Daniel Sanders

Appointed as Festival Director for a City Centre Festival in 2025, with expanded responsibility for marketing strategy and commercial delivery, alongside overall festival coordination for a large-scale, multi-day city-centre festival at the Pier Head. Worked across all departments to align programming, audience growth, commercial performance, and safe delivery.

Led marketing and audience strategy, overseeing campaign planning, ticketing alignment, partner promotions, and media coordination to drive awareness and attendance. Held responsibility for commercial and sponsorship delivery, supporting partner acquisition and integration while balancing revenue objectives, audience experience, and licensing conditions.

The 2025 programme featured internationally recognised acts including Sister Sledge, Gipsy Kings, Tony Hadley, alongside a wider line-up celebrating iconic music.

In addition to core festival delivery, managed significantly increased complexity around traffic and crowd management planning following a major city-centre incident in May and the subsequent Liverpool FC Parade, which resulted in heightened scrutiny, revised operational assumptions, and additional stakeholder requirements.

Worked closely with traffic management contractors, production teams, site operations, security, Police, City Council, and emergency services to review, adapt, and strengthen the Traffic Management Plan (TMP) and associated crowd management measures. Contributed to additional planning meetings, revised documentation, and enhanced controls to ensure the event met updated safety expectations while remaining deliverable and commercially viable.

Supported live delivery through event control, stakeholder coordination, and on-site decision-making, maintaining a calm, solutions-focused approach in a high-pressure environment. Ensured strong alignment between safety, accessibility, staff welfare, audience experience, and commercial performance throughout planning and delivery.

Appointed as Festival Director for a 4 day 10,000 capacity per day, City Centre Festival 2024, working across all departments to coordinate the planning and delivery of a large-scale, multi-day city-centre music festival at the Pier Head. Operated in a senior delivery role, acting as the central point of coordination between creative, commercial, operational, and statutory stakeholders.

Worked closely with production, site operations, security, concessions, bar operations, commercial partners, artist bookers, promoters, and marketing teams, ensuring alignment between programming, audience experience, commercial objectives, and operational delivery.

The event programme included high-profile live performances such as the return of Holly Johnson, alongside international and UK acts including The Jacksons, Lightning Seeds, and a broader line-up celebrating Liverpool’s musical heritage and contemporary culture.

Led engagement with Liverpool City Council, licensing authorities, Merseyside Police, emergency services, and statutory partners through the Safety Advisory Group process, contributing to event planning, compliance, crowd management, safeguarding, and risk mitigation within a high-profile waterfront and heritage location.

Oversaw live delivery across the event period, supporting event control, production schedules, artist logistics, site operations, and stakeholder coordination. Played a key role in commercial and sponsorship delivery, supporting partner integration while maintaining a strong focus on public safety, accessibility, staff welfare, and audience experience.

Eurovision Song Contest 2023 – Liverpool (Jan-May 2023)

Led bar and hospitality operations for the Eurovision Fan Village as part of Liverpool’s city-wide hosting programme for Eurovision 2023. Delivered a complex, high-volume public operation welcoming over 250,000 visitors across the event period within a highly regulated, internationally visible environment.

Worked closely with the City Council, central government stakeholders, event producers, licensing authorities, and statutory partners to ensure full compliance with licensing, safety, safeguarding, and operational requirements. Actively contributed to multi-agency planning, Safety Advisory Group processes, and live event control coordination.

Managed end-to-end hospitality delivery including bar strategy, site layout, supplier procurement, stock and cashless systems, workforce mobilisation, and live operations. Recruited and managed 400+ staff, creating local employment opportunities while maintaining high standards of service, welfare, and inclusion.

Collaborated closely with security providers, crowd management teams, medical services, and event control to align bar operations with crowd flow, emergency planning, and incident response protocols. Maintained a calm, solutions-led leadership approach in a fast-moving live environment with intense public and media scrutiny.

Integrated sponsor and partner requirements into bar operations, balancing commercial performance, brand visibility, audience experience, and licensing constraints. Delivered a safe, efficient, and commercially successful operation while protecting the reputation of the city, partners, and the wider Eurovision programme.