‘Gigs and festivals are back’: the Manchester trio reinvigorating the live events scene again

A hugely-successful Manchester events company is hoping 2022 will be a year when music fans return to the dancefloor and start heading for festivals again to see their favourite acts.

Live music, culture and the arts were heavily affected by the Covid-19 pandemic as travel and large events came to a halt.

But Mustard Media, founded by three entrepreneurs who started out running club nights while still studying at The University of Manchester, is hoping that the sector will rebound strongly next year.

The firm is hoping to shift more than a million tickets for its array of events in 2022, while acknowledging that the pandemic has led to major changes in people’s lifestyles.

What is Mustard Media?

Mustard Media is based in Ancoats and was founded in 2013 by Rob Masterson, Ed Norris and Oli Hackett.

The trio met while studying at university and they started putting on club nights (including one called Drop The Mustard), which quickly grew in size until they were hosting events attracting a couple of thousand revellers.

Once they had graduated, success continued to come quickly and they started working on Parklife and the Warehouse Project, overseeing the outdoor festival’s move to Heaton Park which involved a considerable expansion of the event to accommodate around 70,000 attendees.

After other festivals came on board wanting to work with them, Rob, Ed and Oli decided it was time to start their own business and Mustard Media was born.

Over the last eight years, they have provided marketing solutions to festivals and events spanning 18 countries as far away as Australia, working alongside tourism boards, award winning festivals, Premier League football clubs and large-scale family events.

Their clients include Manchester Pride, Elrow, BPM Festival in Portugal, Afro Nation in Portugal, Ghana and Puerto Rico, Camp Bestival, EDC & Rolling Loud (Portugal).

They also co-founded Annie Mac Presents: Lost and Found Festival in Malta.

From starting out as a trio the business now employs a team of 20 and is based in one of Manchester’s fastest up-and-coming districts, located just to the north of Piccadilly and the Northern Quarter.

What are the business’ hopes for 2022?

Mustard Media has set ambitious targets for next year and plans to sell around 1.2m tickets for the vast array of events it works on.

However, Ed acknowledges that the sector has changed massively due to Covid-19.

Events aimed at teenagers and younger people he predicts will bounce back very strongly as the age group is desperate to attend events again after more than 18 months of severe disruption to their social lives.

He thinks music festivals aimed at adults may see audiences being a bit more cautious about returning to going to large-scale events.

But the company says there has been considerable growth in outdoor events, especially those aimed at families, and this is something Mustard Media has been working on extensively during the pandemic.

Ed said: “People’s habits and lifestyles have changed, and that means the type of events will change.

“Customers want things to do that are safe and outside, and we’ve done some very successful things like light trails.

“We built Lightopia in Heaton Park from scratch and we did one themed around dinosaurs.”

Their campaign for the upcoming festive season includes similar events like Christmas at Bute Park in Cardiff, which sold more than 40,000 tickets in 48 hours.

Its campaign for Homobloc, Manchester’s ‘queer block party for all’, saw 10,000 plus tickets sell in a matter of days.

However, Mustard Media admits that with its background in music it is really looking forward to seeing the festival industry pick up again.

Rob said: “It’s fantastic to see live events happening again especially when people had such a difficult road to get there.

“Our team is growing again with some amazing new team members and a recruitment drive still going on for more new faces and more expertise. Events are back.”

Ed said: “There are new festivals around, some of them by very experienced promoters who’ve spotted an opportunity, while others are expanding. Camp Bestival is doing a second site in Shropshire. We launched a couple of places for Afro Nation and they’re now looking at other locations.

“It may look like a risky thing to do but promoters are risk takers. It’s the nature of the beast.

“The market is saturated and very competitive, so if you play it safe, you’re never going to progress. Customers want an experience, an event that doesn’t exist currently.”

There are still ongoing challenges around foreign travel and international festivals, but Mustard Media is hoping that some of those events will also begin again in 2022.

How did Mustard Media get through the pandemic?

The arrival of Covid-19 in Britain early in 2020 meant Rob, Ed and Oli were forced into diversifying the business.

To keep the industry going, Mustard Media launched ‘Business Keeps on Dancing’ in April bringing together experts and thought leaders in a series of free webinars.

Speakers from brands including Facebook, Parklife Festival and entertainment brand Bongo’s Bingo shared insights with thousands of brand owners and marketers across the globe.

It remained a tough time for the business, having to adapt to home working and also letting some newly-employed members of staff go.

Mustard Media also admitted it had not initially thought the pandemic would go on as long as it has.

“We work with some of the best brands and prestigious festivals in the world and we thought we were going to be nuked by Covid,” said Masterson.

“The last 18 months have been extremely difficult, but we adapted and decided to use the time with our teams to help 4,000 event owners around the world with Business Keeps on Dancing. We now have a bigger network and a better profile as a company from that initiative.

“Over the course of the year we’ve been riding the public sentiment and reacting to positive news to get tickets on sale quickly as events have been allowed to reopen.”