Features
UK: Prince Exhibit, DHP Family, MVT, Flamefest, Greener Festival
Prince Exhibition And VR Gaming At The O2
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at The O2 London
The “My Name is Prince” exhibition is to “showcase hundreds of never before seen artifacts direct from Paisley Park, Prince’s famous Minnesota private estate,” The O2 announced.
It includes famous stage outfits and accessories as well as instruments played by the icon. Some of Prince’s siblings will attend the opening.
“Our family is extremely honored to have this exhibit at the O2, and we know Prince would be as well. He loved to share his work and life with his fans,” a family member is quoted.
The VR gaming suite in the Hollywood Bowl, a “ten pin alley bowling experience” connected to The O2 campus, is called the VRZone Portal.
It is run in cooperation with Japanese arcade experts Bandai Namco. The two first games to be experiences via goggles, headphones and censored controls are Argyle Shift, a one-player game, and Hospital Escape Terror for two to four players.
DHP Family To Open New UK Venue
UK venue operator and promoter DHP Family has acquired a freehold unit on John Bright Street, Birmingham, England, which is to be completely refurbished.
The former bar is supposed to open in 2018 and “will offer food, a quality bar offer and a full program of live music and club nights,” DHP Family’s announcement reads. It’s a formula that has worked for the company in London with the Nordic-inspired
The company also just completely refurbished the
Speaking about the new Birmingham venue, he said: “Opening the venue in Birmingham is part of a strategic move to develop the DHP brand in this key region. We think it’s an area that’s very strong at arena level, but presents an opportunity for growth at the small to medium end of the market.”
Akins thinks Birmingham may have “a rich musical heritage – but the city centre has lacked a characterful and creative venue for a long time.”
The venue opening will be be supported by “investment in marketing and people to support the shows, backed by a dedicated team based in office space created by the new opening next year,” the announcement states.
Music Venue Trust Goes Digital
The Music Venue Trust announced the addition of a new digital strand called “Venue Futures” to the program of its annual Venues Day, which takes place Oct. 17 at London’s Ministry Of Sound.
The new strand is put together by Sammy Andrews, CEO of Deviate Digital, and invites tech and digital marketing companies as well as startups to introduce their knowledge and innovations to UK venues.
Andrews said “this is an incredible opportunity for start-ups, and marketers to engage with [MVT] members to offer them services that could really make a difference to their businesses. Applications are open now and we are looking for great organizations from all sectors including services, apps, advertising, bookings, marketing, ticketing and tech. If you own a business that can benefit this brilliant community we want to hear from you.”
MVT founder Mark Davyd added: “Over the three years that MVT has been in existence we have been approached by quite a few tech companies with ideas and products aimed at grassroots music venues. We have been searching for the best way to respond, to assess which platforms might truly benefit the venues we represent and to connect the innovators with the right people. We are confident that Venue Futures will achieve this and excited to see what comes out of it.”
A Greener Festival Online Course On Sustainability
– A Greener Festival
UK non-profit organization A Greener Festival is making its “environmental assessor training” available to a worldwide audience via an online course.
The course is offered in partnership with Falmouth University and CEG Digital. Graduates will be able to offer environmental assessment for events and venues. A Greener Festival claims to have assessed more than 400 festivals, events and venues across five continents, including in 2017 Glastonbury Festival (UK), Roskilde Festival (Denmark), Bayou Boogaloo (USA), Primavera Sound (Spain) and We Love Green (France).
The organization states it “needs to train more individuals who have knowledge of environmental management and sustainability issues, event management and a passion to help events to achieve the best possible environmental practices in every aspect of the event. “These assessors – who provide independent site assessment, verification and certification of environmental actions – then undertake on-site visits before and during the event.”
The course, which transfers knowledge that could previously only be conveyed face to face, lasts two weeks.
Students receive a “Stage 1 A Greener Festival Assessors” certificate upon completion.
Man Dies At Kinky UK Festival
One man died and one women was hospitalized after attending Flamefest, the self-described “Kinky Rave Festival” in Tunbridge Wells, England, Aug. 18-20.
Police are treating the death of the 50-year-old man as “unexplained.” The event made the news after KentLive reported that locals were complaining about the fact they hadn’t been informed about the festival taking place.
A local who attended the event told the news site that he experienced a peaceful event with “responsible people” who did not litter the area. “It was all clean and tidy and there were no problems whatsoever from inside the festival.”
“Yes, there were sexual things going on, but only in the licensed and secure areas. That’s not my scene, I listened to some music and had a few beers,” he said. Media coverage before the event prompted promoters to hire extra security. Police officers were on site to stop gatecrashers, of which there were many, from entering without tickets.