News Archives - Festival & Event Management | FestivalManagers.com

New venue – what a great response

7th May 2025 by FestManagers

It was great to read about this new Edinburgh Fringe venue today. Originally conceived in response to the Covid pandemic, it is now a brilliant response to the increasingly expensive … Read more

Sponsors and boycotts – SXSW

15th March 2024 by FestManagers

https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/dozens-of-artists-boycott-sxsw-over-military-sponsorship-israel-ties https://www.theguardian.com/music/2024/mar/06/sxsw-musicians-palestine-weapons-raytheon Interesting to read a number of acts have chosen to boycott SXSW this year du to the festival’s connections to military contractors. It seems to be turning into … Read more

Free festivals and events

31st May 2023 by FestManagers

Large-scale free events have become more common as towns and cities make increasing use of events in their broader placemaking strategies. Here is an article featuring some of the free … Read more

New Online Masterclass Date

18th May 2023 by FestManagers

There is another chance to attend our online Festival and Event Management Masterclass on 12 September. Over the past 10 years the Festival and Event Management Masterclass has established a … Read more

New Date for Iceland

28th April 2021 by FestManagers

As there will still be some travel restrictions in place at our original date, we have changed the date of our Reykjavik Masterclass. We will now be running the course … Read more

A sign of progress

14th April 2021 by FestManagers

It was so good to see this article today. Even though most of the festivals listed will be compromised in some way, it is at least a sign that we … Read more

Festival Insurance Scheme

31st March 2021 by FestManagers

This is such a good move by Denmark. There are so many event organisers here in the UK unable or unwilling to fully commit to a summer programme ‘just in … Read more

Vaccine Passports

30th March 2021 by FestManagers

Good to see progress being made in New York. I’m still a bit concerned about the notion of vaccine passports but if it gets our festivals back up and running … Read more

Can Music Festivals be Safely Planned

26th March 2021 by FestManagers

Interesting piece from @annaholligan at the BBC looking at a two-day experiment in Biddinghuizen near Amsterdam to see if there’s a safe way to allow festivals to restart. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-56462200

Recent Audience Research

28th July 2020 by FestManagers

A new and comprehensive survey from UK based consultancy Indigo looking at: Audience views on missing cultural events, booking tickets during lockdown, returning to live cultural events with social distancing, … Read more

A great place to network with like-minded people!

The course is very welcoming and gives participants the space to be creative and assess their own events from a critical standpoint. Paul is knowledgeable, inspiring and charming, and makes participants feel at ease. It’s also a great place to network with like-minded people!
Reykjavík Fringe

I Got One A-Ha Moment After Another!

You`re sharing so much practical knowledge and brilliant examples, I got one a-ha moment after another! LOTS of useful ideas (and energy!) to bring back home. Hilmarfestivalen, Norway

Reinvent Our Town

Amazing ideas to not only reinvent my events, but also reinvent our town. Rural City of Wangaratta

Empowered and Buzzing With Ideas

An inspiring and informative masterclass session. I left empowered and buzzing with ideas. City of Greater Geelong

I Highly Recommend This Masterclass!

I had the most wonderful experience. It’s great to go to a course that gives you tangible and useful information that you can go away and implement yourself. I highly recommend this Masterclass! Feast Festival

A Brilliantly Practical Course

A brilliantly practical course for anyone in the event management industry, no matter how experienced! Sydney Music Expo

Food for Thought

The masterclass on festivals gave food for thought, presented in an inspiring and refreshing way. CODA Oslo International Dance Festival

Head Full of Ideas and New Energy

I left the masterclass with my head full of ideas and new energy and A Great sense of believing in festivals as the best method to bring People and art/culture together. Billund Kommune

The Ultimate Crash Course in Festival Management!

The course was a vitamin injection in how to manage a festival and also how to evolve it. In short: The ultimate Crash Course in festival management! City of Sodertalje

I Can Highly Recommend It

The course was highly skilled, personal and interesting all the way through! I can highly recommend it – the time spent with Paul is spent really well! Salaam Film & Dialogue

Get the Creative Juices Flowing.

Paul is a wealth of knowledge and fun to listen to. It’s clear he knows his stuff and gave us great mini-exercises to get the creative juices flowing. I can’t wait to bring some of the ideas I generated in is class to my city! Brockville & 1000 Islands Tourism

A Unique and Creative Set of Tools

Paul is an incredibly talented and passionate individual with a wealth of knowledge on festivals and events. Participating in the Festival and Event Management Masterclass has provided me with a unique and creative set of tools and a deeper understanding to improve my abilities as an Event Manager. After completing the two day course I have a greater understanding of how to develop events and how to give them a point of difference from those that are already established. Carclew, South Australia

…inspired me to broaden my mind and widen my parameters

The Festival and Event Management Masterclass 2019: Paul’s knowledge and experience in this area is phenomenal. The information gained from the masterclass has been tremendously helpful and has inspired me to broaden my mind and widen my parameters. The education I received was utilised immediately. I was sending off emails during class to my festival team! The Basin Music Festival

A Variety of Tips and Tools that I can Pass on

As a local government officer providing support for event organisers in our municipality, this course provided me with a variety of tips and tools that I can pass on as well as giving me the opportunity to look more critically at how we as a council support events and what we can do differently or better. Coming from a small rural municipality, this sort of networking is usually hard to come by so it was a nice bonus on top of a great course!, Alpine Shire Council

Now Our Dance Festival Will Be Even Better

I think everyone should take the class a second time. This got me to see how I had implemented some of the suggestions from the last class and how our festival had improved by it. This time around the class gave me tons of new ideas thanks to Paul and the other participants. Now our dance festival will be even better once again. Abundance International Dance Festival

Worked Miracles for Us!

Great, inspirational course. Worked miracles for us! Malmö Eid-Festival

A Brilliant Two Days

Thank you Paul for a brilliant two days! The material delivered was interesting and highly relevant to our industry. Your presentation was full of inspirational ideas on how we can improve and refine our events, which I found very motivating. I am grateful to you for sharing your knowledge and experience with us. Thank you once again! Wine Geelong

Paul’s knowledge is second-to-none…

Affable and highly knowledgeable, Paul Gudgin has condensed 30 years of festivals industry know-how into two days of intensive learning, offering advice on anything from grassroots to strategic aspects of developing festivals, across all areas. Paul’s knowledge is second-to-none making this workshop a must-attend event for festival and arts workers at any stage of their careers.

West Australian Music (WAM)