Head of Festival Operations

LOCATION: Edinburgh / Hybrid, with UK and international travel

SALARY / RATE: £65k-£75k full time. (subject to experience)

ENGAGEMENT: Permanent full-time preferred; long-term freelance may be considered

REPORTING TO: Directors

TRAVEL: UK and international festival sites

The Opportunity

This isn’t a standard event-management role. This is a senior operational leadership position at the heart of EE Live’s growing festival business.

We’re looking for an experienced Head of Festival Operations to take ownership of the planning and operational delivery of Terminal V and our wider festival portfolio, working directly with the directors and leading projects from initial concept and site development through authority engagement, build, live operation, breakdown and handback.

A major initial focus will be Terminal V Glasgow 2027 - a new 20,000-capacity-per-day festival site launching on 5-6 June 2027. Alongside this, you’ll work across all our other festival and outdoor-event projects, many currently in development.

You will own the overall festival project and operational plan. Appointed Production Managers and other competent specialists will retain responsibility for technical production and specialist disciplines including staging, structures, power, sound, lighting, safety, security, medical, traffic and noise. Your role is to set the brief, integrate every workstream, maintain the programme and hold each lead accountable for delivery.

• What You’ll Do

  • Own the end-to-end operational delivery of EE Live’s festival projects, from feasibility and early planning through build, live operation, breakdown and site reinstatement.

    ·  Lead the operational development of new festival sites, working with directors, landowners, authorities and specialist consultants to turn initial concepts into safe, commercially viable and deliverable events.

    ·  Lead operational engagement with local authorities, Safety Advisory Groups / responsible authorities, Police, emergency services and other statutory stakeholders, alongside appointed safety and licensing specialists.

    ·  Own master festival programmes, critical paths, action trackers, readiness reviews, risk registers and cross-department delivery meetings.

    ·  Own and coordinate the Event Management Plan and associated operational documentation, ensuring specialist plans are produced by the appropriate competent persons, aligned and delivered to required deadlines.

    ·  Lead operational site planning with CAD designers and specialist teams, including capacities, ingress and egress, emergency routes, production areas, compounds, welfare, accessibility, transport, accreditation and back-of-house requirements.

    ·  Coordinate and hold accountable the leads responsible for production, site infrastructure, safety, security, crowd management, medical, traffic, transport, welfare, accessibility, sanitation, waste, traders, accreditation and backstage operations.

    ·  Appoint, brief and manage external suppliers and freelance operational teams, establishing clear scopes, deliverables, deadlines and lines of responsibility.

    ·  Tender and negotiate operational packages, interrogate supplier proposals and staffing structures, challenge duplication and ensure resource is proportionate to each event.

    ·  Build and control festival operational budgets, track committed expenditure and change, and identify efficiencies across the portfolio.

    ·  Work with security, safety, production and specialist teams to develop crowd-management, ingress, egress, arena capacity, barrier, emergency access and evacuation strategies.

    ·  Establish clear Event Control, communication, incident escalation and live decision-making structures for each event.

    ·  Act as the senior operational representative onsite, providing clear leadership across build, live event and breakdown.

    ·  Build and maintain EE Live’s network of trusted operational freelancers and specialist suppliers across the UK and internationally.

    ·  Develop repeatable systems, templates, procurement processes and operational standards across EE Live’s festival portfolio, reducing external dependency and improving efficiency year-on-year.

    ·  Lead post-event debriefs, supplier performance reviews and project close-out, ensuring lessons are captured and implemented across future events.

  What We’re Looking For

  • ·  Significant experience in a senior operational role within large-scale outdoor festivals or live music events, ideally 15,000+ daily capacity.

    ·  Demonstrable experience personally leading projects through planning, authority engagement, build, live operation and site handback.

    ·  Strong experience dealing with local authorities, licensing, Safety Advisory Groups / responsible authorities, Police and emergency services.

    ·  Strong working knowledge of festival site operations, crowd management, ingress and egress, infrastructure, transport, event safety and live-event command structures.

    ·  Experience coordinating specialist leads including Production Managers, Event Safety Officers, security, medical and traffic teams without duplicating their specialist responsibilities.

    ·  Strong commercial ability, including operational budgeting, procurement, tendering, quote interrogation, supplier negotiation and change control.

    ·  Experience developing a new festival or outdoor-event site is highly desirable.

    ·  Proven ability to build, lead and motivate multi-disciplinary teams of employees, freelancers, contractors and suppliers.

    ·  Able to move confidently between high-level strategic planning and detailed operational problem-solving.

    ·  Calm, pragmatic and decisive under pressure, with the confidence to make and communicate difficult operational decisions.

    ·  Flexible to travel and work evenings, weekends and extended hours during festival build and delivery periods.

    ·  International festival experience is desirable.

  Why Join Us

  • ·  A rare opportunity to shape how one of Europe’s leading independent electronic music and festival businesses delivers its events.

    ·  A senior and influential in-house role working directly with the directors across the full EE Live portfolio.

    ·  The chance to build EE Live’s in-house festival delivery function, operational systems and trusted freelance network from the ground up.

    ·  Work across major Scottish festivals, international events and new large-scale projects as the company continues to grow.

    ·  A role with genuine ownership, commercial influence and the opportunity to create long-term operational value across multiple event brands.

The Role in Practice

This role sits between EE Live’s directors and the specialist teams delivering each event. You are not expected to be the technical expert in every discipline. You are expected to know what good looks like, appoint the right people, challenge plans and costs, make sure responsibilities are clear and ensure all workstreams come together into one coherent operational plan.

When the directors ask whether an event is operationally ready to open, you should own the answer.

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