Inside track: Robin Hutson says festivals are music to his ears

Festivals are fun after a tough couple of years – and may help with staff retention, says Robin Hutson

Since I last wrote this column, the music and food festivals we hold at the hotels have kicked off in fine form. Of course, it’s our first full season of festivals since the summer of 2019. Our returning Smoked and Uncut festival goers have eagerly awaited this moment – perhaps sitting in a field with 3,500 people enjoying the sunshine, music and food and drink is the ultimate symbolic event of life returning to normal.

Our festivals have been going for about eight years now. We started them as our own antidote to the Sunday evening wine dinners that for many years were the staple event for locals in so many country house hotels.

Since those early trial days, which consisted of a handful of music-loving neighbours, a couple of blokes on guitars and a few barbecued burgers, the festivals have grown to four major events of up to 4,000 revellers. This involves a huge technical production, multiple food trucks, pop-up restaurants in conjunction with the likes of Angela Hartnett, Mark Hix and Mitch Tonks, a Glastonbury-scale stage (well almost!) with household name headliners, glamping and much more. It’s a lot of work for our teams but I think it’s viewed by most as an interesting deviation from the normal day-to-day rhythm of the hotel.

In fact, more than simply a deviation, I believe a side benefit I certainly didn’t foresee (when we originally conceived Smoked and Uncut) is that our festivals play their part in staff recruitment and retention.

The ‘fun stuff’ helps create the right image and perhaps an exciting environment that is appealing to our current crop of young team members when coupled with decent pay and conditions, a good working environment and a kind/respectful atmosphere.

Obviously not every hospitality business can hold a festival of this nature, but with the skills and tight labour market, finding any points of difference to separate one business from another may just help.

In contrast, I attended the moving and poignant celebration of the late Willy Bauer’s life. Standing in a room at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park, London, with my contemporaries, I listened and reflected on the tributes. It was good to be reminded of Willy’s significant influence over a generation of hospitality professionals. It caught me thinking about the changes we have seen over the past half-century. There have been many changes for the better and probably an equal quantity for the worse, but the training and mentorship of craft-orientated professionals that was so close to Willy’s heart has been an enduring theme throughout.

While we may use ‘the fun stuff’ to help us attract new recruits these days, if we want to create career professionals then there is no substitute for a traditional deep commitment to training and development.