Features
150 Years Of ‘Were You There?’ Moments: Q’s With Ally Pally’s Sophie Varnava
London’s Alexandra Palace has been entertaining people since 1873. As if to commemorate the 150th anniversary, the building celebrated its biggest year ever in 2023. This year is looking no different. Pollstar reached out to the building’s head of programming, Sophie Varnava, to talk about business highlights, trends, and outlooks.
Pollstar: How’s 2024 shaping up for Alexandra Palace?
Sophie Varnava: Coming off the back of our biggest ever 12 months for live music in 2023, this year is shaping up to be massive for us. We’ve already had multiple runs of gigs across our spaces, including our Theatre (which has an adaptable floor space of 1400 cap standing and 916 fully seated.) and Great Hall (10,250 cap.), from the likes of Elmiene, Nitin Sawhney, PinkPantheress, Underworld, The Smile and Masego. We are also building up to our biggest ever outdoor series in our Park in July – including headline shows with Noel Gallagher’s High-Flying Birds and a double headline show with Suede and Manic Street Preachers – which is transformative for how we bring live music to fans year-round. For the majority of our programme we are a receiving house, but this year we are continuing to build our co-productions and in-house productions, such as our summer festival Kaleidoscope. Alongside all this, we will have a further 60 acts performing inside the Palace, with Later…with Jools once again making their home in our Theatre.
Lets talk about trends: Do you observe any in the way artists route their tours these days?
We benefit from our main live music space being 10,250 capacity, all standing. It means that when it comes to touring more and more often we are the finale of an artist’s UK tour. This obviously lends itself to massive celebratory moments for artists and their fans, real ‘were you there’ moments. When artists come here, they make it more of an event than just a gig. Little Simz, Fred Again.., Jessie Ware, Fontaines D.C and Michael Kiwanuka are just a few that stand out in recent times, but there are plenty more.
How about the amount fans are willing to spend on (VIP) tickets ?
It is becoming more the norm for artists to offer VIP packages. That’s across genres. And there is clearly demand from the fans. It is important that VIP packages are done well. More artists are now asking ‘what can we do to enhance the fans experience’ . That might be VIP opportunities, it’s also putting more into their production and how they interact with fans around their shows, particularly online.
Any trends you observe in fan behavior at the show, including spending habits?
Fan behaviours have changed, particularly among younger audiences, there’s no question about that. We have adapted the staffing and services we have onsite as a result and will continue to evolve this.
Any music and event genres that sell particularly well?
We have put a lot of work into developing a range of spaces for live music and events at Ally Pally. It means we can cater for audiences from 1,000 to 40,000 which lends itself to hosting and supporting different event genres. Certainly one area that is proving more popular in recent times for us is dance and electronic. Fred Again.. did our first ever five night residency here last year, Four Tet did three nights and we have just had sold out nights with Sonny Fodera and Hybrid Minds. And icons like Prodigy, Underworld and Orbital have sold out and been massive fan favourites.
And, lastly, is there a trend to secure dates at Ally Pally earlier in advance?
It really varies, it feels like there is a move to booking more in advance, we are now building 2026 programme, but equally it’s not unusual for a show to come in with a four month turnaround. It’s something we expect and flex to.
Do you have any works to the building planned in the near future?
We are unique, in that our venue is a seven acre, 150-year old historic Palace! We are a charity, and one of our main aims is to bring more of the Palace back into use for people to benefit from, whether that’s providing access to culture, leisure, green space or learning programmes. We’ve seen the massive benefit of restoring sections of the building, such as reopening our Victorian Theatre. Our latest project is aiming to restore our North East corner building, which has never previously been open to the public. As a charity, and independent venue, doing this is a massive undertaking. We don’t have the backing or resources that other arenas of our size do. That’s why we try to impress on our visitors, that their visit really does make a difference. Everything we generate from our live events supports us to keep the venue open and improving it, which includes ensuring we are greener, more accessible (including adding Changing Places facilities in May), and giving back to our community more than ever.
What are ways to maintain a good profit margin in today’s UK economy? The rising costs need to be offset somehow.
Rising costs are a huge challenge. It’s something that you see across the industry, and of course particularly for independents and grassroots venues. It is about working together to ensure these pressures and their consequences are fully understood, then identifying how we might be able to work through them, both as an industry or with more support. Part of the challenge is that it’s a not a one-size-fits all solution.
You see a lot of amazing talent pass through the historic doors of Alexandra Palace. Are you at all worried for the next generation of talent not finding space to perform, or simply not able to afford it (which is a concern for some promoters, who aren’t sure where the next act to fill stadiums will come from)?
When I talk to promoters or colleagues in other venues, it is a topic that is coming up more and more. It is not only the artists, but the whole ecosystem that live events support. The technicians, promoters and F&B staff working on our events are also working at venues of all sizes. What is a positive is that the love of music amongst fans feels as strong as ever, and the passion amongst those working in the industry to discover and champion artists is still there. We have to find ways to support and harness this.
From our perspective, we are supporting grassroots talent through our Young Creative Network, providing access to training and opportunities to perform in our Theatre and outdoor events, as well as providing tickets to gigs and other arts and culture events we host. We do see some artists growing up through the venue and now with the Theatre, it provides a stepping stone with artists evolving from that space to the main hall and then headlining shows in our Park. It feels that we can offer real progress and opportunities to grow. And while Ally Pally is large it is also a modest enough size that we are confident it will continue to provide opportunities for headliners coming here.
What makes Ally Pally such a special place in the UK touring/venue landscape?
We have been entertaining people since 1873 so the venue is steeped in history. It’s really interesting to speak to the artists and promoters ahead of their shows, because so many of them are really aware of who has played here before them, and that this is their moment to follow in the footsteps of some of their heroes. As we’ve said already, we are a charity and independent and this definitely gives the venue a different feel to other arenas. We were built 150 years ago as the ‘People’s Palace’ and that ethos and spirit is still really alive today. We are now building towards our next 150 years! In terms of our infrastructure, we are pretty unique as well with one of the country’s largest standing arenas, alongside our Theatre and our Park, which has unrivalled views across London.
We have really fantastic team and what is special about Ally Pally is that we are hub of entertainment and host a diverse programme of events such as the World Darts Championships, Fireworks Festival, Theatre productions, comedy and the Redbull Soap Box Race to name a few. People come to Ally Pally to be entertained.