly reused.”

Jemima Soltys, director of Instant Marquees, agreed. She is working with organisers and asking clients to return their old branding, which can be used to make “shelter to shopper” bags, as well as packaging that protects new flags and banners that are heading off to site.

Similarly, Katie Heaton, general manager at Massive, is working with clients to find sustainable branding and wayfinding solutions, too. Yet the big challenge is finding sustainable materials that clients are willing to pay for as event professionals are finding budgets “pretty challenging”.

She said that effective branding and signage doesn’t have to be something “new and shiny” especially if it doesn’t make sense to what’s trying to be achieved.

BRAND PRESENCE

Matt Gregory, head of event branding at London Marathon Events (LME), concurred.

He worked with The Team, Massive, and Codesde on this year’s event, which saw the introduction of road graphics on the race finish line.

Gregory, who has the huge task of overseeing branding across all of LME’s portfolio, argued that branding simply needs to look smart for it to be effective and sometimes it’s the simple things that work best.

“The more we grow in terms of participants has an impact on spectator numbers and our footprint,” he explained. “We have to be able to put branding in and around some of those busy areas. So, for example, at Cutty Sark, we have three fixed cameras in that space. It’s a really important area to have branding and have brand presence.

“This year, there was a section where I wasn’t able to put any of our Toblerones but I still wanted something in that space – that didn’t have a huge footprint. So, it sounds really simple, but we made some signage that was 1.2 metres wide. It was made from Correx and was on a black wooden post and it was a test to see what that would look like.

It didn’t take up a huge footprint, and it was super effective but now we can look at how we can develop it.”

Why? Because at the back of Gregory’s mind, and it’s not confirmed, is whether LME does the “double” next year and organises a one-off, two-day marathon. If it does, Gregory will need branding that the team can easily load in and load out. And cost-effective branding too because two events will need more signage. Simple solutions that don’t cost the earth.

To reiterate Theobald-Morgan’s point, simplicity is a strength. If you want your visitors to experience a stress-free event, don’t let them wander aimlessly. Give them a sign.

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NSR Communications Ltd 16 Caxton Way, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD18 8UA E: james@nsrcommunications.co.uk W: nsrcommunications.uk : @nsr-communications-ltd : @NSRComms

Bradshaw Event Vehicles New Lane, Stibbington, Peterborough, PE8 6LW T: 01780 782621 E: rentals@bradshawev.com W: www.bradshawev.com : @Bradshaw_EV

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CONNECTIONS NSR Communications Ltd 16 Caxton Way, Watford, Hertfordshire, WD18 8UA E: james@nsrcommunications.co.uk W: nsrcommunications.uk/ : @nsr-communications-ltd : @NSRComms 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 : @qdoseventhire : @Qdos-Event-Hire : @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 : @WernickEvents : @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 CLEANING & SUPPORT SERVICES Falcon Cleaning Chipping Hall Farm, Chipping, Herts SG9 0DP E: info@falconteam.co.uk W: www.falconteam.co.uk W3W: bless.loses.typed The Nu Group T: 0208 594 0800 E: info@thenugroup.co.uk W: www.thenugroup.co.uk Top Mops Event Services 7 Bell Yard, London WC2A 2JR T: 0800 970 4035 E: info@topmops.net W: topmops.net 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

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CROWD MANAGEMENT K4 Group of Companies Event Safety: Security, Crowd Control & Medical Services Under One Roof 4th Floor, Holdsworth House 65–73 Staines Rd, London TW3 3H T: 020 3143 3998 E: admin@k4group.co.uk W: k4group.co.uk : @k4groupofcompanies : @k4-group-of-companies : @k4groupofcompanies EQUIPMENT HIRE GAP Event Services CityPoint 2, 25 Tyndrum Street, Glasgow, G4 0JY T: 03330 094 153 E: events@gap-group.co.uk W: www.gap-group.co.uk EVENT ACCOMMODATION

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www.falconteam.co.uk n 57

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EVENT VEHICLE HIRE Bradshaw Event Vehicles New Lane, Stibbington, Peterborough, PE8 6LW T: 01780 782621 E: rentals@bradshawev.com W: www.bradshawev.com : @Bradshaw_EV

FLOORING & FLOOR COVERINGS Coir Store 8-9 Yelverton Road, Brislington, Bristol BS4 5HP T: 07983 614410 E: info@coirstore.co.uk W: coirstore.co.uk

EXHIBITION STAND CONTRACTORS Access Displays Unit 38, Whitehill Industrial Estate, Whitehill Lane, Royal Wootton Bassett, Swindon, SN4 7DB T: 01793 613088 E: sales@accessdisplays.co.uk W: www.accessdisplays.co.uk

Event Flooring Solutions Ltd T: 01509 768 252 E: sales@efseurope.co.uk W: www.efseurope.co.uk FURNITURE HIRE / SALES

EXHIBITION TRAILERS & MOBILE UNITS

Furniture On The Move Unit B, Canada Warehouse, Chittening Industrial Estate, Worthy Road, Avonmouth, Bristol, BS11 0YB T: 0845 459 9875 E: info@furnitureonthemove.co.uk W: www.furnitureonthemove.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 W: www.tcmtrailers.co.uk FENCING & BARRIERS

Innovative Hire Unit N, Lion Works Estate, 543 Wallisdown Road Bournemouth BH12 5AD T: 01202 941 068 W: innovativehire.co.uk

Augusta Event Support Ltd Cadeby, CV13 0BD E: Sarah@aesteam.co.uk W: augustaeventsupport.com

58 n www.falconteam.co.uk

Sponsored by the Falcon Team

CONNECTIONS HEATING & COOLING SYSTEMS Cooling & Heating Solutions Ltd Marlwood House, Silver Street, Lymington, Hampshire, SO41 6DG, UK T: 01590 681 434 E: sales@candhs.co.uk W: coolingandheatingsolutions.com

LIGHTING TOWERS Boels Rental T: 01245 208031 E: lighting@boels.co.uk W: www.boels.com LITTER PICKING Falcon Cleaning Chipping Hall Farm, Chipping, Herts, SG9 0DP E: info@falconteam.co.uk W: www.falconteam.co.uk W3W: bless.loses.typed

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 INFLATABLE STRUCTURES

The Nu Group T: 0208 594 0800 E: info@thenugroup.co.uk W: www.thenugroup.co.uk

Dawsongroup tcs Export Drive, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Dawsongroup | tcs Nottinghamshire NG17 6AF T: 01623 518538 E: info@dgtcs.co.uk W: dgtcs.co.uk/inflatable-cold-rooms

Top Mops Event Services 7 Bell Yard, London WC2A 2JR T: 0800 970 4035 E: info@topmops.net W: topmops.net

INSURANCE Tysers Insurance Brokers 71 Fenchurch Street, London, EC3M 4BS T: 0203 037 8000 E: tim.rudland@tysers.com W: www.tysers.com LASER & FX Laser Grafix Unit 4A Stratton Park, Biggleswade, Bedfordshire, SG18 8QS UK office: 01767 315948 Dubai office: +971 4887 9808 E: info@lgfx.co.uk W: www.lgfx.co.uk 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

Sponsored by the Falcon Team

MARQUEES Alternative Stretch Tents Building 15, Gateway 1000, A1 (M) jct 7, Stevenage, SG1 2FP T: 01920 830256 E: info@alternative-stretch.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 Instant Marquees T: 01840 213063 W: www.instantmarquees.co.uk Mahood Marquees Ltd 8 Lords Fold, Rainford, Saint Helens WA11 8HP T: 01744 882 079 W: mahoodmarquees.com 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

www.falconteam.co.uk n 59

CONNECTIONS Tentstyle T: 01403 333135 E: enquiries@tentstyle.co.uk W: www.tentstyle.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 Ziggu Marquees Dutton Green, Little Stanney, Chester, CH2 4SA T: 01244722739 E: hello@ziggumarquees.com W: www.ziggumarquees.com MARQUEES ACCESSORIES Opas Southern Ltd Enterprise House, St Lawrence Avenue Worthing, West Sussex BN14 7JH Free Phone: 0845 1300 477 E: sales@opas.co.uk W: www.opas.co.uk MEDICAL SERVICES First Aid Cover Ltd 405 Kings Road, London SW10 0BB T: 020 8875 5758 E: enquiries@firstaidcover.co.uk W: www.firstaidcover.co.uk K4 Group of Companies Event Safety: Security, Crowd Control & Medical Services Under One Roof 4th Floor, Holdsworth House, 65–73 Staines Rd, London TW3 3H T: 020 3143 3998 E: admin@k4group.co.uk W: k4group.co.uk : @k4groupofcompanies : @k4-group-of-companies : @k4groupofcompanies 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 safety and medical 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

60 n www.falconteam.co.uk

NOISE MANAGEMENT Siderise Group Forge Industrial Estate CF34 0AH T: 01656 730833 E: enquiries@siderise.com W: www.siderise.com PARKING Wise Parking T: 03301 334522 E: info@wiseparking.co.uk W: www.wiseparking.co.uk PLANT HIRE Charles Wilson 86 High Street, Harpenden, AL5 2SP T: 0800 458 5701 E: instanthire@cwplant.co.uk W: www.cwplant.co.uk PORTABLE TOILET HIRE A Star All Solutions T: 02477 350679 W: www.astarallsolutions.co.uk Excloosive Event Hire Field House, Bromley Park, Abbots Bromley Rugeley, Staffordshire WS15 3AH T: 01283 575 749 M: 07778 473 064 E: info@excloosive.co.uk 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

Sponsored by the Falcon Team

CONNECTIONS Vacant Event Hire Unit C White Oak Technology Park, London Road, Swanley, Kent BR8 7AG T: 01322 761 117 M: 07960 301178 E: info@vacant.events W: vacant.events

Power Revolution Unit 9 Kelvin Place, Stanton, Bury St Edmunds, IP31 2AR T: 01359 256 265 E: info@power-revolution.co.uk W: www.power-revolution.co.uk Robert Blezard Electrical Contractor Ltd Unit 5, Fishes & Peggy Hill Fm, Clitheroe BB7 3BY T: 01200 777 666 E: hello@robertblezard.co.uk W: www.robertblezard.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

Stuart Power Stuart House, Hargham Road, Shropham, Norfolk, NR17 1DT T: 01953 454540 E: enquiries@stuartpower.co.uk W: www.stuartpower.co.uk

POWER & GENERATORS ATD Electrical Unit 93, Greenway Business Centre, Greenway, Harlow, Essex, CM19 5QE T: 01279 507890 E: office@atdelectrical.com W: www.atdelectrical.com

The Technical Department 14 Henley Business Park, Pirbright Road, Normandy, Surrey, GU3 2DX T: 01483 238 050 or 07850 367 917 E: chantal@thetechnicaldepartment.com

Festival Power Ltd Unit 2, Temple Bridge Business Park, Bristol, BS39 5AA E: info@festivalpower.co.uk W: www.festivalpower.co.uk 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 Head Office & Manufacturing Centre, Unit 3, Swaffield Park Hyssop Close, Cannock Staffordshire, WS11 7FU United Kingdom T: 01543 574 111 E: enquiries@idesystems.co.uk W: www.idesystems.co.uk Instagrid UK Ltd Silent, Clean and Portable Power T: 07939 315074 E: andy.barnby@instagrid.co 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 Pearce Hire Unit 8-9 Reynolds Industrial Park, Thetford IP24 3RR T: 01733 554950 E: info@pearcehire.co.uk W: www.pearchire.co.uk

Sponsored by the Falcon Team

XLE Event Services T: 01789 224227 E: info@xle.co.uk W: www.xle.co.uk : @xle_events : @xleeventservices : @XLeventservices PRINTERS UK Flyers Suite 210, Victory House, Somers Road, North Portsmouth, Hampshire PO1 1PJ T: 023 9229 3050 E: sales@ukflyers.com W: www.ukflyers.com 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

www.falconteam.co.uk n 61

CONNECTIONS DCRS Edison Road, St.Ives, Cambs, PE27 3LH T: 0800 043 2688 E: sales@dcrs.co.uk W: www.dcrs.co.uk Icom UK T: 01227 741741 E: sales@icomuk.co.uk W: www.icomuk.co.uk

REUSABLE CUPS Re-uz UK Less is now Limited Unit 1A Walrow Industrial Estate, Commerce Way, Highbridge TA9 4AG T: 01278 238390 E: info.uk@reuz.com W: www.re-uz.com & www.green-goblet.com SAFETY TRAINING

Light of Night T: 0203 189 2679 E: info@lightofnight.co.uk W: www.lightofnight.co.uk Marathon Communications Ltd Oakhurst Business Park, Wilberforce Way, Southwater, Horsham, West Sussex, RH13 9RT T: 01403 473 858 E: info@marathoncomms.co.uk W: www.marathoncomms.co.uk : @marathoncomms : @marathoncomms : @marathoncomms : @marathoncomms

Acumen Safety T: 07557 669523 E: training@acumensafety.co.uk W: acumensafety.co.uk SCAFFOLD SYSTEM & TRUSS STRUCTURES SRG Structures Oldbury Lane, Bristol, BS35 1RE T: 0117 911 4034 E: info@srg-structures.com W: www.srg-structures.com SEATING

RATCHET STRAPS

Ratchet Straps UK T: 0333 2027110 E: sales@ratchetstrapsuk.co.uk W: www.ratchetstrapsuk.co.uk

RECYCLING Falcon Cleaning Chipping Hall Farm, Chipping, Herts SG9 0DP E: info@falconteam.co.uk W: www.falconteam.co.uk W3W: bless.loses.typed The Nu Group T: 0208 594 0800 E: info@thenugroup.co.uk W: www.thenugroup.co.uk REFRIGERATED STRUCTURES Cask London T: 0208 064 2012 E: info@casklondon.com Dawsongroup tcs Export Drive, Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire NG17 6AF Dawsongroup | tcs T: 01623 518538 E: info@dgtcs.co.uk W: dgtcs.co.uk/inflatable-cold-rooms RENTAL EQUIPMENT Sunbelt Rentals T: 0330 053 2348 E: events@sunbeltrentals.co.uk W: www.sunbeltrentals.co.uk/sectors/events

62 n www.falconteam.co.uk

Ace Seating Hire T: 01832 279333 E: info@aceseating.co.uk W: www.aceseating.co.uk SECURITY Alliance Events Ltd Ventura Park Road, Tamworth, England, B78 3HL T: 02034 885480 E: admin@alliancemanagementgroup.co.uk W: www.alliancemanagementgroup.co.uk Anubis Group T: 0800 121 6576 E: sales@anubis-security.com/ recruitment@anubis-security.com W: www.anubis-security.com ESM Operations T: 07355 094162 E: info@esmoperations.com W: www.esmoperations.com K4 Group of Companies Event Safety: Security, Crowd Control & Medical Services Under One Roof 4th Floor, Holdsworth House, 65–73 Staines Rd, London TW3 3H T: 020 3143 3998 E: admin@k4group.co.uk W: k4group.co.uk : @k4groupofcompanies : @k4-group-of-companies : @k4groupofcompanies Light of Night T: 0203 189 2679 E: info@lightofnight.co.uk W: www.lightofnight.co.uk

Sponsored by the Falcon Team

CONNECTIONS Manchett Security The Tack Room, Lorkins Farm, Conway’s Road, Orsett, Grays, Essex, RM16 3E T: 01375 470 022 E: info@manchett-security.com W: www.manchett-security.com : @ManchettSec – : @ManchettGroup : @ManchettSec – McKenzie Arnold Group T: 01376 350 999 M: 07701 048 69 E: joanna.white@mckenziearnold.com Ministry Protective T: 0800 2335518 E: info@ministryprotective.com W: www.ministryprotective.com New Dawn Security and Training Unit 10 Dunley Hill Court, Ranmore Common, Effingham RH5 6SX T: 01306779436 E: Events@ndst.ltd W: www.ndst.ltd 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 Right Guard Security Experts in Crowd Management and Event Security T: 01227 464588 E: info@rightguard.co.uk W: www.rightguard.co.uk Showsec Regent House, 16 West Walk, Leicester, LE1 7NA T: 0116 204 3333 E: sales@showsec.co.uk W: showsec.co.uk : @showsec.uk : @Showsec : @showsec Trojan Security Unit B7 Loughton Seedbed Centre Langston Road, Loughton IG10 3TQ T: 0330 113 9966 E: info@trojansecurityuk.co.uk W: www.trojansecurityuk.co.uk : @trojan_security_UK : @trojan-security-uk-ltd : @TrojanLondon SET & SCENERY CONSTRUCTION Staged Events Ltd Meadow View, Newnham Lane, Old Basing, Hampshire, RG24 7AU T: 01256578055 E: info@stagedevents.com W: www.stagedevents.com

Sponsored by the Falcon Team

SHOWERS Zoo Events Group Ltd Stockton Dairy, Stockton, Warminster, BA12 OSQ T: 01258 840233 E: info@zooeventsgroup.co.uk W: www.zooeventsgroup.co.uk SITE MANAGEMENT Special Projects, Site Management T: 01738 505 747 E: info@specialprojects-uk.com W: www.specialprojects-uk.com SITE SUPPLIES 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 SOUND, LIGHTING, VISION, POWER AND SCENIC SPH Event Production LTD Unit 7, Upper Wensleydale Business Park, Brunt Acres Road, Hawes, DL8 3UZ T: 01535 442084 W: www.event-production.live STAGING & RIGGING IPS (Impact Production Services) Second Avenue,Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK1 1ED T: 01908 657950 E: enquiries@ips.co.uk W: www.ips.co.uk Rigger.co.uk T: 0333 772 0120 E: contact@rigger.co.uk W: www.rigger.co.uk Serious Stages Ltd Tor Hill Works, Dulcote, Wells, Somerset, BA5 3NT T: 01749 899 188 E: info@stages.co.uk W: www.stages.co.uk The Stage Bus 19 Prestwood Road, Birmingham B29 5EB T: 0121 585 9264 E: info@thestagebus.com W: www.thestagebus.com SRG Structures Oldbury Lane, Bristol, BS35 1RE T: 0117 911 4034 E: info@srg-structures.com W: www.srg-structures.com

www.falconteam.co.uk n 63

CONNECTIONS Steeldeck Rentals Unit 58, T. Marchant Estate, 42 – 72 Verney Rd, London SE16 3DH T: 0207 833 2031 E: rentals@steeldeck.co.uk W: www.steeldeck.co.uk

Creative Structures Creative House, Station Road, Theale RG7 4PD T: 0118 380 5590 W: www.creativestructuresgroup.com

STAND DESIGN & BUILD

Technical Overlay by Visions Unit 2 Thames Valley Connect, Western Road, Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 1QP T: 01189 358121 E: info@visionsgroup.co.uk W: www.technicaloverlay.co.uk

Saward Marketing and Events T: 07788 660996 E: admin@saward-me.com W: saward-me.com TEMPORARY BRIDGES

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

Mitchell Bridges Limited London Road, Kings Worthy, Winchester, Hampshire, SO23 7QN T: 01962 885040 M: 07768630373 E: chris@mitchellbridges.com W: www.mitchellbridges.com TEMPORARY ROADWAYS

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

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

WH Silverbacks Unit 26, Oakfield Road, Woolsbridge Industrial Park, Dorset BH21 6FE T: 01202 096957 E: info@silverbacks.co.uk W: whsilverbacks.co.uk

TEMPORARY STRUCTURES 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

Innovative Hire Unit N, Lion Works Estate, 543 Wallisdown Road Bournemouth BH12 5AD T: 01202 941 068 W: innovativehire.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 Media Structures : Imagine, Create, Deliver Green Lane Sawmills, Outwood, Surrey RH1 5QP T: 0203 781 7772 E: lance.baker@mediastructures.co.uk W: www.mediastructures.uk NEPTUNUS Ltd Cob Drive, Swan Valley, Northampton NN4 9BB T: 01604 593820 E: sales@neptunus.co.uk W: www.neptunus.co.uk

64 n www.falconteam.co.uk

TRACKWAY TRACKWAY

Worldwide Structures Ltd Ayrshire Farm, Sharcott, Pewsey, SN9 5PA T: 01672 565 060 / 07875 027369 E: enquiries@w-sl.com W: www.worldwidestructures.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 TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT BUKO Traffic & Safety T: 0333 110 0020 E: sales@buko.co.uk : @bukotrafficandsafety : @buko-traffic-safety : @bukotrafficandsafety

Sponsored by the Falcon Team

CONNECTIONS Carbonite Traffic Solutions T: 020 3567 1479 E: enquiries@carbonitetraffic.co.uk W: www.carbonitetraffic.co.uk CSP (The Combined Services Provider) Unit 1, Abloy House, Hatters Lane, Watford, WD18 8AJ T: 020 8900 2405 E: sales@gotocsp.com W: gotocsp.com 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

The Nu Group T: 0208 594 0800 E: info@thenugroup.co.uk W: www.thenugroup.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

Total Event Solutions Unit 12, Bredhurst Business Park, Westfield Sole Road, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 3EH T: 01634 826 999 W: www.totaleventsolutions.co.uk

Falcon Cleaning Chipping Hall Farm, Chipping, Herts, SG9 0DP E: info@falconteam.co.uk W: www.falconteam.co.uk W3W: bless.loses.typed

WATER & PLUMBING SERVICES

T.E.S.S Ltd T: 01332 850 860 E: info@tess-ltd.co.uk W: www.tess-ltd.co.uk

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

WASTE MANAGEMENT

Top Mops Event Services 7 Bell Yard, London WC2A 2JR T: 0800 970 4035 E: info@topmops.net W: topmops.net

attend2IT Unit 6-8 Park Farm Industrial Estate, Buntingford T: 01763 877 477 W: attend2it.co.uk Fli-Fi Ltd UK Wide T: 020 3778 0454 E: enquiries@fli-fi.com W: www.fli-fi.com NVENTS T: 0330 043 5113 E: info@nvents.co W: nvents.co SimpliWifi Unit 13, Leominster Enterprise Park, Leominster, Herefordshire HR6 0LX T: 0800 298 9434 E: hello@simpliwifi.agency W: simpliwifi.agency

Online Geographical Directory www.standoutmagazine.co.uk

PUT YOUR BUSINESS ON THE MAP. StandOut Connections Filler_185x70_Landscape_June26.indd 1

Sponsored by the Falcon Team

19/05/2026 14:03

www.falconteam.co.uk n 65

NEXT ISSUE

Editor Caroline Clift caroline@standoutmagazine.co.uk

Featured in our next issue...

Advertising manager Jen Crisp jen@standoutmagazine.co.uk Account manager Sarah Bourne sarah@standoutmagazine.co.uk Account executive Lewis Briggs lewis@standoutmagazine.co.uk Marketing executive Katie Goldsmith marketing@standoutmagazine.co.uk Design and production Neil Hepden Jemma Heslop Emma Hickman Colin Swaffer standout@tandemmedia.co.uk

Image: Stefano Grasso/LGCT of London

GOOD SPORTS

Sporting event organisers share best practices as they look to give customers memorable event experiences

Credit control Janine Walmsley creditcontrol@standoutmagazine.co.uk Managing director Neil Fagg neil@standoutmagazine.co.uk T: 01795 509101 CEO John Denning StandOut Multimedia Limited, 10 The Metford, Evegate Business Park, Smeeth, Ashford, Kent, TN25 6SX T: 01795 509113 www.standoutmagazine.co.uk

POWERING ON

With rising fuel costs crippling the industry, event organisers and promoters are taking a closer look at event power, fuel usage, and transportation costs

No part of this magazine may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form – electronic, mechanical or physical – without express prior permission and written consent of the publisher. Contributions are invited and when not accepted will be returned only if accompanied by a fully stamped and addressed envelope. Manuscripts should be typewritten. No responsibility can be taken for drawings, photographs or literary contributions during transmission or in the editor’s hands. In the absence of an agreement the copyright of all contributions, literary, photographic or artistic, belongs to StandOut Multimedia Limited. The Publisher accepts no responsibility in respect of advertisements appearing in the magazine and the opinions expressed in editorial material or otherwise do not necessarily represent the views of the Publisher. The Publisher cannot accept liability for any loss arising from the late appearance or non publication of any advertisement. Information about products and services featured within the editorial content does not imply an endorsement by StandOut magazine. © 2026. StandOut Multimedia Limited, 10 The Metford, Evegate Business Park, Smeeth, Ashford, Kent, TN25 6SX

GRAIN EXPECTATIONS

Cereals’ event director Alli McEntyre Gaharan talks to StandOut about the event’s move to Diddly Squat Farm

66 n www.olympuscrew.co.uk

WORKING ON SOME OF THE WORLD’S MOST PRESTIGIOUS EVENTS WE ARE A CREWING COMPANY FOR THE CLIENTS AND FOR THE CREW. WE ENSURE THE BEST SERVICES FOR YOU.

• We have a diverse skillset including carpentry, audio visual and with each member having a positive, can do attitude.

• We have forklift and IPAF operators

t: 07904 903 452 e: info@olympuscrew.co.uk www.olympuscrew.co.uk

Buggies aren’t jusf for Golf

Quiet capability with luxury style.

ACE PLANT’S RANGE OF ELECTRIC BUGGIES ARE PERFECT FOR YOUR EVENT. 2 SEAT + LOAD BED TO 8 SEAT PEOPLE MOVERS.

01908 562191 / hire@aceplant.co.uk / www.aceplant.co.uk