Welcome to the eventful entrepreneur. I'm Roger Woodall, founder of the Bormer Sevens,

the world's largest sport and music festival. With all events in 2020 grinding to a halt,

I'll be bringing people back together, but in a different way.

On this week's episode, I'm talking to festival promoter John Emson.

Working his way up in the music industry,

John has been behind some of the best life festivals in the UK,

including the incredible Eden sessions,

Peaky Blinders Festival,

and one of my favourites, Wilderness Festival.

We chat about Oasis, crazy riders, how festivals have changed in the last few decades,

and of course, how the events industry is going to come back with a bang.

If you're liking our podcast, hit the subscribe button and you'll get notified every Wednesday with more fascinating stories like this. Here's the man himself, Mr. John Emson.

John, great to have on the show, mate. Nice to be here. Yeah, nice little studio, eh?

Great. Yeah, good setup. Well, let's get crack. Let's get straight into it. Obviously,

you're one of the biggest promoters in the UK. How did it all start for you with Eden sessions back in 2002 in Cornwall?

So I spent the first part of my career working at record labels. So I was in the recorded side of the industry.

And I had family in Cornwall and when the Eden project

was being built,

which was basically a big clay pit

in the ground in Cornwall,

I went to look at the build

and I met the creative director

...