Christopher BarrettPan-European promoter and festival organiser FKP Scorpio has hired former DHP Family directors Daniel Ealam (pictured left) and Scott O’Neill to expand its UK operations.
The Hamburg-headquartered company, which counts German festivals Hurricane (cap, 70,000) and Southside (50,0000) among its European operation, soft launched FKP Scorpio UK Ltd in 2008.
Ealam and O’Neill will work alongside FKP Scorpio CEO Folkert Koopmans to “significantly expand FKP Scorpio’s activities in the UK”.
At Nottingham-based independent concert, venue and festival operation DHP Family, the duo gained extensive experience. Among Ealam’s many achievements were running three-city metropolitan festival Dot To Dot and heading up the company’s artist management division. He became director of live at the company in 2016.
O’Neil joined DHP Family in 2010, and five years later launched the London metropolitan festival MIRRORS. He was responsible for many of the company’s outdoor live concerts.
Collectively they have worked with numerous acts including including Ed Sheeran, Massive Attack and Adele. They have promoted 18 stadium shows since 2015 and outdoor events at Cardiff Castle, Leeds Roundhay Park, Ipswich Chantry Park and Bristol Filton Airfield.
They will join Barry Campbell and James Cassidy on the FKP Scorpio UK board, who have orchestrated the live touring of the BBC Earth nature documentaries, Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II Live-In-Concert, in arenas throughout the UK and Europe.
In a statement Ealam and O’Neill said, “We are so excited to build FKP Scorpio in the UK. We have long admired the company’s ethos and ethics and we truly believe that it is a force for good within the industry and expanding at a time when we need strong promoters with good values working across Europe. Folkert shares our vision for the business and we have big plans to make this a huge success and support our artists, agents and managers and give fans the ultimate live experiences.”