Joe GallopGlastonbury Festival‘s livestreamed event Live at Worthy Farm by ticketed livestream concert promoter Driift was awarded Best Director Multicamera at the Royal Television Society (RTS) Craft & Design Awards 2021.
The ceremony, which took place on 22 November at the London Hilton on Park Lane, saw the camera work of director Paul Dugdale and his team recognised. They were also shortlisted in the category for Multicamera Work.
The six-hour livestream took place on 22 May and was shot on location across Glastonbury’s Worthy Farm site, and featured performances from acts including Wolf Alice, Michael Kiwanuka, George Ezra, IDLES, HAIM, Coldplay and Damon Albarn (pictured). It also featured spoken word interludes from artists such as PJ Harvey, and Jarvis Cocker, along with festival-founder Michael Eavis.
The £20 livestream, which was also screened in UK cinemas in partnership with Trafalgar Releasing, suffered technical issues that meant customers were effectively locked out for up to two hours and unable to use access codes to view the footage.
Proceeds from the event, which was co-produced by BBC Studios Productions, supported Glastonbury’s three main charity partners, Oxfam, WaterAid and Greenpeace.
Multiple Grammy-nominated Dugdale has worked with acts including Taylor Swift, The Rolling Stones, Ariana Grande and Ed Sheeran. He has collaborated with Driift on multiple projects including Niall Horan’s livestream from London’s Royal Albert Hall.
Driift CEO Ric Salmon said, “Live At Worthy Farm was undoubtedly Driift’s most ambitious and challenging livestream to date. In the middle of the pandemic, it was a huge undertaking involving hundreds of people behind the scenes. Despite some well-documented technical issues with the transmission that affected some ticket buyers, I am immensely proud of what was achieved creatively and we are all delighted that the production and craftsmanship of the project, and especially the work of our brilliant director Paul Dugdale and his team, has been recognised with such a prestigious award.”
Dugdale said, “From a directorial perspective, Live At Worthy Farm was a hugely complex and physically demanding undertaking – shooting multiple performances across a diverse range of environments, and then editing the recordings into a coherent long-form film. Given the context of the pandemic and the shutdown of live music and festivals, I think it stands as an incredible team achievement and a work I’m extremely proud of.”