Despite the current challenges facing pretty much everyone in the country bar the top 1%, DHP Family, and its stable in Nottingham, London and Bristol, continue to go from strength to strength - surviving the triple threat of the pandemic, a cost-of-living crisis, and pressures from major corporate organisations with extensive industry know-how. We catch up with head honcho George Akins to find out more and discuss the finer details of their annual blue ribboned event, Splendour Festival, fifteen years on from when it all began…
So, with just a few months to go, how are plans coming together for Splendour?
We’re sort of ahead of where we normally are at this stage. We’re looking very good – we decided to go with the two big names to headline (Madness and Noel Gallagher) for the two-day line-up, and most of the other stages are sorted.
Has the move from one day to two days meant a massive increase in workload?
It’s a fair bit of an increase. It requires a change in attitude when you go to two days. Thankfully, the majority of people are buying weekend tickets, as was the case last year. We were originally concerned they’d be more inclined to pick one day or the other, but we tried to book it so people would come for the entire event in 2022 - with Richard Ashcroft and Craig David on the Saturday and Ocean Colour Scene, Happy Mondays and Anne-Marie on the Sunday. There was a mix for people who wanted to come on both days and we’ve continued that through this year, as we want people to try and make a weekend of it.
Were you happy with how it went last time?
Look, it wasn’t the most financially successful, because it’s hard to step up. We did pretty well numbers-wise on the Saturday and we did okay on the Sunday, but we felt the momentum was there and enough people enjoyed the two-day experience that the legs were there for people to want weekend tickets again. That gave us the confidence to do it this time too, if we got the line-up right. The first year we launched, in 2008, it was a two-day event, but we had to condense it into one as it wasn’t viable then.
When we first started Splendour, we started booking it in the January. Now, if we don’t have a headliner in place by October or November, we’re worried. You’ve got to be on it
Have you had any snags you’ve had to iron out ahead of this year? I know there were real issues with long bar queues on the Saturday...
We changed the system that we used for the bar tills: we used to use the token system, but it’s difficult as it means everything has to be the same price, which makes it hard to price everything. The benefit is you only have to queue once, but it does make it very difficult to have an array of products. Plus, ten years ago, people didn’t have credit cards and the technology wasn’t sound enough to trust it would work – it is now. The error was the amount of tills and the amount of charging points – we needed more. We solved the issue for the Sunday and for most of the Saturday afternoon, but clearly the bars were a problem. We’re tackling that problem - we do not want to repeat that.
How do you go about selecting the line-up each year? Does it begin as soon as the last event has finished?
It never stops, really: we are already talking about 2024! It accelerated during the pandemic as people’s plans suddenly became an eighteen-month plan or a 24-month plan, rather than a twelve-month plan. When we first started Splendour, we started booking it in the January. Now, if we don’t have a headliner in place by October or November, we’re worried. You’ve got to be on it as there is so much more competition in the market - but there are more acts of that stature around now too.
It’s such a multi-generational event; you need to cover a lot of bases. This year, you have everyone from Sugababes to Confidence Man to the so-called heritage acts like Madness…
Madness are one of my favourite bands – I grew up with them. I had a cassette player in my car and my mate, who started driving before me, only had the greatest hits of Madness, so I know those tunes very well! They did Rock City’s 25th birthday and they’re the number one request to book whenever we have a poll. They were our headliner in 2009, so we’re really pleased to have them. Then it’s about making sure we have other large acts to tick other boxes, like Rudimental and Sugababes. It works because we have a fairly diverse audience - I think it’s safe to say it’s the biggest event Nottingham puts on annually.
Splendour takes place at Wollaton Park on Saturday 22 and Sunday 23 July
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