News article

15 Sep 2018

CHECK!2018 engage Paul Gudgin

Paul has over 30 years’ experience in the management of festivals and events including the Aldeburgh Festival, Bury St Edmunds Festival, City of London Festival, Durham International BRASS Festival and 8 years as Director of the world’s largest arts festival, the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

After receiving a degree in music from the University of Surrey Paul’s first festival role was for the prestigious classical music event, the Aldeburgh Festival. He subsequently became Director of the Bury St Edmunds Festival before heading to Edinburgh to manage one of the main music venues, the Queen’s Hall. Here he was able to maintain a strong association with festivals as the venue featured events by the Edinburgh International Festival, the Edinburgh International Jazz Festival, Edinburgh’s Hogmanay and the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

After 4 years at the Queen’s Hall, Paul was appointed Director of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and over the following eight years saw the event double in scale reaching 1.6 million ticket sales in his final year. Paul contribution to Edinburgh’s cultural life was recognised when he was made the first recipient of the Arts and Business Scotland Award for Leadership and he was awarded an Honorary Degree by the University of Edinburgh.

Paul then established his own consultancy working on a wide range of festival projects internationally and he was also appointed Visiting Professor of Festival and Event Management by Leeds Metropolitan University and subsequently Senior Consultant at Edinburgh Napier University. He has been engaged to deliver training by a host of organisations including the British Council, Events T asmania,

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The New Zealand Association of Event Professionals, Festivals and

Events Ontario, Rotterdam Festivals, the Australian Centre for Events

Management and the National Arts Council of Korea. He is currently Artistic

Director of the Durham BRASS Festival and presents the Festival and Event

Management Masterclass which has been delivered in 25 countries worldwide.