Kate Hewett’s career in promoting events began with the Sheffield based, hip hop themed burger joint and live music establishment The Harley. Her role there, at least at first, was to develop the space from exclusively hosting free-entry, local nights into a fixture on the national touring circuit. Fortuitously, Hewett’s post there started around the same time its owner was approached by Sheffield City Council with a proposal to get involved with a new festival called Tramlines. Since Tramlines’ inception in 2009, Hewett has worked on the festival alongside a number of other independent venue promoters, with her position focusing…
Author: Festival Insights
UK: Along with a new logo and website, AEI Media has rebranded to a name that’s more appropriate to their multi-platform operations across the music industry’s live, physical and online realms: AEI Group. Marking 20 years since AEI Group founders James Cotterill and Diluk Dias established their flagship brand – respected scene leader Drum&BassArena – AEI Group has developed from its grassroots foundations to a business that, at its heart, identifies and develops talented music entrepreneurs, helps them build brands and promote acts and provides them with the tools and resources to build the largest, most engaged audience possible. “The…
UK: When MelodyVR launches later this year fans will be able to experience performances by their favourite artists remotely via virtual reality headsets. MelodyVR’s diverse catalogue of content has been curated to ensure that there’s an experience to cater to everyone’s musical tastes and features a wide range of genres spanning UK grime with Skepta, through to electronic performances with Annie Mac, rock shows with Fall Out Boy or classical music with the London Symphony Orchestra. MelodyVR will no doubt generate a new revenue stream for artists and the music industry by connecting fans to musicians in a completely new…
UK: The Kings Norton based Nationwide Caterers Association (NCASS) has been named as the winner of the Business category in the Regulatory Delivery’s Primary Authority Awards. The awards are designed to recognise outstanding work by those involved in the Primary Authority scheme and to celebrate frontline success. NCASS won the Business category, highlighting its commitment to helping mobile and event caterers comply with food safety regulations and reducing burdens on both member businesses and regulators by decreasing the number of inspections that caterers experience at events. To these ends NCASS produced a common set of standards and due diligence pack,…
UK: From the Fields – the Manchester based promoter behind the UK Festival Award-winning Kendal Calling, plus the recently announced bluedot – has announced the cancellation of its relatively new festival Forgotten Fields, citing the rising costs of production as the cause of death. Read the organisers’ statement below: Dear festival goers, We are hugely saddened to let you know that Forgotten Fields 2016 is no longer going ahead. It’s with heavy hearts that we let you know news of this cancellation and would like to thank you for your support of the event. Due to the rising costs of…
CANADA: North By Northeast (NXNE) has announced that Nolan Bushnell – founder of Atari, entrepreneur, and author – will deliver a keynote speech at the festival’s Future Land conference on June 15. NXNE Future Land conference brings together the intersection of music and gaming with a speaker series and industry panels focusing on technology, gaming, and how musicians can thrive in these industries. Future Land sessions include: ‘The Art of Sound and Music’, with music composers and game publishers discussing how they make, find and choose music for gaming soundtracks; ‘Master Class in Storytelling and Game Development’ with the creators…
USA: Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival selected a JBL Professional by Harman sound system for its Yuma Tent at this year’s edition. Southern California’s hot and dusty desert isn’t the average locale for a nightclub, but thanks to the Yuma Tent, that is exactly what concertgoers found when they entered the festival gates. Thumping away from festival open to close with some of the world’s premier DJs, the Yuma Tent’s unique purpose was to recreate the intimate and hi-fidelity experience of being in a high-end nightclub, but with a sound system that could deliver the experience at high SPL…
PlayPass are one of the world’s leading providers of RFID at festivals and live events, having set the industry standard for the reliable and cost-effective delivery of cashless payments, access control, brand activation and crew management solutions. PlayPass’ clients include: Eastern Electrics (UK); Lollapalooza Berlin, Melt! and Splash! (Germany); Live Nation, Rock Werchter, Graspop Metal Meeting and Antwerp Sportspaleis Arena (Belgium); Amsterdam Open Air and Extrema Outdoor (Netherlands); BIME, Low and Cruïlla Barcelona (Spain); Les Trans Musicales (France); Caprices (Switzerland); Taste of Hong Kong and Rugby 7’s (China), and many more. We have teamed up with the AIF Festival Congress…
Cheltenham Jazz Festival was founded in 1996, and is one of several events under the Cheltenham Festivals umbrella that also encompasses Science, Literature, and Music editions. Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, Cheltenham Jazz took place from April 27 – May 2 and featured Guy Garvey, Lianne La Havas, and Beverley Knight, to name a few. Insights spoke with Ian George, Director of Cheltenham Jazz, about the Festival’s commitment to both education and the representation of emerging talent, its close working relationship with Jamie Cullum, and more. George initially joined Cheltenham Festivals as the parent group’s head of marketing, in…
SPAIN: For the first time at a European festival, Primavera Sound and Red Bull TV will join forces to live stream the 16th edition of the Barcelona event from June 2 – 4. The three-day broadcast will cover four stages for eight hours per day, requiring a team of around a hundred professionals to operate. This ambitious project goes beyond the high definition streaming of the main concerts, as the virtual experience will also include exclusive interviews on the Red Bull TV set located on the site itself in the Parc del Fòrum, plus intimate acoustic shows, 360º videos and…