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Edinburgh, Scotland

Connect Festival

LARGE SCALE FESTIVAL DELIVERY IN EDINBURGH

Client:

DF Concerts

Connect Festival was a music and arts festival held at the Royal Highland Centre in Edinburgh by DF Concerts across 2022 and 2023.

The festival marked DF Concerts & Events’ expansion into the broader camping festival market on the east coast of Scotland, combining live music with arts, wellness and family focused programming across a multi-day outdoor event environment. Designed to attract a wide audience demographic, the festival featured international and domestic music artists alongside curated food and drink offerings, wellness activities, cultural programming and dedicated family entertainment areas.

Held within the established Royal Highland Showgrounds venue, Connect combined large scale outdoor festival infrastructure with the benefits of an existing event site and strong transport connectivity to Edinburgh and the wider region. The event placed a strong emphasis on audience experience, sustainability and site presentation, creating a refined festival environment designed to balance large scale live entertainment with a more relaxed and environmentally conscious atmosphere.

Alongside the live music programme, the festival incorporated camping facilities, public audience areas, hospitality spaces and operational infrastructure across the wider site footprint, supporting a multi-day destination festival experience within one of Scotland’s best known event venues.

Number of attendees

60,000

at

Connect Festival

Services
provided

SP man days total
0

Overlay & Site Management

  • On-site supplier & logistics management
  • Infrastructure scheduling & procurement
  • Budget variance management
  • Provision of site management teams including Site Manager, Site Coordinators and Site Assistants

Construction Management

  • Sourcing structures, planning and executing builds

Site Design

  • All CAD work and event infrastructure layouts
  • Budget and efficiency tracking
  • Site feasibility studies
  • CAD Drawings
  • Site surveys (incl drone and topographical)

our role

Years worked: 2022-2023

Special Projects was appointed by DF Concerts & Events to lead site planning, infrastructure coordination and operational delivery for Connect Festival across all phases of the project.

Working on behalf of DF Concerts & Events as the event owner and promoter, our role included developing detailed site layouts, infrastructure plans and operational drawings to support the delivery of a large scale multi-day festival within the Royal Highland Centre. We worked closely with DF Concerts & Events, venue stakeholders and appointed contractors to coordinate infrastructure and operational activity across the site.

Special Projects managed infrastructure scheduling, procurement coordination and contractor management throughout the build, live event and break phases, overseeing suppliers, logistics and installation activities on behalf of the client. This included supporting audience movement planning, back of house operations, access routes, production infrastructure and public event spaces whilst maintaining safe and practical operational flow across the venue.

Our role also included coordinating infrastructure reuse and transition planning across DF Concerts & Events’ wider summer programme, helping improve efficiency, reduce unnecessary infrastructure duplication and support the festival’s sustainability objectives. Throughout delivery, Special Projects acted as the client’s site management and operational coordination team, maintaining communication across stakeholders, suppliers and venue operations to support efficient delivery across all phases of the festival lifecycle.

gallery

Connect Festival

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