IN THE SPOTLIGHT the best way possible. So, every decision must be very well thought out.
I’ m also really aware of how much the festival means to so many people, and it’ s not just the potential 120,000 live audience, there are millions watching at home and on catch-up, so it really does feel like its all-eyes-on-you when you’ re doing this job, which combined with of all the above can mean it is extremely stressful and challenging at times.
How was your summer season as a whole? It’ s been an insanely busy summer this year but we are super grateful for that. All three of our big annual projects went up a notch in 2025, all at the same time. That was challenging but also very rewarding. Our three big annual projects are Glastonbury, which is always evolving and growing; Silverstone, where we run the Main Stage Arena and Grid Ceremony for the British Grand Prix; and the Mercury Prize British Album of the Year Awards. All of which are televised in some capacity, a couple of them around the world, so that adds the additional layer of pressure.
At Silverstone’ s F1 we were requested to run the whole Main Stage Arena from a site and operations perspective as well as run the technical production. This meant our workload increased dramatically. It’ s been a lot of work but definitely well worth all the effort. To get the feedback from the F1 team that we are up there as one of the best in the world across all the stages they visit across the F1 global circuit really is great to hear.
The Mercury Prize also grew considerably this year and increased to an arena level production while also moving up to Newcastle, which made the job a lot more challenging.
We also usually end up doing a oneoff show we can’ t say no to each year and 2025’ s was Together for Palestine at Wembley Arena. It ended up being a complete beast of a show but a really satisfying one to pull off. Somehow, we delivered it around the two smaller Glastonbury shows we do; Pilton Party and the Abbey Extravaganza, then rolled
straight into band advance for the Mercury Prize which was only three weeks after the Palestine show. This year has taken the lead for the craziest summer so far but I’ m so grateful for all these amazing shows we get the privilege to work on.
You turned around the Together for Palestine Event at Wembley Arena at very short notice, what did that involve? We pulled the job together in only six weeks from the first site visit, where the plans were formed, to the actual show delivery. When I look back, I am not sure how we managed it. With our amazing team we pulled all the tech together, got some amazing donations of kit and great discounts to support the show. We advanced over 35 acts and 40 guest speakers and ran the stage on the day with musical performances and speakers running back-to-back over four-anda-half hours. It felt like climbing Everest after running a marathon. But we did it and it was incredible and we’ re so happy we got to be a part of that show and work with such inspirational people, who all over-delivered to make that event one to remember.
Who or what has played the biggest part in supporting your career progression or inspiring you? I couldn’ t do this without my business partner and husband Jon. He is my main support system and has always encouraged me to keep going and our business simply would not have reached where it is without his support.
I also have to shout out Emily Eavis at Glastonbury who is a firm advocate of women in production roles. Without her support and trust in what we do we wouldn’ t be where we are either.
Every single woman in this industry who is at the top of her game, or working her way to get there, inspire me daily.
If you could change one thing about the events industry overnight, what would it be? I would love to instantly eradicate the deep-routed, systemic misogyny in our industry. It’ s still very prevalent today despite there being lots of women in senior and technical positions.
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