Characteristics of Event Management - Essay Example

Event management Introduction: Events are some activities which can be treated as the entertainment most of the time. The events can be of many forms. It can be cultural events like dance festival, music and art festivals, Exhibitions, business meets, trade fair, sport events and many more. Managing these events is very much important factor to be given focus on. Event management plays the most important role in executing the event is a proper manner. The proper event management includes many important functions. The event management is the combination of the Execution plan, promotional and marketing plan and the budgetary plans according to the events. Event management can be treated as the application of managing any projects related to any events. The identification of target audience, conceptualizing the event and post event analysis is very much important for any event management company. The event management industry has given a new look to the global event business. The properly managed international events have a great effect on the economy of the country. The event management business and the core concept of globalizing the events have given a great repute to the cultural festivals. The international events have given a new paradigm to the global tourism industry. There are many events occurring globally which attract many international audience. The events like Woodstock music festival, October Fest, many sports events like Football World Cup, Cricket World Cup, Olympics, and art and music festival like Glastonbury Festival of contemporary performing art are globally renowned events and managing these events are very challenging job. This paper would take all the attempts to find out the best possible way to manage an International event like Glastonbury Festival of contemporary performing art. The importance of the event management: For any small to big events the concept of event management has a great contribution towards the success of the event. There are more that hundreds of international events occur globally every year. And in each case each and every events are supported with some event management organization. The importance of the event management for any event can be identified by many means. There are ten importance of event management which can be identified very easily and they are project management, the management of time frame, managing the budget wisely, the contingency management, media management, business planning, attracting international audience, marketing and advertising, human resource planning and management, and definitely the sponsorship and networking (Baum, Deery, and Hanlon 18). However, the environmental factors and the security management are also very much important for any international events. Glastonbury Festival of contemporary performing art is considered as one of the global event in England. It started in 1970 after the death of legendary guitar God Jimmy Hendrix. During the journey of more than 4 decades the event has become a huge success and it has a great value towards the contemporary art and music. It is an open air concert, and the organizing the event like this is not a very easy thing. From the day of the birth of this event it is been growing steadily and now it has an average strength of one hundred and fifty thousand audience from different countries. The Glastonbury festival 2010 was the fortieth anniversary of the event and most of the audiences were expecting a great show out of this event. To give it a best look ever the event management team had to work out many plans to make it the best ever Glastonbury festival. The Glastonbury festival can be treated as the combination of many different festivals covering on the same panoramic countryside for the weekend. The pyramid stage of the event always gives a unique flavor to the event. The pyramid stage always has the attraction of the most high profile performances. It is very rare for a single organization to produce a humongous event like Glastonbury festival of contemporary performing art. It is most of the time a collaborative effort of the organizations to carry out the event. The Glastonbury festival is the five day event. For the events like this mega event the organizer should be engaged with the event for the whole year. It has to be remembered that for the event organizers the resources are not infinite as there are many other events happen during the respective years. For an annual event like Glastonbury Festival is one of the major projects for the event management team of the event (Robinson, Wale, and Dickson 32). The cultural festival in Great Britain has followed different and much more enduring routes. The festive culture in Britain has evolved gradually with many remarkable cultural festivals. The Cropredy Festival has promoted the English music tradition for more than two decades. Most of the music festivals like Glastonbury festivals are the combination of the songs and music evolved from the Vaughan Williams, miners’ songs and postwar protest songs. Most of the music is supplemented by elements of rock and country music. These events have given the powerful movement to the aggressive and political bands as the new folk movement during the 1990s. For an example there are many bands that have got their natural home in the celebrated festival like Glastonbury festival (Shepherd 283). The history of the Glastonbury Festival: The Glastonbury Festival was first started in 1970 after the death of legendary guitarist Jimmy Hendrix. The first Glastonbury Festival was held on the Somerset dairy farm in 1970 and it was inspired by Bath Blue Festival at Shepton Mallet. The second Glastonbury Festival was known as the Glastonbury Fair in 1971 and it has an audience of twelve thousand. The center attraction of the event was the pyramid- cum-stage built over a blind spring to keep the balance of the release and absorption of the energy. In general way the Major event of the music were becoming more and more powerful gradually and it achieved a balance between appreciating the growth of consumerism and a lingering effect of the countercultural agenda (Shepherd 283). The Glastonbury festival is counted as one of the most successful cultural and music festivals in the world. The festival has become highly successful since the beginning in 1970. The main outcome of the success of the event is the raising money for peace and environmental campaigns. The particular event is very much successful as more and more high profile musicians gradually stared taking part in the event (Hetherington 67). The Glastonbury Festival is treated as the grand daddy of all contemporary performing art and music festivals. Started in 1970 with just 500 audiences and now it is having audience more than two hundred thousand. The festival was started by Michael Eavis. This particular festival is having more than eighty different stages. This is one of the most colorful musical festivals in the world. The lollipop colored tents, flattering flags, and flickering lights at the night and the image of the tented city in the countryside are the main attraction of the event (Lonely Planet 138). The Glastonbury Festival 2010 was among the most successful Glastonbury festival. The festival at the Worthy Farm in Pilton England sold out the tickets within twelve hours and the price of the three day pass was one hundred and eighty five pound which was ten pounds higher than the previous year (Billboard 6). The last four decades of the Glastonbury festival: As it has been mentioned earlier that Glastonbury festival was started from 1970 and still it is going very strong. Through the official website of the Glastonbury Festival one can have an exploration of the historical importance of the remarkable event. The historical journey of the remarkable event is given bellow as mentioned by the official website ( history introduction of Glastonbury festival). 1970-1980: The historic event started rolling from 1970 19th September. The first festival was two day period and it was the Blues Festival at the Bath and Showground. The event was the outcome of the inspiration of Michael Eavis to start a festival of his own on a smaller scale. The first show had around one thousand and five hundred audiences and the major artists were Keith Christmas, Al Stewart, Quintessence etc. moreover the event was successful. Gradually the number of audiences and the number of performances kept on increasing year after year. The price of the passes was only one pound for the first year’s festival. However, the next year show was an amazing showcase. The Glastonbury Festival 1971 had more than twelve thousand audiences and the image of the festival was totally changes in this year. In this year for the first time the Event had a pyramid stage. And there were many other cultural art like dance, poetry etc were involved and passes were free as the whole event was sponsored by the people who supported the idea. After 1971 there was a gap of almost seven years. In 1978 the festival restarted again in a name of impromptu festival. However, this was a low profile festival with only five hundred audiences. 1979 was the reborn of the Glastonbury festival it was still known as the Glastonbury Fayre but had a impressive theme of “ the year of the child” ( history introduction of Glastonbury festival). The emerging audiences were almost more than twelve thousand and the ticket price was five pound. In this year for the first time Peter Gabriel performed in the event. The nest year that is in 1980 the festival did not happen for several causes. 1981-1990: 1981 was the memorable year for the Glastonbury Festival as this was the year when the event’s name was changes to the legendary Glastonbury festival for the Glastonbury Fayre. This was the first year when Michael Eavis supported the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). In the 1981 festival Michael positively helped the CND toward the peace movement by holding the festival in the Worthy Farm to benefit the CND campaign. The audiences were about eighteen thousand and the ticket price was 8 pound. In 1983 the festival had it first radio station (history introduction of Glastonbury festival) and got the license to accommodate thirty thousand audiences. And it was sold out. The pass was twelve pounds. 1985 was the memorable year for the fest as it bought more land to increase the capacity and it was the first time the event fetched more than one hundred thousand pound to CND (history introduction of Glastonbury festival) for the charity. In 1988 the festival did not take place as the number of crowd was growing very fast. There problems related to the high rise of the number of audiences. 1989 was the first time when the police got involved in the festival for the security purpose (history introduction of Glastonbury festival). In 1990 for the first time the festival took the name Glastonbury Festival for Contemporary Performing Arts. The increasing numbers of audiences were more than seventy thousand and the ticket price was 38 pound (history introduction of Glastonbury festival). 1991-2010: 1991 was the disappointing year for the audience and for the organizers themselves. This year the event did not take place due to the disturbances happened in the last year. In 1992 for the first time the event donated more than two hundred and fifty thousand pounds (history introduction of Glastonbury festival) to the local charity. 1994 was the sanding year for the festival as it saw the first death of a person in the festival for the drug overdose. 1996 was again a gap for the festival but this time it was for taking the rest for the organizers for the phenomenon success of the previous year. In 1997 the site had an expanded land of eight hundred acres, and the numbers of audiences were ninety thousand. 1998 was the remarkable year for the fest as it had the audiences over one hundred thousand (history introduction of Glastonbury festival). And the tickets were shot up to eighty pound. This year the festival had over one thousand events. 1999 was memorable with the performance of REM. 2003 was the fastest selling year for the Festival since it started. This year the numbers of attendance were one hundred and fifty thousand (history introduction of Glastonbury festival). And the tickets were priced at one hundred and five pounds.2005 was a memorable year for the festival; it was hit by massive rainfall with lightening effect for the two months. However, the festival had more than one hundred and fifty thousand audiences and it happened out to be the most successful Glastonbury festival since the beginning. This year the organization donated a remarkable 1.3 million pound to the charities (history introduction of Glastonbury festival). The festival kept on growing and getting famous globally and in 2010 the festival was an astonishing affair with the calibration of the fortieth anniversary of the event. The economic importance of the Glastonbury event: There are many music and art festival happen in UK but Glastonbury festival has its own unique characteristics. The festival has a great contribution toward the development of the state. The great part of the festival is the contribution towards the charity. Every year the festival contributes a lamp sum amount towards the charity and the betterment of the society. The festival mad profit for the first time in 1981, but it has contributed financial support to the charity organizations from the beginning. In 1981 the festival had a socioeconomic policy to make contribution towards the charity organizations like Greenpeace, Oxfam, WaterAid and CND and many other local organizations for the betterment of the schools, education and other facilities. In 1998 more than seven hundred thousand pound was distributed among the charity organization (Hughes 224). The re launch of the festival in 1979 was accompanied with a decision to raise money for the local branch campaign for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND) (Hughes 224). The Glastonbury Festival is a true cultural festival which contributes to the audiences and at the same time it has given a great support for the betterment of the economic condition of many people in the state. It has always maintained the corporate social responsibilities by contributing huge amounts to the local charity organizations. It is very rare to see some festivals which have given a lion portion of the profit to the charitable trust. Glastonbury festival is among very few music festivals which has a great contribution towards the betterment of the society. The best part about the festival is the contribution to the society and boosting up the international tourism in UK. The Legendary Festival is claimed to be the least commercial festival in the world (Hughes 224) and it has never depended on the sponsors. However, even after not being much commercial it has got the attraction of the global music lovers and the global tourists. The Glastonbury Festival is unique as it is organized by one man organization which is totally supervised by Michael Eavis himself (Hughes 224). Music and tourism: The Glastonbury festival started with merely one thousand five hundred audiences in 1970, but gradually it has grown to a gigantic festival. in the recent time the Glastonbury festival accommodate more than five hundred bands. It started small but now it has become global affair. The festival is least commercial but it has been covered by many well known news channels. In 1990 the festival was covered by BBC. And the BBC recording reached to more than five hundred million people globally in forty five countries including China (Gibson and Connell 246). The Glastonbury fest has give the support to many local bands to show their talents. It has worked as the platform for the success for many brands. And it has a great value for the cultural and music and art study. There are many journalist are there who have said that the Glastonbury fest is a lesson for many new comers in the art field. Some of the journalists claim that it is better to go to Glastonbury instead university (Gibson and Connell 246). The BBC recording helped the festival to reach more passionate music and art lovers in the world. The Glastonbury festival is more than just an art and music festival. It has a great euphoria attached with it. There are many festivals going around in the world but there are very few festival those have got the magical flavor like the Glastonbury festival. There are many reasons for the Glastonbury festival to be one of the greatest attractions for the global tourism. It has all the flavors to satisfy any tourist. It can be treated as a long three days’ joyful holidays, it can be treated as one of the rich cultural gathering, and it can be treated as one of world’s music concert. And the most important it can be treated as the state ob bliss among the hundreds of musical and art genius for three days. The humongous festival has a great site of the country side natural beauty whish can be stated as the beauty of happiness. Glastonbury festival is an amazing gathering where anything can happen (Gibson and Connell 246). The help of the television media and the word of mouth promotion have given a great strength to the festival to be one of the greatest tourist attractions in the UK. However, the ticket price over one hundred pound has barred many local people but the shoe never went flop. The national television coverage, national express bus service to the festival site from the thirty cities around the UK has made it a tourist attraction. Environment and the Glastonbury festival: The Glastonbury festival is an affair which should be counted as a bigger affair in UK. Accommodating more than one hundred and fifty thousand music and art lover for three days is a not a very easy job. Running a large scale festival like Glastonbury for three days in a farm has a direct effect to the environment. Any event more than one hundred and fifty thousand audience will generate a great amount of litter. The festival aims for the lowering the amount of waste. The waste collection and rubbish removal activities are very much important in this case. The festival works according to the environmental management principle of Reduce, Reuse and recycle (Bowdin, Allen and OToole 63). Competitive advantage: There are many festival happens in UK every year. One of the well-known festivals is the WOMAD festival which is held on the banks of the Thames River. In this festival the hippie idealism is very much prominent. It has great psychedelic experiences (Partridge 159). Another festival is the EXIT music festival which started in 2000. The festival is staged at Petrovaradin Fortress. The festival has around one hundred thousand audiences annually. And, it has got the best European festival ward in 2007 (Mitchell 231). However, the Glastonbury festival has a great flavor in itself which makes it a totally different music and art festival the main difference is the blissful experience of the three days limitless enjoyment, cultural heritage and the best part is the contribution towards the betterment of the culture and the upbringing the new talent. From the tourism viewpoint, from the cultural view point and from the economic view point the Glastonbury fest has its own respectful space in most of the music lover’s hearts. It is a super blend of the music, art and heavenly bliss. Nowadays most of the music and art festivals are just the money generating machines and most of the festivals are sponsored and supported by the big brands. And the event management is organized by big event management companies. But for all the event management companies the Glastonbury Festival is a lesson as the festival is not highly supported by the big brands and it is a one man show and that is the Worthy Firm owner Mr. Michael Evias. Event management companies should take this festival as a bench mark for the work of art in the event management field. Conclusion: The Glastonbury Festival has become the festival for the world. It has boosted the UK tourism; it has given a great contribution towards the economy and betterment. It has shown a great responsibility towards the social responsibilities. The best part is the controlling the environmental issues. The environmental pollution is a great problem for the festival like these, but the organization has always maintained the environmental pollution control. The Glastonbury festival has become a study for many event management companies. Managing the humongous event like Glastonbury Festival is an act of more than one event management company but, it is an one man organization and there is the difference of the festival from the other festivals. Work sited Baum Tom, Deery M and Hanlon C. “People and work in events and conventions: a research perspective”. Oxfordshire: CABI, 2009. Billboard. “Glastonbury 2010 sells out”. Billboard 17 October 2009: 6 Print. Bowdin G. A. J, Allen Johnny and OToole William. “Events management”. Amsterdam: Elsevier, 2006. Gibson Chris and Connell John. “Music and tourism: on the road again”. Bristol: Channel View Publications, 2005. Hetherington Kevin. “New age travellers: vanloads of uproarious humanity”. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2000. Hughes Howard. “Arts, entertainment and tourism”. Massachusetts: Butterworth- Heinemann, 2000. Lonely Planet. “Lonely Planets Best in Travel 2010”. London: Lonely Planet, 2009. Mitchell Laurence. “Serbia, 3rd”. Bucks: Bradt Travel Guides, 2010. Partridge Christopher Hugh. “The Re-enchantment of the West: Alternative spiritualities, sacralization, popular culture, and occulture”. New York: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2005. Robinson Peter, Wale Debra, Dickson Geoff. “Events Management”. Oxfordshire: CABI, 2009. Shepherd John. “Continuum encyclopedia of popular music of the world”. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003. “The history introduction of Glastonbury festival”. available at: http://www.glastonburyfestivals.co.uk/history/ . accessed on 28 November 2010. Read More