Paul Dennis, right with Paul Bliss, the organiser of Blissfields.
Event management graduate Paul Dennis has found his bliss through his business Shakey Ape Events which he set up with fellow student Anna Lyttle while studying for his degree at the University of Cumbria.
The enterprising pair set up their business in 2011 while studying for a foundation degree in event management. Shakey Ape Events quickly became a success having an impressive national event portfolio with the jewel in Paul and Anna’s events management crown being Blissfields festival in Hampshire, which is nominated for five awards at this year’s UK Festival Awards including Best Small Festival.
“I think this will be my eighth or ninth year at Blissfields.” 34-year-old Paul explains, “It was the first festival I ever helped out at, I just turned up to steward and that was the beginning of it really, from there I have been doing different jobs each year until I started managing the event with Anna in 2012.”
Paul and Anna are now responsible for overseeing all the aspects of managing Blissfields festival from planning through to delivery, which includes supervising everything from health and safety, security, the budgets, booking stages and stewarding, to making sure the grass is cut.
Blissfield has now been going for thirteen years having grown into a very popular small festival from humble beginnings as Paul explains: “Blissfields basically started off as a party to promote local music, it was never seen as a festival in a financial sense, then in 2007 it won the Best Small Festival award. We have slowly grown it over the years rather than trying to make it bigger overnight, it started off with seventy people and next year there will be five thousand.”
The family friendly festival is known for its good line-ups with a lot of up and coming artists playing at the festival just before they become famous. Paul also feels the success of any festival now lies in providing more than just good music: “I think at the moment people are choosing festivals not just for their line-ups but for the overall experience it gives to people, they want to get away for the weekend and have a good general festival experience, it’s not just about the music.”
Making sure the festival runs smoothly and everyone has a good time requires a lot of effort with the planning and organising of Blissfields taking ten months, with on site work taking just five weeks.
The most challenging parts of running the event for Paul are: “Dealing with the security issues, people don’t realise the amount of hours you are up and about dealing with situations, you have to stay calm at all times and it can be a very stressful job.”
Surprisingly one of the highlights of all this hard work for Paul is: “When it’s over,” he laughs: “I do enjoy it when it’s over, it’s one of the best parts knowing that everyone has had a good time and it was safe, knowing people have left the site and it went well and it was a really good event.
“I love everything to do with it and I have made some great friends through it. I love the way it brings everyone together to work, we basically build a small village over the course of five weeks, it’s just the beauty of having an empty field which we transform so something amazing can happen.”
Paul would offer the following advice to current students hoping to break into their chosen events industry: “Basically you have to start at the bottom, just find whatever way possible to get in with a company and just work as hard as you can and be sensible, take on as much as you can and start improving yourself to enhance your CV.”
Blissfields Festival, Hampshire in full swing.
If anyone is interested in stewarding or gaining work experience at next year’s Blissfields festival then you can contact Paul at info@shakeyape.co.uk
Words Samantha Ridley
Images courtesy of Paul Dennis
CAMPUS 