COVER FEATURE
Jess Shields
Jim Gee
John Rostron
Jon Collins
Steve Reynolds
Parklife build ahead of transformation
One of 15 industry bodies that makes up LIVE, the Association of Independent Festivals has been on the frontline when it comes to seeing the impact of the challenges facing the sector. Following 78 festival closures in 2024, AIF CEO John Rostron says times remain tough but the mood among operators lifted considerably this summer and AIF’ s membership has grown to 152.
“ I ' m just coming up to three years in post, and following the summer the mood among members is the most optimistic and buoyant it ' s been in those times,” he says.“ There are still struggles and hardships, the biggest challenges being production costs, cash flow and the margins, but over the summer we saw sold out events, tickets selling really well, and organisers staging great events. It feels like there has been a move beyond the gloom and we ' re in a really interesting space.”
The AIF will continue to push hard for a reduction in VAT for festivals though, and Rostron explains why:“ In the last week alone, I ' ve spoken to organisers of festivals at 20,000 capacity, 30,000 capacity, and a few sizes in between, who sold out but lost money this summer. There was a 20,000-capacity festival I spoke to this week who sold out and
had a great show but lost £ 1,000 pounds. That ' s the thing that we need to address because that ' s simply not sustainable.”
The Oasis masterplan
For Manchester-based live event production specialists Engine No 4, this summer was among the busiest and best yet, according to its director Jim Gee.“ This year’ s was our biggest summer yet in terms of running live projects, and the weather was a blessing; we didn’ t have a very wet site anywhere,” he says.
Among Engine No 4’ s key projects during the summer were festivals Kendal Calling( cap. 35,000) and Lost Village( 20,000), along with the 30,000-capacity Wythenshawe Park show series that ran over the August bank holiday weekend and featured acts including Sam Fender and Fontaines D. C.
The biggest project, by far, for the independent operation was handling both Parklife( 80,000) and Oasis’ five shows at Manchester’ s Heaton Park that followed the festival. It meant Engine No 4 having a team on site for 10 weeks of the summer, with the transition between the two events presenting no shortage of challenges.
Engine No. 4 not only handled the site management for the five Oasis shows
20 accessaa. co. uk