2022: A Year Like No Other (Again)

I've always loved the time of year that we get to host the Bournemouth 7s Festival . Not only do we get to start the summer with an almighty bang for our incredible fanbase of sporting enthusiasts and party people; but our coastal home also gives us our amazing team the best possible location in the UK to enjoy our 'down time'.

Sunshine, major sporting occasions, the return of some of the UK's largest festivals, silverware for an England football team - the summer of 2022 has had it all. Having kept our festival business floating through a pandemic and then delivering 2 of our biggest ever festivals in 9 months - so many of our people, myself included, really needed a break and the backdrop has been joyous.

Despite the sometimes hysterical mass media leading you to believe the contrary, there has been plenty of good news this year. None more so than the return of the UK events industry in (pretty much) full flow! It's been spectacular to see thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people flooding to Glastonbury, to Alexander Stadium, to Pride and to so many of the incredible returning small community shows which are the lifeblood of our sector.

It is so wonderful that 2022's 'hybrid' events are again live television coverage of spectacular performances, themselves delivered in front of thousands of adoring fans. Without realising it, we are proving to the public, and the UK government if they care to listen, that we deliver events better than almost anywhere else on the planet. Even with scarce resource and huge supply challenges, an army of #eventprofs is delivering show after show that makes us all realise what we missed over the past couple of years.

So, that's the good news. And a bloody big dollop of it.

However, the reason I started this opinion piece by mentioning the timing of B7s is that we've probably had more time than most to start looking ahead to 2023. It seems weird to write a summary of 2022 at the start of August but we're now firmly in planning mode for the 16th edition of our independent celebration of music and sport, next May. Indeed, we launch for next year in just a few weeks, on the 1st September.

I'm no fortune teller, but my gut feeling is that the next year is going to be difficult (again). Over the past few weeks, we have been looking at setting ticket prices for next year. It is an incredibly delicate balancing act between an ever-constrained customer wallet and ever-increasing costs. If you look at the real inflationary increase in event delivery costs and chuck in a return to the standard rate of VAT for hospitality tickets, you soon realise that prices need to go up just to stay the same.

We saw great numbers at Bournemouth 7s Festival this year, only slightly below our post-pandemic-party high from 2021. But, we are realistic to know that customers will be making tough choices in the next year or so as they balance fuel bills, food costs and luxury occasions such as a weekend at their favourite festival.

Moving forwards, therefore, I have two absolute focuses for 2023. We need to ensure that we keep value right at the centre of our offering. We need to create an experience which builds on everything we have done to this point and keep being reasonable with what we expect from customers in return.

Secondly, I know that the expertise, experience and passion of our team has never been more valuable. Having largely kept the team together through Covid, we've actually added a few new faces over the past year or so. That means that we are approaching our next event with our strongest ever team, something which I think is going to be hugely crucial and valuable as we move forwards.

In my opinion, great events and businesses that have a truly unique offering will ride out difficult times. It is during the challenging periods that we learn the most about ourselves and our businesses and, in finding a way through, we build a more resilient business for the future.

With that said, I'd certainly take an easier year sometime soon...