The festival of all things trucks, Truckfest, was held at the East of England Arena and Events Centre, Peterborough, over the Sunday and Monday of the August Bank Holiday and saw over 6,000 visitors per day come to the two day show to see more than 1000 trucks, and with over 500 camping pitches at the event.
Organised by Live Promotions the annual event is usually held over the May Bank Holiday but was rolled back to the end of August, in the hope that it would be possible to develop and implement methods of COVID 19 control acceptable to the authorities in time for the event to get the go ahead.
Colin Ward, director of Live Promotions, commented. “It was wonderful being open for business and back to promoting at last with the first of our Truckfest events since lockdown. Jason Lunn and his team at the East of England Arena were excellent and supportive in every way possible, from concept through to planning and completion. Together our teams were able to meet the latest Covid 19 regulations, as well as working with the local authority and Public Health England resulting in a highly successful Truckfest 2020.”
Venue director at the East of England Arena and Events Centre, Jason Lunn, explains, “Running events during COVID-19 requires the venue and organiser to stand side by side in planning and production. The responsibility is simply enormous. We have always worked closely with our clients but this sets a new high for us. We would like to thank Colin Ward and his team at Live Promotions for being so transparent with all their operations, bookings and expected numbers, this has allowed us to share detailed information with the authorities including Public Health England, the Local Authority, the Police and Environmental Health in order to get the go ahead for the event to take place.”
This is the second Covid 19 secure event to take place at the East of England Arena, with the Outdoor Motorhome Campervan Show being the UK’s first public event to be held under PHE scrutiny over the weekend of 1st and 2nd August, paving the way for Truckfest 2020 and providing the venue team with procedures, documentation, knowledge and confidence to run larger compliant events.Lunn continues, “Peterborough is leading the way in restarting events and we would also like to thank NW Cambridgeshire MP Shailesh Vara and Gillian Beasley, CEO of the City Council and her team for helping to make this happen.”
“Events support a variety of business and jobs, we are pleased to be playing a part in kickstarting the local economy. The East of England Arena and Event Centre is now ahead of the field and we are looking forward to staging our regular events, as well as attracting new business that wants a head start and our proven turn key support,” he concluded.
Author: Adam Parry
Adam is the co-founder and editor of www.eventindustrynews.com Adam, a technology evangelist also organises Event Tech Live, Europe’s only show dedicated to event technology and the Event Technology Awards. Both events take place in November, London.
