What Our Customers Think
Kenilworth Lions
“We at Kenilworth Lions are delighted so support the Outdoor Stage Company’s nomination to the awards. We have used them on many occasions to deliver out ‘Carols at the Castle’ event which was held annually at Kenilworth Castle, and, for the last couple of years, in Abbey Fields within Kenilworth. The Outdoor Stage Company have always delivered to an exceptionally high standard with their staff helpful, safety conscious and constructive throughout, which is very important given the challenging nature of the locations we use. The Carols are a major family event within the town and the innovations that John and his team have woven into staging has seen its popularity soar in recent years with both the very young and very old members of the community. This is made more important because the event is funded purely by donations from the attendees and any shortfall in takings is paid for by our charity account – this obviously means that money cannot then be used to support other good causes. The Outdoor Stage Company have consistently provided a high quality service at an incredibly low cost which our charity is extremely grateful for – we wish them the best of luck in this competition.
Professor Kerry Kirwan
Christmas Events Chair, Kenilworth Lions Club
St Patrick’s Festival Birmingham
The St Patrick’s Festival Birmingham is the third largest St Patrick’s Festival in the world, and one of the largest events in Birmingham. Over the last several years, we have been fortunate enough to work with John Milne and The Outdoor Stage Company.
John and his company have provided us with a live music stage for our Festival and has always been a pleasure to work with. We have relied on John for several years and he always goes above and beyond. John and The Outdoor Stage Company are a key part of our Festival, and we trust them every year to provide a professional service where they regularly go beyond their remit to support us.
The Outdoor Stage Company has always provided a highly professional service; all communication and discussion in advance is professional and prompt, and arrival, demount and install on the day is always punctual. On a number of occasions John has gone beyond his remit to help us out – providing electrical services on the day, providing emergency generators, on one occasion our Festival bar generator wasn’t working and he managed to fix it in time for people arriving on site – this is all in addition to managing his own stage install.
Every year John keeps the day free for us, but delivers the event under a short lead time as we often don’t have bands or musicians fully coordinated until close to the day. John manages all the spec and sound checks himself, he liaises with the bands, and ensures a quality event is delivered. John manages all the health and safety requirements for us, and liaises with the bands regarding their instruments, backline and other requirements.
Every year our headline act is an internationally renowned Irish artist, commanding very specific requirements. Every year John and his company fulfil those requirements and we have received compliments from the likes of Sharon Shannon, Finbar Furey, The Destroyers and our local bands on the quality, professionalism and attention to detail that John and his crew provide.
John has worked with a variety of acts on our stage, from Irish traditional music, school choirs, a Brazillian folk band and most impressively the Joe Broughton Folk Ensemble; a group of over 65 young folk musicians on stage performing at once!
In all, The Outdoor Stage Company provide a fantastic service at a competitive price. We could not trust any other company to provide the level of professionalism, punctuality and quality that John and The Outdoor Stage Company do.
I would strongly support John and The Outdoor Stage Company to be considered for the Corporate LiveWire Prestige Awards 2019.
Kind Regards,
Peter Connolly
Chair, St Patrick’s Festival Birmingham
Celebrate Eid
Celebrate Eid have now been working with John Milne and company for over 5 years and in this time we have seen our event grow from approximately 12k attendees to over 100k attendees and the support provided by John has been instrumental in reaching these record attendances.
John provides a flexible yet pragmatic service which allows us to have dexterity over the planning and scheduling of our event. As Eid can only be announced the night before there is uncertainty over the date of our event, this requires all planning to cover the 2 possible days Eid could land on and be prepared for either date. Again, due to this we can only work with those who are understanding and respectful of the challenges certain religious occasions face. We have only ever found John and his team to be supportive and willing to go the extra mile to ensure everything is arranged in due course regardless of any hurdles that appear along the way.
Substantial planning goes into the event but the actual culmination of the planning which unfolds in Small Heath Park in the 3 days prior to the event are a sight to behold. The management of multiple contractors coming in and out, the varying degree of questions regarding logistics, Health & Safety, permutations etc make for what should be a stressful time however the calm management of John and his team allow for the set up to go along with minimal fuss and maximum professionalism ensuring we celebrate successful event after successful event.
I would, and have, recommended the Outdoor stage company to several other organisations that have contacted us at Celebrate Eid over the success of our event and advised that the team work between ourselves and John are crucial in delivering so many consistently high quality events. We look forward to working with John and the team over the upcoming events and raising the standards of our event even further.
Umar Rashid