Ali O'Reilly
In the world of music festivals, female organisers are as rare as the women headlining them. One of the few exceptions is AGN Events director Ali O’Reilly who talks to Christian Koch about her brainchild of Rock N Roll Circus, organising the world’s first socially-distanced gigs and being the “only woman in the room” working in sport
When the third iteration of Rock N Roll Circus arrives at Sheffield’s Don Valley stadium in August, local hero Richard Hawley will line up alongside Becky Hill, The Coral, plus a menagerie of stilt-walkers, fortune-tellers and acrobats doing impossibly bendy things on trapezes. And somewhere among the melee – probably frantically speaking into her mobile backstage – will be Ali O’Reilly, the woman who created the event and who runs its production, marketing and sponsorship.
Three-and-a-half years ago – around the same time she was responsible for launching the world’s first socially-distanced arena show (Sam Fender at Newcastle’s Gosforth Park), O’Reilly had a vision. “The experience made me look at gigs differently and thinking how I could bring something new to the music world.”
Lo and behold, O’Reilly quit her high-profile job at Virgin Money to launch her own business, AGN Events, where she leads an all-female team, a rarity in the live music industry, where the number of women occupying senior roles is 37%, according to UK Music’s 2022 Diversity Report.
O’Reilly is accustomed to being the “only female in the room”, having previously worked in the sports industry for CAA Consulting, a job where she got to work alongside top sportspeople such as Andy Murray, Bradley Wiggins and Nico Rosberg.
“Having spent nearly 10 years working in sport, which is a predominantly male-dominated industry helped me navigate the music side,” she says. “Murray and Rosberg were calm, collected characters who were laser-focused on what they needed to achieve on the court/track… When running my own business, I had to step outside and not have the protection of the corporate world and a big agency. I had to believe the vision we’re creating and just like Rosberg and Murray, remain 100% laser-focused in that direction on a day-to-day basis. It’s not about ignoring advice but trying to block out the noise.”
Growing up in County Kildare, Ireland, O’Reilly was always into sport, playing hockey competitively. After a geography degree at Trinity College Dublin and with the 2012 Olympics coming up, she knew that the UK capital was where she wanted to be: she googled the 10 best sports agencies in London and sent off her CV.
A job at sports marketing agency BrandRapport followed, where she helped deliver Prudential RideLondon cycling events and on hospitality at Chelsea FC.
It was all good preparation for her next role at CAA Consulting. Here O’Reilly worked on the award-winning alliance of Land Rover and the America’s Cup, where she was tasked with helping “create Formula One on water and using automotive engineering to create the world’s fastest boat”. Other jobs during her sports consulting years included working with corporate sponsors at events such as Wimbledon, the Tour de France and the Ashes.
It wasn’t just sport, either. One of O’Reilly’s favourite projects was a Land Rover Defender humanitarian partnership between the Red Cross/ Red Crescent, filmed in Dubai.
In early-2020, O’Reilly crossed over to work at one of her CAA clients, Virgin Money, where her role was to lead the brand’s music and sports proposition. Within two months of starting, she’d negotiated new deals with the O2 and the Glasgow Hydro. Then, the world went into lockdown, and live music essentially shut down for two years. Undeterred, she arranged some remarkable pivots for the brand, including setting up Virgin Money’s Emerging Stars programme (which supported new artists during Covid) and the world’s first socially-distanced concerts (see above), which benefited backstage crew, suppliers and food vendors who’d been out of work for months.
With the idea of Rock N Roll Circus fomenting in her brain, O’Reilly took the brave leap to start her own business in January 2022. Just five months later the first Rock N Roll Circus was held in Newcastle headlined by Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and The Libertines. The following year, another event was held in Sheffield featuring local musician Self Esteem on the top of the bill. It isn’t just the musicians who are homegrown at Rock N Roll Circus; most suppliers, food-vendors and circus performers are local too. “We want to have a lasting impact and leave a bit of a legacy behind” says O’Reilly.
Sponsorship is also obviously important for fledging festivals. Using her consulting skills, O’Reilly brokered a big deal with Honda, which sees festival punters having trial runs on motorbikes at the event.
Because the underpinning concept of Rock N Roll Circus is a “travelling circus”, O’Reilly hopes to take the festival to other UK cities, and hopefully Europe/North America. She also has plans to host more events, such as popups and fanzones (AGN currently runs the fanzone for Sheffield Wednesday).
“It was difficult working in sport when you’re the only female in a predominantly male room and feel like your voice might be less heard,” she says. “I think I’ve stayed true to myself over the course of my career, and not let that take away my voice or confidence. Going into these situations knowing you’re adding value and you’re there for a reason (and not because you’re male or female) is the most important thing.”
Find out more about Rock N Roll Circus.