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Tom Hall
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I
t’s a big month for England’s grassy fields: Four of our football teams
deftly navigated their home turfs to gift us two all-English European
finals. Meanwhile, Glastonbury Festival is set to return to its Somerset
green space after a two-year absence.
The instincts behind our footballers’ successes are not so far removed
from those that have propelled Michael Eavis CBE to greatness.
When I met the farmer-turned-festival-founder at Worthy Farm, I
imagined our conversation would veer towards the wider, macro issues
surrounding festivals. However, his mind was laser-focused on the smaller
details of his working life – from the engine specification of his green
power generator, to the minutiae of his local bureaucratic structure.
It takes a creative person to start a great organisation, but a meticulous
one to keep it under control. Eavis, like any great football player, is of a rare
breed that balances both these traits.
As Deborah Armstrong, founder of Glastonbury’s Shangri-La, aptly
points out in her column this month, Eavis’s disposition for picking what
will be successful is underpinned by an instinct for balancing ‘order’ and
‘chaos’.
To achieve success in the festival world means curating experiences
that allow an individual the freedom to bring their own imagination into an
activity. Meanwhile, in the sporting world, to achieve success, one must
resist the tendency to either ‘panic’ or ‘choke’. Author Malcolm Gladwell
draws an interesting distinction between these two states of mind:
“Choking is about thinking too much. Panic is about thinking too little.
Choking is about loss of instinct. Panic is reversion to instinct. They may
look the same, but they are worlds apart.”
Creating the world’s most successful events – or reaching the final of
one – requires unbeatable instincts as well as skill. The events industry
uniquely unites such incredibly diverse talents from a variety of fields.
Tom Hall, Editor
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