Goodwood Revival may well be a much-loved celebration of vintage glamour and the beautiful historic motor vehicles but, as its general manager Sarah Bullen outlines, the production team is laser focused on evolving the event.

Here, Bullen outlined how the 12-14 September event, which is expected to attract 150,000 people, has been enhanced not only from a practical site improvement perspective but also the entertainment offering.

I understand Revival has a capacity of around 150,000 over the three days, how are tickets sales going for this year’s event?

We’re down to the last few tickets. We’ve sold out the Saturday, and we usually sell out of the other two days just beforehand. We are tracking strongly.

You took over the role of GM at Revival from Henry Bass in 2022. What have been the landmark moments since?

Last year’s event saw the biggest challenges on site, for me and the team. Really bad weather hit us on the opening day. We had lakes in campsites at one point and flooding on the event site. It was a monumental team effort not only to deliver a brilliant day for attendees but also to switch everything on for the following day. It was amazing to see the contractors we work with really come together to make the show happen; doing everything from laying additional temporary trackway and temporary flooring to using tonnes and tonnes of wood chip to get car parks and catering areas open, using the fire crew to jet wash the track and pull vintage military vehicles out of the mud. Everyone really came together to deliver the best experience for attendees. Despite the weather our NPS score stayed the same, which I think was a pretty amazing feat for the team here to achieve because it really was quite a challenge.

“That focus on perfection is one of the key values of the business, and what makes the event so special.”

Has that led to any permanent changes to the site or investment in solutions, equipment or initiatives to mitigate against such awful weather conditions in the future?

Yes, we’ve updated the campsite layouts and put in some new permanent infrastructure in terms of roadways. We’ve also increased the number of our accessible units. Obviously, when the weather’s particularly bad it is harder for those with accessible needs to get around the site, so we’ve updated the layout plan. We have a lot of permanent infrastructure but also a lot of greenfield and it’s that transition between the two that we have spent a lot of time working on with accessible needs in mind.

We have also increased the drainage on site and invested in pumps, because you never know when you’re going to need to pump out a tunnel – which is something else we did last year. There has been a few tweaks that hopefully will make all the difference. 

Recent years have seen some major developments, including the new bridge across the track, have there been any other changes for this year’s event?

Nothing as major as building a new bridge but there are many individual areas and we spend a lot of time looking at how they’re all working, how customers are interacting with the spaces, and whether they could benefit from something different. This year we have tweaked the layout of the High Street to make it a smoother transition through to our new The Revive and Thrive Village. That is a key part of the event for us, and we wanted to make sure that people can find it easily, so we’ve changed the layout, added catering areas and increased the volume of caterers, increased the seating and added music. We’ve also created some new spaces. As we continue to evolve, we want to make sure that there’s something different to see each year for customers. So, we’ve introduced a new area called Temple Court this year, which is a mods and rockers themed hangout. It will involve a Cavern Club-style stage, and bar area with a traditional pub façade. We are bringing that to life and it’s going to look incredible. There are a few new features to see across the site this year.

There’s been a lot of talk about ‘sportainment’, with major sporting events increasingly expanding the entertainment offering on site. Goodwood Revival has blended the two for years. How important is that mix of motorsport and music to the success of the event?

This year we’ve got two more stages, so the music side is definitely coming through a lot stronger as we develop the event. We’re now starting to expand the immersive environment onto the track and include music in that, where in the past it’s just been cars racing around the track. Everyone’s used to seeing the celebrations and key moments we create on the track, we just want to make them bigger and better. For example, this year we celebrate VE Day, and rather than just putting all the cars and military vehicles out there and that be it, there’s going to be a huge street party on the track, with flags, drinks, and music.  We are creating these key moments that everyone can enjoy, and we’ve put a lot more focus on the production of that.

You have long lasting relationships with key suppliers such as Arena Group, Losberger, and Qdos Event Hire, but are there any new suppliers or existing  suppliers working differently this year?

We’re always looking to evolve the event, and we’re working with a lot more suppliers on the set build side as that’s key. For example, we are working with Scena to deliver our mods and rockers set for us this year. We’re also constantly looking to work with different agencies too. It’s exciting to see some of the things they’re doing this year, for example, in our Earls Court Motor Show we are working with the likes of TRO to really bring those areas to life alongside partners. We are always evolving the event but we’re really lucky that our core group of contractors are really competitive, they’ve been winning tenders year-on-year, and we are really pleased with their performance so a lot of them have stayed the same.

The event has a huge focus on re-use. How much of a consideration is sustainability and are there any new sustainability measures implemented this year?

There’s so many ways we embrace sustainability cross the theme of the event, including The Revive and Thrive Village and the likes of Dom Chinea from the BBC’s The Repair Shop running workshops. We take it very seriously, obviously with the Revive and Thrive, and the focus on repairing, reusing and recycling; we are champions of that so when it comes to props and things like that we reuse and recycle them. If it’s a big set build that we don’t have a use for we sell it for a charitable donation. There’s a UFO in a garden somewhere on the Isle of Wight, and this year we’ve got a shipwreck that we need to sell. I’m looking forward to seeing which charity benefits from that and whose back garden that ends up in. In terms of reducing the event’s impact, we’ve introduced a new recycling/waste transfer station this year on the back of its success at Festival of Speed where there was a 40% increase in recycling rates from that. We were the first historic motor sport event to run entirely on sustainable fuels last year

Goodwood Revival was founded by the 11th Duke of Richmond in 1998I. I hear he has a sharp eye for detail, how does that impact the way the event is produced and is he closely involved?

It’s amazing. I don’t think you’ll ever meet someone who works as hard as he does. He’s a very inspiring man to work for, he cares so passionately about the event. He introduced the Revival 27 years ago, so he’s seen it from the beginning, and he has a very clear idea of what it should look like. He is involved in everything from the strategic direction of the event to what napkins should be used in a restaurant. He is really closely involved throughout the full spectrum of detail and pushes everyone to work harder. That focus on perfection is one of the key values of the business, and what makes the event so special.

Sarah Bullen will be among the speakers at the Access All Areas Leaders’ Summit on 7-8 October.

Goodwood Revival’s key suppliers:

  • Arena
  • Losberger
  • Mar-Key
  • Chichester Canvas
  • TT Tents
  • Qdos
  • Wicked Water
  • Aggreko
  • Cathedral Signs
  • Vespasian
  • Tracsis

 

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