WINTER | FEATURE
Wake The Tiger
Amy Farrant Graham MacVoy
Experience , produced by BBC Studios , Moon Eye Productions and Live Nation , has proven so successful that its run has been extended to August . It has also been rolled out at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre in Australia . The 360 ° audio-visual experience features footage from the BBC Studios TV series Seven Worlds , One Planet , featuring narration from Sir David Attenborough .
“ We thought let ’ s build a venue ourselves so we can build it to spec and do it sustainably ,” says Moon Eye Productions chief marketing officer Amy Farrant . “ The great thing about the London venue is that it ’ s completely demountable . Everything has a story beyond the life of the building as it stands today . We could pop it up anywhere , in another territory , if we wanted to .”
Photo : Andre Pattenden
In line with the show ’ s content , a focus on sustainability has seen the building and its contents created using recyclable materials , while LED lighting is powered solely by renewable energy and an outdoor space includes plants and insect houses with the aim of encouraging biodiversity .
Farrant , who has previously worked for companies such as Live Nation and AEG Live , says the BBC Earth Experience has seen a flurry of interest from promoters around the world asking about the show . “ There ’ s an appetite to find the next home for it ,” she says .
While the BBC Earth Experience focuses on real-world wonders , the Wake The Tiger ‘ amazement park ’, produced by the team behind Boomtown Fair , instead transports attendees into an entirely new world called Meridia , which involves 27 imaginatively designed artistic environments .
Produced by a team including Boomtown site and operations manager Graham MacVoy and the festival ’ s cofounders and directors Lak Mitchell and Chris Rutherford , Wake The Tiger is to be expanded on the b ack of 250,000 tickets having been sold since it was opened at Boomtown ’ s Bristol HQ in July 2022 .
“ It ’ s an incredibly different environment from the festival sector ,” says MacVoy . “ Unlike festivals , which build up and then fall quiet , this is relentless all the time in peaks and troughs . You ’ re dealing with staff and P & L every day .
“ With something that ’ s permanent , you need all your money up front . Festival organisers can , maybe , gamble if they ’ ve got enough cash flow but you can ’ t do that with a permanent attraction , you need X amount up front to build it and then the tickets come later . It ’ s capex rather than temporary hire equipment . Once you ’ ve got that permanent set up , it ’ s about how you keep it fresh
“ You think building a festival is tough ? Try building a visitor attraction in six months from scratch .”
There may be no shortages of challenges involved but with many major IP owners showing an interest in bringing their brands to life with familyfocused exhibitions , it is little surprise that UK concert and festival promoters are looking to immerse themselves in this area .
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