Christopher BarrettWith its roots set firmly in festivals, the past two decades have seen event production agency LS Events branch out way beyond live music to become a flourishing multi-service operation involved in some of the world’s largest public and sports events. We explore LS Events’ journey from Creamfields to Operation London Bridge and beyond.
Founded as Lound Sound in 2004 by Jim King, and still owned by the now CEO of European festivals at AEG Presents, the company has come an awfully long way in the last two decades, with its 2021 rebrand to LS Events reflecting an expanded events portfolio that stretches well beyond live music.
LS Events has managed more than 200 major events over the years. In recent months alone it has undertaken huge operation management projects including the Formula E season finale at ExCeL London, nine shows over three weekends at American Express presents BST Hyde Park, the six show days of the All Points East festival, and the four-day Champions League Festival that involved major activations at seven central London sites.
The multi-service agency has built a reputation for being able to handle short-to-no-notice events with seamless results, largely on the back of it successfully overseeing the event management plan and operational delivery of Operation London Bridge at the drop of a hat. More recent swiftly delivered events include London’s largest screening of the UEFA Euro 2024 final, at The O2 arena.
Cream of the crop
The company’s origins stretch way back to the 1990s at nightclub operation Cream, where King and LS Events co-CEO Dave Grindle first met.
Grindle had tour managed bands before he became an agent and took over the running of Cream’s DJ agency. He went on to become Cream’s general manager, and it wasn’t long before he got his first taste of running major events, with the introduction of the Creamfields festival in 1998.
“The launch of Creamfields introduced me to the idea of doing large scale events, and I was hooked,” he says. “I wanted to do more of them, so I decided to leave Cream in 2004. Unbeknown to me, Jim had planned to leave Cream around the same time.
“I was doing freelance work on various festivals, including Download for [then Live Nation UK chief operating officer] John Probyn. Then I got a phone call from Jim and he said, ‘I’ve left Cream, and I’m starting up by myself, do you want to come in and work alongside me?’ Jim had retained his relationship with [Cream co-founder] James Barton, and so we carried on producing Creamfields.”
Since the launch of Loud Sound in 2004, Grindle (pictured left) has worked as operations director for many high-profile UK events including Bestival, Camp Bestival, Common People, Rockness and CBBC Summer Social. More recently he has been venue director at BST Hyde Park.
Early members of the Loud Sound team also included Jo Mackay and Ian Greenway, who went on to form LarMac Live. Dan Craig was Loud Sound’s head of operations and BST Hyde Park operations director for many years before leaving to take on the role of director of operations at Superstruct Entertainment.
“Steve [Reynolds] (pictured right) joined Loud Sound in 2016, when we were still only a handful of people,” says Grindle. “It really continued on that basis for the next few years until we reached the Covid full stop – at which point that really changed things for the company.”
Since starting at what was then Loud Sound, Reynolds has taken on many projects for the company, including helping to launch All Points East as operations director in 2018 and taking on the same role at BST Hyde Park, which LS Events has produced on behalf of promoter AEG Presents since 2013. In February 2023, Reynolds was appointed co-CEO alongside Grindle.
Reynolds had joined Showsec in 2003, straight out of Sheffield Hallam University where he had worked at the Student Union. He went on to become venue manager before moving to London as area manager in 2004 to run Earls Court Arena and work on major London events such as the Hyde Park Concerts, Tour de France and the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. It was at Showsec where Reynolds, while working as head of security for Bestival, first met Grindle and King.
During a subsequent seven-month stint as operations manager at ACC Liverpool, Reynolds went for what proved to be a pivotal post-work pint with Grindle, who informed him there was a job going at Loud Sound.
“My wife was heavily pregnant and about to give birth to our second child. So, when I went home and said, ‘I think I might leave my secure job and local authority pension and to go and work for some guys who used to run Cream nightclub’, thankfully she was so dazed she just murmured ‘ok, sure, do what you want,” laughs Reynolds.
A new beginning
Working initially as senior project manager on events including Bestival on the Isle of Wight and Common People in Oxford, it wasn’t long before Reynolds had the opportunity to get his teeth into a new event that he could help build from the ground up.
“We won the residents around by doing what we said we would do.”
He says, “Because of my background in security, I knew a little bit about everything to do with an event so it was a matter of growing my skills and relying on the site managers and technical production managers to do the bits I didn’t have knowledge on. Everyone was really welcoming and helped me get up to speed. I had a few great summers working on really creative shows.”
In 2018, with AEG Presents having won the tender for East London’s Victoria Park, All Points East (APE) was born and Reynolds jumped at the opportunity to be the debut event’s operations director.
The award-winning, 10-day, APE festival consists of six days of concerts, and four days of free activities for locals known as In The Neighbourhood. For Reynolds, helping to create and develop the event has been one of his career highs.
Grindle says previous large-scale events held in Victoria Park had created a bad feeling among locals and a distinct lack of trust: “All Points East was a real challenge. Steve did a huge amount of work around the whole community relationship piece with AEG, getting them to understand it was a new event with a new approach.
The idea of staging free activities midweek at BST Hyde Park had proven a success, and Reynolds says a similar initiative was even more impactful at Victoria Park: “It’s a very local crowd there, so saying ‘we’re going to open the doors and let you come in for free and enjoy the site, and we’ll put loads of entertainment on for you’, really went down well.
“We also did a lot of work around the security, stewarding, traffic management, and dealing with anti-social behaviour issues that had been associated with the previous concerts.
“We won the residents around by doing what we said we would do. There was a massive reduction in complaints, and we came out of it with a good relationship with residents, which we’ve maintained. After Covid we increased the capacity from 40,000 to 50,000, and we recently won a permanent licence in Victoria Park; which is very rare. That shows the level of trust that everyone has in the way we operate.”
BST Hyde Park
Among LS Events’ longest-running projects, BST Hyde Park (BST) now sees Grindle and Reynolds oversee the project with the former being venue director and latter event director. The duo took on the roles in 2019 following the departure of Dan Craig. While Grindle had pitched in at BST each year since the outset, Reynolds first got a taste of working on what is now a 65,000-capacity event when he joined LS in 2016.
I came to watch The Strokes here as a punter in 2015, and I thought ‘I would love to work on this’. So, I was absolutely delighted to come in the following year and work as event manager. Then, when Dan left in 2019, we rejigged everything.”
After AEG successfully retendered for the event, and secured a new contract with Royal Parks that runs until 2027, a new-look BST was planned for 2020 but Covid stood firmly in the way. It wasn’t until 2022 that the event re-surfaced, and it was to return with a new look, a more complex production, and a third weekend of concerts extending the show day count from six to nine.
The additional shows not only meant AEG could be more adventurous with programming, but the increased turnover enabled it to invest in growing the site and production.
“The biggest challenge was coming back in 2022,” says Grindle. “Supply chain prices had gone through the roof, and we were trying to create and develop this whole new look and feel for BST off the back of Covid in a very short timeframe because it wasn’t possible to start to build things until January when we should have been able to start in September. It was a huge challenge to get that across the line for 2022, but we did it, it looked great, and it was very well received.”
One of the key milestones in 2022 was the unveiling of a new BST main stage, dubbed the Great Oak Stage, developed for the event by Star Live using its fresh-out-of-the-box Titan system.
“We’ve got a great relationship with Star Live, they’ve been at BST since the start and done all the stages,” says Grindle.
For the return of BST, Star Live also created a grandstand hospitality area using its VISTA Starbox structure, built the Rainbow stage, and provided a range of installations across the huge site including delay towers, accessible viewing platforms and entrance arches.
“The scale and nature of the BST contract means we always take the opportunity to introduce new products,” says Gavin Scott, BST project director for Star Live. “Our state-of-the-art Titan stage was initially planned before lockdown and was redeveloped in 2022 to enable the entire Elton John touring production to fit within the festival stage format. We had spent a year working with LS Events to develop this new stage before Covid-19 hit.”
“A lot of what we introduce at BST is rolled out across all our other events,” says Star Live technical director Roger Barrett.
Another key player in the reprise of BST in 2022 was operations director Laura Armstrong (pictured right), who had started working full time for LS Events the previous year, having repeatedly worked freelance with the team in the past, and pitched in to support LS’ Covid-offshoot Hub Logistics during the pandemic.
Armstrong has worked on numerous events at LS including South Facing Festival, the Champions League Festival, Operation London Bridge and All Points East, but her core focus is BST.
“One of the best things about LS Events is that we are very collaborative and there is a lot of internal support, the level of expertise we have from individual people across all of our shows is really important,” she says.
Armstrong recounts this year’s BST show by Andrea Bocelli as a perfect example of the way in which the LS team can be relied on to work collaboratively to overcome challenges and get the best results.
“We had a seated Bocelli show on Friday with 11,500 seats needing to go in overnight, following a standing show on the Thursday with Morgan Wallen,” she says. “I messaged the team in advance to ask if anyone was free to help on that day, and everyone jumped right in. It’s that sort of welcoming feeling, and knowing that people have got your back, which I think makes LS Events such as great place to work.”
While Covid-19 brought the events industry to a standstill, for Loud Sound it was pivotal, not only leading to it being rebranded LS Events but enabling the diversification of the business to build momentum.
Says Reynolds, “The whole world was falling apart, everyone was out of work, and we were just about to furlough everybody when we said to the GLA [Greater London Authority], which we were working for at the time that we needed to protect the events industry in particular freelancers who received little government support. We suggested our industry should be involved in supporting Covid mitigation measures. At the time I was thinking of testing centres.
“The GLA came back and said, ‘you need you to meet these people’. The people in question were from the Mortality Management Group, and they told us that they needed to open some temporary mortuaries in a very short time scale, and could we go down to Breakspear Crematorium, where they were building the first one of them. Losberger De Boer were building it, but they needed people to manage and operate it.”
Other temporary mortuaries followed, and LS was soon offering a financial lifeline to many of its regular freelancers. “We had somewhere in the region of 1,000 freelancers involved, from site and stage crew to artist liaison; all sorts of people who had no work and weren’t able to pay their mortgages because the government funding wasn’t covering them. These people were falling through the gaps, and we were able to help,” says Reynolds.
The company went on to help open no less than 35 lateral flow test centres, providing further employment for around 1,500 freelancers and casual workers.
During this period Loud Sound was operating under the somewhat more appropriate temporary moniker of Hub Logistics. As Covid receded and the company continued to expand its reach beyond live music it became increasingly apparent a permanent name change was required, and LS Events was selected.
“We had thought about it before,” says Grindle. “In the past it had been quite difficult going into a premises licence hearings in a small community, like Daresbury Village with Creamfields, and announcing yourselves as being from Loud Sound. They were like, ‘Are you taking the piss?’,” he laughs.
Operation London Bridge
Having originally won a tender to deliver a Covid-secure version of Operation London Bridge during the pandemic, LS Events took responsibility as the central event management agency for the GLA’s London coordination of plans, which ultimately resulted in delivery. Following the news of the death of the Queen in September 2022, LS Events moved at a fast pace to deliver as the central event management agency for the GLA. Its key areas of responsibility included overseeing the overarching event management plan, the operational delivery, public safety and crowd management for the ceremonial viewing areas and screening sites.
“We had such a lot of goodwill as a result of how we supported staff through Covid.”
Armstrong says that when the call came to work on Operation London Bridge, the level of camaraderie and can-do attitude among the LS team once again came into its own. She says that despite some of the staff having post-summer season holidays planned, they put their plans on hold to stay to work on the project.
“It was a huge occasion and a privilege to work on, but incredibly challenging,” says Reynolds. “We had the plans, and we knew what we were going to do, but we never knew when we were going to do it.”
When the news came, it was a case of all-hands-on deck for LS, with Reynolds and Grindle working with project directors Jen-e Jones and Grace Noest to lead a 40-strong team on the planning; a team that multiplied significantly during the project’s delivery.
Since Jen-e Jones started at LS in 2018, she has worked on an array of events that not only illustrate the company’s broad reach but also the ability to turn around events at remarkable speed.
Attended by 250,000 people, Operation London Bridge saw LS Events support the management of Palestra Event Liaison Facility; the 24/7 central command and control centre for the full event programme.
Jones, who was based at the facility, says Operation London Bridge was a hugely challenging and rewarding experience: “I had done a lot of the planning with the team, but then was removed from them because I was in the Palestra control room and they were all on the ground without me. Hearing how challenging it was for them was really tough but then going down on the ground afterwards, where we were all reunited after delivering a really successful and important event for London, was really special.”
“I was on the ground, based by The Mall,” recalls Grindle. “It was quite an experience, something I’ll never forget. We were very honoured to have been involved in it.”
As if the no-notice aspect of Operation London Bridge didn’t present enough of a challenge, the fact the project needed to be delivered at a time when the events industry supply chain was still reeling from the impact of the pandemic meant a huge amount of work was required behind the scenes to manage the situation.
Reynolds says LS had had the foresight to present strategies to DCMS and the GLA around pre-purchase and retainership. Come the day, longstanding and trusted suppliers rose to the challenge and the work that LS Events had carried out on morgues and testing centres during the pandemic reaped benefits when it came to staffing Operation London Bridge at the drop of a hat.
“We had such a lot of goodwill as a result of how we supported staff through Covid,” says Reynolds. “People dropped everything and came to support and work for us on Operation London Bridge. In the end, we had no problem at all sourcing staff. We had around 175 freelancers working on delivery across all the different roles.”
In a league of their own
During the summer of 2021, LS Events staged central London activations at a time when no live events had taken place for more than a year. With the UEFA Euros 2020 delayed by a year, LS had been appointed by Jack Morton Worldwide, on behalf of the GLA, to curate, manage and deliver the bar and food operations for the official fan zones. Its food and beverage arm LS Bites worked within Covid-19 limitations to successfully manage requirements at zones set up in Trafalgar Square and Potter’s Field.
After the trouble in and around Wembley Stadium when it hosted the UEFA Euro final, the eyes of the world were once again on London in June this year for the UEFA Champions League Final. For LS Events it was an opportunity to help prove that the UK could host landmark football events not only safely but in style.
“I really wanted to show that huge football events can be done well in England. I am a massive football fan but I support Newcastle United, so I have to look elsewhere for success,” smiles Reynolds.
The Champions League Final took place on 1 June at Wembley Stadium, but the associated activity stretched well beyond the North London venue. LS Events had been taken on to oversee activations at no less than seven sites across London.
The company produced, programmed and managed the four-day Champions League Festival across five London sites, with family and football-focused activities running at Trafalgar Square, Regent Street, Somerset House, Potters Fields Park and the South Bank from 30 May to 2 June. Among the Festival highlights was the UEFA Champions League Legends 5-aside Tournament, involving veterans such as Patrick Vieira, Roberto Carlos and Luís Figo, playing football in a transformed Somerset House courtyard.
Along with the four-day Champions League Festival, LS Events also oversaw two fan meeting points in the city; with Borussia Dortmund supporters entertained and accommodated at a 20,000-capacity site in Hyde Park, while the Real Madrid faithful were looked after at a 13,600-cap area on Victoria Embankment.
The hugely complex operation was the result of a partnership with the GLA, whose head of major sports events Laura Pierce led on the project alongside Reynolds and LS Events operations director Jess Noakes. At its peak, the project saw more than 50 people work on the planning, and in excess of 180 people on its delivery across the seven venues. Among the many key members of the vast team were assistant operations director Lis Moon, permits & licensing director Beth Smith, project manager Izzy Sturrock, and Rob Silver who worked as the commercial director.
No less than 100 different suppliers were involved in the project across the seven venues, with overlay alone involving Losberger De Boer, Acorn Event Structures and Original Technical Productions.
Reynolds says that among the many challenges involved, was the limited notice as to which teams would be battling it out in the final: “Once the finalists were known, we had a matter of weeks to work with them to design, brand and curate the respective fan meeting points so that they reflected the club’s colours and identity.”
Noakes says the planning process was hugely complex, not least due to the limited timescales the team had to work with when accessing central London locations including Regent Street and Victoria Embankment.
“We closed Regent Street to vehicles for an overnight build and then did the same for the de-rig, while facilitating all of the existing businesses’ deliveries,” she says. “Regent Street hadn’t been car-free since before Covid, and it has had significant changes to the layout, which makes it very complex. Similarly, the fan meeting point on Victoria Embankment meant an overnight build the night before the event. I cannot express the logistical challenge that we faced here, and our site management teams were so impressive to achieve the high-quality site builds within the timescale.”
Reynolds is also understandably proud of the results. He says the project proved to be another career high: “I’m really proud that we were able to work with all the other agencies, and the GLA, to deliver a really safe event, and one that UEFA is very happy with.”
LS Events is working on an ever-widening range of events and at locations around the world, with it having supported the delivery of Cape Town E-Prix and the Greenko Hyderabad E-Prix. Among the first-time clients it is working with this year is LIV Golf and Pride London.
“We’re definitely able to take on whatever comes our way,” avers Grindle, but the company’s directors are both quick to point out that their focus is not on growth for growth’s sake.
Says Grindle, “We’re not a corporate structure where we must hit x per cent growth every year. It’s about organically growing and holding firm to our values we believe in as a company, which include looking after our staff and delivering a good job for everybody every time. Growth organically comes from that.”
LS Events founder Jim King says he is very proud that he started the company and the foundations that were built, however, he emphasises that the real story is in the journey and not the past: “To see the company that we started 20 years ago now deliver the projects that LS Events produces is quite incredible. The last five years especially have seen the company grow, not just in scale and revenue and other business metrics, but more impressively in its vision and its culture.
“When I walk into LS now, I still see the values and ideals that the company was set up on but there is now a hugely impressive culture and working dynamic. LS is without doubt the best in class at what it does, which is testament to the leadership of Dave and Steve, the fantastic team that they have assembled and the clients that they serve.”
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