COVER FEATURE
ONE EVENT FULL SUMMER
CHRISTOPHER BARRETT
At the end of a sun-drenched summer that many agree was the best for years for outdoor events, industry leaders discuss the key trends and major challenges involved in staging many of the season’ s biggest events, along with progress made to reform licensing, support grassroots, and gain festival tax relief on the back of a government pledge to support the sector.
While many promoters and live event production companies were busy creating the summer’ s countless landmark events; from huge stadium runs by the likes of Oasis to festival launches including Lido and Come Together, and multi-entertainment offerings such as LIV Golf; behind the scenes events industry associations were pressing for measures to help ease processes and bolster its finances.
From licensing to festival tax relief, the impact of Martyn’ s Law to preparing for the first payments from the LIVE Trust grassroots fund, LIVE CEO Jon Collins has had a lot on his plate. Over the summer, he continued spearheading attempts to increase governmental support for the live music industry, and is largely positive about the progress made, despite a cabinet reshuffle that saw industry advocate Chis Bryant moved on from his role as the minister of state for the DCMS.
Collins’ weighty workload reflects a vibrant industry that he says shows no sign of slowing down:“ We ' ve had a brilliant summer of music. I ' ve started to regard Wembley Stadium as a gig
“ I ' VE STARTED TO REGARD WEMBLEY STADIUM AS A GIG VENUE THAT HAS THE ODD FOOTBALL MATCH.”
venue that has the odd football match, because that, to me, seems to be the balance of it these days. We ' ve had a succession of stadium artists performing at stadia up and down the country and
18 accessaa. co. uk