STRATEGY SCOTLAND -THE PERFECT STAGE
‘You should have someone saying it is utter bollocks’
William Peakin meets a military man with a strategy
Brigadier David Allfrey has just finished a meeting with representa- tives from Te Household Division - the seven British Army Regiments serving Her Majesty Te Queen - about its potential involvement in next year’s Edinburgh Military Tat- too, of which he has been the chief executive and producer since 2011. “Te huge figure in the tweed suit
was the Garrison Sergeant Major, London District - a god amongst men,” said Allfrey, as he ushered me into his cramped office on Market Street in Edinburgh, overlooking Waverley Station. Allfrey had been busy ‘selling’ them their part in the tattoo, the theme of which, Tunes of Glory, has been in the planning for two years. “It will be about 10% of the
Tattoo, but it’s the core. Tis is all about ‘tunes of glory’; Trooping the Colour, for example. We’re going to try and recreate a piece of state
ceremonial on a scale where people will just go: ‘Wow’. But there are months of advocacy involved [in getting approval].” But Allfrey is just as keen to
talk about the recently launched national events strategy, Scotland – Te Perfect Stage. As events and festivals champion
for the Scottish Tourism Alliance, he is, for the moment, the clos- est we have to a spokesperson for the industry, a sector so diverse it encompasses the organisers of a vil- lage fair and T in the Park, suppliers to the Turner Prize Award dinner in December and the Guinness PRO12 rugby final next year. Why not then, for the moment, a
former army officer with more than 30 years service under his belt? It certainly makes for an inter-
esting hour, during which Allfrey reflects on the difference between life in the forces (“I’m used to orders from high command”) and as a civilian (“Persuading the sector to look to Scotland – Te Perfect Stage for guidance is a hell of an ask for many commercial people”). But he is relaxed enough to
Bring it on: David Allfrey invites debate. Picture Callum Bennetts/ Convention Scotland]
declare that he is proud of the strategy, at the same time as inviting EventsBase to find a critic: “You should have someone saying it is utter bollocks”. His point was; it is important to generate debate and perhaps spark ideas that the strat- egy had not considered. “Get people engaged,” he said. Allfrey is hoping for a “golden
thread” of enlightened self-interest that will connect the organisers of the smallest event with highest ech- elons of policymaking; both – and all those in between – appreciating the contribution that each brings to their success, locally and nationally. He name-checks “the brilliant” Stuart Turner, head of EventScot-
land, who he said had managed to synthesise the myriad views garnered from the industry over the previous 18 months. Allfrey sees his job now as encouraging the sector to work together, not out-of-step or, worse, in competition. “When someone visits Scotland,
we should hand them on each step of the way, from the airport to the city, to the hotel, from an event to a book shop or fish and chip shop and then: ‘Have you thought about a trip to…’.” And, after citing various locations
around Scotland, Allfrey can’t help a military analogy: “Rather like the Comet Line in the last war, where downed airmen were fed, clothed and given false papers, before be- ing hidden in the attic. And then a network of people guided them through France to the Pyrenees and on to Gibraltar.”
➜ Continued from page 45
(though, naturally, Bush can reel off a list of major wins over the next five years). But, still, to put Bush on the spot,
what could 2025 look like? “You have to have a vision. My answer would be threefold. Retain our great assets; protect things like Edinburgh’s Hog- manay, T in the Park, Te Open Golf, and all the things that sit under that. We need to sustain and grow what we have.” Unsurprisingly, Bush also men-
tions the Edinburgh Festivals which already have the capital at burst- ing point – why not, suggests Bush, consider satellite Festival venues not actually in Edinburgh; in Perth or Dundee say? “Ten we need to look at new
markets. Tese lie with young people and mass participation.” At this Bush launches enthusiastically into an idea for mass participation events to run in parallel with the European Sports Championships in 2018. “With young people’s events you
have got to think differently, put- ting music and sport together, for example,” albeit one such event in England, Freeze Big Air, combining snowboarding, skiing, an Alpine food festival, pop concert and ‘Lon- don’s biggest apres ski party’, at the Queen Elizabeth Park in London, has since been postponed. “And there’s Masters Events which are huge in the southern hemisphere.” Ambition and thinking outside the
box appear to be Bush’s watchwords for the years ahead, all the while sustaining and growing Scotland’s
48 | EVENTSBASE | WINTER 2015
existing events assets. It’s clear he also wants to generate debate. Earlier in our conversation he expressed determination to have home-grown talented people running events: “I’m not great a supporter of bringing in ‘event junkies’,” he said pledg- ing, prior to the announcement that Scotland had won, that no-one would be imported to run the Sol- heim Cup. If suggesting that the Edinburgh
Festivals should think outside the box might be considered thought- provoking, Bush’s parting shot in the interview is sure to be even more controversial: “Events don’t always need special infrastructure. But, if you look at two recent additions – the Hydro and the Emirates Arena – it’s difficult to get space in either of them.
“So, do we need a new national
stadium? A stadium with a retract- able roof. Tere’s a debate around the future of Hampden, there’s a debate around the future of Murray- field. For me, off the M8, right in the middle [of Glasgow and Edinburgh], a multi-purpose stadium for football, rugby, 2020 cricket, pop concerts … that would probably be the icing on the cake.”
What:National Events Conference Scotland - The Perfect Stage Where:EICC, Edinburgh When:3 December, 2015
www.nationaleventsconference.scot
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