March/April 2022

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EVENTS the live music stage, and the avid shoppers will visit all 200+ exhibitors until they drop! We are advocates of supporting local so we always reach out to our community if we’re looking for something new. We’ve built up a brilliant network of talent over the years. What provisions do you make for power, lights and sound? We have a nightmare with power costs, the same as most people, and have a very limited supply onto festival sites which we supplement with generators. The red diesel ban is a real problem, as that is an unbudgeted extra cost that is going to really affect our clients and visitors as we pass this cost on further down the line. For lighting and sound, we have worked with ProAudio for a number of years and they’ve always brought excellent solutions to the table. We love the projected lighting installations we do in the beer tent at Shropshire Oktoberfest where we work with artist Andy McKeown. They are a much talked about dimension. Lighting is often under used but we have done some interesting venues and the lighting has really brought them to life. How do you manage admissions and visitor safety? We now have a bespoke ticketing system as the majority of visitors have moved to buying tickets in advance online. One of our core members of the team, Gemma, is dedicated to admissions throughout the event – troubleshooting issues, heading up customer service and ensuring our gates are running efficiently. Our security team bag searches all visitors on entry and we work with an external health and safety company, Online Safety Solutions, who ensure our sites are the safest they can be. How did you cope during 2020 and 2021? As we were unable to hold any of “FOR LIGHTING AND SOUND, WE HAVE WORKED WITH PROAUDIO FOR A NUMBER OF YEARS AND THEY’VE ALWAYS BROUGHT EXCELLENT SOLUTIONS TO THE TABLE” our Shropshire Festivals in 2020, we launched the Shropshire Drive-in. We organised seven separate drive-in events with comedy, live music and performance, with visitors each getting their own area to safely park up and enjoy a show. Within a month of conceiving the idea we had launched the tickets on a brand new website and about a month later we were standing in the middle of a grassy field at the first sold out event. We entertained over 8,000 people during July 2020! The events were covered by every local news outlet, featured in The Telegraph and Metro, and even recorded and broadcast on BBC Breakfast! We also launched a new hamper business during the pandemic. There are hundreds of small local food and drink businesses that have been unable to exhibit at our annual festivals, so we decided to bring those businesses together in a brand-new way, diversifying to launch the Shropshire Hamper Company, and the response was amazing! In fact, our suppliers reported selling more through the hampers than they normally would at our food festival. We will continue to run the hamper business, which keeps us busy in between events. In December 2020 we were behind what could have been the biggest national event of the year – Carols on the Doorstep! Our idea to get the people of Shropshire singing carols in unison went national, with BBC radio stations signing up to broadcast the backing music. We were filmed for BBC Breakfast and the One Show. It was incredible to unite isolated communities across towns and rural areas to spread some festive cheer. We held Doorstep Carols for a second year last Christmas, uniting the nation in song. We simultaneously had people singing from choirs in Trafalgar Square to Great Ormond Street Hospital and from cathedrals to street parties, all in the name of boosting community spirit and combatting social isolation. The government’s Culture Recovery Fund enabled us to plan and hold Shrewsbury Food Festival in 2021, albeit three months later than usual. What ground protection do you use for cars and footfall? We don’t need ground protection for Shrewsbury Food Festival as the weather is always great. For Shropshire Oktoberfest we have a real problem as it always rains, so we now own our own ground matting to combat this cost and also to limit the damage done by the cherry pickers as they hang the lights etc. How do you publicise the event? We have our own in-house marketing team – Shropshire ThinkTank. They market with a mix of social media, email marketing and press work. We have promotional leaflets distributed to high footfall areas throughout the year and hang banners and signs around the town ahead of the event. What additional challenges have you faced? We have the same challenges as everyone else – navigating through Covid and incurring bigger costs on everything, which we will have to pass on to visitors who are battling a cost-of-living crisis themselves. It hasn’t been an easy couple of years! How have you financed the event? We have sponsorship packages for every event – from sponsoring our re-usable beer cups through to the main stage. I wholeheartedly believe it is an incredible way to boost brand awareness and reposition how consumers view brands. We are always open to sponsorship requests! What are your plans for next year? We will be holding events throughout the year – Shropshire Kids Festival, Shropshire Tasty Trail (our walk and eat event), Shropshire Party at the Quarry Park, Shrewsbury Food Festival, Shropshire Oktoberfest and a host of
EVENTS ADDRESS BOOK corporate events. We are also consulting on some amazing projects – follow Shropshire Festivals on Facebook and Instagram to keep up to date! What advice could you give to someone coming into the outdoor event industry? It’s not for everyone as it’s incredibly physically and mentally demanding, but when the sun is shining and you have 30,000 happy visitors eating and drinking from small local food and drink producers and making amazing memories, it makes it all worthwhile. It is also very different from smaller indoor events; it might seem obvious but if you’re used to running indoor weddings then be warned this is a very different ball game! MARQUEES Burgoynes www.burgoynes-marquees.co.uk Jacksons www.jacksonsmarquees.co.uk Shropshire Tipi Hire www.facebook.com/shropshiretipi Tents and Marquees www.tentsandmarquees.com STAGES ProAudio Services www.proaudioservices.co.uk LIGHTING Andy McKeown, Wild Strawberry www.wildstrawberry.com HEAT & POWER Barry Hamer Electricians Cool Services www.coolservices.co.uk TOILETS Space Mobiles www.spacemobiles.co.uk Wrekin Conveniences www.wrekinloos.co.uk SECURITY Online Safety Solutions www.online-safetysolutions.co.uk ProSecure www.pro-secureltd.co.uk INSURANCE Covermarque www.covermarque.com Henshalls www.henshalls.com DETAILS 25-26 June Quarry Park Shrewsbury Shropshire SY1 1JA www.shrewsburyfoodfestival.co.uk Create a Greener Event Branded Reusable Cups | Plates | Bowls • Sales • Serviced • Rental Solutions 01278 238 390 info@green-goblet.com www.green-goblet.com WWW.OPENAIRBUSINESS.COM 51
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