Ep.38 Royal International Air Tattoo: Behind the scenes with Commercial lead Simon Hough

Simon Hough
Host: Kelly Ballard

Welcome to the podcast, Simon.

@2:48 – Simon.Hough
Thanks, Kelly. Thanks for having me.

@2:49 – Kelly Ballard
It’s lovely to be here. Fantastic. So where are you in the West today?

@2:54 – Simon.Hough
I’m in our office in Fairford, which is a Gloucestershire, but not far from the Wille. Which are bored, guess, a bit further north from Swindon and little bit south from Cirencester

@3:05 – Kelly Ballard
Very nice, very beautiful part of the country in the Cotswolds.

@3:09 – Simon.Hough
Absolutely, yep.

@3:11 – Kelly Ballard
Very nice. what do you for, the Royal International Air Tattoo?
What is your job and what is the formal title of the organisation you work for?

@3:27 – Simon.Hough
Yeah, well, my official title is Head of Commercial Activities and Hospitality. And really the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust Enterprises is set up to do one thing primarily, which is to support the Royal Air Force Charitable Trust by running commercial activities.
And the one big commercial activity that we manage is the Royal International Air Tattoo, which is an annual air display, which we hold here at Fairford in Gloucestershire.
It’s the world’s largest military display and it’s the Royal Air Force’s primary international engagement now.

@4:01 – Kelly Ballard
Wow, it’s a big event Simon isn’t it? How many people do you have there every year?

@4:04 – Simon.Hough
So it has a global reach. We have 150,000 people through the gates last year. So that’s a typical year for us now.

@4:18 – Kelly Ballard
Wow, it’s absolutely massive. So can you give an example? For those people who have not been, what you can experience there>

@4:29 – Simon.Hough
Well, it’s the uniqueness of everything that comes together really. So there are, I think last year, we had representation from 25 different nations here from different aircraft.
And I think actually, you know, physical representation from people from 43 different nations. So I think 253 aircraft last year here, in static displays, things you can walk on all around as well as all the stuff that was displaying.
So it’s the uniqueness of that. So that the coming together, which is why it takes whole year to work to organise and coordinate all that.

@5:04 – Kelly Ballard
That’s just huge isn’t it? mean it’s so colossal like you say and it’s based on an ear field. Tell me a little bit about that.

@5:15 – Simon.Hough
Yeah it is it’s an operational airfield which the Royal Air Force and the US Air Force use year round and so we take possession of it about six weeks before the show we sign it over and then it’s our responsibility.
So at that point it’s really a greener field of sight. There’s a lot of tarmac as you might imagine for parking aircraft on and I think but apart from that there’s nothing else.
All the infrastructural utilities have to be brought in and installed in those six weeks. So it’s a phenomenal achievement.

@5:45 – Kelly Ballard
Wow so is it it’s four days right?

@5:48 – Simon.Hough
There are three main public days but there’s a couple of days either side that are great because those are the days all the aircraft arrived take off.
So on the Monday I think this is the busiest airfield in the UK because there’s 253 aircraft all have to leave, there’s this incredible collection of aircraft all around the world that literally going once every 90 seconds or something.
That’s quite an event if you’re a spotter.

@6:13 – Kelly Ballard
And that’s the Monday after, yeah, when they all leave. Okay, and the event is in July?

@6:21 – Simon.Hough
Yes, it is, yes, 19th to the 21st of July this year.

@6:24 – Kelly Ballard
It’s always around those sort of dates. Right, fantastic. I came last year for the first time and it’s two miles, is that right, of experience?
So describe that, what’s there, what can people see?

@6:42 – Simon.Hough
Well, as well as this massive static collection of aircraft and yes, you’re quite right, there is a runway two miles long.
So it’s one of the largest in Europe. As well as fitting all the aircraft in, there is a whole host of people coming from industry.
So there’s a lot of displays and things to see as well as all kinds food and entertainment you would expect at a large, you know, a festival in that kind of essence. There’s also some lovely areas, we have what we call the RAF experience, which is probably the biggest coming together of all the sort of the public facing side of everything the Royal Air Force do.
And it’s a chance for people to come and get involved and see everything that they do from the medical teams, the search and rescue teams, the logistics, engineering stuff.
They do a lot of humanitarian research work around the world. And there’s also our techno zone, we’re very proud of.
It’s a huge STEM engagement zone. And again, we believe that’s one of the biggest in the country. So we’ll get, you know, 9,000 plus children through free just on the Friday alone.
And again, that’s a lot of industry coming together to just demonstrate, you know, all kinds of hands and activities that various different people can do.

@7:53 – Kelly Ballard
As I said, I came last year for the first time and the stuff that you’ve got for children really is amazing.
My children were playing on drones. There were lots of kind of like headset type virtual reality stuff. And also in that zone that you talked about, there’s a chance to look at things on the moon that you can transport to the moon, isn’t there?
Kind of like little cars, I want to say, that you can direct remotely, and the children had to direct them using mathematical formulas.

@8:35 – Simon.Hough
And it was, I mean, it’s just mind blowing.

@8:37 – Kelly
It’s like BAE systems and lots of kind of organisations that you, the general public, we see the names, but we don’t actually know what they do, but they’re there.
The children were on a rowing machine using energy from their bodies to generate power, I can’t remember what it was…

@9:00 – Simon.Hough
Yes lots of really interactive interest and stuff. Yeah, it is. It’s a fantastic spot. People of all ages.
And what’s lovely is that such a mix. Some of it is literally, you know, make a paper airplane and you can make it fly the furthest to the augmented reality stuff.
So there is an incredible collection. And what’s lovely, I think, for the Southwest is there is such a strong heritage of aviation industry here, you know, from Gloucester and Bristol and some of those old companies that have been going so long.
They’re still very vibrant now. They’re huge parts of the economy locally. So BAE systems in Bristol, Rolls Royce Airbus, know, they’re still a significant employer locally.
And it’s a real chance for them to come and connect and share what they can do because really what our our parent charity is trying to do is engage people and inspire the next generation to get involved in these kind of careers, whether that’s going into working in the Royal Air Force or working in the aviation defence industry.

@10:00 – Kelly Ballard
Yeah, because I guess there’s nowhere else that you can really experience that. They’re quite faceless organisations, aside from Rolls Royce, where everyone thinks of the cars, but they also create the engines of the airplanes and I’m sure so much more.
But yeah, it’s a chance for you to go in and have hands on experience, and there’s lots of young people that are working there, and they just chat to you about what they do in these organisations.
For such a high tech industry, its interesting that they are in this huge temporary marquee.
And I guess, yeah, it’s just, it’s an interesting experience.

@10:51 – Simon.Hough
Let’s put it that way. and I think that’s a lot of the appeal. It’s the uniqueness of it. I know, there are lots of different festivals around the country. There are lots of different opportunities to see a lot of things but the only place you will see all these things all together is at our events it’s something we’re very proud of you.

@11:08 – Kelly Ballard
This year I’ve just got to say we went into, I want to say, it was a Hercules? There was this small display and it turned out to be the plane that had taken Queen Elizabeth’s coffin from Scotland to Windsor I guess or to Heathrow wherever it was flown to. It was like ‘oh my god this is this was a moment in history’ that for us it was July so it wasn’t that long before and there was just this very small display I was like wow this plane is has historic links.

@12:00 – Simon.Hough
Yeah yeah absolutely yeah I think it was a C 17 actually very similar.
@12:12 – Simon.Hough
Yeah. No, I think both of them are Hercules basically.

@12:15 – Kelly Ballard
Yes. Okay.

@12:17 – Simon.Hough
But yeah, I think, again, that is part of the challenge because the Royal Air Force, the major contributors to this, and they get an awful lot of engagement out of it.
They really value the event. they don’t necessarily have a huge budget to be spending on big fluffy displays and things.
So you’re quite right. That’s quite an historic aircraft and it would have been lovely to have made more of that.
But I think the challenge for them is they can’t guarantee that aircraft primarily has a function in the defence of the nation.
So they wouldn’t guarantee that particular aircraft definitely would have come until it was literally getting ready to come here.
So we’re relying on defence community members to volunteer, to take time to put all that stuff together.
That’s why it’s so important to have a opportunities like this to help drive the kind of footfall we can that they come and experience those things.
There’s only so much money they can spend on that kind of thing in the defence budget. Providing this commercial opportunity allows us to help support them.

@13:19 – Kelly Ballard
Talking about commercial opportunities. You’ve got some amazing sponsors, haven’t you? You named a few like Rolls Royce and BA systems, Breitling, is that how I say it, the watch company?
Obviously, I can’t afford that so I don’t know how to say it!
You said when I’ve spoken to you previously that for them this is one of the most lucrative events.

@13:42 – Simon.Hough
Yes, it is, they have a huge aviation connection with a lot of their range and have donefor a long time. So they bring in some incredible heritage aircraft as well as sponsored by Breitling. I think they also sponsor the Red Arrows Royal Aerobatic display team, as well as the Chinook helicopter display team from the RAF and the solo typhoon fighter jet display.
So they have a huge connection with that and there’s no doubt that it’s, you know, first and foremost, this very elaborate boutique they put on is a showcase for them, but it definitely is, you know, a viable opportunity for them.
They’re officially the timekeeping sponsors of the event so the time we have on display is Breitling time.

@14:25 – Kelly Ballard
Wow, talking about visitors then, if you’re going to buy a Breitling watch, you’re going to be quite affluent.
Tell me a little bit about what you know of your visitors, where are they coming from and who are they?

@14:41 – Simon.Hough
There’s a huge mix and a lot of them are coming from all over the world, so a lot of them are real aviation enthusiasts, but I think increasingly they are people who just recognise this is a unique event and it’s a unique opportunity, so regardless of their interest, it’s just a great day out for them.
We get people coming from all over, predominantly from the southwest, obviously, you know, in a couple of hours, three, four hours drive time.
But there’s a lot of places where people are camping over so they’re making a whole weekend on it, which is great and what we want to see ideally.
So the whole mix of things, and that’s part of the challenge that I and my team have, is making an event that’s really rounded.
So it keeps that uniqueness and doesn’t lose focus. But at the same time, provides enough entertainment there that somebody who’s got a spotter in the family, the rest the family could spend the whole week here and feel that they were entertained.

@15:37 – Kelly Ballard
And you mentioned how many countries was it that people are coming in from?

@15:44 – Simon.Hough
Well, there were 25 participating nations in terms of aircraft that were brought in, but there were, I think, 43 different nations represented in terms of personnel on site.

@15:54 – Kelly Ballard
Wow. And rarely do people travel alone? So you’ve got international visitors that are coming and staying and I would have thought that if you fly a plane you’re not going to be camping necessarily, so you might be looking at four and five star hotels around the Cotswolds.

@16:18 – Simon.Hough
Yeah definitely that’s always one of the first questions people want to know if their accommodation provider is what data is next year they’re showing and they need to know it’s advanced because it is a key time for them and again one of the challenges of being in this lovely Cotswolds rural location is that extra demand it puts on resources like that so yes every hotel room in Swindon tells them has to get booked up pretty quickly.

@16:45 – Kelly Ballard
That’s brilliant for local economy isn’t it?

@16:48 – Simon.Hough
It is we think we spent about four million pounds in the immediate local area in the last year really in terms of services and products.

@16:56 – Kelly Ballard
Wow that’s that’s great. You mentioned when we met before, you talked about the partners of the UAE coming with the flight team and heading straight to Bicester village.

@17:10 – Simon.Hough
Yes, the Saudi display team, yes, their partners tend to go out for the day, go down Bicester Village

@17:18 – Kelly Ballard
Right, so you have a lot of visitors of this type, hence why the Breitling watches get sold.

@17:26 – Simon.Hough
That’s right, yes, I mean as well as the uniqueness of the air display, I think it’s just that cultural opportunity to come into Britain and the Cotswolds and experience those kinds of things as well.
So I’m sure that is a big draw for people coming to the area.

@17:41 – Kelly Ballard
Definitely, definitely. Do you do much work with Visit Britain and Visit England?

@18:05 – Simon.Hough
I don’t know what we’ve done historically, we’re just revamping our marketing campaigns now, so it’s quite possible we have done previously, but it’s not something I’ve been involved in.

@18:11 – Kelly Ballard
Well, actually, we’ll come to that, Simon, how long have you been there now?

@18:05 – Simon.Hough
I started at the very end of May 23, so I was here literally just in time see the show last year.

@18:11 – Kelly Ballard
Right, okay. And just to give people an idea of where you came from, it was very different, wasn’t it, in terms of the product that you’re now involved in and the service. Can you tell people what you were doing before?

@18:24 – Simon.Hough
Yeah, so previous to working for the Royal F.O.S. Charitable Trust, I was working for Forestry England, or previously Forestry Commission as it was.
So that’s the government state body that manages all the public forests that are in. But I was managing events for them there.
So it feels like a huge change in some ways, but actually in many ways, day to day, it’s all exactly the same.
It’s putting on commercial events, so it’s creating a positive net return and it’s bringing engagement, bringing your customers, making use of that space, working on greenfield sites. So there is a huge synergy between the two but it does, yes, on the face of it, it seems quite different.

@19:07 – Kelly Ballard
Yeah, absolutely. And I mean, you downplayed what you did there, but you used to run the English concert series, which was in how many locations?

@19:17 – Simon.Hough
We definitely had seven at one point, I think. Yeah.

@19:30 – Simon.Hough
We were going for 22 years, I think, at the point I left, couple of years of COVID disruption like everyone.
Yeah, so we’ve got past that 20 years, we just surpassed 20 million, two million customers over that period, which we were really proud of.
In terms of the engagement, we were bringing new audiences into the forest. It was one of our prime activities we had really nationally.
So it was a huge part of what we did as a business.

@19:57 – Kelly Ballard
It’s interesting. I mean, how do you marry up the message in your own mind around, for example, I came for the first time this year.
I love planes. We didn’t go abroad when I was a child because we didn’t have much money. But my dad used to take me to Cardiff Airport.
We used to sit outside the airport and watch the planes, it was like a great day out. We’d take sandwiches it was amazing.
And then I was lucky enough to see the stealth bomber because I lived near Fairford for a while. And I was out in a field one day as you do when you’re a local, you know, the local fields.
So I shouldn’t really promote that. you know, we did. And I saw the stealth bomber go across and it was like something out of a sci-fi movie.
And then when I came last year, and had all these thoughts about looking after the planet and we’ve got massive climate change issues. And then I saw bombs and I thought of Ukraine.
And, you know, it’s been in the press for so many months, it was devastating and all of a sudden, it took on that feeling for me that was kind of like, ‘oh, this is a bit kind of uncomfortable’.
On all of those levels, how do you marry that up with your background?

@21:42 – Simon.Hough
Yeah, and I think it’s a fascinating question, I mean, quite a few different components of that. think, and first and foremost, as I say, you know, my previous role and this role were both the same in that we were supporting a cause through doing commercial activities.
So here, supporting the role, therefore, of the trust, we gave them £2 million this year from the direct operating revenue, which is a phenomenal achievement coming out of Covid, out of that recovery mode, back into a forward-looking operating process that we’ve repaid loans, and still contributed net £2 million.
Their driving objective is to inspire the young generation, so that’s £2 million that’s to be that we’ve done that to now for our country.
So there is a huge positive to that.
To be clear to be sure there have been no live bombs on site!
I take your point. I do believe that defence is a moral cause, and I think that, you again, this is the Royal Air Force, this is our defence community.
The people being seen, shown that this is potentially a really good career choice that you will have opportunities for you here.
We’re certainly not blind to the fact that there are wider defence ramifications of that, and we don’t shy away from that.
We try to own that, in very much the same way as we do, the environmental aspect of that. This is something we’re really keen on.
We’ve got an ambitious sustainability objective now as an organisation. Last year at last year’s tattoo, we actually had the UK net zero defence strategy signed here.
That’s the UK commitment to become net zero in defence, the aviation defence by 2040, which is an incredibly ambitious target.
They’ve got, I think the RF currently contributes, think about 40% of the defence overall UK defence community emissions. And that’s challenging because lot of that is at an altitude where it’s particularly a multiplying effect on the effect of the environment. So we’re really trying to make sure that we are being seen to be helping support that message.
And the Royal Air Force recently flew a voyage, which is the biggest aircraft the RAF have ever had, on fully synthetic aviation fuel, this sustainable aviation fuel, which comes from a whole mixed complicated stuff I couldn’t even pretend to explain to you now.
But it is a sustainable fuel source. And they’ve done that and they’ve refueled fighters from it in the air, know, so they are pushing forward.
And one of our themes for this year is pushing the boundaries in air and space. And that’s very much about everything from our connectivity with what we’re doing in space now and bringing people close together in terms of satellite communications, right down to actually what are we doing about looking after the planet and what are we doing to drive those things forward.
And actually the defence community, you know, is quite the cutting edge of that, that there are a whole host of reasons why.
Logistically the defence community needs to not be relying on on imported oil just as much as anybody else.
So they are absolutely pushing to try and find sustainable means of providing defence. So there’s a fascinating story there.
And I think as I say, we’re not shying away from all those difficult subjects. I think this is actually a fantastic shop window in which all the different people can come together and explain that that process of what we’re doing.

@25:27 – Kelly Ballard
Yeah, and it’s not just about the fighting, it’s about the support for what’s the term you use when you go in and kind of…

@25:39 – Simon.Hough
There’s a huge amount of humanitarian aid that goes on. The numbers of people that the RF removed from Sudan last year I think was a record number people that been earlier did out by the UK in any situation.
So there’s a huge of stuff going on like that all the time. think recently the UK delivered some aid to Gaza, for example.
So all that is going on and again the people who are doing that, other people who are attending these shows, that aircraft that you’ve been on that took HM the Queen’s body will also have been doing stuff like that around the world.
So there is an incredible connection there with what we’re doing.

@26:17 – Kelly Ballard
Wow, it’s big stuff isn’t it? I think with the state of the world as it is at the moment what’s going on with Russia and scary things that I don’t actually want to watch the news about anymore.
This is really important. I think we live in a bubble, but these things happen and they exist and it’s really important that we are educated about it and the future generations are interested in order to grow support for it so that we can protect the basic country needs.

@26:51 – Simon.Hough
Yes, that’s right. Again those sort of sustainable things that we’re doing, they are a lot of local businesses. region who are leading on that.
So it’s a huge contribution to the local economy as well if we can get that right as huge benefits of the UK economy.
So encouraging children to get involved in that, encouraging them to get involved in STEM subjects and meet face-to-face with the people who would employ them and get them into what kinds of apprenticeships or early careers is priceless really for people.

@27:24 – Kelly Ballard
Out of interest, do you work with the aerospace, the Bristol Aerospace Museum?

@27:32 – Simon.Hough
We do, yeah, we do have connections with the whole host of different people really come from different museums and things. We work quite a bit with the Royal Air Force museums as well based in Hendon and the Peoples War Museum.
So we do have their base-to-run connections with the whole host of things like that. So yeah, we’re constantly trying to celebrate the heritage of what we’re doing as well as the modern stuff.

@27:56 – Kelly Ballard
Sure. Talking of heritage, how long has the show been running?

@28:01 – Simon.Hough
It started in 1971, so it’s been going for over 50 years. didn’t start at Fairford. It’s moved home a few times.
I think it was at a couple of places that don’t exist as airfields anymore now over the years, then probably housing estates or something.
So it has moved around a bit, but in its recognisable form it’s been going for that. And literally started by a couple of people, one of whom is still very much involved, who are traffic controllers when they just love planes and they just wanted to put an air-hear one and get some aircraft together.
So the charitable cause came along some time after, which really they realised actually if we’re doing this we really should be trying to help support something.
The cause was created around the fact that this is a unique opportunity to celebrate what we’re doing.

@28:52 – Kelly Ballard
So how many people work on the event and within the charity full-time

@29:01 – Simon.Hough
So in the office here permanent staff, about 40 altogether.

@29:06 – Kelly Ballard
Is that 4-0?

@29:07 – Simon.Hough
4-0, yes. And then we’ve been in quite a few, quite lot of temps as you can imagine. There’s awful lot of contract support.
I think we’re about 1500 volunteers who end up coming in to actually help deliver the show as we get nearer and nearer.
So that process starts and you come to get a sense in this office on a weekly basis as another face appearing.
It’s just, it’s all just building up and it’s a bit of a bit. But because of the complexity of it and that international component, it makes it a very long process to get it right.
So it does take a whole year really if we finish the event and we go straight into the next. And one of things we’re looking at again from a sustainability point of view, while we’re getting aircraft coming from all over the world, we don’t want them flying 7,000 miles parking up for three days and flying off again.
So, a lot of what we’re trying to do is liaising with different people. Everything from air forces and embassies to other nations’ air forces is trying to understand how we can help them get the best value out of being here. So they might want to do training exercises somewhere else, or they might do one or two of the shows in Europe.
So this whole host of different things that we trying to factor in and another important aspect of what we’re trying to do is to get the most the best possible value engagement out of those aircrafts maybe little sign saying this is a such and such and it you know weighs this much.
We want the crew to be there present and we want those signs to have something that really helps and supports people in breaking down those barriers and be able to say ‘what does it have…’ why this aircraft is shaped like this? How do we achieve what we do with it? The aircrew for all their incredible professionalism and abilities, they are not necessarily public speakers.
I don’t mean how to break this barrier down. How do I start this conversation? So we’re trying to be more guiding and more leading in a lot of information we’re giving to just encourage people to have those conversations because it isn’t undoubtedly, you know, it can be a bit off-putting if there’s three or four people in uniform there.
We need to try and get the most value out of it, having gone to the efforts to get the aircraft there, it’s definitely something we can do work on.

@31:32 – Kelly Ballard
Yeah, I remember walking around and feeling that these pilots they’re like, um, Top Gun, you know, you walk around, you’re like, everyone’s wearing aviators!
It does feel like Top Gun on steroids.
Lot of people in one-piece overalls. It’s a very cool look, isn’t it? I think it would, you know, appeal to any young person who might be interested in that.

@32:10 – Simon.Hough
Like, oh yeah, that’s what I want to do. Yeah, definitely. And what’s lovely, there’s a lot of young youngsters as well, there’s lots of air cadets as well.
They contribute a lot to the help of support as well, rather than volunteering, but they also have time downtown to look around the show, so it’s a really key point for them.
But we did have Tom Cruise here, I think back in 2022 he came and was guest of honest. Normally people are running around trying to get a photograph of the Spanish, Arabic team, display team, or the Italians, the Red Arrows, but for once it was them running around trying to get a photograph of Tom Cruise, I think I think he was definitely the star attraction!

@32:45 – Kelly Ballard
Wow, that was so cool. So I just want to take you back, because you know, where do you recruit your volunteers from?

@32:58 – Simon.Hough
Again, some of them will come from all over the world. A lot of them are sea cadets, lot of them are ex-civilian or defence aviation community.
And again, because they recognise this very, very distinct, unique thing that happens and they just want to be part of it.
So again, we’ll start having this briefing meeting with them coming up now. We keep in contact with them all around and we slowly build up that rapport until we get them back on site.
Again, meeting that number of people. So that in itself is a small festival really organising all that.

@33:35 – Kelly Ballard
I bet. Oh my gosh. Amazing. Thank you, Simon. That’s really interesting.
What do you see as the commercial opportunities and the future of the event?

@33:55 – Simon.Hough
Yeah, I think there’s definitely a lot of opportunity for us. I think. I think all our main supporters and sponsors, they definitely see a huge value in this event.
And just because it is so well established and it’s kind of celebrated within the aviation community, I think there was a huge loyalty to it.
The future is probably, again, it’s going to be working on that sustainability message and that is as much as anything that’s for us because that’s how people get here, how we power the ice cream and the hot dogs and stuff like that.
It’s not just the aircraft themselves. So I think there’s a huge challenge there for us which we’re looking at.
And I think it’s what’s really exciting is some of the stuff that we could potentially be doing in the future.
So doing more interactive stuff, I think definitely as connectivity improves. I think we can be bringing in a lot more exciting stuff that people could be experiencing and doing and having that sense that they’re in the cockpit while aircraft’s doing that incredible display in front of them. And indeed, you know, collectively, like pushing the boundaries with air and space this year, we’re trying to think well, there’s no ways we can, you know, how do you bring space down to earth?
How can we be getting engaging people with what’s going on in the international space station? You know, actually the opportunity to do something quite incredible, I think it’s great.
And we’d love to see an app, I think, you know, we’d like to get back to having a specific app for the show which people could use and navigate them around, show them what’s the best opportunities that they could be doing next.
And I think, I think increasing our hospitality side of the business as well, to help make that more bespoke going forward.
I think there’s more things we can do to make that kind of show ground more accessible for a wider group of people.

@35:53 – Kelly Ballard
Okay, because you have some different packages of hospitality, don’t you? Different levels?

@35:58 – Simon.Hough
We do, yeah, there’s a whole… range, there’s these eight different categories, different areas. that’s ranging from people who just want a very specific thing.
They just want a prime location and a grandstand because they wanted to do fit there for four days and just photograph everything that moves through some incredibly flash pages of the camera kit.
Down to people who just want to soak up the ambiance, that have a good view, but really just enjoy a very unique spoke environment.
There’s some fabulous enclosures that are created here. And again, you do have to kind of blink and shake your head a little bit when you think that six weeks ago, this was just a piece of grass next to an airfield.
Actually we’ve built this incredible pavilion with all this stuff going on, you know, very high end catering. So again, I think there’s a lot of opportunity in that.
We can be looking at doing some really exciting stuff there around, celebrating the Cotswolds food and drink heritage as well.
So I think there’s a lot of scope to develop that for.

@37:00 – Kelly Ballard
Yeah, I’m sure there’d be, and I’m sure there’s lots of people that would welcome that with open arms in terms of spotlighting internationally, all of the food and drink that’s available in the Cotswolds, because there’s a lot of producers and suppliers around that are very unique.

@37:17 – Simon.Hough
Yes, there are. and a lot of celebrity chefs and producers as well in the area.

@37:47 – Kelly Ballard
Okay. So, tell me about what’s coming up in 2024.

@37:54 – Simon.Hough
Well, I can tell you as well as all the regulars and good stuff that will be back again. We are having some specific themes for this year. One of them is our overarching theme which, as I said, Pushing the boundaries of our Space.
So that’s looking at new technologies and pushing our understanding of our space, which is really exciting actually. There’s some really interesting stuff coming out of that for industry of things they’re going to try and bring along.
But we start to announce in a week or two, we start announcing a regular Thursday aircraft announcement every week on social media.
So I won’t spoil any of that surprise for the team to do that.
There’s some really cool stuff coming. But we also have a few specific things that we’re helping celebrate. One of the key ones is 75 years of NATO this year.
So we are expecting some unique NATO fly paths. We’re going to have representation from all the different NATO countries that have a profit they can bring.
So that will be really exciting. There’ll be some unique fly paths on each different day, I think it’s really different.
That’s really good. And there’s a lot of stuff to be able to see on the ground. And we’ve also celebrated the 50 years of an aircraft called the F-16. So that’s made its maiden fight just 50 years ago, last week I think.
And that’s very exciting. That again, we’ll probably have one of the biggest collections of those that were going to be together in one place in the world all over.
We’re also really delighted to say we’re going to be celebrating the Royal Canadian Air Force’s centenary this year with them.
This is going to be big part of the centenary. We had a meeting with them very recently. And they’re bringing together some really exciting stuff.
So we’re looking at some Canadian food options to try and make that sort of Canadian quarter that we’re really thinking is a bit more special.
So there’s lots of exciting stuff going on.

@39:42 – Kelly Ballard (Kelly Ballard)
That’s great, Simon. And with my marketing hat on here, I’m thinking Visit Britain needs to know about this. So Visit Britain in Canada and the people that work out in there.
That would probably be a really interesting angle for them to focus on in terms of looking at the UK.

@39:58 – Simon.Hough
Yeah

@40:00 – Kelly Ballard (Kelly Ballard)
Cool. So about you, Simon, just think about you personally, um, what’s the best advice you’ve ever received?

@40:16 – Simon.Hough
Um, best advice of a received, I don’t know, I did a difficult one. I think the best advice I was never given was probably count to 10 before answering something.
I think that’s probably because so many times I’ve just said, yeah, we can do that.
I think sometimes just give yourself a second just to count over the bin occasions in other events when, you know, maybe you’ve got some extreme weather or something, some technical challenge somewhere and just giving yourself that space to just stop and take a deep breath and think, right, well, you know, what’s the process here?
What do we need to do? What’s the priorities? what am I about to stop thinking about if I rush into this too deeply?
You know, if there’s someone else who can go and gather bit of information for me first just to give me that bit of space.
I think definitely that because you know for any of us who work in events world, we’re passionate about what we do and it’s that can be the biggest challenge.

@41:47 – Kelly Ballard
I bet you’ve met some interesting people in your career, especially with all of the concerts. I bet you have some interesting stories.

@41:58 – Simon.Hough
Yeah, absolutely. There’s been some really interesting characters. You can imagine the world of live music and large outdoor events. It does gather the most incredible eclectic bunch of people from all over the place.
The company we’ve used for many years for the Forest live stages, they started off doing Glastonbury. Their MD, I think he literally turned up the second year Glastonbury festival happened on a motorbike and just started helping put a stage up at some of scaffolding and it evolved into one of the world’s leading providers of mobile stages for outdoor festivals and concerts.
They had an anniversary a few years ago and they invited some of the customers to go to Glastonbury. It was a few weeks before the festival started, but we had a tour round by Michael Eavis and he just showed us around some of the history of it and how it is built and some of the team in the production of it.
It was a fascinating day because it’s all that kind of stuff that you just never had. I get to see if you go and do the event.
And being an event professional, that was probably more exciting than going around at the actual Festival, because you have to understand how these things have been built and why they were built that way.
So yeah, some really interesting days like that. But yeah, definitely you do meet some incredible people. And even people you work with all year round, you see them evolve and take on this incredible responsibility when the event happens.
And just seeing how that sort of shared collective responsibility just helps everybody gel and come together. It was great working for Forestry England, where we were doing a lot of other things as well.
But then we put in these big events on it. the way it gave everyone opportunity, just to use that as a team building, like, experience really, you know, such a valuable thing.

@43:51 – Kelly Ballard
Yeah, I think it can’t be underestimated. And that’s probably why we love this industry. And in particular, the events industry is that…
So what do you do when you’re not working, Simon?

@45:19 – Simon.Hough
Well, I’m a cyclist, but I’m an extremely fair weather cyclist, so I need several days of dry weather before I even think of going.
And just enjoy being outdoors really and enjoy cycling and running and just walking and meeting with friends as well, just spending time with family, getting out and about, discovering new places.
It’s all good

@47:15 – Kelly Ballard
Nice. Were you from Yorkshire originally?

@47:19 – Simon.Hough
Yes.
@47:20 – Kelly Ballard
Yes. So is that your kind of where your passion for the outdoors began?

@47:25 – Simon.Hough
Yeah, I think so. And that’s how I got into working with Forestry Commission. Really, I started working with them, think, at the local site where I lived.
And the first year I started working there was the first year they started doing the Forest Live events. So I started off as an education ranger for them.
And it was all hands to the pump as we’d taken this large event on, never haven’t done it before.
And very quickly that just became my thing. That’s what I did for them for the next 20 odd years really.
I often think it’s quite funny if I decided to get into live music. I would have ended up planting trees somewhere, but I think if I thought I’d go into the work in the forest, I actually ended up running up these massive live music concerts.
Just never quite know which way life’s going to take you.

@48:10 – Kelly Ballard
True. Yeah. So true. Well, coming back to the West, if you like eating out, where are your favourite places?

@48:21 – Simon.Hough
I can’t say my palate is particularly extravagant. I do like just nice, simple stuff, really. There are some great eating places around Bristol Harbourside.
But I think just places that just provide good experience in the atmosphere, and often the ones you remember are the ones you’ve had a good time.
So I really like those lounges that there are gathered around the southwest, I think, really great places, it’s just great places to meet.
I think they always do a good quality service. So it doesn’t have to be real haute cuisine for me.
I think actually there’s a real value in just having a nice space being with the people you want to be with.

@49:45 – Kelly Ballard
Where is your favourite place to visit in the west

@49:52 – Simon.Hough
Well I think, you know, Westonbirt Arboretum I lived there for many years when we worked there.
We quite like actually Rococo Gardens in Painswick. It’s really nice. You go there because it’s quite nice small scale. It’s not massive but it’s a really unique, incredible place. There’s nothing else quite like it really. I think another place we go to quite a bit is Jolly Nice, a nice little farm shop which is on the road between Stroud and Cirencester but it’s a really nice place.
The family that runs it used to farm Westonbirt. They bought the land, and I’ve always been really impressed with the way they run that business. They’ve been there just over 10 years, but they brought together an incredible collection of local producers, people who share a similar ethos of looking at the land responsibly. The quality of the food and drink they put on there is just what they’ve done with the place.
It’s fascinating. It’s collection of more like a shanty town of and yurts and things but but they’ve done a really good job of it and the coffee’s very nice and ice cream is good I can recommend it.

@51:06 – Kelly Ballard
Oh you know what that sounds perfect this sounds like a great place to visit yes and I’m not good at them brilliant well thanks so much for your time Simon and sharing all of that information I’m sure people will find it really fascinating so I’ll see you again soon.

@51:23 – Simon.Hough
Thank you ever so much it’s been a pleasure thank you.