The Festival Podcast

Just 5 years ago Tucker Gumber got invited to his first ever music festival, at 27 he was maybe a little late to the party, but from his first taste he was hooked! Fast forward to today and he’s now been to over 100 music festivals in America alone, and he’s about to take Europe and the rest of the world by storm. Tucker is a real advocate for the 'togetherness' ethos of music festivals and how they can be used to make positive change, and we chatted about everything from what’s the one thing he always packs for a festival right through to some of the weird and wonderful experiences he’s had over the last 5 years... This one is definitely not to be missed!

15 years ago Sandy Reid was set the task of rounding up a handful of volunteers to help out at T in the Park and Festaff was born. Fast forward to today and over 26,000 people are on the Festaff database, with 5,000 plus volunteers placed across over 35 events up and down the UK each year. With events now including Glastonbury, Bestival, Download, Isle of Wight and many more, Festaff offers both music fans the ideal way to cheaply enjoy music festivals and give something back, whilst providing organisers with staffing solutions without which music festivals simply couldn’t run! We caught up with the man himself, Sandy Reid, to see how he built his dream and what it means for you music fans…

This year sees the launch of the Old Sawmill Garden Party – a melting pot of off-the-wall ideas mixed with the weirdest and most wonderful acts, artists and entertainment, all brought together in the North of England. It’s a festival that’s been years in the making; with Rob Henderson being inspired by the Halloween parties his mum threw in his youth, he reignited the events at his family home; the Old Sawmill in 2007. With the mantra to not take itself too seriously and a relentless focus on crazy themes, hugely immersive décor, and collaboration, the annual Halloween party grew year on year, until 300 people were showing up and Rob’s mum said enough was enough! For the last few years the Old Sawmill team have been taking their events on the road, putting on shows and hosting rooms with the likes of Rumpus and IllumiNaughty, and running stages at festivals from Beat-Herder to Glastonbury. After meeting so many great artists and organisers along the way, Rob Henderson has teamed up with co-organiser Jonathan Neasham, and a host of brilliant collaborators from the festival scene, to bring one hell of a show to the North of England. We gate-crashed one of the team’s meetings in the build up to the festival to catch up with Rob and also ‘head jester’ and venue owner Luke Haritou and were completely blown away by their amazing passion, hilarious stories and spot-on ethos, this one’s not to be missed…