SEPTEMBER | COVER FEATURE
“Covid-19 has filled
our days and nights
for many months
and, while no one is
saying that it’s gone
away, in an unstable
world filled with
misinformation and little support,
two things are sure – this time will
pass and festivals will run again,”
says Stewart.
With almost two decades of
experience in the festival business,
Stewart is no stranger to adversity.
Since she took over the running of
the Green Man festival in 2005 it
has become one of the UK’s biggest
and most successful independent
festivals.
Such is the popularity of the
25,000-capacity event that when
this year’s sold-out edition was
cancelled in the wake of Covid-19,
some 90% of ticket holders chose to
retain their tickets for next year’s
festival.
Running a festival is a famously
high-risk business and never
more so than in the face of an
unprecedented challenge such as
Covid-19, however Stewart appears
confident her event will survive
and prosper and says the wider
festival market has an opportunity
to do likewise.
Set in a lush Welsh valley, with
the Brecon Beacons mountains
providing a stunning backdrop,
the Green Man site features a
huge wooden statue of the Green
Man; a mythological pagan icon
representing connection with
nature, renewal and festival
gatherings. At the end of each
festival the statue is burned to the
ground.
“Many see it as an opportunity
to say goodbye to the past and a
time to look to a new future,” says
Stewart.
With the 2020 festival season
all but destroyed by the pandemic,
she says it's time to put it behind
us and think of the future: “We
build magical places out of mid-air
and create memories which last a
lifetime. To be successful takes a
complex and extensive set of skills
including a big streak of daft.
“As ever it's up to us the festival
community to make it work against
all odds. We need to use all of our
skillset, our wonderful daftness to
make it happen no matter what.
Most of all we need to remember
what an amazingly positive action
it is to bring thousands of humans
together to experience good times,
and how courageous and bloody
marvelous everyone involved in
doing it is.”
Preparing for the unknown
Stewart has a history for
reinvigorating festivals. In 2001
she was taken on to manage The
Big Chill festival, she not only
helped save it from closure but in
the subsequent decade helped grow
its capacity from 5,000 to 40,000.
When she took over Green Man,
the festival had been running
for two years and was on shaky
financial ground. She has overcome
numerous obstacles since but
has found 2020 to be a uniquely
challenging year.
Overseeing a festival the size
of Green Man is a year-around
business and Stewart says this
year has provided a very rare
opportunity to take time out:
“Not having to do that for the
first time in 28 years of running
events, means I am at home and
I can take stock and think about
opportunities for improving the
event.”
Stewart says she has no
interest in growing the capacity
of Green Man in the foreseeable
future but priorities next year
include the introduction of extra
hygiene measures around the
site, enhanced environmental
sustainability initiatives and the
development of a diversity policy on
the back of the Black Lives Matter
campaign.
“In the same way all managers
at the festival go on a course about
accessibility, making sure people
with disabilities are accommodated
for, we are going to do a similar
thing following the Black Lives
Matter movement. We all need to
learn more about it and involve it in
what we are doing,” she says.
A fresh approach
The experienced festival operator
admits she is concerned about the
potential impact of the Covid-19
crisis on next year’s festival season
but says her team has no choice but
to be positive and press ahead.
The high number of people who
have retained their tickets for
next year’s Green Man suggests
there remains a strong appetite
for festivals but Stewart expects
that in general people are going to
be more selective about the events
they attend.
She says, “People want to get out
and go to festivals but anyone going
into this business has to create
a very unique festival concept,
quality festival experiences and
carry on delivering that year in
year out. If you have an audience
that likes what you do that is great
but you can’t sit on your laurels. It's
relatively easy to start a festival but
incredibly difficult to keep it going
successfully year on year.
“We have to be careful in our
industry that we are not becoming
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