01 — about

fifteen years on the operational side of the show.

I'm Ash Walker. I run operations on live events. Festivals, international tours, and high-end brand activations. I started on the UK festival circuit in 2010 carrying barriers, and ended up, somehow, in charge of where the barriers go.

The part of the job I find genuinely interesting is the gap between the plan and the field. The pre-mortem nobody ran. The trigger point nobody set. The booking fee nobody could explain. The day rate nobody would publish. The bits the industry has historically agreed not to talk about. So this site is where I talk about them.

My day job is operational. My writing is editorial. I try to keep them honest about each other.

what i care about

  • Operational craft. The work is the work. Pretending it isn't makes everyone worse.
  • Transparent pricing. Opacity used to be a margin strategy. It's becoming a liability. I'd rather go first.
  • The people doing the work. 12-hour days at festival rates with no overtime is a welfare issue. We should treat it as one.
  • Useful honesty. The silence around near-misses is what allows the same mistakes to happen on someone else's site next weekend.

02 — experience

the route here

  1. 2019 — present

    Operations Director

    Independent live events company (London)

    Lead operations across festivals, touring, and high-end brand activations. Built the operational playbook used across every live we deliver, and the supplier framework that holds it together.

  2. 2014 — 2019

    Senior Production Manager

    International festival circuit

    Site design, contractor management, weather contingency, large-crowd safety. Multi-day events with five-figure crowds across the UK and EU.

  3. 2010 — 2014

    Production Manager / Site Manager

    UK independent festivals and venues

    Cut my teeth on the festival circuit. Mud, marquees, mistakes, and the kind of education you can't pay for.

03 — skills

what i do

01

operations

  • festival site design
  • risk & safety planning
  • supplier procurement
  • pre-mortems
  • crisis decision-making

02

production

  • stages & structures
  • power & rigging
  • crew management
  • vendor & artist liaison

03

strategy

  • pricing & ticketing
  • industry research
  • survey design
  • public benchmarking

04

writing & speaking

  • long-form essays
  • panels & moderation
  • industry advocacy

04 — credentials

the paperwork

  • BA (university, UK), 2009
  • IOSH Managing Safely
  • SIA / Crowd Safety qualifications
  • First Aid at Work (current)
  • Member, Production Services Association (PSA)
  • Speaker, multiple UK industry conferences (2024–2026)

05 — values

how i'd rather work

  1. 01

    reality before public relations.

    feynman's rule. the work has to be honest about what it is, even when the optics would prefer otherwise.

  2. 02

    trigger points, not judgment calls.

    decide what you'll do, in advance, when you're rested. the moment of crisis is the worst possible time to be designing your response.

  3. 03

    the silence is the risk.

    near-misses are the most valuable data the industry generates. sharing them is how we get better.

  4. 04

    pay people properly.

    12-hour days at festival rates with no overtime is a welfare issue. it will not fix itself.