Standon Calling faced several last-minute challenges
to pay them ,” says Trenchard . “ We agreed that if we had to pull the event before 12 July the deposits paid would roll over to 2022 . That was key ; having received the deposits , suppliers agreed they were not going to charge us until two weeks before the event .”
He says Standon Calling ’ s relatively small scale also proved helpful . “ Our build is only two-and-a-half weeks , so that was an advantage over larger festivals . It meant we were able to delay making a decision on whether to go ahead until the eve of going onsite to start the build , thanks to the flexibility of our suppliers .”
Among the key team that brought Standon Calling to life were Clare Goodchild and Tom Wilkinson of production company We Organise Chaos . Trenchard says they worked to overcome challenges including the last-minute replacement of crew catering and power suppliers .
“ Clare and Tom were fantastic ,” says Trenchard . “ I am indebted to them for essentially making the event happen . Clare must have called about 80 crew catering companies before finding one that was able to come in .”
With Kendall Calling cancelled , Standon Calling was able to poach the festival ’ s power supplier at short notice . Another advantage was that the festival ’ s team and contractors were not impacted by the ‘ pingdemic ’.
“ We had a few among our audience pinged , but not suppliers – they were making sure they were wearing masks and had been strictly following the guidelines , so I think that helped ,” says Trenchard .
Having enjoyed glorious sunshine since the start , the event was hit by a biblical rainstorm on the Sunday afternoon that saw 110mm of rain fall in a few hours . Just before 5pm , during Jake Bugg ’ s set , the audience was evacuated from the main stage area due to a risk of lightning . Standon Calling was then paused for four hours before organisers announced it was unsafe to resume . It meant acts including Primal Scream , De La Soul , Craig David and Sophie Ellis-Bextor were unable to perform .
Trenchard says that the festival was covered by insurance and is offering Sunday ticketholders a 75 % refund : “ Thankfully , it happened on the Sunday evening – it would have been much more of a challenge financially if it had happened earlier in the course of the festival , so I ’ m grateful for that .
“ Ticketholders have been really supportive and none of the weekend ticket holders are asking for a refund , it seems they are extremely supportive of the decision to cancel and they had a great time .
“ I am delighted that we managed to stage the show . We had three-and-a-half days of incredible atmosphere , performances and a real sense of achievement and positivity .”
Tramlines Having extended the daily audience capacity from 33,000 to 40,000 this year , Superstruct Entertainment-owned Tramlines was not only one of the year ’ s first-full-capacity festivals , it was the biggest in the Sheffield event ’ s history – which started life as a venue-based urban festival before moving to Hillsborough Park in 2018 . It was sold by radio giant Global to Superstruct in April the following year .
Founded by a group of bar and venue owners in 2009 , Tramlines has evolved considerably over the years but the pandemic brought unprecedented challenges . Operations director Timm Cleasby says that without the certainty that being part of the ERP brought , Tramlines would not have gone ahead .
With ERP confirmation coming just five weeks prior to the gates opening , the Tramlines team had to work fast .
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