Risking it All with the Founder of the Bournemouth 7s' Festival Roger Woodall

“In for £100k, six months before the first ever festival, thinking it was going to cost 100k to put on.

I ran out of money.

We had to remortgage the house.

Had to find another £200k.

It cost £300k to put on in year one.

I was expecting it to be £100k.

It was a big risk and if no one turned up to that front gate on that first day, we would have lost the house.

It’s as simple as that.

Looking back now, 12 years on, I'm glad we did take the gamble but year one was a huge gamble."

On today's show, it's my pleasure to welcome Roger Woodall, Founder of the Bournemouth 7s Festival.

This episode is split into two parts: the first part was recorded live at one of our events back in January in Bournemouth, talking about 'how to build a knockout brand' and this is his take on what he did to build the Bournemouth 7s Festival into what is very much a knockout brand. From 4,000 people in year 1 to over 30,000 people coming up to year 12.

We dig into his career, how he got into the promotions industry, promoting events and then promoting festivals, also, growing a clothing brand, Viper 10, as well.

Part 2, I was intrigued enough after listening to him at this event, to schedule in some time with him at his HQ and dig a little bit deeper.

To find out more about the man himself up, what makes him tick, find out about his family, what it takes to put on an event such as the Bournemouth 7s Festival. What goes into it, what are the emotions involved from day one when everybody turns up, to the day when everybody leaves on the final day of the festival?

We also touch on things such as the Manchester bombings at the Arianna Grande concert, how that impacted their festival a couple of years back. We talk about earning the right for repeat business and we talk about temptation, the grass being always greener, offers that he's had for the business, offers to launch multiple events in different locations.

An interesting fact is that most festivals take 7 years to make a profit. Dodge made one from year one.

Let's start up!