DRIVING FORCE

Goodwood Festival of Speed, The Classic at Silverstone, Formula E, and Firle Beacon: StandOut goes under the bonnet of each automotive event and chats to the organising teams about event developments and new moves

Goodwood Festival of Speed (FoS) presented by Mastercard was back in full swing this June with record crowds returning for the four-day motoring extravaganza in West Sussex. Spectacular vehicles, drivers, partners, and exhibitors were present at the motorsport event for its 29th year, which welcomed 200,000 visitors across the four days and sold out in record time. According to Jess Harmes, Goodwood Festival of Speed’s operations manager, it was a sign that people were keen to get back to live events. She said: “The event had a great atmosphere. You could tell that people were excited to be back – for many it was their first time back since 2019, as 2021 was mainly those who had purchased 2020 tickets.

“2021 and COVID restrictions gave us the perfect opportunity to make some key changes to the site design and layout. Many worked so well that we opted to keep them for 2022. For example, we kept paddocks

spread out amongst the site and had open sided structures for several of the enclosures. Hospitality was in high demand, another sign of people keen to get back to live events, which resulted in us building two new hospitality enclosures.”

Harmes was assisted on site by Jen Miller, FoS general manager, and an army of event planners, including Aidan Rowsell, Amy Allen, Becky Jones, Clemmie Chamberlain, Elizabeth Morgan, Emily Gell, George Woodiwiss, and Mia Wakeling. Together, they created an event “rich with content”.

Harmes continued: “There was so much more to see and do than ever before. We had an increased number of partners with large-scale activations and we introduced new experiences, including the Goodwood Off Road Experiences, run by Goodwood Motor Circuit, who offered the chance to drive vintage Land Rovers and electric trials bikes.”

An increasing number of organisers are opting to invest in content and entertainment, both on track and off. Goose Live – responsible for delivering The Classic at Silverstone [which is owned by Silverstone Circuits] – developed several new features for the 2022 event, including a Foodie Fest, Silverstone Kitchen Live chef demonstration area, artisan market, and adrenaline zone. Plus, this year featured a third night of live music entertainment; an element assisted by the event’s date move to August Bank Holiday weekend.

Luke Wigley, event manager and project director of The Classic at Silverstone, explained: “The MotoGP contract at the circuit was up last year and the organisers insisted on moving to a date earlier in the summer. Naturally, Silverstone wanted to retain the event and so The Classic at Silverstone had to move.”

The main stage and surrounding infrastructure – deployed for MotoGP – remained in situ. Therefore, Wigley and his team had to change the The Classic’s site layout to accommodate the new concert area to be in line with MotoGP operations.

Star Live provided the stage. It was just one of many companies to provide kit and crew to the automotive event. Powerline, GAP Group, JB Event Facilities, Freemans Event Partners, Autotrak, Showsec, Illumin8, ID&C, Irvin Leisure, Cannon Safety, Safe Hands Audio, and GL events UK also supplied equipment to the event, which had new sponsors for 2022.

“The Saturday of our event has always been the most popular,” continued Wigley. “We added a third night of live music to the Sunday. Previously, we had live music on the Friday and Saturday – now, there’s less disparity because people have the chance to enjoy entertainment on Sunday and chill out on Bank Holiday Monday.”

But it’s not the only event development. Goose Live is a member of isla and uses TRACE, the carbon measurement platform. It measured everything at The Classic at Silverstone, with a view to having “a serious attempt” at reducing the event’s carbon footprint in 2023.

Goodwood FoS introduced several sustainability measures too. For instance, twothirds of the fuel used in generators across the site was HVO. Goodwood is looking to increase that figure to 100 per cent for 2023. The team also continued to reduce single use plastics with the use of reusable cups and the event managed to reduce fuel burn during the build with the use of smaller generator sets across the site.

Harmes explained: “With increasing fuel costs, and our continued focus on sustainability, we concentrated on fuel management and how we could reduce the amount of fuel used across site. We were able to do this by consolidating generator sets and fine-tuning power on live dates.

“We changed the signage on the back of house bins from ‘dry mixed recycling’ to ‘cardboard only’ to make it clearer. This small and simple change resulted in our best waste stats to date - we doubled the amount we recycled and lowered general waste considerably.”

Goodwood FoS also made several developments to its online contractor management system, Verature, and created an online craning permit request form. For example, plant operators could upload licences to the system. This sped up health and safety processes and enabled the health and safety team to simply issue permits on the day because vital information was submitted in advance.

Harmes said that the supply chain was one of the biggest challenges this year and had to recruit new suppliers. Roger Hooker, event operations director at Formula E, concurred. With the UK back to a full summer of events, securing infrastructure, resources, and people early in the season was critical to the successful organisation of the London E-Prix, the all-electric street racing series.

The event took place at London’s ExCeL for the first time in 2021, but with no audience. This year, the event welcomed a crowd. So, how different did the event feel with excited Formula E fans in attendance? Hooker commented: “It was clear last season that we had huge potential to deliver a world-class live event at ExCeL. But we were missing the unique atmosphere that can only be generated from live fans. This year we were able to take the London E-Prix to the next level, as we welcomed 40,000 spectators with 3,000 hospitality guests across the race weekend.”

Hooker continued: “The investment in the ‘pre-race show’ and sports presentation for fans literally lit up ExCeL London and the crowd’s excitement added to the spectacle of electric world championship racing around the London E-Prix venue. It felt like the Olympics again with Brits cheering their home drivers with Union Jack flags.”

Hooker was assisted on site by Lauren Robinson, event director, Harriet Webber, event manager, Lleo Batlles, senior track and overlay manager, and Suzy Hansen, senior venue operations manager. Plus, LS Events was engaged as a local event delivery partner, with Steve Reynolds, operations director, leading the way.

“Throughout the planning, we had the fan experience in mind – the guest arrival, F&B, wayfinding, engagement, and the look and feel,” added Hooker. “For example, we built on what we had tried out last season, by using ExCeL London’s digital wayfinding on the boulevard and running video through screens to bring to life the venue and show that Formula E was ‘in town’. The venue was wrapped in our distinctive branding, with guests welcomed by support staff, as we delivered an interactive experience with global partner activations, a gaming arena, live music, and opportunities for fans to get involved.

“In practical terms, we had to build 14,000 grandstand seats, fly an arenasized lighting and sound rig into the ceiling, install track lights, and turn around the east end external works site into a track with great viewing areas – all in just a few short weeks.”

The London E-Prix’s 2.1-kilometre track was tweaked. Formula E applied the 2021 learnings to the 2022 event planning to make the build and de-rig more efficient. As the home race, a main objective was to ensure that Formula E put on the very best show in the UK. The pressure was on, yet Hooker and his team delivered and delivered it using 100 per cent renewable energy.

The London E-Prix was a far cry from Firle Beacon, a new automotive event to hit the scene this season. Described by its organiser as a back-to-basics, grass-roots motorsport event that incorporates rally, sprint and hill climb displays, the event was launched to “showcase a fresh approach – focusing on machine and driver as well as the audience”.

The first event on July 30-31 featured 200 rally, sprint, and retro cars, which went head-to-head whilst spectators enjoyed food and drink from the local village of Firle – which Firle Beacon’s course also ran through.

Henry Gage, founder of Firle Beacon, said: “The festival is a continuation of Firle’s motorsport heritage, on the site of the iconic post-World War II Bo-Peep Hill Climb, which took place just a stone’s throw away from the beacon. We have hopes to incorporate this climb into the event in coming years to create a truly stunning circuit.”

Firle Beacon’s capacity is 25,000 per day and there’s scope to increase to four days over the 300-acre site. Gage continued: “Our research demonstrated that the thirst was there for a new grass-roots motorsport event with no restricted areas, a focus on drivers and machines, and complete with a complex and exhilarating course, whilst maintaining that garden party relaxed feeling. I’m happy to say that that’s exactly what we achieved in year one. The industry has been crying out for a Firle Beacon-style festival and we knew that Firle Place could accommodate a course twice as long as what you might see at most other festivals.”

S3K Group, SEP, Qdos, A1, ADI, and Safetygeeks were just some of the event suppliers contracted to the event, which has been in the planning for two years – COVID stopped the event launching sooner.

“It was worth the wait, as the inaugural event landed with a bang,” Gage commented, as he contemplated the event’s future. “We do not want to be too ambitious too early. An event needs time to grow organically and it’s always best to focus on finessing the core elements.

“That said, our drivers raved about the course and that was the most valuable lesson that we learned. If the drivers are happy and the course is challenging, then the content sorts itself out. We demonstrated that, with over 200 vehicles taking part in our inaugural event this year – an incredible feat given that Firle Beacon as an event had never existed before. We’re expecting to grow further in 2023 but we’ll make sure that they’re the centre of attention, as they rightly should be at any event,” Gage concluded.