CONTENTS
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29
18
REGULARS
6 Bigger Picture
With Glastonbury taking a fallow year, the mantle of the UK’ s biggest music festival in 2026 was passed to Download.
8 Global Snapshot
An overview of landmark live entertainment industry developments worldwide.
54 In The Spotlight
57 Festivals co-founder Cass Randolph, who oversees events including the Greenwich Comedy Festival and Bristol Comedy Garden, charts her fun-filled career path.
FEATURES
18 Twenty years of Latitude Festival
Key figures including the festival’ s founder Melvin Benn and arts programmer Kirsty Taylor discuss developments in delivering the uniquely positioned event.
26 Laver Cup’ s return to London
Laver Cup CEO Steve Zacks on what’ s involved in bringing the complex production, which takes 450 crew members nine days to build, to The O2.
29 Royal Ascot’ s balancing act
We explore how Ascot’ s management team has collaborated with key suppliers to balance Royal Ascot’ s heritage with a fresh approach that made an impressive impact on this year’ s event.
34 Why Shambala became employee owned
Shambala co-founder Chris Johnson and new Employee Ownership Trust chair Tom Berry tell us how and why the it became the first UK’ s festival
to be employee owned. 37 SC Productions turns 20
SCP’ s Sarah Hemsley-Cole and Jake Warriner are joined by key collaborators as they reflect on the company’ s two decades of success.
40 LIVE issues at EPS
LIVE CEO Jon Collins outlines the key issues the umbrella organisation is working on and what is likely to be explored on its inaugural LIVE Lounge stage at the Event Production Show.
45 Time for SupaJam
SupaJam’ s founders, supporters and students discuss what’ s next for the charitable enterprise that has grown from a basement project to a
collection of colleges.
49 Ben Turner- From AIF to IMS
Ben Turner discusses his journey in the electronic music industry, from co-founding the Association of Independent Festivals, the International Music Summit, and getting Bestival off the ground to helping to extend the Ibiza clubbing season.
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