We Are the Fair

Hello, We are The Fair

Event experts for the best possible experience.

Welcome to The Fair, an award-winning Event Production agency based in East London. The Fair is Big Cat Group’s dedicated events division; we are large-scale event delivery specialists focused on three things: safety, quality and budget.

Since 2000, we have delivered world class large-scale events and festivals through our expert teams specialising in Event Production, Licensing & Health and Safety. Company We Keep Perfect Production Partner

92 festivals under our belts this season alone...

We know how much work goes into promoting and growing a festival, from branding to ticketing partnerships through to your comms planning and much much more, it’s a full time job.

We also know our strengths and support our clients by planning and delivering your festival seamlessly, leaving you to focus on what you do best.

We work in partnership with our clients and are invested in ensuring every detail is right from stakeholder management and liaising with the Relevant Authorities through to site planning and technical production.

The relationships we have built in the industry over the past 18 years enable us to get your festival live without a hitch. “Having had several teething issues in our first year we entrusted The Fair to handle all production and licensing aspects for GALA in 2017. Despite some typically rough British weather, the festival ran so smoothly it’s given us the confidence to grow in size next summer. The Fair have played a big role in our success as a festival and without them we’re sure GALA’s future would not look as bright.”

Giles Napier, Director – This Is Gala Perfect Production Partner

WATF’s work spans several areas including specialist event Health and Safety consultancy, Licensing and Production for festivals and large-scale, complex events internationally involving huge stakeholder groups within both the corporate and live sectors.

The team have experience in delivering large-scale events, festivals, public realm and community events, launches and brand activations for a large portfolio of clients. Some of these clients include Festival, Boxpark, Shuffle Festival, Eastern Electrics, Holi Festival of Colours, GALA Festival, Bournemouth 7s and Mostly Jazz Festival as well as Hammerson, Bedford Estates, Time Warner, CBS, Baker St Quarter and charities such as The Big Issue Foundation.

Through an approach that combines Production and Health & Safety knowledge the agency differentiates itself from competitors and delivers events that are safe, high quality and on budget, ensuring their clients and audiences always have the best possible experience. The agency’s approach to Health & Safety is both realistic and proportionate. The team have a rounded approach and are able to use their knowledge of event production to work with rigor and flexibility.

The agency are members of SAGE (Safety Advisory Group for Events), NOEA, AIF and IOSH. Membership of SAGE means regular updates from the HSE in relation to event safety information. In addition to this, the agency subscribe to the purple guide and regularly attend events at the London metropolitan branch of IOSH. All team members regularly take part in external training including Project Griffin, and Project Argus, Counter Terrorism at Events (with NaCTSO).

WATF have won many awards including NOEA’s Best Practice Award for Health and Safety and The Festival Supplier Awards for Health & Safety. Nick Morgan, founder and CEO has particular expertise in producing complex events and Health and Safety management for events. Along with Director, Rob Dudley they oversee The Fair's Event Production and Event Safety and Licensing divisions.

The whole team are passionate about the events and work with organisations to share knowledge, drive growth and development, providing a positive and ambitious vision, working together to champion the industry. Nick regularly speaks at conferences such as International Confex, The Event Production Show, Event Buyers Live, Festout and IMEX and is also a committee member of SAGE, a Strategy Group Member of the AIF (Association of Independent Festivals) a council member of NOEA (National Outdoor Events Association) and sits on the board of The Roman Road Trust. We started working with The Fair when we decided to move Eastern Electrics to a new site. They supported us throughout the licensing process and were committed from day one to making the show happen in the way we envisaged it.

They really care about what they do and are a great group of people to work with, from the Site Office to the Production Manager to the Health & Safety Officers, their expertise spoke volumes and the friendly team atmosphere made even the stressful times on site enjoyable - we couldn’t have asked for a better team to produce the show.”

Rob Star, Director, Eastern Electrics. The day to day - How we work

Introductory meeting

Dedicated account manager & team assigned

Outline roles & responsibilities

Contract & budget sign off De-brief

Set timeline and key Final budget reconciliation milestones

Weekly status updates Live show

Monthly client Multi-agency meetings pre- event meeting Production and H&S - How we work

Brief Site Build Rehearsal /Briefing

Scoping & Feasibility Tool Box Talks Live Production

Site Visit Compliance Live H&S

Site Planning SAG Break

Infrastructure ESMP De-Brief

Licensing Procurement Evaluation

Event Creative Working Budget Measurement Added Value

Producing festivals and large-scale events for over 18 years

18 years experience working with Local Authority and community events across the UK.

Over 25 years experience working in the music industry

Placemaking expertise.

Strong understanding and relationships with ticketing partners

Understanding of talent booking and talent agency workings

History of working with sponsorship brokers and agencies Stakeholder management experience of 92+ stakeholders.

UK wide and international network of promoters and festivals

Event Health & Safety and Licensing division in-house.

NEBOSH & TechIOSH accredited “We’re really excited to be working with The Fair in developing El Dorado Festival this summer. Their experience and key understanding of boutique festivals, particularly the weird and the wonderful, made thisY anour obviousCore partnershipTeam for us and we’re looking forward to creating a new and incredible adventure with them in June.”

Kate Osler, Festival Director, El Dorado Supplier Family

WATF are always a pleasure to work with. Whether they’re managing a site or procuring Technical Production, we have always found their team to be professional, flexible, polite and to have a good sense of humour – which is always important! Joe, Director, RSH Audio

Having worked with ‘We are The Fair’ for a number of years as a key contractor to them, we have always found them to be an excellent team to work with from a Supplier Side. The advance of their projects is solid, as well as maintaining a good rapport with all contractors on site with well-run and successful sites leading to a successful event for their clients – we feel that their ‘partnership’ approach with key suppliers is a big part of the successful delivery of their projects with everyone from Site and Production Managers through to fellow sub-contractors having each other’s backs – it means that jobs can happen with everyone smiling, makes for a healthy working environment and no on-site issues are insurmountable with the resources on site.

We have had the opportunity to be involved in some fantastic events with We are The Fair & highly rate their work and we look forward to many more years of continuing working together.

Tom – SWG POWER

Case studies

Our festival family.

We produce small intimate shows through to festivals with audiences of 50,000+, brand activations, charity events and public realm experiences.

From Licensing through to live production, here are some examples of our work… GALA 2018

Background Gala is an independent festival all about great food and drink; and the best of house, disco, funk and soul. The ambitious first event was held in 2016 at Brockwell Park and while none could doubt the quality of the music there were logistical challenges. In 2017, The Fair were asked to step in and manage production, enabling the organisers to focus on curation. Our partnership has safeguarded the future of the festival with the 2017 event a complete sell out, and an incredible success.

 The location of the park coupled with suspensions on the London Overground, Southern and Thameslink services into the local area and closures of key transport hubs including Peckham Rye, Nunhead and East Dulwich made ingress and egress planning especially challenging.

Delivery The Fair worked alongside the GALA team, Southwark Council and various suppliers to produce the events. In spite of a looming threat of thunderstorms and torrential rain, the sun shone all weekend and the festival site was basked in a golden hue. The atmosphere was eclectic with headliners including Derrick Carter, Midland, Horse Meat Disco & Honey Dijon. The vibe and energy of the audience was infectious and it was great to see the park come to life for so many people! With KERB on board this year the food selection was second to none with highlights including Otherside Fried, Nonna’s Gelato and Oli Baba’s.

 Pre-Production: Procuring high quality suppliers  Working in partnership with Southwark Council, local stakeholders and local residents to develop plans while ensuring interests were protected and maintained within a park that had never before hosted an event of this nature  Working with the Friends of Peckham Rye Park and an independent Ecology Consultant to ensure the protection of wildlife within the park  Live Event: Ensuring quality sound across three stages whilst keeping within the maximum offsite levels  Managing production and health and safety for 8,000 attendees  Break: In spite of the unfortunate English Weather and almost the entire May average of 50mm (2in) of rain falling in just a few hours we left the park as close to possible as it was before our arrival  We continue to work with Southwark Council and the local community to ensure that reinstatement works are completed as soon as possible and we hope that after this is completed our event will leave no trace

Results  8,000 people attended GALA Festival  Strong representation from the local community with 35% of ticket holders coming from Southwark, Lambeth and Lewisham  Great feedback from all who attended the festival GALA 2018

Challenge  After the high of the previous year, 2018 brought a new challenge as larger events took to Brockwell Park, and Gala was faced with finding a new home. For the organisers it was imperative that the event remained in South East London, and The Fair worked tirelessly to secure the perfect spot in a beautiful corner of Peckham Rye Park.  The location of the park coupled with suspensions on the London Overground, Southern and Thameslink services into the local area and closures of key transport hubs including Peckham Rye, Nunhead and East Dulwich made ingress and egress planning especially challenging.

Background Eastern Electrics is a 2 day annual dance music festival, bringing together the crème de la crème of House and Techno DJ’s. The festival has moved around London over the years, originally kicking things off back in 2012 at Greenwich Peninsula. After assisting them to find a home last year, The Fair worked closely with the EE team in producing this years’ show at Morden Park

Challenge To keep up with the increased popularity of the show, we extended the site and produced the biggest Eastern Electrics to date, opening our doors on Saturday to over 20,000 guests. The promoters have always been keen on the creative elements, which increased accordingly with the larger site to include a bigger and better Switch Yard stage and a secret stage… accessible through a disguised Portaloo. During one of the hottest summers of the year, a big challenge was ensuring the welfare of guests and staff which included bringing in cooling systems, additional water and enhanced medical response teams

Delivery Regardless of the blistering heat over the weekend, our dedicated guests were unfazed, as a flurry of colourful shirts and glitter painted ravers piled in at 11am. Guests had the opportunity to make use of 8 stages, some of which were placed in secretive locations such as; a retro themed cinema theatre at the defected stage, a rave through a portaloo and the Tropical Tea Party, blocked off from the public eye with Hay Bales, trees and fencing. The Switch Yard – which held grace to Alan Fitzpatrick and Eats Everything - also boasted improvements with 2x vertical containers towering 40ft over the crowds. Considering the intense heat, We Are The Fair implemented air cooling systems into the tents that were most prone to high temperatures, such as the defected stage - a marquee fully covered in blackout wool fabric.

Post event, The Fair rapidly de-rigged the event with the site being returned to its original state by the end of the week. As the area was heavily residential, several teams of cleaners were deployed throughout the evenings to retrace our guests’ footsteps and remove any remaining mess. Social media reviews from sites such as skiddle are all raving about the event, with plenty of twitter activity already showing excitement for next year…. and we can’t wait!

Results 20,000 people attended Eastern Electrics Festival Great feedback and reports from festival headliners as well as the audience who attended the event EL DORADO EL DORADO

Background El Dorado is a British boutique music festival from the minds behind Cirque Du Soul, the creative brand famed for their colourful, magical and energetic parties. Showcasing a diverse line-up drawing from the different strands of dance music, recent editions have featured Craig David, Groove Armada and Shy FX inside the beautiful, intimate grounds of Ledbury's Eastnor Castle. Eccentric and wild, El Dorado's woodland, riverside setting is a place to leave your inhibitions at the gates and jump head first into the creative worlds of this truly fantastical festival.

Challenge We were brought on board to support the AEI and Cirque Du Soul teams in producing the 2018 festival, working with a large group of stakeholders and internal production teams to produce a new and improved show for the third instalment of El Dorado. After we won the contract there was need to completely re-design the festival site after two years of the event taking place to this. Other challenges included building in extreme heat and very long working hours on site.

Delivery • CAD site plan authoring • Supplier procurement • Site Management • Production Management • Operations Management • Security Management • Site build and de-rig • Crew Management • Door Management • Campsite build • Campsite management • Technical Production Management

Results • An audience of 6000 people daily across the duration of the 4 day show • Artist performances included Sister Sledge, Wilkinson, Maribou State, Nightmares on Wax and David Rodigan • 8 stages including an increased capacity floating stage and a new woodland stage. • Activities included The Dance Off! Yoga, a funfair and even a bit of Bingo Lingo!

‘El Dorado Festival is more than just a music festival. It is about theatrics, adventure, discovery and uniting everyone through shared experiences of the weird and wonderful. Considering it is still only in its third year, you can only expect this festival to get bigger, better and even wackier in the future, making an exciting addition to the boutique festival circuit.’ (Skiddle) ART’S HOUSE ART’S HOUSE

Background For 2018 Columbo Group developed a new arena show concept called Art’s House, a single stage festival headed up by the DJ Artwork. The stage would be designed as his [Art’s] house where he would play b2b with collaborator DJ Harvey. The festival would production share with promoter Anjunadeep for the weekend.

Challenge We Are The Fair sourced the venue at Three Mills Green & Island for the show, the same venue as Percolate Open Air 2017, which meant the production team could use their knowledge from working at the venue. The team had to design the site to cater for a 7k capacity as well as 10 food traders, VIP area, three bars and traditional funfair games.

Delivery • Venue sourcing and licensing • Full production and event management • Supplier sourcing and auditing • Supplier advancing and management on site • Health and Safety management • Site design and CAD

Results Bespoke designed stage and site, which included forest playground area, varied food offering, lockers, cash machines and merch stand from Sports Banger. Despite rain on the show day, the festival received a lot of positive feedback for the first year. KISSTORY ON THE COMMON KISSTORY ON THE COMMON

Background Having hosted numerous successful events in the UK and abroad for the past 5 years, KISSTORY were keen to go bigger with the launch of KISSTORY On The Common their inaugural all-day festival. KISSTORY approached The Fair to manage Production and Health & Safety for the 1-day event on Streatham Common. With a music policy based around the very best in Old Skool and Anthems the event featured garage, drum and bass, jungle, R’n’B, Hip Hop and House music as well as sets from KISS DJ’s including Majestic, DJ Pioneer, Mike Delinquent, Neev and Justin Wilkes plus big PA’s from Crystal Waters, Donae’o, UK Apache, Shola Ama, Oxide & Neutrino and Fatman Scoop.

Challenge • Producing the first ever KISSTORY On The Common festival • Working with a new client on a first time event and maintaining a cohesive vision and joined up approach to planning

Delivery The Fair worked alongside the KISSTORY team, Lambeth Council and various suppliers to produce the event. From the unique boom box mainstage to the KISSTORY Karaoke, laser tag and ball pit, to the disco ball head dancers and giant inflatables, KISSTORY On The Common offered something different; we successfully created an environment in which guests were encouraged to lose their inhibitions and engage in having a great time!

• Pre-Production: Procuring high quality suppliers • Working in partnership with Lambeth Council, local stakeholders and local residents to develop plans while ensuring interests were protected and maintained • Live Event: Ensuring quality sound across three stages whilst keeping within the maximum offsite levels • Managing production and health and safety for over 8,250 attendees • Break: Leaving the park as close to possible as it was before our arrival

Results • Sold out festival (within one month) • 8,250 Attendees • Hugely positive feedback from our partners, guests, artists and ticket holders

Dancing on a big beat box made my life!!!! Awesome can’t wait to come back again. Still buzzing at just how good this was @KissFMUK #KISSTORYontheCommon Literally had THE best day! #kisstoryonthecommon was UNREAL #KISSTORY Yasmin, Rami and the team at We Are The Fair did a fantastic job bringing our initial, and somewhat ambitious, creative ideas to life, they completely understood the brief and objectives and we were delighted with their recommendations. Victoria. Head of Marketing & Events – The KISS Network