Market intelligence for live events industry professionals Summer 2026

WELCOME

Looking out onto a vista made up of grey clouds and relentless rain, the summer and those record temperatures are starting to feel like a lifetime ago. But clearly the issues involved in building, delivering and breaking hugely complex live events in extreme weather remain front of mind for all who experienced it.

The full summit agenda can be found on page 42, and I’ m expecting the Ready, Weather or Not session examining extreme weather mitigation to be among the hot topics – pardon the dire pun – of the event.

The aim of the summit is to provide an informal and open forum to network and discuss all the key issues of the summer and wider events calendar. Among the many other important subjects set to be tackled is REMEL( Race Equality in Music Event Licensing). On page 12, Black Lives in Music CEO Dr Charisse Beaumont suggests what should be done in response to the REMEL report ' s finding that Black and South Asian-led events are being disproportionately cancelled, restricted or blocked. The situation is not only leading to a huge loss to our cultural landscape but also the economy. A session on day two of the summit will find Notting Hill Carnival CEO Matthew Phillip, City Splash Festival founder Ben Ryan and Continental Drifts CEO Mel Wilds tackling the issue.

Another key speaker at the summit, Boomtown managing director Toby Gwazdacz-Wollaston is interviewed at length for the magazine following what the festival team described as a‘ radical redesign’ of the event this year( p. 18).

Taking the seat for the summit’ s keynote interview, which will form part of the AAA Backstage podcast series, will be Superstruct Entertainment chief operating officer Rebecca Kane Burton. Rebecca has also contributed to the magazine with an interesting piece explaining the reasoning behind the festival giant’ s recent publication of an Artistic Code( p. 11).

Also featured in this issue and attending the AAA Leaders’ Summit is Sziget Festival production manager Tibor Horváth( p. 36). Alongside Dutch Barrier Services’ Stanley Jilesen, Tibor showed us around the stunning event on Budapest’ s Óbuda Island, which this summer was held as an independent festival for the first time since 2017. Among the festival firsts for me were the sight of huge snow-making machines spraying mist over the sun-baked audience, and people ziplining at great speed as an act performed on an adjacent stage.

Someone who has no doubt seen it all is Arena Group UK and Europe sales and marketing director Dave Withey. In between watching Squeeze live wherever and whenever possible, Dave has forged a remarkable career in live events and has no shortage of great stories to tell. On page 44, we discuss his 50 years with Arena.

Turn the pages and you will also find a focus on one of the fastest growing elements of the live events ecosystem – premium offerings( p. 24). Ranging from on-site swimming pools to culinary delights created by famous chefs – we explore the providers, concepts and consumer behaviours changing the face of festivals.

I hope to see you soon. If not at the summit let’ s make it the Access All Areas Awards on 8 December at Winter Wonderland.

access-all-areas-magazine

Christopher Barrett, Content Director

@ access _ aa @ access _ aa

accessaa. co. uk 5