“ WE HAD SUCH A LOT OF GOODWILL AS A RESULT OF HOW WE SUPPORTED STAFF THROUGH COVID .”
LS EVENTS
Field Day at All Points East , Victoria Park
A new beginning Working initially as senior project manager on events including Bestival on the Isle of Wight and Common People in Oxford , it wasn ’ t long before Reynolds had the opportunity to get his teeth into a new event that he could help build from the ground up .
He says , “ Because of my background in security , I knew a little bit about everything to do with an event so it was a matter of growing my skills and relying on the site managers and technical production managers to do the bits I didn ' t have knowledge on . Everyone was really welcoming and helped me get up to speed . I had a few great summers working on really creative shows .”
In 2018 , with AEG Presents having won the tender for East London ' s Victoria Park , All Points East ( APE ) was born and Reynolds jumped at the opportunity to be the debut event ’ s operations director .
The award-winning , 10-day , APE festival consists of six days of concerts , and four days of free activities for locals known
“ WE HAD SUCH A LOT OF GOODWILL AS A RESULT OF HOW WE SUPPORTED STAFF THROUGH COVID .”
as In The Neighbourhood . For Reynolds , helping to create and develop the event has been one of his career highs .
Grindle says previous large-scale events held in Victoria Park had created a bad feeling among locals and a distinct lack of trust : “ All Points East was a real challenge . Steve did a huge amount of work around the whole community relationship piece with AEG , getting them to understand it was a new event with a new approach .
The idea of staging free activities midweek at BST Hyde Park had proven a success , and Reynolds says a similar initiative was even more impactful at Victoria Park : “ It ' s a very local crowd there , so saying ‘ we ' re going to open the doors and let you come in for free and enjoy the site , and we ' ll put loads of entertainment on for you ’, really went down well .
“ We also did a lot of work around the security , stewarding , traffic management , and dealing with anti-social behaviour issues that had been associated with the previous concerts .
“ We won the residents around by doing what we said we would do . There was a massive reduction in complaints , and we came out of it with a good relationship with residents , which we ' ve maintained . After Covid we increased the capacity from 40,000 to 50,000 , and we recently won a permanent licence in Victoria Park ; which is very rare . That shows the level of trust that everyone has in the way we operate .”
BST Hyde Park Among LS Events ’ longest-running projects , BST Hyde Park ( BST ) now sees Grindle and Reynolds oversee the project accessaa . co . uk 31