‘We all know how tough it can be to work in the world of large-scale festival production. It’s incestuous (though not like that): everyone knows each other, and it’s extremely competitive for shows and roles. But what if we use this to our advantage?’
In the 200th (!!!) edition of StandOut Magazine, The Fair‘s Production Director Millie Devereux, explains why, if festival producers don’t collaborate, there’ll be few festivals left to fight for…
Huge thanks to Caroline Clift and the team for including this special piece. You can read a snippet below, and the rest on the StandOut Magazine website…
We all know how tough it can be to work in the world of large-scale festival production.
It’s incestuous (though not like that): everyone knows each other, and it’s extremely competitive for shows and roles. But what if we use this to our advantage?
We all hear each other’s horror stories, but our reactions are never malicious. Instead, when we hear about a disaster on another show, our immediate reaction is: ‘That sounds horrendous. How did they deal with that?’
We all have these questions but rarely find the answers, and these answers could provide the knowledge to prevent such problems from reoccurring.
The launch of the Event Production Network (EPN) at Event Buyers Live was a great way to kickstart these conversations. It invited festival production agencies to meet in person and talk openly to create better standards across our industry. I’ve had many 1-2-1 catch-ups with agency directors, but a group of us meeting in one space—though unusual at first—upon reflection made complete sense.
It’s been on my mind in the season’s build-up, and I think there are five reasons why communicating as competitors could be a game-changer.
Read the rest in the latest issue of StandOut Magazine.
