5th August 2021
“It was quite amazing and the feedback from customers has been wonderful” said Festival Director Emma Holling. “An overwhelming sense that the team have managed to pull of something quite special and we’ve received a lot of thanks from workers who have been able to practice their trade or musicians able to perform in front of an audience, for a very long time. Our...
5th August 2021
AFO member WICKHAM FESTIVAL in Hants pulls out all the stops to get the show open 5th August, on time. Covid safe. 3am Wednesday morning 4/8/21 and their amazing Wickham Festival Crew headed by Site Manager Richard Charidgewere working through the night to get everything ready for when they open today "I owe them hugely. They're brilliant!" said Festival Director Peter Cheg...
28th June 2021
Beardy Festival 2021 – A Successful Socially Distanced Festival! You might think that it would be impossible to stage a socially distanced outdoor festival where attendees enjoy themselves as much as they would in ‘normal’ conditions and feel totally safe at the same time – but Beardy Festival 2021 has pulled it off…again! Beardy Folk Festival is an expertl...
19th March 2021
A bit of good news from the eat:Festivals team Local event organisers eat:Festivals are celebrating after being awarded the top spot at the Bristol, Bath and Somerset Tourism Awards on Thursday afternoon. The virtual awards event brought together over 50 businesses to celebrate the best of the region. eat:Portishead food & drink festival was awarded Gold in the To...
8th February 2021
Sustainable practises: A fine example from FolkEast In Suffolk we have a council backed organisation called the Suffolk Carbon Charter which is a great way to measure the progress we make each year. We were awarded the Silver Charter in 2014 and in 2018 we were promoted to Gold for showing an improvement each year. We set out from the start with FolkEast to have as lower carbon footprint ...
8th December 2020
For attractions (read festivals), then sell tickets now The following update is guidance on VAT reduction, extension and yes, it does cover festivals. The guidance on reduced VAT for hospitality, holiday accommodation and attractions has been updated to reflect the extension in VAT reduction to 5% until 31 March 2021 for certain supplies relating to hospitality, hotel and holiday accommodati...
21st October 2020
For those of you who have had the experience of a Larmer Tree festival you will be very sad to hear that although 2020 was clearly never going to happen, the organisers have decided that 2021 will also be put on the backburner. Clearly some re-thinking of how the festival is managed and run is going on down there on the Wiltshire/Dorset border. To that end Lucy Babb, the General Manager o...
21st October 2020
Join the movement and let's create a sustainable industry together! For more info visit https://www.vision2025.org.uk/ ...
17th October 2020
Background Following the last minute cancellation of the Southampton Boat Show in September – a smaller version of the normal event – by Southampton City Council, the Forum sought advice from a leading barrister who specialises in licence issues, Phillip Kolvin QC. The following is a brief outline of his advice in relation to the use of Regulation 5(1) of The Health Protection (C...
1st October 2020
The AFO is pleased to be supporting Major Events International help our industry get back on its feet. MEI are running a seminal event on 2nd December to help the industry navigate the transition to whatever the new normal may look like. Sports event organisers, Festivals, Air Shows and other events will, for the first time ever, come together to discuss the crisis we face and possible tactical...
22nd September 2020
There have been several Members Online Meetings since the Covid attack and all attended by over 20 members. The General Secretary gives a great deal of news and information of what is going on in the wider events world and members have the opportunity to talk about the ups and downs of having to cancel their festival and more positively, talk about how they are planning 2021 All members are ...
