IN THE SPOTLIGHT
IN THE SPOTLIGHT
From The Great Escape to Superstruct via Vision Nine and From The Fields, Y Not Festival director Kevin Moore charts his career path and outlines who and what has inspired and influenced him.
Did you always have an ambition to get involved in the live music industry, and what led you to it? Yes, it was always the plan. I was brought up in Preston in the north-west and had an early love for live music. I would get the train over to Manchester two or three times a week to watch bands. When I finished my A-levels I thought if I go to Manchester University, I ' ll be able to see live bands there. I went thinking I might become a music journalist, then realised I couldn ' t write very well, and found myself getting involved in student radio. I worked at XFM Manchester for about a year before it folded and during that time I got to know a few people putting on club nights around the city and thought I ' d give it a go.
I really enjoyed the thrill of delivering a really good club night, and got used to the horrible hollow feeling when you put on a night and no one turns up. From there I met more people putting on club nights, then people putting on live bands, and got into that. I met a couple of people who used to run a festival in Manchester called In The City, which was the precursor to The Great Escape. I worked there for a couple of years. I ' d been to festivals as a punter, but that was my first experience working on one, and I fell in love with the dynamism of the festival timeline and creating an event that thousands of people attend. Soon after, I saw a job at The Great Escape, applied, and was very fortunate to get it.
You began working on The Great Escape in 2012. How formative was that experience? There are two things I particularly enjoyed about my time at the Great Escape. Firstly, the sheer volume of bands in the city; when I was there it involved around 40 venues and 400 bands. Seeing live music in every corner of the city was inspiring. Adam [ Ryan ], who booked it then does now, has such a brilliant ear; there are very few duff bands at The Great Escape. To be part of that facet of an artist ' s journey and help them to get the next level was great.
The Great Escape also helped me gain an understanding of the international music ecosystem, and the brilliant work the music export offices who take the best talent from their countries and give them a chance at wider success. I didn ' t appreciate the level of sophistication in that process, and being the point of contact with those export offices was a big part of my role. It ' s fulfilling when you see those bands push through in the UK or US market and think, I had a small part to play in that.
What was the first greenfield festival you worked on, and what ' s your abiding memory of that experience? When I was at The Great Escape it was independently owned by MAMA, whose other shows at the time were Wilderness, Lovebox, Global Gathering, Citadel and Somersault. We ' d finish working on The Great Escape in May and then lend support on the other greenfield shows, doing all sorts of jobs. I used to run the guest list at Lovebox, which was eyeopening as there was always a very lively door. All the people you meet on the door, hearing their stories and getting a real understanding of the type of people live music attract, I found it exhilarating.
At Wilderness I was responsible for the outdoor pursuits. At the time we had fly fishing, there was a boating lake, we did wild medicine walks. The site was vast, and while it was a great challenge working on an event of such scale, I enjoyed looking after some of the smaller moments. People went to Wilderness for the bands and the banquets, but a key thing I ' ve kept with me since, is that it’ s often the smaller moments that make people ' s experiences at festivals unique.
At Y Not this year we had a céilidh band in our on-site pub across the weekend, and seeing 100 or 150 people getting involved – parents with kids, first-time festivalgoers, older couples – you think;‘ they ' ll remember this for the rest of their lives’. They might forget who they saw on the main stage, but they ' ll never forget that.
Who or what has played the biggest role in supporting your career? I ' ve learned something from every boss I ' ve had. Recently, Mandy Johnson at
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