FESTIVAL FOCUS

© The Big Lad Photographer

Fields full of dreams

Festival organisers discuss market trends, site changes and operational developments for 2022

When you look at every situation that you have ever faced, there will always be positives and there will always be negatives. It’s a fact that Ciro Romano, managing director of Neapolitan Music, agrees with. He is currently putting the finishing touches to his roster of festivals, Love Supreme, Nocturne Live, and Kite, a new festival for 2022, which he hopes will appeal to Oxfordshire’s and Gloucestershire’s educated and gentrified demographic.

“I am negative about costs, but I am positive about ticket sales,” Romano explains with a hint of positivity in his voice. “Managing costs is difficult, but I am pretty positive. Ticket sales are going well, but no matter what we do, production costs have gone up 25 per cent.”

Romano has slightly increased ticket prices for Love Supreme. However, it’s a move that has not been met with much resistance. He is not concerned. Festivalgoers continue to purchase tickets, and the pressures on supply and the increase in production costs “are what they are”.

Romano is candid as he talks of the upcoming festival season. For instance, Love Supreme has increased capacity from 20,000 to 25,000, resulting in a slight expansion of the event site, and he describes Kite, which is set to take place at Kirtlington Park, Oxford, as a “festival of ideas and music for curious, inquisitive, and cultural minds”.

Kite will take place from June 10-12, and feature Grace Jones, David Miliband, and Reginald D Hunter — all spread across seven stages at the Oxfordshire estate. As it is the festival’s first year, Romano has been careful to consider the festival’s price point. But does he feel brave to launch an event when the industry is faced with challenges?

“We were supposed to launch Kite in 2020 then the pandemic hit,” he says. “Then we were supposed to launch it in 2021 and then it was a case of: ‘How long are we going to wait? Let’s just do it’.

“The idea for Kite came about after I visited Hay Festival in 2018. It was 4pm and I had listened to a talk, and I thought it would be great if there was music, real music. That was the beginning of the idea and so music and ideas and spoken word just morphed. It’s great to have a festival that puts music and ideas on an equal footing.”

CAKE AND PURCHASE ORDERS

U-Live’s head of operations, Mandy Johnson, is head of production at Kite, Love Supreme and Nocturne Live, and is helping Romano source suppliers for 2022. It’s a task that Romano describes as “difficult”. His response is tame. Chris Smith, festival director of WOMAD, and Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, respectively describe trying to source kit and find contractors as a “fucking nightmare” and a “bloody nightmare”.

Smith explains: “The last two years have had a serious impact on the industry. There are increased costs and an upsurge in events. We have less stuff, less staff, and more events, and some people have come into the industry quite aggressive.

CHRIS SMITH

© Elliot Caunce

“Where there’s a gap in supply, new suppliers will come through and a new market will be created, and the next generation of events professionals will come through too, but it’s a matter of time.”

All that said, Smith says that WOMAD will be “fine”, as the festival has been going for 40 years.

“But for WOMAD 40 years in the event’s industry is not 40 festivals,” he adds. “The 40 thing is huge for us. We’ve programmed over 10,000 artists, delivered over 300 festivals across six continents to an audience of millions. And we’re still independent of big commercial organisations.”

Smith is excited for 2022, as “there’ll be cake”. However, whilst jesting about anniversary celebrations, he is serious when he talks about the excessive number of suppliers trying to request three-year contracts with no clause to review costs after year one.

Benn concurs with Smith and Romano. The festival organiser has found sourcing suppliers to be a “challenge”. Benn says: “We’ve had a frantic six months to get on top of suppliers and contracts, but everything now has a purchase order. I can’t pretend that it’s been easy, and we’ve had to change some suppliers, such as marquees and fencing, but I have been renting equipment for a long time and I’d like to think that I’ve been a good customer.”

ACCESS ALL AREAS

Festival Republic, which organises Download Festival and Reading Festival, has revealed major site improvement plans for Download 2022. Following audience feedback, the organiser has made changes, including significant improvements to accessible camping and sustainability.

For example, The Village has moved closer to the main arena and will now be located on hardstanding. With the new location just 350 metres from the Access Campsite, access customers can now go freely from their camp to The Village without leaving solid ground. The Accessible Campsite remains on the same hardstanding location, but the Accessible Campervan space has moved to a flatter more accessible location. The space for campervans has increased by 42 per cent to meet significant demand and allow for more than 100 spaces for 2022.

Download Festival has also reduced walking distances for festival attendees by moving campsites, car parks, the transport hub, and The Village. When campers were looking at almost an hour walk to the campsites from the Arena, the new campsite locations mean that festivalgoers can reach their tents in the furthest campsites from the Arena in just 25 minutes. As The Village is now a central hub between campsites, this can be reached from most campsites in 15 minutes or less.

In further developments, Download is partnering with Trees for Cities too. An additional £1 car park pass donation will fund tree-planting projects in both Derbyshire and Leicestershire. Furthermore, the festival is introducing a new Circular Camping option, offering clean, upcycled tents and camping equipment. Circular Camping will be in the Green campsite, next to the Eco Camp, which is back at the rock festival for a third year.

NEW MOVES

In 2022, Festival Republic intends to explore increasing mains power at Reading by installing a grid connection on site and it aims to power all the festival on 100 per cent renewable fuel by 2030.

Victoria Chapman, head of sustainability at Festival Republic, and her team have been monitoring carbon emissions at Reading Festival for some years. Recently, emissions have levelled off as the festival has got bigger [105,000 capacity] but with changes for 2022 including battery power, biofuel and tech, Festival Republic expects to see a considerable reduction in carbon emissions this year.

Audience travel is the biggest factor to impact on a festival’s carbon footprint. Pete Jordan, festival director of MADE, is addressing this issue by encouraging festivalgoers to use public transport and travel to Wolverhampton’s Dunstall Park – MADE Festival’s new venue – by train. MADE has moved from Sandwell Valley Country Park (West Brom) to Wolverhampton where shuttle buses will ferry festivalgoers arriving at Wolverhampton train station to the new site.

WOMAD

© Guy Peterson

I have been renting equipment for a long time and I’d like to think that I’ve been a good customer

TRAMLINES

© Fanatic/Carolina Faruolo BOOMTOWN

© One Eye In

MOSTLY JAZZ, FUNK AND SOUL

Jordan is working with Slammin Events, Production Hire, Alliance Pioneer Group, Joynes Nash and Dynamite FX on MADE 2022, which will benefit from a new, larger site, which the festival can grow into.

But it’s a different story for John Fell, festival director of Mostly Jazz Funk and Soul and sister event, Moseley Folk Festival. Both events using the same park in Moseley. He says: “We take over a tiny park that you don’t know exists, which you access down an alleyway near an estate agent. We can’t grow anymore.”

That said, Fell has managed to persuade the local tennis club, adjoining the park, to allow the festival to use the site for dance workshops and smaller festival activities. He describes his festivals as “well-oiled machines”. In 2021, Mostly Jazz Funk and Soul and Moseley Folk Festival moved to “card only” and for this year, there’s an increase in line up and more site dressing.

Fell adds: “We made a conscious decision to go for it and ramp up our budget. We used the pandemic to reset and tweak and come back with a bang. Sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees, but the experience was cathartic and useful.”

REIMAGINE AND REDUCE

Fell has contracted Hollywood Marquees, Clear Sound, PRP Security, Prestige Toilets, The Fair, Midlands Radio Hire, Salop Hire, ProProductions, Robannas, and TicketSellers for 2022. The ticketing specialist is also working with Boomtown, another festival which is reimagining its site layout, and has taken the rare step to reduce its ticket price. But it’s not the only change, Boomtown has taken the decision to hold back details of the full festival line up until just a few days before the show. The organising team says that approaching programming announcements in this way removes the complex process of releasing a music line up that is tied up with exclusivity deals and billing restrictions.

SITE IMPROVEMENTS

Timm Cleasby, operations director at Tramlines, tells StandOut that the festival is not making huge changes this year, but the 2021 event highlighted a few areas of weakness. As a result, the 2022 edition will feature some small tweaks. For example, Tramlines has always used just one company (Showsec) for security but with the ongoing staff shortages, Tramlines will now use both Showsec and Practical Event Solutions Security.

Cleasby explains: “We learned that using one single security supplier to deliver hundreds of staff puts you at risk and leaves you more exposed, especially if you lose staff due to COVID or they don’t turn up. So, for 2022, we have split the deployment. Showsec will manage security internally and Practical Event Solutions will manage gates and external security.”

But that’s not all. Tramlines is moving one of the bars situated near The Open Arms stage, an area introduced in 2021. The area was so popular it caused a bottleneck. Plus, there are plans to go cashless to reduce “faffing with change” and bars will no longer sell or serve draught beer. Instead, packaged/cans will be sold.

Cleasby continues: “We moved stage two [The Open Arms] to a new area in Hillsborough Park and it was a huge success; it made the site more spacious. But it was more of a success than expected and I was caught by surprise. Therefore, we have had to look at how we can make the site work to accommodate the crowds and so we’ve moved a bar.

“We’re always looking at ways to make space but the only way we can make space is to reduce what we already have. If you sell draught beers, you need bars with depth. We’re moving to packaged beers to speed up service, but it also means we can reduce the size of our bars from nine metres to six metres.”

Moving away from draught beer to cans will impact on waste but Cleasby and the Tramlines team are making sure that all drinks cans are recyclable. Plus, going cashless requires Tramlines to increase connectivity on site and so more work is being done to ensure a robust connection.

Tramlines is working with Let’s Tech on IT infrastructure and planning – it is just one supplier that is contracted to Tramlines 2022. A&J Big Tops, Extinguisher Hire, Shield Manufacturing, Joynes Nash, Buffalo Power, A1, Steelshield, 900 Communications, Zig Zag Lighting, LFX Events, Sound of Music, Star Live, and EPS are also supplying equipment and services to the metropolitan festival.

“I’m hoping that this year’s event is going to be easier,” concludes Cleasby. “We’ve had more time to plan. There will still be a COVID consideration, and we will put in appropriate measures to minimise risk, but like many other organisers in our industry, I am just looking forward to welcoming everyone back to Hillsborough Park and having a good time.”

EXHIBITIONS LTD

CTN EXHIBITIONS

Got it covered

Event flooring experts discuss latest trends and sustainability, and plead with organisers to book their flooring needs early

When the organiser of This is Tomorrow cancelled the event, it cited an oversaturated marketplace and an ongoing economic crisis as reasons for postponing. The last two years certainly have been difficult, so it’s understandable that some organisers remain hesitant about the upcoming events season.

Whilst some organisers are nervous to part with cash and pay deposits for goods and services, including flooring, others are keen to crack on, keeping a close eye on the budget as they go.

It is why event flooring suppliers, such as CTN Exhibitions, have developed products that work for different clients. For example, CTN Exhibitions’ “cut to length” service enables an organiser to order “just what they need”. This helps to keep budgets more in control and subsequently, reduces waste. This is great news for organisers that want to go down a more sustainable route.

SUSTAINABLE FLOORING

Sustainability is big and is gaining momentum once again. COVID-19 exacerbated a single-use culture.

As a result, more suppliers are looking at developing sustainable products. Paul Slack, UK commercial director at CTN Exhibitions, said that the event flooring specialist is having many conversations with clients who are asking about the possible reuse of flooring products and more ethical means of product disposal post-event.

Event Flooring Solutions is currently working with a manufacturer on a 100 per cent recyclable, lightweight, high compression, composite panel, which can be used for staging and marquee flooring. Plus, the company’s current walkway and roadway products can be recycled, as they are made from Polypropylene – they can be ground down into pellets and remade into other items.

BUSY SUMMER

This season, Event Flooring Solutions will be supplying Crick Boat Show, Creamfields North and South, Reading Festival, and Leeds Festival with Temp-A-Path, a temporary walkway system that can be recycled.

Likewise, CTN Exhibitions is managing the complete supply and install of floor coverings to various outdoor sporting events throughout the summer, totalling more than 100,000 square metres of carpet. This is new business for the company, which it says does have capacity to work on more projects this summer.

Slack said: “We have multiple UK warehouses and a large logistical infrastructure that allows us to manage all aspects of delivery, supply and installation of our products and services in-house.”

CTN Exhibitions has recently launched Sovereign, an exhibition-quality cord carpet in 29 colours. Slack said: “It’s a heavier and more durable flooring solution, offering clients a large colour bank and flexibility to order both full rolls and cut lengths, using our automated cutting service.”

LEAVING IT LATE

According to Slack, the market remains hesitant about full scale events, but CTN Exhibitions has seen an increase in events that are due to run in quarter three and four this year. Jeremy Simpson, managing director of Event Flooring Solutions, concurred. Some clients have been slow to confirm full requirements, despite knowing there is a shortage of crew and costs are increasing.

Slack continued: “Society is seeing increases in prices across the board for all products and services; our industry is certainly no different. Combined with transport issues and delays at ports, this poses a challenge for our sector. Organisers are understandably leaving it very late to confirm colours and quantities, which means lead times from order to fulfilment of contract are even shorter. Fortunately, we have three large UK warehouses in which we have increased stock to meet this shortened lead time, which enables us to maintain a high level of customer service even in challenging times.”