Darren Gallop is the CEO and co-founder of live event management software firm, Marcato, which specialises in the creation and development of web-based logistics management solutions for live events. Darren and his team serve over 300 world-class organisations, including festivals such as Coachella, Osheaga, CMA Fest, Iceland Airwaves, Eurosonic Noorderslag, and events like the X Games and Burning Man. Gallop has over 20 years of experience in music, tech & live events. He started his career in 1995 as a musician, subsidising his income as a freelance computer repair technician where he worked primarily with music, video and design firms.…
Author: Festival Insights
The Northern Festivals Network was conceived in 2014 in collaboration between Just So Festival, Head For The Hills Festival and Kendal Calling, enabled through support from the Arts Council’s Strategic Touring Fund. Backed by a second round of successful Arts Council funding, the Network is now seven festivals strong – a diverse array of award-winning events that includes bluedot, Underneath The Stars, Cloudspotting, and Festival No.6. Born out of a desire to see greater information sharing within the festival sector and an improvement in the quality of family focused arts programming, the Network has empowered its members to more effectively…
USA: The US based harm reduction group Dancesafe has announced that it will be the first Stateside organisation to offer Fentanyl testing strips to festival-goers. Fentanyl is a short-acting synthetic opiate that is now being used as an adulterant in substances such as heroin, cocaine and MDMA. Due to its high potency, it has caused numerous deaths on unsuspecting victims. In response to the rising death toll caused by fentanyl-laced drugs, DanceSafe and the University of California San Francisco have conducted a study assessing five different immunoassay fentanyl test strips for their effectiveness at detecting fentanyl and its various analogs…
CROATIA: Destination Ultra returned to Croatia’s Dalmatian coast this past week, as over 120,000 attendees from 148 countries enjoyed the weeklong array of events. The flagship event, Ultra Europe, was streamed live via UMFTV with hours of continuous dance music reaching 3.3 million viewers worldwide. Kicking off on Thursday, July 13, Nicole Moudaber presented MOOD at the Resistance Opening Party at the Giraffe Palm Beach House, bringing along special guests Cristoph and Hito, all of whom laid down house and techno sets at the waterfront venue. The jubilant atmosphere at the packed club set the celebratory tone for the festivities…
UK: With one month to go before Just So Festival re-opens its gates, the live music accessibility charity Attitude is Everything has announced that the event has been awarded the ultimate Gold award of their Charter of Best Practice. The Charter recognises the efforts made by UK venues and festivals to be accessible for deaf and disabled people. Just So joins other Gold awardees – Glastonbury, Greenbelt and Liberty Festival – in being recognised by Attitude is Everything as one of the most accessible outdoor events in the UK. The 5,000 capacity festival produced by Wild Rumpus is the only…
UK: The Association of Festival Organisers Conference – set to take place from November 10 – 12 in Stratford-upon-Avon – has announced its first speakers and topics for 2017. Speakers announced for the Conference are: BBC Breakfast’s Mike Bushell, The Guardian’s Colin Irwin, Entsweb’s Al Best, Mark David of the Music Venue Trust, and Jon Payne from LSL Solicitors. Topics covered will span legal advice, copywriting, engaging with local communities, licensing regulations, artist-assisted marketing, medical cover, the multi-faceted role of local authorities, industry apprenticeships, and more. Furthermore, showcase concerts are lined up for November 10 & 11 and will feature…
UK: ChamSys consoles were present across numerous stages at Glastonbury festival this year, supporting acts from the Other Stage all the way to the Silver Hayes WOW Stage. “We had some good things going on at Glastonbury this year,” said James Harrison, Support Manager at ChamSys, who along with Software Engineer James Crickmere and Personality / Support Specialist Dan Coombs, represented the company at the five-day event. “There were a wide variety of our products at the festival, used in a wide range of different applications – and I’m pleased to report that everyone we spoke to was extremely happy…
UK: With just 12 weeks until the Festival and Outdoor Events Show opens its doors, visitor registration is now open. The Festival and Outdoor Events Show is a brand new event created by Mash Media, the organisers of the Event Production Show and the publisher of Access All Areas. Taking place at Surrey’s Sandown Park from September 27 – 28 2017, the venue is situated less than 30 minutes from central London and will have indoor and outdoor exhibition areas, ensuring the vast range of industry specialisms can be represented. In its launch year, the event has already made a…
UK: Star Events supplied the cavernous Mayfield Depot with seats in two custom-built arenas for the Manchester International Festival (MIF), which wrapped on July 15. The first was for the world premier of Yael Bartana’s What If Women Ruled The World, the second for choreographer Boris Charmatz’s 10,000 Gestures, one of MIF’s final fixtures. Set opposite Manchester Piccadilly, Mayfield Depot is the under platform area of a semi-derelict Victorian railway station. Boarded up for years there was minimal natural light as Star Events built a single stand of 430 QP Grandstand seats. To accommodate Saygel & Schreiber’s What if Women…
Festival Insights and the UK Festival Awards are proud to release the UK Festival Market Report 2017, an in-depth examination of consumer demographics, preferences and behaviour based on research undertaken from October – November 2016. The insights contained within the Report were gleaned from a sample of 8000 festival-goers who took part in the annual UK Festival Census, an extension of the UK Festival Awards’ voting platform. Areas covered in the document include attendees’ opinions on ticket prices, improvements they’d like to see implemented at festival bars, what types of music they consume, their most prioritised amenities at festivals, and…