2026 Women Of Live: Alex Mahon

Alex Mahon
Superstruct Entertainment | CEO (United Kingdom)

OBSESSED OVER AUDIENCES | “We keep proving that festivals are not only about the headliner.”

Alex Mahon started out in TV, where there is also a lot of live work, albeit of a very different kind. Nevertheless, she explains, “The energy, the buzz, the preparation, and the respect for different craft disciplines are the same. That sense of many teams coming together to create one moment is addictive.”

She must have felt right at home, then, when she took the role of CEO of UK-based Superstruct in September 2025. After all, this industry is built on different teams bringing their individual skills to the mix in order to create magic.

Superstruct owns more than 80 festivals, including major events like Wacken Open Air in Germany, Flow Festival in Finland, Kendal Calling in the UK and many others. It is part of Mahon’s job to make sure those events continue to excite their audiences. This means “building Superstruct into an IP-led festivals group with stronger systems and founder alignment.” It is the founders who create events organically from within the communities they live in, and who therefore know their audience best. And it is from them that Mahon has learned to “obsess over audiences and nothing else.”

She explains, “At Superstruct, we kept proving that festivals are not only about the headliner. Durable businesses come from owning festival IP, strengthening communities, and building brand partnerships that last. With 80-plus festivals, we also improved systems, dashboards, and founder incentives so creativity stays strong and governance is clear.”

Having taken on the CEO role in September 2025, Mahon has been “pushing leadership culture. Culture is what you say, what you do, and what you measure.” Having learned from “smart bosses, generous peers and seniors” herself, she knows that “no one builds a career alone.”

As far as power is concerned, Mahon still considers it unevenly distributed between men and women. “There are more women in senior roles, but ownership, capital, and headline decisions remain male-dominated,” Mahon explains, touching on opportunities, which “include women founding companies and the broader skill mix needed in live today,” as well as challenges like “financing, informal networks, and the reality of motherhood and travel schedules. The industry needs to ensure and push real change.”