Christopher BarrettCarFest’s festival director, Anjna Raheja leads a largely female team that runs one of the UK’s largest independent festivals. She tells AAA how the not-for-profit event raises £1 million for charity each year, against a background of major challenges.
A family-focused festival founded by radio presenter Chris Evans and operated by CarFest Management Limited, CarFest is much more than a celebration of live music and motor vehicles.
Billed as seven festivals across one weekend, the broad range of entertainment on offer across CarFest’s 21 stages ranges from chefs to celebrities, wellbeing and family entertainment to vintage pop culture.
Staged across 500 acres of farmland at Laverstoke Park Farm in Hampshire, this year’s diverse lineup includes Travis, Squeeze, Seasick Steve, Sally Gunnell OBE and Ed Byrne.
Since the 35,000-capacity event was launched in 2012, CarFest has raised more than £20 million for charity partners including Rainbow Trust, Starlight Children’s Foundation and Teenage Cancer Trust, with 50% of profits set aside each year for BBC Children in Need alone.
In 2022, the management of CarFest was transferred from Brand Events to the newly set up CarFest Management. Previously CarFest’s marketing director, Anjna Raheja was appointed festival director while former operations director Neil Levine became its MD.
Anjna Raheja
“Chris Evans is the 100% owner shareholder of CarFest, and we have regular board meetings with him. He wanted to have a team that was dedicated solely to CarFest, because at Brand we were across a portfolio of shows and splitting our time between them,” says Raheja.
CarFest Management consists of in-house operations, marketing and sales teams. Among the key players is CarFest’s operations director Lisa Knipe, who has been working on the event since 2016.
“Lisa has grown up with CarFest, she started working on its years ago when it was part of Brand Events,” says Raheja. “Lisa is an absolute delight with huge strength and resource. All our team leaders are very disciplined and incredibly detail focused, and detail is what it comes down to at the end of the day when you’re organising this event of this scale.”
“Come the end of August our financial slate is clean, and we have to start again.”
Among the key suppliers and partners are Distinction Events; which oversees the infrastructure production; SWG, which provides technical production services including staging, sound, lighting and video; and Peppermint Bars & Events, which oversees the beverage offering.
Having taken on the role of show director so soon after the pandemic, Raheja has faced her fair share of challenges since the outset, not least coping with rising production costs without a profit margin to fall back on.
“Come the end of August our financial slate is clean, and we have to start all over again,” she says. “It has been incredibly tough for us across everything from ticket sales to booking talent.
“As an independent festival, we don’t have the buying power and economies of scale that a large festival has, whether it’s infrastructure or talent booking. Talent costs have gone up and the availability reduced because they’re being tied into larger contracts with large consortiums. From an economies of scale perspective, that makes sense for those businesses, but it makes it very tough for independent festivals. The irony is that we get 30,000 visitors a day, so we are one of the largest festivals in the country. We are blessed that Chris and his exposure through the Virgin Radio show he presents allows us to reach celebrities and big names that add a of sparkle to the festival.”
In addition to those challenges, Raheja’s team is now having to cope with the impact of the economic shockwaves created by US president Trump’s trade tariffs.
“It’s a tough, volatile, market, and we have a lot of partners, sponsors and exhibitors that are clearly being affected by our friend over the pond. Certainly, vehicle manufacturers are feeling the knock-on effect of that. With the cost of living having increased, families are also facing big decisions around prioritising spend. The priority for us, is to make sure we do good by our visitors and continue to raise the £1 million for our charities.”
Despite the tricky post-Covid conditions, the CarFest team has continued to prove hugely adept at raising funds, and last year generated £1.26 million for its charity partners, not only via ticket sales but also activations including an auction, onsite raffle and an organised 2.5km run dubbed the Festival Dash.
A significant percentage of CarFest’s financial resource is derived from sponsors and exhibitors. Along with naming rights partner BP Pulse, among the key sponsors are Mazda, Michelin, Prestige Flowers, Cuisinart and Timothy Taylor’s.
Says Raheja, “The mindset of brands has changed a lot, gone are the days of it just being about brand awareness. It’s not about badging anymore, it’s about really getting into the core of what our sponsors want, and the relationship they have with the festival must be meaningful, there’s got to be synergy, with their messages and their brand values resonating with ours. So, the world is not our oyster, we’ve got to be very careful about who we partner with.
The not-for-profit’s finances are also bolstered by the inclusion of around 300 exhibitors across the festival site.
“We have a great sales team that is selling really effective retail experiences and retail opportunities for smaller brands. The fact that CarFest is a combination of multiple festivals with different content means it has a broader reach than your average music festival, with a broader range of commercial opportunities as well,” says Raheja.
When it comes to ticket sales, the event benefits from a very strong early bird initiative, and the fact that each year around 40% of tickets are snapped up by return visitors.
“We are one of the largest festivals in the country.”
“CarFest is almost like a bookend for young people; it is often the first festival that kids go to and the last family festival for them before they go out on their own to Reading or Leeds,” says Raheja. “So, we need to make sure that we are creating content that resonates with them in every sense, and at every stage, and that incudes how can we inspire these young people and open new and exciting doors, maybe even new career opportunities.”
With that in mind, this year’s event will see the debut of the STEM Zone, a hands-on learning area designed to inspire the next generation of sports stars, scientists, engineers, and artists. Among the numerous areas covered will be music production, DJ skills, prosthetics and animatronics.
Says Raheja, “The main stage content is very driven by Chris [Evans] and our music bookers, but the entire event is very much in line with what he wants to celebrate and what he stands for. CarFest is a very safe, welcoming and joyous environment, and while you’re there you are doing good for those in need; it really is like no other festival.”
For the full article see the Summer edition of Access All Areas here.