FAR AND BEYOND
management , and they ' d start off doing accreditation in the summer and then do a year in the Live Nation offices . At that point I had finished university with a degree in archaeology , which wasn ’ t much use . I can remember the moment I was walking through the dust of Download when John pulled his car up right next to me and called through the window , ‘ What are you doing after this ? Do you want to stay on and do the year because the student that we ' ve got just hasn ' t worked out ’. I was delighted . After Download I went on tour with Madonna , and I did the staging tours with John ' s operations team . I was meant to stay for a year at Live Nation and ended up staying for eight . I grew up there , and learned everything from working with John and being at that company .”
“ At Live Nation we formed a great team , with some amazing people ,” says Probyn . “ Jess was absolutely a key part of that team and looking at what she went on to do made me enormously proud . I have always followed FAB ’ s progress , and so when the opportunity came along to get involved it made perfect sense .”
For Probyn , joining FAB is something of a homecoming for the hugely experienced live events professional , but while it will see him return to work on festivals including Download and Creamfields , there are also numerous new projects in the pipeline . Among them is the launch of Come Together ; a 45,000-capacity festival in Newcastle promoted by TEG Europe that is billed as the ‘ largest outdoor music event the North East has ever seen ’.
While Come Together is a new event , for Shields and Probyn it is familiar ground due to them having worked with TEG Europe MD Toby Leighton-Pope when he was at Live Nation .
Both Probyn and Shields express confidence about the future of the UK festival market despite the many events that have been forced to close in the past couple of years , largely on the back of costs having risen by around 30 % since 2019 .
“ WE ’ VE COME FULL CIRCLE . IT ' S A REALLY POSITIVE THING FOR FAB .”
– JESS SHIELDS
“ I really hope it has got to the point where the festival market is going to settle again ,” says Probyn . “ People still see UK festivals as value for money , and UK festivals still deliver a huge amount to the local economy . It ’ s such an important industry . I feel like we ' re coming to a period now where it will start to settle a little , ahead of a couple of years of growth .”
Says Shields , “ We ' ve lost a lot of really cool independent events this year . My hope is that the ones that are left can be more robust and stand up against the
John Probyn and Jess Shields
market . Maybe having fewer events , events that can stand up against the times , seems sensible . It is exciting to see some of these reputable new events coming through , especially things like Come Together in Newcastle City centre , which has never had an event of that scale .”
Live Nation is one of FAB ’ s biggest clients , but Shields says the company is also working with independent festival promoters and stretching beyond music into areas including brand activations and sport .
“ Music is definitely our strength and what people know John and I for , but we ' ve got some brilliant people in the team at FAB who aren ' t from that background , and who bring a whole new dynamic ,” she says .
While continuing to focus heavily on UK expansion and the work with Live Nation in the UK and Middle East , Shields says a major goal is to launch FAB in Asia : “ We are looking to do a similar model to the one in the Middle East , and bring those UK standards to Asia . I think that will be a really exciting challenge for us .
“ John and I have been friends for many years and it ’ s great to be working with him again . We ’ ve come full circle , it ' s a really positive thing for FAB , and we ' ve got some really exciting projects in the pipeline for next year .”
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