FEATURE
With just three months and no funding to build a launch show , Twenties Fest ’ s team of three show managers were already up against it . Then came the train strikes .
For event and partnership manager , Olivia Preston-Lee , who works alongside founder Gaby Mendes and creative producer Georgia Slater , the launch of Twenties Fest was a baptism of fire for someone working on their first event straight out of university .
Despite several brands , including the event ’ s biggest partner withdrawing their support at the last minute due to the strikes , Preston- Lee says the show was a success in its first year . The University of Liverpool Master ’ s student says “ absolutely everything we ’ ve got ” went into the planning of the October event . In just 90 days an empty site map became filled with over 20 brands , 50 speakers and three stages of back-to-back sessions for six hours at Liverpool ’ s 2,500sqm venue Camp and Furnace .
The event , billed as “ the UK ’ s biggest event for figuring your s *** out ”, is the birthchild of Mendes ’ podcast , Talk Twenties , which covers everything about life in your 20s .
“ We defied the odds which were hugely stacked against us ,” says Preston-Lee . “ Finances and people are what make or break you as an event , so it ’ s no joke that we were up against it with no funding and train strikes .”
She describes the attendees of the event as “ saviours ”, some of whom offered to
Twenties Fest was a baptism of fire for someone working on their first event straight out of university
Building a show in 90 days
Joe Gallop hears from the women behind Twenties Fest on how a team of three built the show from scratch with no funding in just three months , before being hit by train strikes
Gaby Mendes
car-share in the torrential rain to help those who were otherwise unable to travel .
To counteract some of the additional travel expenses , the team offered a halfprice ticket code for those
Olivia Preston-Lee
affected . This was on the back of Mendes , a former event operations manager at Rapid News Group , launching a paywhat-you-can scheme for her audience in response to the cost-of-living crisis .
Challenges On the day of the event , an issue with the in-house caterer meant Preston-Lee and the team had to think on their feet : “ An hour in , someone came up to me and said we had no food . I was worried that people were going to leave for the Baltic Market over the road and not come back . That was a real practical issue , but within about an hour there was someone serving food and we got it sorted .”
Of course , there were also challenges pre-event . While it was all hands on deck for the Twenties Fest team throughout the summer , they may have picked the worst possible time to launch with many people on holiday .
“ Partnerships are not something that just happens in two days ,” she says . “ We had issues getting hold of people as well as having little time to nurture relationships
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