13 minute read

STARRY NIGHTS

Next Article
DRIVING FORCE

DRIVING FORCE

Shining example

Underneath the Stars may be a small festival but it’s a big champion of diversity. Here, Emma Hollings, festival director, and Eddie Barcan, head of programming and assistant event manager, discuss event developments, accessibility, an all-female headline bill

Earlier this year, a BBC study found that only one in ten headliners at the UK’s top music festivals were women. This was despite several organisers openly promising to achieve a 50/50 gender balance across their line-ups in 2022.

BBC research in 2017 found that 80 per cent of headliners were all male. As a result, two major projects were launched – ReBalance and KeyChange – with the sole aim of getting more female acts on stage. Some promoters have said that it’s unfair to blame them for the lack of diversity. Others have done something about it.

In July, Underneath the Stars welcomed more than 3,500 festivalgoers to Cinderhill Farm, Barnsley to enjoy an all-female headline bill featuring Imelda May, Kate Rusby, and Suzanne Vega.

This year, the festival worked with The F List, a directory of approximately 5,000 UK female/non-binary musicians and bands to improve the diversity of the festival’s line-up.

The festival’s ethos has always been to create and develop a gender-balanced music bill across all content and stages, representing a wide range of artists and musical styles – from ska, folk, and soul to brass bands, indie and Americana.

STRONG FEMALE PRESENCE

Eddie Barcan, director of Splendid Events, is Underneath the Stars’ assistant events manager and has responsibility for programming the small festival. Emma Holling, director of Underneath the Stars is managing director of Pure Records, which manages Rusby.

“One of the festival’s headliners would always be Kate,” explained Barcan, who is also Kate Rusby’s festival booking agent. “Thanks to COVID, I had rolled over Suzanne Vega and because I had two female headliners, I would have been happy to have had a man.”

Barcan put the feelers out for artists. Imelda May was touring.

Barcan continued: “I remember thinking that having Imelda would make three female headliners and then thinking that another promoter wouldn’t care if it was three men.”

According to Barcan, Underneath the Stars’ bill is “consistently balanced”. It makes sense to reflect your audience and the music they listen to, he said, as he showed StandOut the festival site. Furthermore, four of the seven members of the festival’s core team are women.

“Despite being a smaller, regional family-friendly festival, we have shown that achieving gender balance at festivals is possible,” Holling told StandOut. “We are a female-led team with a very strong female presence below this, and we share this ethos across our wider Underneath the Stars family. From our volunteers to food and drink vendors, the family workshop activities, as well as a gender-balanced line-up of music artists, inclusivity is at the festival’s core.”

EFFICIENCY OVER AESTHETICS

Underneath the Stars champions diversity, and accessibility; the festival has an Attitude is Everything (AIE) Silver Charter Award. Holling believes that people are coming to the festival because the festival’s reputation for accessibility is high.

The festival’s accessible camping field and accessible facilities sit at the heart of the festival site, which featured a new layout for 2022. This year’s festival consisted of two covered stages, located at the bottom of the festival site, which is on a small slope.

“When we moved to Cinderhill Farm, three years ago, the big tops were at the top of the field and the access road was at the bottom,” explained Barcan. “It meant there was a crossing point between pedestrians and production traffic. In 2021, we redesigned the site and ran with one stage. For simplicity, we opted to have the stage at the bottom of the field and near the production run.

“This year, Underneath the Stars reverted to two stages, and we decided to keep both at the bottom of the field. Initially, when the festival moved, we designed the site on aesthetics. Now, we’ve opted for efficiency. It means we must be more creative in terms of site layout to make the site as playful as possible for the customer, but it’s worth the extra effort to achieve those efficiencies.”

SITE CHANGES AND SUSTAINABILITY

This year’s festival featured several changes, including extra camping space for guests with live-in vehicles, increased glamping options, the addition of a bar in the camping area, a second bar in the main arena, a new camping area for traders, streamlined volunteer management processes, a new box office system, and the introduction of a “dance” area in front of the main stage.

Images: © Bryan Ledgard/Mike Ainscoe

“Whilst we’re a small festival, there’s a lot of attention to detail and a lot of professionalism on site,” said Barcan. “It’s disproportionate to the size and the profile of the event, but it’s also one of the reasons why we have a NOEA Award and AIE Silver. Our production values are high, and it just shows you can do things well even if you are a small festival.”

Holling and Barcan are assisted on site by Glyn Lea-Jones, site crew manager, Pete Sharman, director and production manager, Andy Smith, campsite manager, Moira Fitzsimmons-Holling, accessibility and safeguarding manager, Fee Fitzsimmons-Holling, festival administrator, and Lizzy Dickinson, event safety advisor.

Attention has already turned to 2023. Holling wishes to tweak the site’s guest bar areas and merchandise tent. She also wishes to make the top corner of the site, an uphill area, more of a “destination”. Plus, there’s more work to be done on festival sustainability with A Greener Festival. This year, the festival team has monitored and measured things such as waste and power usage. In fact, it’s one reason why the festival changed its waste contractor this year. The old waste contractor was not giving Barcan and the team waste data, so a new supplier was contracted.

Holling said: “When you work in a creative environment, you look for creative solutions. Measurement is all about spreadsheets, it’s boring and at odds with creativity, but you do need both. Imperfect action is better than not doing anything so we will have a strong sustainability drive.”

Holling admitted that she and the team were ambitious about ticket sale predictions this year. They have yet to hit capacity [5,000] but the festival is in a “good place” and intends to grow organically. Holling is looking to the future. She concluded: “I want to get customers into our wonderful woods, I will apply for some ACE funding to develop the festival elements that are not related to music, and I’ll make some small improvements. We never want to bite off more than we can chew. We want to ensure we can deliver Underneath the Stars and deliver it well.”

KATE RUSBY

SUPPLIERS LIST

Big tops and marquees – A&J Big Tops and Nationwide Marquees Trackway – All Weather Access Health and safety – JR Events Security – K-1 Security Toilets and showers – Kniftons Mobile, FG Trailer Hire, G&S Toilets, and Mobiloo Furniture – BE Event Hire and Decked Out Radios – Digital Comms Traffic management – UDP Lighting, power, audio – Isophase Audio Waste – BMBC Plant hire – Sunbelt Rentals Water tanks – Water Direct Fencing – Fence UK

“How do you keep toilet queues short?”

“Simple, use Ontrax, in any event.”

Ontrax Rentals UK Ltd are a leading supplier of vacuum toilets, washbasins, urinals and showers. We provide high quality service to help you reach your goals. Our low environmental impact and efficient setup brings an advantage to all. Will you get Ontrax with us? Visit us at: ontraxrentals.com

Roll with it

The demand for toilets this year was exceptional. Here, toilet providers discuss the season, market trends, and new developments

The organiser of Beautiful Days took to Facebook – once the festival was over – to address negative comments about the toilets at the three-day event. Numerous festivalgoers jumped on social media to complain about the facilities. In a statement, Beautiful Days said that it was disappointed at the feedback given the amount of time and money that was spent on toilet plans for the 2022 event.

Like traffic, toilets are one of those elements by which an organiser will be judged. How clean are they? What are the queues like? Is there enough? Savvy organisers know this and always aim to provide guests with the best facilities.

This year, more so than others, organisers struggled to secure toilets for their events. Many organisers had to source their toilet facilities from not one, not two but three or four providers and many blamed the Commonwealth Games for their lack of availability. The reality is that many providers simply didn’t survive the pandemic. Plus, this year is particularly crazy, as events flooded the market, returning after a twoyear hiatus.

The Beautiful Days team promised festivalgoers that the toilet issues were at the forefront of conversations during the festival weekend [August 18-21] and will be a key focus going forward. No doubt, organisers will look to sign contracts and secure event toilet providers well ahead of next season.

BETTER FLOW

Amy Gilbert, director of Site Event, described the event market as saturated – people are desperate to go out and experience live events once again. She predicts that 2023 will be “an interesting landscape”, with rising costs having an impact on future market conditions.

Laurence Wigfield, head of operations UK at Ontrax, concurred. He argued that there remains a shortage of toilets and suggested that demand and interest in vacuum toilet systems are growing also.

This year, Site Event won a contract to provide toilet facilities to Royal Ascot. The company provided toilet trailers, vacuum pods, and event toilets. Gilbert continued: “For the first time, Site Event provided toilet facilities for Royal Ascot.

SUPER TANKS

The event historically has been supplied with toilet trailers. However, Royal Ascot decided to change the provision to include our three and six-bay vacuum toilet pods.”

The three and six-bay pods work with a mobile app called Indicate. The app offers a full overview of toilet sanitation for large-scale events. It boasts the technology to allow for queue optimisation, tank monitoring, fast response times, and safeguarding attendees. Plus, a green and red LED light system clearly shows which cubicles are in use from afar.

Gilbert added: “The organisers felt that the toilet pods worked much better than the toilet trailers; in particular, they allowed a better ‘flow’ for the visitors through maximisation of the units as the visitors were able to see the red and green lights of our Indicate system. Royal Ascot also benefited from the hi-spec vacuum toilet pods, providing low water usage, no chemicals or smells, and a luxury feel, backed up by our team of experienced engineers.”

SITE EVENT AT ROYAL ASCOT

Post-event feedback found that Ascot Racecourse was so impressed with the efficiency and effectiveness of the vacuum pods that it is changing its toilet plans for 2023 to incorporate fewer toilet trailers and more vacuum pods.

EXCEPTIONALLY BUSY

Site Event also recently supplied Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT), Badminton Horse Trials, WOMAD, and Cambridge Folk Festival with toilet facilities. Igloos supplied RIAT too, and Wimbledon, Farnborough International Airshow, Suffolk Show and Cartier Polo. Plus, Igloos installed a form of its panelled loo system into the Abba Voyage pavilion. Designed to accommodate thousands of guests daily, the system is more like a permanent washroom installation despite it being based on Igloos’ event hire stock.

Like Gilbert, Natasha Mawer, director of Igloos, said that the events season had been challenging for several reasons, including late bookings and logistical planning.

Ben Cruise, sales director at PTL, agreed. He said: “It’s been an exceptionally busy year for us, and that continues into autumn, as we look to Christmas events.

“Our long-standing expertise was fundamental in the successful delivery of Her Majesty’s Jubilee this year, and our vacuum products proved invaluable at nine of the venues of the Commonwealth Games. Our continued work in the sporting and festival sector saw us deploy to many of the year’s largest events, including The Open, BST Hyde Park, All Points East and many more.”

SUPPLY AND DEMAND

Ontrax, formerly known as Sanitrax UK, provided toilet facilities to BST Hyde Park too. The Bampton-based company supplied vacuum toilets to the main sanitation blocks to the left and right of the main stage. By using Ontrax, the organising team was able to reduce water consumption considerably, and cut tankering costs, as Ontrax was able to plumb straight into the mains supply.

CREAMFIELDS SOUTH

Laurence Wigfield, head of operations UK at Ontrax, explained the reasons behind the company name change: “I was introduced to the owner of Sanitrax International in November 2021. He wanted to discuss the possibility of creating a new rental company in the UK, using his products. I agreed that I would work for him on a freelance basis and see if there was any appetite for Sanitrax vacuum toilets. It turned out there was. With our surprise entry into the UK market, Sanitrax and I decided that we should continue our venture and created a new UK company – Sanitrax UK. In February 2022, Marcel, the owner of Sanitrax decided to sell his manufacturing business to Satalite Industries in the US. This sale didn’t include the UK business. We, therefore, needed to create a new identity and chose Ontrax Rentals as our new brand. We are now gearing up to be a large supplier of vacuum toilets, washrooms, showers, and other event facilities.”

Ontrax has already had considerable success this summer, supplying toilets to Hampton Court Palace Festival, and Creamfields North and South.

Wigfield explained: “We provided toilets to Creamfields North in 2021. They hired 411 pans, which were used in different

ONTRAX IN ACTION

campsites. This took a lot of logistics and planning for a small team. We made some mistakes but through this, we were able to make some improvements, which we showcased at Creamfields South this June.

“We completely redesigned how we managed our toilets and moved away from macerator pumps to vacuum tank units,” Wigfield continued. “Knowing that volume and zero downtime in servicing was key to large events, we built some 18,000 litre super tanks that can operate up to 75 toilets comfortably and can be serviced without the need for any shutdown. With these new tanks in operation, Creamfields North asked us to supply toilets to some additional areas to bring the numbers up to 470 pans on site. The organisers also wanted to improve the look and feel of the Gold and Silver Sanitation Blocks, so we came up with the idea to build the toilet blocks on raised level platforms complete with fake grass flooring. The platforms looked incredible, and the festivalgoers really appreciated the improvements.”

Wigfield confirmed that the organising team has asked Ontrax to provide Creamfields with even more units for next year! No doubt, it will not be the only organiser looking to secure toilets well in advance of 2023.

This article is from: