UK: AVA Festival has announced the first wave of names for its free conference programme on May 31 at Belfast’s Metropolitan Arts Centre. Heading back to its home city for its fifth anniversary, AVA 2019 will host keynotes from The Black Madonna and Horse Meat Disco, as well as Resident Advisor, Red Bull Music, Help Musicians NI and PRS for Music. Designed in the same vein as the festival’s London Printworks conference in March, AVA Belfast will offer an insight into the music and arts industry from artists, agents, labels and innovators over two days of programming. AVA has invited…
Author: Festival Insights
UK: In 2017, Powerful Thinking launched the Sustainable Power Supplier programme – an online resource for event organisers that connects innovative suppliers with a growing community of festivals committed to smart energy management. The programme was developed after Powerful Thinking’s third annual Industry Green Survey showed that a common barrier to implementing sustainable practices was finding a supplier who could make their goals a reality. Over 10 power suppliers joined the programme in 2017 – all with a proven track record in supporting their clients in fuel reduction and year-on-year progress. Now the Powerful Thinking steering group is opening the…
UK: Skiddle has invested in new office space in London following a record year of growth. The new premises will be staffed by a dedicated London team, hired specifically to focus on growth in the capital. Head of New Business, Duncan King, has recently joined Skiddle to head up the new premises in Camden, having previously worked with 360, AEI Media and Turn First Artists. Skiddle currently operates out of a headquarters in Preston, a development hub in Liverpool, and earlier this year opened additional office space in Manchester. The investment follows the announcement of Skiddle’s most successful year to…
UK: PlayPass has announced a number of festival partnerships for 2019, including the 10,000-capacity Lakefest, the three single-day Smoked & Uncut festivals, and the inaugural London Dessert Festival. Others already confirmed to make their cashless debut with PlayPass this year include WeAreFSTVL, Black Deer, Merthyr Rising and March’s Beat Hotel. 2000Trees, which introduced PlayPass’ NFC cashless and access control system last year and reported an instant 24% increase in spend-per-head, will be adding PlayPass’ accreditation and crew management solution to the mix this year. Having also been specified by AEG Presents’ British Summer Time in Hyde Park, WeAreFSTVL and Black…
CHILE: Considered ‘the largest Latin event in the world’, the Viña del Mar International Song Festival has been held annually during the third week of February in Viña del Mar, Chile. Started in 1960, it is the oldest and largest music festival in Latin America. This year the five-day musical event featured both local and international artists including Felipe Abello, Wisin & Yandel, Becky G, Marc Anthony and Backstreet Boys. With more than 15,000 local spectators, the event has been broadcast live internationally on radio over the years, as well as on Chilean television. A total of six semi-circular LED…
Nick Hucker is CEO of Preoday, a role he has fulfilled for over a year after initially joining the company as Head of Business Development in September 2017. Prior to joining Preoday, Nick was Regional Sales Lead for Northern Europe, Middle East and Africa at global advisory, broking and solutions company Willis Towers Watson. In this role he was responsible for all software solutions sales across the Life & Non-Life solutions, Enterprise risk platform, Iaas and Saas solutions. He managed over 150 clients and a senior sales team. Nick has also worked at Microsoft UK in business development and solution…
Christian Hill is the Managing Director of Project Simply, a digital design agency that works predominantly with festivals and venues to create beautiful brands and digital experiences. We’ve recently embarked on a global insight piece that aims to distil the opinions, issues and successes around the marketing & digital experience of all types of festivals and events. Working with the likes of Field Day and Parklife, we’ve also gathered some expertise around what constitutes a great digital experience, so here are our top 10 tips for making sure your festival gets the best start in the digital realm. 1. Always…
UK: Festival Live, a new B2B summit dedicated to the festival and live event sector, will host its first edition from May 10 – 11 at the Brighton Centre in East Sussex. Showing the latest festival technologies and live event services, the event has been launched in response to a sustained spike in sector growth and an increasing need to facilitate trade and co-operation within the industry. The inaugural Festival Live boasts attendees and speakers from organisations such as Glastonbury, Bestival, Latitude, Black Deer Festival, End of the Road Festival, AEG Presents, Beggars Group, Broadwick Live, Dreamland Margate, Sony Music,…
Skiddle’s Live Music and Festivals Editor, Henry Lewis, is a trained journalist and lives in Manchester. Having worked at Skiddle for three years, Henry is a regular industry commentator and Skiddle spokesperson, as well as frequent interviewer for artists and bands, including The Sherlocks, You Me At Six and The Vaccines. Henry is also the guitarist in the Manchester based rock band, Sauce. In recent years, the scrutiny put on festivals about the limited bookings of female artists has without doubt intensified. While such questions were almost certainly raised in the past, social media has offered a wider platform for…
PHILIPPINES: The latest edition of Malasimbo festival presented a mixed programme of music, arts and culture from March 1 – 2, and featured Funktion-One sound throughout its 5,000-capacity site. Its organiser Miro Grgic takes a purist approach to sound, leading him to Funktion-One several years ago. After eight years at Malasimbo Ampitheater, the festival relocated to the private nature reserve park of White Beach in Puerto Galera, only 4km from the original site. The new site includes a jungle and a virgin beach, more nature, new terrain stages, and more roaming space. Grgic is, in fact, more than just the…