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Milestone moments

Delving deep into the life and times of one of the world’ s leading festival promoters has been a fascinating exercise. From the heady days of helping to build the Cream nightclub empire, and the launch of Creamfields, to redefining what an event at Hyde Park could look like, the story of Jim King’ s 30- year career as a promoter is remarkable. Since AEG launched the European Festival division that he oversees, he has driven it from promoting six festival days to more than 30, and the plan is to maintain that momentum. His latest project is the most sustainable yet, with the LIDO show series in London’ s Victoria Park set to kick start with a batterypowered show by Massive Attack. Over no less than nine pages, we celebrate Jim King’ s 30-year career journey that takes in everything from RockNess to the Rolling Stones.

We also hear from another of the UK’ s most influential festival bosses, Boomtown’ s co-founder Luke Mitchell, for a piece looking at the evolution of immersive events. From page 36 onwards, we explore the world of experiential and immersive shows to establish what the roll-out of new immersive production companies, events and bespoke venues mean for the burgeoning sector.
We also celebrate another 30th birthday in this issue. The AO Arena has hosted no less than 31 million visitors, to events ranging from WWF wrestling to the Dalai Lama, since it was opened in July 1995. AO Arena general manager Gemma Vaughan talks us through the venue’ s recent £ 70m redevelopment, which saw the arena’ s capacity grown from 21,000 to 23,000, and what it means for the future of the facility.
With the summer season building rapidly, it’ s been non-stop at AAA towers, with the team stretched between attending external events and the development of in-house offerings. Many thanks to all the wonderful event professionals who attended the recent Access All Areas 100 lunch at such a busy time for all involved. We are now focused on developing the AAA Summit, with the aim of creating an intimate environment where industry leaders can escape the hubbub for two days to share knowledge and insight for the benefit of all involved. More details coming soon.
In the meantime, enjoy the magazine and I will no doubt see many of you in a venue or field somewhere soon.
Christopher Barrett, Content Director
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@ access _ aa
CONTENT DIRECTOR Christopher Barrett
PORTFOLIO MANAGER Steve Theivendrarajah
MARKETING MANAGER Gus Agostini
PRODUCTION CONTROLLER Sabrina Boucher
CIRCULATION MANAGER Samy Shafeeq
PAGE PRODUCTION The Magazine Production Company
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