The two day event - the first and only music festival to be promoted and staged by an industry technical production solutions specialist - has been nominated in the 'Best New Festival' and 'Best Family Festival' categories. The Awards ceremony takes place at London's Roundhouse on 2 December.
A delighted Steve Butcher, MD of UEP declared, "I can hardly believe it - it's amazing to even be nominated as a newcomer to the scene - and its certainly not something we expected even though we had such a great event."
The inaugural Chilfest was staged at Pendley Meadow in Tring and featured a lively pop night on the Friday headlined by Little Mix and a show-stopping line up of stars from the 1980s on the Saturday, including Tony Hadley, Rick Astley, Howard Jones, Midge Ure, Hazel O'Connor and Carol Decker which saw the event sell out to its 7000 capacity.
Being run by a technical production company, some of the latest moving light and LED screen technologies were made available, and the general production values and attention to detail were far higher than a 'start-up' festival of this nature might normally experience.
Butcher and his crew planned meticulously and pooled their many years of experience working on and attending live events of all types to ensure a smooth and seamless operation that impressed all - from the police and local licencing authorities to the artists and most importantly, the ticket holding public.
"Most important was to make sure that even though Chilfest was a humble beginning, all the right ingredients gelled to make it something we were really proud of" explains Butcher. "One of the best feelings was the post event vibe, when everyone who had actively contributed to the production and organisation genuinely felt like they owned a part of it."
Chilfest 2013 was originally planned as a one-off to celebrate Universal Event Productions' 15th anniversary in real style.
However, with the massive success of the event itself, there was already a solid basis to build on for the future. With this now being reinforced by the Awards nominations, Butcher reveals that he is planning a 2014 Chilfest - the details of which will be announced shortly.
(Jim Evans)
