All the world’s a stage for live events experts

The UK’s leading centre for the live events and creative industries has shown that all the world is a stage having taken its expertise virtual in support of 35 British acts as part of the SXSW online festival.

The company which has bases both in London and Wakefield proved Shakespeare’s words were true, when it partnered with The British Music Embassy, Subfrantic and Wild Stag Studios to curate a takeover of the festival with nine hours of live music.

The content which was captured at Production Park’s studios in both cities, took the place of an event which has seen the British Music Embassy transform a corner of Austin Texas for more than a decade into a showcase of upcoming British talent. The partnership allowed organisers to explore a virtual solution, constituting the most important awareness-raising gigs of the acts’ careers.

Ant Forbes, studio manager for Production Park’s London studio, The Mill, said: “For our supporters, the output of British live music is fundamental. British Music Embassy is the ideal platform for burgeoning UK artists to travel overseas and perform in front of international bookers, agents and talent managers, and prove their metal.

“We had been running BME stage since 2012, taking over a local venue in Austin, bumping up production value and creating a space for British artists to perform. However, when Covid struck and SXSW was cancelled at short notice last year, we put together a behind-closed-doors event. This year, however, we’ve curated a full, bona fide BME stage in old Blighty instead of sunny Texas.”

Following the cancelation of the physical festival, the showcase was shot at Production Park’s The Mill Studio in London and Studio 001 in Wakefield, during the final weekend of January.

Forbes said: “My biggest challenge was having 30 days to pull all the pieces together. Thankfully, we were gifted with the fantastic space, resources and facilities across both Production Park Studios, which contributed to making this the best iteration of BME yet – employing more production than we would typically roll out in Austin.”

Lee Brooks, CEO of Production Park, added: “We’re extremely proud to have played a part in giving these breakthrough British acts the chance to get their voices out there, irrespective of the challenges posed by Covid in recent months. It was a great way for the industry to innovate through adversity; but I’m sure, like me, they can’t wait to get in front of audiences at a live gig and get back to normality.

“We’ve had to be really dynamic in adapting to the circumstances Covid-19 has thrown at us. The pandemic caused a sudden cancellation of audiences attending live events, which meant a subsequent pausing of rehearsals we had booked into our studio calendar. However, our team’s adaptable skillset, twinned with our versatile studios spaces, has meant that we’ve been able to diversify our offering into other areas, such as elite sporting events. We hosted live-streamed professional boxing matches inside our studio throughout 2020 and we’ve been really privileged to have hosted the Vitality Netball Superleague matches over lockdown, which were broadcast on Sky Sports.

“Whilst we’ll continue to be dynamic in exploring growth areas like live streaming and, particularly, virtual production, we remain hopeful the post-Covid bounce-back to live events will be a really strong one. We can’t wait to get back to gigs and into arenas!”

Source: All the world's a stage for live events experts | TheBusinessDesk.com