Six months of intensive planning went into details such as catering. Below, one of the lucky winners of a Golden Ticket for the inaugural journey.


n THE BRIEF In the summer of 2014 Stark Events successfully bid for the contract to provide events for two days of cel- ebration around the opening of the Borders Railway following a public sector tender process overseen by Transport Scotland. Te first day was to be a community event that would acknowledge and celebrate the input into the railway by local people. Te remainder of the brief was deliber- ately left loosely defined, allowing Stark Events the creative freedom to conceive of an event that matched the ambition of its client. Te aspiration for the second day


was that it would involve a mem- ber of the Royal Family, who would formally open the line with a steam train journey from Edinburgh’s Waverley station, through Midlothian and down to the end of the line at Tweedbank.


n THE CONCEPT Te challenge was on the one hand


The Queen boards the train for the formal opening of the line from Waverley to


Tweedbank on the day she became the UK’s


longest-reigning monarch. Pictures: Sandy Young/ Scottishphotographer.com


to make sure no one felt left out of the events, but also to work within strict safety and capacity constraints which limited the number of passen- gers on the first three train journeys and on platforms at Newtongrange, Galashiels and Tweedbank stations. As such Stark conceived of a Char-


lie and the Chocoltate Factory-style Golden Ticket Day, a concept the company had used before to re-open the Hippodrome cinema in Bo’Ness, near Edinburgh. For this occasion, every school


child in the Borders was given a bar of chocolate on the same day; upon discovering the ticket each lucky winner was able to secure a place on


the inaugural journey. Local compe- titions also ran, with people able to nominate deserving candidates.


n DESIGN AND BRANDING Before determining the look and feel of the creative, Stark undertook fieldwork research, going to see sta- tions and steam trains. “We thought that bunting was a nice and retro-y theme for the railway; if you think about your memories of train sta- tions you think about bunting and little flags. It seemed very in keeping with that,” says Ann. Te gold and purple colours – again a reflection of the Roald Dahl story - were incorpo- rated into the branding.


nWORKINGWITH ROYALS Te hope was to have a member of the Royal Family attend the event, but it was by no means certain. Stark Events was given an early indica- tion in April that a Royal was “highly likely” to attend but it only became clear later that it would be HM the


EVENTSBASE | NOVEMBER 2015 | 51 Continued on page 50 ➜


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