Access All AreasLeading and highly experienced independent festival operator Fiona Stewart (pictured) was recognised today, 5 December, at the Access All Areas Awards for her hugely significant contribution to the festival industry.
The owner of the Green Man Festival since 2006, Fiona Stewart has built the event, in the valleys of the Black Mountains in Wales, into a 25,000-capacity event that has long proven to be one of the world’s best loved, unique, and successful festivals.
One of very few remaining large-scale independent festivals, Green Man’s 2025 edition sold out in less than an hour, with the lineup yet to be announced.
Stewart has advised Government for more than 30 years, more recently as chair of the Business Group advising the fulfilment of the UK and Welsh Governments’ £120 million Mid Wales Growth Scheme. Her specialism in the psychology of crowd behaviour has been used in developing the legislation that led to the formation of the 2003 Event License, and for the British Council and Foreign Office in assessing the safety of the newly emerging touring destinations in China, Eastern Europe, South America and India from the early noughties. And more recently developing economic and cultural engagement opportunities in Cuba and Kyrgyzstan. In 2001, Stewart developed the Festival Control Method which was used for the first time at The Big Chill and is now used throughout the festival industry.
Stewart collected the award in front of an audience of festival industry peers at the Access All Areas Awards at Indigo at The O2. The Editor’s Award was launched at the 2023 edition of the event, with Glastonbury Festival’s Emily Eavis becoming its first recipient.
Access All Areas content director Christopher Barrett said, “Fiona Stewart is a festival industry pioneer, someone who has been hugely influential while steadfastly sticking to her principles and creative vision as an independent operator. Since taking on the management of the Big Chill in 2001 and launching the Control Method, Fiona not only paved the way for the rise of boutique festivals but safer events internationally.
“Fiona’s undiminished spirit of creativity and innovation has seen her build Green Man Festival into one of the world’s most successful festivals. A strikingly unique event, Green Man is one of the very few major festivals to remain truly independent. When considering who should win the Editor’s Award, Fiona came instantly to mind – she is in a field of her own.”
