“ The perception sometimes is that we call up some artists and get stages delivered and hey presto we have a festival ,” she says . “[ The public doesn ’ t ] realise what blood , sweat , tears and money goes into the process . They have documentaries on all the catastrophes , with Woodstock and Fyre Festival , but what about all the amazing ones ?”
Respect due There could hardly have been a clearer demonstration of the capability of the UK ’ s world-leading events industry than Operation London Bridge ; the series of ceremonies and processions following HM Queen Elizabeth II death on 8 September .
Among the organisations involved were Arcadis , the Greater London Authority ( GLA ), event production agency LS Events , and numerous supply chain partners including the SES Group , WM Events , Media Structures , Star Live , EAS , The Flag Consultancy , PTL , PB Global and Sunbelt .
LS Events worked with the GLA as the central event management agency tasked with delivering the overarching event management plan of the Queen ’ s state funeral . “ It was an honour and privilege we will simply never forget ,” says senior project manager Jess Noakes .
Other major landmarks for the company last year included working with AEG Presents to extend BST Hyde Park from two weekends to
Jess Noakes
three , and increasing the capacity at All Points East by 5,000 to 50,000 . It also welcomed new events into the portfolio including the Made In Korea festival , which was billed as “ the biggest Europe outdoor K-pop festival ever ”. This year will see LS Events extend its focus on sporting events , having recently grown its work with the ABB FIA Formula E World Championship into two new countries .
With the impact of inflation and continued price increases across he supply chain being inescapable in 2023 , Noakes says LS Events is looking to innovate in areas where it is able to mitigate issues such as fuel price increases by introducing new , sustainable , business practices : “ We have trialled the use of electric vehicles on site across our events and continue to review our use of power on site , striving to use on-demand to avoid waste wherever possible . We will continue to work closely with A Greener Festival to seek out solutions to the issues we face as an industry ,
The team behind Operation
London Bridge sharing best practice across our network of suppliers and stakeholders during these challenging times .”
Sporting achievement It is not just the live music sector that saw huge successes in 2022 . Among the many landmark sports events to prove triumphant last year were Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games , the Women ’ s Euros – which saw a record crowd of 87,192 attend the final – and The Open , which attracted a record attendance of 292,000 at The R & A .
Mark Casey , who was appointed European Tour head of tournament business in April last year , is riding a wave of huge demand for its golf events internationally .
“ We ’ ve had record crowds ; we ’ ve sold out more days than ever before . The challenges have obviously been around people being not used to running events after two years of the pandemic , and the industry having lost suppliers and talented people , but as a business 2022 was our best year yet ,” he says .
In September , the Ryder Cup will be staged in Italy for the first time . Despite the economic headwinds , Casey says the reception from the public has been hugely positive : “ Tickets are well and truly oversubscribed , and corporate packages are almost sold out . Our bigger events are certainly getting bigger and more popular . There is no doubt as we come into 2023 budgets will be tighter – we need to be very focused on it and be aware that price and value for money , when people come on site , is going to be really important .”
Casey says the Ryder Cup budget projects were all signed off well before inflation reached anything like the levels seen in 2022 , which has meant working very closely with suppliers to make sure the event goes ahead in the manner expected and required .
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