UK: Marcus Russell and Alec McKinlay of Ignition Management have stepped up the fight against online ticket touting by investing in leading fan-to-fan ticket resale platform Twickets. The company is also receiving backing from a group of established Spanish music managers and promoters, led by Neo Sala, founder of Spain’s largest concert promoter, Doctor Music. The executives are investing in a new funding round, which has seen reinvestment from the entire original founding board. This includes Ian McAndrew (Founder & CEO of Wildlife Entertainment), Harry Magee and Richard Griffiths (Co-Founders of Modest! Management), Chris Wright CBE (Co-Founder of Chrysalis Records),…
Author: Festival Insights
If you work in the events industry you will know that the world of festivals is a complex one. But that’s where the Association of Festival Organisers (AFO) can help. The AFO is an independent organisation with a nationwide brief. It started in 1987 when a group of festival organisers came together to exchange views and ideas, supporting each other to benefit the whole of the festival scene. The AFO continues to grow, providing support for its members and a voice for the festival and events industry. A lynchpin of the AFO’s activity is its annual conference, which this year…
The Bearded Butler was born at Meadows in the Mountains in Bulgaria, a picturesque boutique festival with a mountainous backdrop and ‘penchant for social experimental adventure’. The production company was conceived as an affront against mass production, drawing upon a unique and extensive network of craftsmen and professionals to manifest the visions and develop the brand identities of various entrepreneurs and pioneers. Insights spoke with Damian Sasse, the eponymous Bearded Butler himself and Meadows’ co-founder, about the team’s respective backgrounds, their environmentalist credentials, and how festivals can further differentiate themselves through aesthetic considerations. Festival Insights: Yourself and your creative companion…
UK: Arena Group designed and installed London’s largest temporary cinema venue in Victoria Embankment Gardens last month, forming part of the 60th anniversary celebrations of BFI’s London Film Festival from October 5 – 16. People Creative’s Tim Elliott was the project director on behalf of the BFI, with Arena Group’s expertise called upon to support the design process, then complete the logistically challenging installation, particularly mindful of its duty of care working in the busy, environmentally sensitive Embankment Gardens. Arena Structure’s project manager, Phil Bish, lead his first solo project by delivering Arena’s temporary I-Novation structure spanning 25m x 35m.…
NETHERLANDS: On October 24, this year’s Amsterdam Dance Event was brought to a close. From October 19 onwards, the city of Amsterdam was fully dedicated to the 21st iteration of ADE, the world’s biggest club festival for dance music and one of the most important business platforms for the electronic music industry. After raising this year’s capacity to meet the growing demand, ADE has announced that its conference sold out for the 10th consecutive year. This year’s edition also broke new records, with 550 speakers, over 2,200 artists in more than 140 venues, 1000 events and 375,000 visitors. This year’s…
COSTA RICA: Envision Festival has revealed the music, yoga, and speaker line-up for its seventh edition, set to take place in Uvita, Costa Rica from February 23 – 26. Blossoming to life in 2011, Envision is an experiential arts, music and wellness festival dedicated to ‘awakening human potential’. Each year thousands of festival participants experience days bursting with art, spirituality, yoga, education and sustainability, and nights committed to celebrating humanity through music, dance and performance, all in the name of connecting with our planet and its inhabitants. With the goal of creating a festival that represents a harmonious blend of…
UK: The Hebridean Celtic Festival’s coming of age event this year generated more than £2.2 million for the islands’ economy and helped safeguard 40 tourism-related jobs. A visitor survey and economic impact report on this year’s HebCelt shows the event continues to play an important role in attracting new people to visit the islands and encourage repeat trips. Managed and produced almost entirely by volunteers, the festival makes a significant contribution to island life and its ongoing success brought praise from a wide range of community, political, artistic and tourism organisations. The 21st festival, headlined by Runrig, was held from…
UK: Blackout was entrusted by live experience agency People to install a cinema screen support within the temporary pop-up Embankment Gardens Cinema, constructed in celebration of the 60th anniversary of BFI’s London Film Festival from October 5 – 16. Blackout project manager Alex Duke and his four-strong rigging crew constructed a 7m x 7m ground support structure over a six-hour install from Thomas Super Truss 52cm, onto the front of which the cinema screen was attached. Duke said: “The BFI screen support installation presented a challenge as to where 3.2-tonne of ballast should be placed. The cinema screen was right…
SWITZERLAND: With six days and nights of musical and artistic performances on six different stages, and 4,700 volunteers on duty to welcome 230,000 people, the Paléo Festival de Nyon is one of the most prominent and successful festivals in Europe. For this ’40th+1′ edition, the organisers offered a line-up of artists that included Iron Maiden, The Chemical Brothers, Muse, Bastille and The Lumineers. The engineers from French company Alabama Média were on hand day and night to make sure the punters experienced the best audio and visual experience possible. Alabama has been an integral part of the success that the…
Andy Grimsey is a lawyer at Poppleston Allen Licensing Solicitors, the largest niche alcohol and entertainment licensing firm in the country. He co-drafted the Live Music Act 2012, was a member of the Government’s Live Music Special Guidance and Entertainment Licensing Reform Technical Groups, and contributed to the re-drafting of the Regulated Entertainment chapter of the Statutory Guidance. He acts for major breweries, late night operators, racecourses and other large outdoor entertainment venues, including festivals. The Licensing Act 2003 is 11 years old, having come into force on November 24 2005. A House of Lords Select Committee is currently taking…