Access All Areas Magazine

The Great Escape has released its full 2026 schedule with confirmed stage hosts and more than 40 new artists. The festival runs from 13–16 May in Brighton and will feature more than 450 artists across 35+ venues, alongside its industry conference programme. With The Kooks headlining, new additions include Nectar Woode, Mandy, Indiana and Working Men’s Club.

O2 has agreed a 10-year naming rights deal with The Odyssey Trust to rebrand Belfast’s Odyssey site as The O2 Belfast. The agreement covers the full complex, including the arena, and takes effect from 1 July 2026, as the operator looks to expand its UK venue portfolio and strengthen its presence in Northern Ireland. The 10-year agreement covers the full Odyssey complex. This includes an 11,200-capacity arena, as well as leisure and education facilities on the waterfront site.

The Harry Styles-curated Meltdown festival will feature a line-of acts including Kamasi Washington, Nilüfer Yanya, Stephen Fretwell, Warpaint, Yussef Dayes and Jon Hopkins. Harry Styles is Meltdown’s 31st curator, following in the footsteps of the likes of David Bowie, Patti Smith, Chaka Khan, David Byrne, Yoko Ono and last year’s Little Simz.

AEG has described a pilot of The Power of Events’ new Experience of Work initiative as being a great success, having hosted the emergent scheme at The O2 arena. The Power of Events (POE) said its Experience of Work initiative was designed to provide a structured workplace experience for young people and test a new model for employer engagement across the UK events industry.

“It’s about finding that dance between a really solid operational structure and wild creative expression.” Speaking on the main stage at the Event Production Show, that’s how Boomtown Fair co-founder & creative director Luke Mitchell summarised his creative approach to the hugely successful festival.

Arena Group has launched Arena Showblock Seating, enabling event organisers to build hospitality areas within grandstand seating. Recently crowned Access All Areas Supplier of the Year at the Event Production Awards, Arena said the Arena Showblock Seating product combines its grandstands with Showblock’s modular structures to create a fully integrated product designed to maximise the potential of event infrastructure.

On the back of a successful first year of the Access All Areas 100, a new cohort of participants has been announced. Including key industry professionals from across the live event ecosystem, the AAA 100 is a community of 100 influential senior leadership figures. The initiative was launched to help drive collaboration, thought leadership and best practice within the live events industry.

Weezevent has reported that the number of UK event organisers using its self-service ticketing platform has doubled in the past year. For the year to February 2026, Weezevent said it has also quadrupled its ticketing volume through UK organisers, with the growth attributed to its integration of Kaboodle last year. The cashless payment pioneer and event technology specialist acquired UK-based ticketer Kaboodle and The Netherland’s Weeztix last April.

Cuffe and Taylor is celebrating record ticket sales and a record number of shows for its TK Maxx presents Scarborough Open Air Theatre series. With three months before the first show of 2026, the Live Nation-owned promoter said 150,000 tickets have been sold so far for this summer’s series, beating the previous record by 35,000.

The Featured Artists Coalition (FAC) has launched the UK Artist Touring Fund to provide ‘top up’ support for headline tours that face financial shortfalls. The UK trade body representing artists’ interests said the UKAT Fund will open for applications on Wednesday, 11 March, and they must be received by 20 March.