Callam Mitchell heads Team Event, the promoter putting the icing on Christchurch’s cake this summer with a killer lineup of festivals and events. He tells Cityscape about his first event – a high school after-party when he was 16 – and why he loves what he does.

Tell us what Team Event has in store for Christchurch this festival season? We have our biggest summer coming up, with five festivals locked in and a number of headline shows. We’re kicking off with the South Island Wine & Food Festival on December 7. We then have the Great Kiwi Beer Festival in January, Nostalgia Festival and Electric Avenue in February, and the first North Island edition of the Great Kiwi Beer Festival in Hamilton in March. We are also involved with the Summer’s Day Disco concert in Hagley Park in January, and we have one or two more announcements yet to come.

What are you most looking forward to? We look forward to delivering every event equally – you can’t help that with the energy that is generated as we build towards each festival date. We are especially excited though about our new festivals, Nostalgia and the Great Kiwi Beer Festival in Hamilton – that will be our first North Island festival. We’re also making some enhancements to Electric Avenue with a much larger site and capacity, which gives us more creativity in the visual aspects and installations.

It’s been an exciting year for Team Event – what have been the highlights? The down season is a great time of year for us to plan for growth, and we often use this time to design new events. Some of these concepts don’t make it off the planning table, but this year we’re fortunate to have two new ones come to fruition so far.

What attracted you to Nostalgia? Nostalgia has a very good reputation, a great ethos, and has had consistent growth each year since its inception. It’s held in such a unique venue and this point of difference makes it very hard to replicate anywhere else.

Will you be breaking out the polyester and platforms for A Summer’s Day Disco? I’ll definitely be getting into the theme of the event, and have a couple of great 70s-style pieces I had made in Vietnam while on holiday there last year that don’t see the light of day too often! We’re definitely encouraging people to get into the theme of the event.

This year you are taking the Great Kiwi Beer Festival to Hamilton – what are the logistical challenges there? Obviously not being on the ground is a bit different for us, but Claudelands Events Centre is a fantastic venue with great support staff, which makes our job easier. A purpose-built venue also doesn’t have the same logistical challenges as staging a festival in Hagley Park. Our team will spend about a week in Hamilton in the lead-up to the festival and we have support from people within the industry up there as well.

How do you choose the entertainment lineup of each festival? It differs from show to show. The Great Kiwi Beer Festival and Wine & Food Festival for example have a mix of newer artists as well as a strong heritage act such as Dave Dobbyn or Dragon. With Electric Avenue, 50 percent of our audience is aged under 25, so the lineup is reflective of this. We look at artists’ touring histories, Spotify statistics, and a number of other tools to gauge their popularity in our market. We also like to throw a couple of really unique acts into Electric Avenue each year that are often quite unknown to our audience. It’s these acts that can really surprise a crowd and create those special ‘wow’ moments that leave a lasting impression. Parov Stelar I think will be a real standout at Electric Avenue next year – we’ve been trying to secure them for five years now.

What’s the key to securing such great talent for your festivals and events? Building relationships with other festivals has been key for the growth of Electric Avenue. Working with other festivals and promoters both in New Zealand and Australia enables us to make strong offers to international artists for a whole Australasian tour, which would be very difficult to do on our own.

With so many amazing beer, wine and food offerings throughout New Zealand, how do you go about selecting what to showcase in the Great Kiwi Beer Festival and South Island Wine & Food Festival? We’ve got a few wineries and breweries who come to the festivals every year and people really like to check in with their tried and tested favourites, but we also like to find some new brands and products to keep the festivals fresh. Fortunately the whole team are enthusiastic about great wine and craft beer, so you could say that we’re committed to research all year round!

You’re known as ‘the crowd whisperer’ for your ability to accurately predict how people will flow through a festival or event space – how do you do that? Is it all down to experience or is there some instinct involved as well? Haha, that’s the first time I’ve heard that term! It’s probably a mixture of experience as well as being able to visualise a site and how the crowd will flow. We also like to use the environment to create little nooks and crannies – especially with Electric Avenue, as it creates an environment of discovery. We also measure crowd flow rates, so there’s some mathematical calculations involved as well. We have a skilled team who have been involved with these festivals since very early on who all play a part in this, and the crowd experience is always at the forefront of our planning.

How soon do you need to start planning for an event to be a success? What’s the timeline? The timelines are always different. For existing festivals, our planning starts as soon as one finishes, whereas for new events the planning can be years. We have been looking at taking the Great Kiwi Beer Festival to the North Island for about five years but only a few months ago settled on a city and venue, which is Claudelands Event Centre in Hamilton. From there we’ve allowed six months to promote and deliver the event.

With planning an event, what keeps you awake at night? What do you have the least control over? Securing lineups is always a difficult exercise, particularly for Electric Avenue. New Zealand’s isolated location makes it expensive to bring artists out and requires a long lead-in time for artists as it often requires shows throughout Australasia to make travelling this far viable. As most of our events are outdoors, we have the least control over the weather, but event management is all about risk mitigation, and we are well insured for those worst-case scenarios.

How did you get into the business? I dropped out of university in 1998 to open a nightclub and it sort of stemmed from there really. We were regularly hosting touring DJs and staging events there. From there I promoted a multi-club inner-city festival in Christchurch called Unity, which ran twice yearly for a number of years. Over this period I also owned a record store and DJ’d for many years, playing at many festivals and dance parties – so it made sense to keep the promotion side of things going once I hung up my headphones.

What was your first event? My first event was a School Cert after-party at my parents’ house when I was 16. I played high school cricket at the time and knew we were in for a pretty big turnout when I heard our opposition team talking about it that day! Needless to say it got a little out of control.

What mistake have you learned the most from? I wouldn’t say I’ve learned the most from any particular mistake, but I’m constantly making them. If you’re not making mistakes you’re not doing anything – I love the challenge of trying to do new things!

Tell us about your best and worst experience with staging an event. The best experience at any event is always seeing the crowds having an amazing time – creating those experiences for people is what drives me personally. On the flipside of that they can be extremely stressful – there is a huge financial risk, and the weather is always a challenge.

What would be your ultimate event or festival to organise? And to attend? Burning Man is definitely high on my list of festivals to attend. I have friends that go every year so I’ll tag along with them on a trip one day soon. I’d love to organise Boomtown Fair – it always has incredible lineups with around 30 odd stages, all of which are themed amazingly.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve been given? None that I’ve followed, haha!

What’s your go-to spot in Christchurch? Our office is near Little High so we’re spoilt for choice. Welles Street, Espresso 245, Little High and C1 are my regular spots.

What do you think Christchurch needs the most? People, people, people – humans are what create a vibrant city, and we need more people living in the CBD, more people working in the CBD, and more people living in Christchurch in general. A tram linking the university (via the hospital and Westfield Mall) to the central city would be amazing and encourage more students to live in the central city – if someone could sort that, please. A stadium and a great mid-size concert venue would also go a long way to adding much-needed vibrancy in the inner city.

What are you listening to/reading/bingewatching at the moment? I’m listening to the new Tool album, Fear Inoculum – it’s epic. I used to be a huge fan, and this album made me realise I still am. I also collect vinyl, so I’m doing my bit to support New Zealand music by collecting as many Aotearoa artists on LP as possible. I’m reading Total Recall, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s autobiography, and Chasing The Scream by Johann Hari. As for bingewatching, that’s Peaky Blinders.

What excites you about Christchurch in the summer? The energy of the city changes and really comes alive in summer. BBQs, long warm days and nights, cricket and lots of entertainment options – not that I get to enjoy all of it as we’re too busy organising festivals, but wouldn’t have it any other way.

You’ve got friends coming from out of town. Where do you go and what would you do to show off the city in – two hours: Pop into the South Island Wine & Food Festival briefly but be blown away by what’s on offer and change your travel plans. A half-day: The ideal amount of time to spend with a group of mates at the Great Kiwi Beer Festival. 24 hours: 12 hours at Electric Avenue followed by a robust after-party.

Where do you go to – Wine and dine with friends: 5th Street – the food and service are absolutely impeccable. Morning coffee: I’ve recently cut back on coffee and start the day with a licorice tea. Blow off some steam: Just the usual – a couple of beers at the pub then let off a flare. Shop up a storm: Penny Lane Records in Sydenham; EnCompass in The Tannery; Mitre 10 for a Sunday DIY session. Get away from it all: I had an incredible time travelling through South America earlier this year, which was my first decent holiday in a long time.

teamevent.co.nz