LS EVENTS
The Castle Sessions at Warwick Castle
“ We had a seated Bocelli show on Friday with 11,500 seats needing to go in overnight , following a standing show on the Thursday with Morgan Wallen ,” she says . “ I messaged the team in advance to ask if anyone was free to help on that day , and everyone jumped right in . It ' s that sort of welcoming feeling , and knowing that people have got your back , which I think makes LS Events such as great place to work .”
While Covid-19 brought the events industry to a standstill , for Loud Sound it was pivotal , not only leading to it being rebranded LS Events but enabling the diversification of the business to build momentum .
Says Reynolds , “ The whole world was falling apart , everyone was out of work , and we were just about to furlough everybody when we said to the GLA [ Greater London Authority ], which we were working for at the time that we needed to protect the events industry in particular freelancers who received little government support . We suggested our industry should be involved in supporting
Covid mitigation measures . At the time I was thinking of testing centres .
“ The GLA came back and said , ‘ you need you to meet these people ’. The people in question were from the Mortality Management Group , and they told us that they needed to open some temporary mortuaries in a very short time scale , and could we go down to Breakspear Crematorium , where they were building the first one of them . Losberger De Boer were building it , but they needed people to manage and operate it .”
Other temporary mortuaries followed , and LS was soon offering a financial lifeline to many of its regular freelancers . “ We had somewhere in the region of 1,000 freelancers involved , from site and stage crew to artist liaison ; all sorts of people who had no work and weren ' t able to pay their mortgages because the government funding wasn ' t covering them . These people were falling through the gaps , and we were able to help ,” says Reynolds .
The company went on to help open no less than 35 lateral flow test centres , providing further employment for around
Jen-e Jones
1,500 freelancers and casual workers .
During this period Loud Sound was operating under the somewhat more appropriate temporary moniker of Hub Logistics . As Covid receded and the company continued to expand its reach beyond live music it became increasingly apparent a permanent name change was required , and LS Events was selected .
“ We had thought about it before ,” says Grindle . “ In the past it had been quite difficult going into a premises licence hearings in a small community , like Daresbury Village with Creamfields , and announcing yourselves as being from Loud Sound . They were like , ‘ Are you taking the piss ?’,” he laughs .
Operation London Bridge Having originally won a tender to deliver a Covid-secure version of Operation London Bridge during the pandemic , LS Events took responsibility as the central event management agency for the GLA ' s London coordination of plans , which ultimately resulted in delivery . Following the news of the death of the Queen in September 2022 , LS Events moved at a fast pace to deliver as the central event management agency for the GLA . Its key areas of responsibility included overseeing the overarching event management plan , the operational delivery , public safety and crowd management for the ceremonial viewing areas and screening sites .
Armstrong says that when the call came to work on Operation London Bridge , the level of camaraderie and accessaa . co . uk 35