Sharon Reuben’s career has grown in the industry for over 20 years, working on some of the biggest events in the country, giving her a more than prestigious reputation. “More than half a million fans attend the festivals we own and co-produce each year. They do so because they share our passion for festivals. Festivals are in our blood and we are proud to provide the heartbeat of the summer.” This is Festival Republic. This is the company Sharon has been working for as Head of Guest and Artist Liaison.
At the beginning of her career, Sharon worked in venues hosting live music around London for five or six years in the company, then called, Mean Fiddler. Taking shared ownership of Reading in 1989, then sole ownership in 1993, the company helped the festival grow into the most famous rock show in the world. Alongside, parallel festival Leeds was born in 1999 which is today just as famous as the original. 2002 was an important year as they took operational management of Glastonbury, which was the make or break year regarding the smooth running of the festival. Due to crowd control and security issues in previous years, the festival was at risk of not being able to run again. Of course the op management takeover was a success and Melvin Benn, Managing Director of Festival Republic, continued to run the festival. Mean Fiddler was sold in 2004 to Live Nation Gaiety for £40 mill.! The company changed its name and began creating the modern music festival market in the UK. It sold all of their venues in London and concentrated purely on maintaining and improving the festival scene. The company now runs some of the best festivals around including music and arts festival Latitude, chill out fest The Big Chill, Electric Picnic in Ireland amongst festivals even further afield like Hove in Norway and Orlando Calling in Florida.
In all of these events, Sharon’s role is far beyond your average busy schedule. The artist liaison side of her position is making sure the artists are happy. This means gathering the needs of the artists and bands; technical specifications, guests or any other needs they may have whilst at the festival. Guest liaison is the side of her role, which means she is responsible for distributing all of the free tickets. Free tickets are given to thousands of people each festival, from sponsors, to band crew, friends of the artists and so on. The sheer volume of people Sharon has to deal with is simply mind-boggling.
She spoke of other difficulties the company comes across each year. As the company are straight-up eco-warriors they have to come up with cost effective ways of making the ‘goers recycle, cut down their carbon footprint and save energy. One example she gave which I thought was a nice idea was “ride for your ticket” scheme that takes place at a few of the festivals, where the longer distance away you ride your bike from to the festival, the more money you get taken off your ticket. I thought this was an awesome idea, however the thought came to my mind of how I would transport all of my festival gear, which would probably mean someone would have to meet me there, but I suppose every little helps.
The most obvious problem she mentioned was booking the acts. She said many of the large acts are booked a year or even sometimes two years in advance, with the majority of everyone else being booked around nine months in advance. This makes it incredibly hard for the booker, because how is anyone supposed to know what will work when the tickets go on sale? Someone said they thought that this was the sole reason Leeds did not sell out last year, as there were a few critics of the line-up in the audience. She mentioned the deposit scheme that is a new addition to the way we can buy tickets, where you can pay in installments, which I thought was a great idea. Festivals are getting more and more expensive and I think that’s a great way of combatting the fork out, which for me means I can go to more festivals.
Exclusivity is another major problem for the booker. Basically meaning they agree on a contract with the headline acts or some of the other bigger acts on what other events they can do. For example, making sure Gun’n’Roses don’t play another UK festival that year, or something along those lines. Without this, the competition would be fierce and I don’t think festivalgoers would be willing to pay so much money, or they would choose a different festival as it has that same headliner and more, for instance. The most shocking fact of all was when she stated that only thirty-five full-time staff worked at Festival Republic all year round, though numbers increase from April to September! That’s incredible! I was overly impressed as I can only begin to imagine how much work goes into making these festivals. This was very inspiring.
The most exciting point for me was when she told us of the internship and apprenticeship places Festival Republic are offering. Two twelve-month apprenticeships and ten internship placements of up to three weeks are up for grabs. These placements give you the chance to work in any of the following departments; production, artist liaison, sponsorship, PR, marketing, digital/social media, ticketing, sustainability and on site at the festival. This would be purely the best experience you could ask for, learning from the most experienced company around. I will sure to be applying as soon as they release the forms on the Leeds and Reading sites!
I am awfully envious of her. Despite how much hard graft she must put in, the many sick-feeling-in-the-bottom-of-your-stomach moments, the competition and the crazy work hours, it sounds like you get a lot out of it! She gets to travel, meet an overwhelming amount of awe-inspiring people, listen to some of the best artists around, and be right at the heart of the festival spirit. And she was so down to earth. I could see how fanatical she was about her work, and that I respect highly.
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