Stuart WoodBy Simeon Aldred, group creative director, Vibration Group
As we launch our fourth season of music events at Printworks London, I’m reflecting on the journey so far. We launched our first programme of music events in February 2017, when Printworks was a barely established venue with masses of potential, but limited events infrastructure.
In the space of eighteen months we’ve taken it from a disused warehouse to an award winning, international ‘must-visit’ destination for discerning clubbers, with a new 5,000 person capacity club space and 3,000 capacity Livebox space. You might ask how that feels? Super intense to be frank.
We have had to get tactical with such large numbers of guests. Our fundamental approach is to treat every event as a stand-alone festival. This equates to us running at least two mini festivals at Printworks every weekend, for 12 – 15 weeks on the bounce, with 300,000 visitors this year.
We need to think about the environment as if it’s a giant festival field. Each show has a different entrance layout, sponsors, stage and room layouts and sometimes hundreds of staff making it happen, often 4 times in one week, for three months at a time.
We’re talking about 5000 guests, 10 hour line-ups, up to 40 artists and green rooms, 200 bar staff, 150 security staff, plus car parking staff, medic teams and, just like a festival site, the list goes on.
The scale of our programmes and the nature of our space means a ‘from the ground up’ festival approach is the only way to go. Our suppliers at Printworks make it happen, from Field Vision Bars, Five Star Crew, and dbnAudile, to Showsec security, Kaboodle ticketing, Gallowglass H&S, and Quad Medical, plus traffic, communications, and ground control. We employ an expert team who work together to make Printworks run safely and smoothly show after show.