INDUSTRY TO RALLY AT THE UK FESTIVAL CONFERENCE IN THE WAKE OF A CHALLENGING YEAR - CONFERENCE PROGRAMME ANNOUNCED 

UK Festival Awards shortlists revealed after a record number of over half a million votes are cast 

Challenges such as extreme weather, financial losses and enegry efficiency will be firm fixtures on the agenda for this year's UK Festival Conference 2012 where industry professionals are set to gather on Monday 3rd December at The Roundhouse, North London. Panels featuring veteran industry figureheads alongside up-and-coming, young promoters will provide an opportunity for the industry to convene and discuss one of the toughest years on record for UK festivals, whilst the evening's awards presentation will provide a more positive look at what was still a successful and music-filled summer for many. Shortlists for categories such as Best Major Festival, Best Dance Festival and Headline Performance of the year have been revealed today. See below for a full run down of the 2012 shortlists 

From giant majors such as Download, V Festival and Bestival, to grass roots independents including Beautiful Days and Kendal Calling, many have enjoyed spectacularly successful editions. 2012 saw the largest number of new festivals entering the market for many years, plus, with overall ticket sales up on last year, one certainty the industry can rely on right now is that the British public’s appetite and passion for music festivals shows no sign of diminishing – it is only growing. 

However, as has been widely reported, the festival market had a rocky ride in 2012, exactly why has been much-debated but still to be defined. The UK Festival Conference is the opportunity for the festival industry  to put summer 2012 under the microscope, scrutinise what has happened thoroughly and learn some valuable lessons that will help to ensure the success of the 2013 festival season.  

Steve Jenner, Festival Awards co-founder comments: “The phenomenal surge of public votes cast in this year’s awards proves that the public’s passion for Britain’s music festivals has never been greater. The shortlists they have produced are a very positive reflection of the scale, diversity, colour and creativity that makes the UK festival landscape so unique and special”.  

Conference tickets from £109 and awards tickets from £40 are being handled by official ticketing partner Eventbrite, available to order now festivalconference.com

UK FESTIVAL CONFERENCE 2012 PANEL DISCUSSION PROGRAMME

HOW TO CAPTURE AND RETAIN AN AUDIENCE:

The black art of amassing an audience whose loyalties lie with your festival brand over your line-up. 

Once upon a time, if you booked them, they would come. Nowadays, whether due to too many festivals, too few headliners or rocketing customer expectations, filling up your fields with festival-goers has become a much more complex and high-maintenance endeavour that seemingly requires finding and connecting with a niche audience at a telepathic level. Get it right and you can achieve the Holy Grail in building a festival brand that trades successfully on its own name before its line-up. Get it wrong and it could be game over. Or you could just spend millions on artists and hope that there’s enough of something for everyone. But really, what’s the trick? 

Chair:  Henry Erskine Crumb (Event.ly)      

Panelists: Paul Glossop (V Festival), Jessica Koravos (Eskimo), James Scarlett (2000Trees), Stephen O’Reilly (Mobile Roadie) Brad Thompson (SBH Events) 

ACCESSIBILITY:

ABLE2UK:

Howard Thorpe, founder, addresses today’s key festival accessibility issues from booking to attending.  

THE AIF PRESENTS:

How to maintain a positive experience for the artists, generate value and feel-good factor for your acts without a big budget. 

Outside of the big festivals some ‘new’ artists are playing for free or minimal expenses – often on small stages to small audiences. It should be important to maintain their positivity and ‘feel good’ factor. We all need the skill to make value without big budgets. The Independents discuss how. 

Partner:  AIF

Panelists: Rob Da Bank (Bestival, Radio 1, AIF) Lee Denny (LeeFest) Dutch Van Spall (Folk On The Water)+ more TBC 

THE GREEN ALLIANCE:

'The Power behind Festivals' 

Exclusively presenting the findings of this summer’s research - the Powerful Thinking project and officially launching an industry toolkit for promoting energy efficiency and renewable power solutions. Participating festivals include Camp Bestival. Reading, Latitude, Shambala, Sunrise and others; power companies (e.g. Agrekko, Firefly, MIDAS, Innovation), and DeMontford University as research partner, and early signs suggest the findings will be invaluable to promoters looking to innovate, reduce carbon, and even reduce fuel bills!

THE NEW BOTTOM LINE:

The festival economy is reformatting. How to make a lot of money from new and mutating revenue streams.

The festival economy is reformatting. The traditional, dependable revenue lines of ticketing, sponsorship and merchandise are themselves rapidly mutating. Lucrative new income streams like digital IP rights, cashless payment uplifts, mobile apps and online advertising are gaining prominence on the festival P&L sheet. The modern-day promoter needs to be a jack of many new high-tech trades. This panel looks at the new opportunities to make money in the festival market, and how to most effectively leverage your festival brand to capitalise on them. 

Chair: Chris McCormick (BluePeg) Jez Patterson (Sportsvision) Renaud Visage (EventBrite)+ more TBC

WHEN LIGHTNING STRIKES:

Bad weather dealt heavy blows this year. How to plan for the worst and limit the fall-out when it happens.

Bad weather – the enduring nemesis of the festival industry – has dealt some heavy blows this summer. To reduce its impact in future and limit damage when it does happen, this session looks at the various challenges faced in order to plan for the worst weather, manage on site emergencies and evacuation procedures; dealing with artists whose appearances are affected as well as the inevitable PR, legal and contractual issues arising post-event.   

Panelists:  Zac Fox (Kilimanjaro Live), Paul Twomey (Robertson Taylor), Ben Challis (Glastonbury), Prof. Chris Kemp (Crowd & Safety Management expert) Suzanne Bull (Attitude Is Everything) Tim Roberts (Event Safety Shop) 

THE FESTIVALS EMERGENCY BOARD MEETING:

in association with IQ MagazineTough times, cancellations, financial losses, brutal weather. Where do we go from here? 

After one of the most challenging summers ever for European festivals, where scores of events were cancelled and countless others ran up substantial financial losses, IQ editor Gordon Masson chairs an emergency board meeting with key players in the live music industry to discuss how – or if –the outdoors business can prevent a similar situation arising in 2013 and beyond. 

Kilimanjaro Live managing director Stuart Galbraith, who had to cancel his UK edition of the Sonisphere festival this year but enjoyed varying success elsewhere in Europe, has confirmed his participation in the Emergency Board Meeting, while other board members will be announced closer to the conference date.

Partner:  IQ

Chair:  Gordon Masson

Panelists:  Stuart Galbraith (Kilimanjaro Live)+ more TBC

2012 Awards shortlists: