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AAA Conference & Awards
What : AAA Congerence & Awards Where : EartH ( Evolutionary Arts Hackney ) When : 16 November Images : Liliana Durdevic , Graham Brown
The Access All Areas Conference & Awards saw 16 award winners crowned on stage , including Glastonbury Festival , The O2 Arena and Eurovision 2023 , at EartH ( Evolutionary Arts Hackney ) on 16 November .
Along with the main categories , winners of two new awards were announced on the day . The first Editor ’ s Award recognised the pioneering sustainability work shown by Glastonbury Festival , including it being powered by renewable energy for the first time this year .
After collecting the award on stage , Glastonbury Festival co-organiser Emily Eavis said , “ We ’ re trying to improve year on year . We have little missions every year , and because of the size of the event it takes a while to reach those goals .
“ Everyone is talking , sharing ideas and wanting to move forward . It feels like there ’ s a lot of [ sustainability ] progress being made in the industry .”
The awards ceremony also saw the Association of Independent Festivals ( AIF ) introduce the First Minister For Festivals award , which went to Giles Watling MP to celebrate his work that has contributed to the success of the festival sector in the past twelve months . The award was presented by AIF CEO John Rostron .
The awards , hosted by comedian
Emmanuel Sobuni , also celebrated winners such as We Organise Chaos , Dreamland Margate , Rock ‘ N ’ Roll Circus and the UCI Cycling World Championships .
Before the awards took place , the conference included a live AAA Backstage podcast recording with legendary UK concert promoter Harvey Goldsmith CBE . His interview covered everything from 1960s psychedelic misadventures with Peter Fonder to the forthcoming Live Aid musical , as well as a call to support the grassroots sector and a fervent criticism of the secondary ticketing market .
The conference panels focused on three key topics ; developing industry talent , tackling disturbing crowd behavioural trends , and how to address a post-pandemic reluctance among young people to attend events as costs rise .
On the panel discussing the next generation of event professionals , AEG Presents promoter Kara Harris said , “ Don ’ t always look to network up , you can always network amongst your peers . Often we look to senior people but there ’ s so much to learn from people of a similar age .”
Other speakers at the event included Continental Drifts MD Chris ‘ Tofu ’ MacMeikan MBE , Black Deer Festival co-founder Gill Tee and LIVE CEO Jon Collins .
MacMeikan said , “[ The industry ] is a many headed beast . It takes a while to work out what you ’ re passionate in , but don ’ t be put off . Keep going for what you love , eventually you ’ ll get there .”
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