Christopher BarrettA highly experienced technical production director and stage manager whose many roles include being Glastonbury Festival’s head of production, Emma Reynolds-Taylor’s remarkable career path in live events began taking shape after she found inspiration at Monsters of Rock.
What was the first major live event that you attended, and did it have a lasting impact?
The first major gig I went to was Bon Jovi when I was 14. It was on a school night and I remember feeling pretty cool that I was tired in class the next day from the late night. Not long after, I went to Monsters of Rock Festival at Donnington Racetrack and saw a female tech running cables on stage and that’s when I knew it was possible for women to have those sorts of jobs. I wish I knew who she was so I could thank her for being a real trail blazer.
Going to Reading festival soon followed and then the year after that I went to Glastonbury and that was it. My mind was blown and I had found where I wanted to be in the world. I never dreamt I could work on the show, let alone run the iconic Pyramid Stage. I do feel extremely blessed to have found my way to where I am currently.
What led to your first role in festival production?
I started my working life proper in the skateboard industry. The first big event I worked on was Urban Games, but on the athlete side of things. Off the back off that I got offered a job with Vans when I got back from a snowboard season. I used to work on skateboard and BMX events, and anything event related was always my favourite part of working in that industry.
I wanted to work on the music side of events and landed a small role at the Hop Farm Festival in 2008. Over the years that followed I absolutely worked my ass off and my role grew year-on-year at the Hop Farm until I became technical production lead in in 2012.
That journey, working with acts like Prince and Bob Dylan at the Hop Farm Festival, set me up perfectly for my role at Glastonbury. When I got asked to work on Glasto in 2014 and then take on the bigger role of technical production for the Pyramid and Other Stage in 2015, I felt like I’d won the lottery. I still feel incredibly privileged to be the overall head of production for the festival now, over ten years later.
“It felt like climbing Everest after running a marathon.”
You have worked on Glastonbury for more than a decade, and now oversee its two biggest stages. How challenging is that?
It’s an incredibly challenging role for so many different reasons. It’s super high stakes for lots of the bands. For many of them it’s a dream to perform at Glastonbury, then eventually on the Pyramid stage, so you really want to make sure it lives up to all their exceptions. Working across all the headliner shows on the Pyramid and Other Stage simultaneously is very hard work but it’s always worth it when the show comes together, and you take a step back and see what an iconic moment some of those shows are.
It’s a family-owned festival so we really do care that our bosses are happy and that we’re representing them in the best way possible. So, every decision must be very well thought out.
I’m also really aware of how much the festival means to so many people, and it’s not just the potential 120,000 live audience, there are millions watching at home and on catch-up, so it really does feel like its all-eyes-on-you when you’re doing this job, which combined with of all the above can mean it is extremely stressful and challenging at times.
How was your summer season as a whole?
It’s been an insanely busy summer this year but we are super grateful for that. All three of our big annual projects went up a notch in 2025, all at the same time. That was challenging but also very rewarding. Our three big annual projects are Glastonbury, which is always evolving and growing; Silverstone, where we run the Main Stage Arena and Grid Ceremony for the British Grand Prix; and the Mercury Prize British Album of the Year Awards. All of which are televised in some capacity, a couple of them around the world, so that adds the additional layer of pressure.
At Silverstone’s F1 we were requested to run the whole Main Stage Arena from a site and operations perspective as well as run the technical production. This meant our workload increased dramatically. It’s been a lot of work but definitely well worth all the effort. To get the feedback from the F1 team that we are up there as one of the best in the world across all the stages they visit across the F1 global circuit really is great to hear.
The Mercury Prize also grew considerably this year and increased to an arena level production while also moving up to Newcastle, which made the job a lot more challenging.
We also usually end up doing a one-off show we can’t say no to each year and 2025’s was Together for Palestine at Wembley Arena. It ended up being a complete beast of a show but a really satisfying one to pull off. Somehow, we delivered it around the two smaller Glastonbury shows we do; Pilton Party and the Abbey Extravaganza, then rolled straight into band advance for the Mercury Prize which was only three weeks after the Palestine show. This year has taken the lead for the craziest summer so far but I’m so grateful for all these amazing shows we get the privilege to work on.
You turned around the Together for Palestine Event at Wembley Arena at very short notice, what did that involve?
We pulled the job together in only six weeks from the first site visit, where the plans were formed, to the actual show delivery. When I look back, I am not sure how we managed it. With our amazing team we pulled all the tech together, got some amazing donations of kit and great discounts to support the show. We advanced over 35 acts and 40 guest speakers and ran the stage on the day with musical performances and speakers running back-to-back over four-and-a-half hours. It felt like climbing Everest after running a marathon. But we did it and it was incredible and we’re so happy we got to be a part of that show and work with such inspirational people, who all over-delivered to make that event one to remember.
Who or what has played the biggest part in supporting your career progression or inspiring you?
I couldn’t do this without my business partner and husband Jon. He is my main support system and has always encouraged me to keep going and our business simply would not have reached where it is without his support.
I also have to shout out Emily Eavis at Glastonbury who is a firm advocate of women in production roles. Without her support and trust in what we do we wouldn’t be where we are either.
Every single woman in this industry who is at the top of her game, or working her way to get there, inspire me daily.
If you could change one thing about the events industry overnight, what would it be?
I would love to instantly eradicate the deep-routed, systemic misogyny in our industry. It’s still very prevalent today despite there being lots of women in senior and technical positions.