event – FOH International Ltd

Independent Festivals?

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Reading Festival is one of the UK’s longest running music events. What was first a jazz festival in 1961 has now become a staple in the music calendar for a variety of artists and bands. It has moved on from its original roots as a jazz festival and having embraced rock as its main genre in the 1980s, it is now no longer a genre-specific festival, with a wide appeal to young audiences.

The festival has grown year on year since its acquisition by the Mean Fiddler Group in 1989. A second site at Leeds was added in 1999 and as festival demands have grown multiple stages have also been added to accommodate a variety of music genres on display.

A fantastic feature of the festival has been the “BBC Introducing” stage which has showcased the latest up-and-coming talent for eighteen years. Curated by the BBC, the stage has helped birth some of the UK’s biggest acts, while Charli XCX, Raye, Dave and Florence + The Machine – who previously played the event’s BBC Introducing stage – are among the headliners at this year’s Reading Festival.

Despite this, Festival Republic recently announced that neither Reading nor Leeds festival will feature a BBC Introducing Stage. As a replacement for smaller artists, the festival has announced a new Canopy Stage, dedicated to upcoming talent, although the stage will be curated by the festival rather than the BBC. While a promising alternative, it has faced criticism from some. Only the Poets singer Tommy Longhurst said it was “sad news” for young musicians, particularly as it is so hard already for those starting out. Time will tell how the Canopy Stage will compare in its success and legacy to its predecessor in championing independent artists, but in the meantime we want to shout out to some smaller festivals that are dedicated to supporting upcoming and alternative artists and bands!

Cultural curation has always been influenced by a broad range of taste, but as the music industry becomes ever more focused on profit, and the process of curation becomes less independent, these festivals help to keep the independent music spirit alive:

End of the Road Festival, which focuses on independent rock and folk, host their Next Wave Contest for upcoming artists to perform on stage. Watch the winners and lots of other acts on 3^rd-6^th September in Salisbury.

The Green Man Festival is an independent music, science and arts festival held annually in mid-August in the Brecon Beacons, Wales. Green Man has evolved into a 25,000 capacity week long event, showcasing predominantly live music.

Radar Festival is dedicated to contemporary and progressive music at the O2 Victoria Warehouse in Manchester. Catch this on 31^st July to 2^nd August.

The Long Road Festival in Leicestershire has multiple stages dedicated to showcasing new country artists and songwriters on 27-30^th August. It also has a Homegrown Talent Contest every year to give start-up acts a chance to perform on stage in front of a festival audience and industry professionals!

Working across the pond

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Our lovely clients Del Amitri asked us to help them design and produce a small range for their shows in the USA.

We worked with our designers to develop a shirt for the USA tour that would resonate with the concurrent FIFA World Cup 2026.

The design sought to suggest a connection to football as well as using colours that would nod to the USA flag, and thus appeal to the proud US fans.
Another design used the label from Del Amitri’s limited edition whisky, produced in collaboration with Caskade Drinks in Glasgow. You can purchase the whisky here.

We worked closely with partners in the USA to produce the merchandise in the country, avoiding unnecessary taxes and shipping costs, while also ensuring all sales were compliant with local regulations.

Here at FOH we pride ourselves on being able to provide a seamless service for our clients across multiple territories.

Get in touch if you have a tour coming up and would like more information on the services we provide.

Summer 2026

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Summer is often the busiest period for any merch company, with so many artists on tour or making festival appearances.

Here at FOH it was as busy as you’d expect, and we added plenty of miles to our travels while curating, supplying or producing a variety of merch for a number of artists.

As company owners we don’t often head out on the road these days, except for some clients who are close to our hearts, and both Katrina and Paul headed out on the road with two very different major projects.
After attending Great Escape Festival in Brighton, and seeing some fantastic new and emerging artists such as Ellis D, Paul immediately left for Amsterdam, where are rather more established artist was at the Ajax football stadium for ten shows.

Stadium shows provide significant challenges, not least the size of the site, the scale of the project, and the need to deliver the right service. With an artist such as Hary Styles, selling so much merchandise at every show, the demands are even greater. A few weeks, many sales, and a successful stadium operation, Paul was very glad to head back home and pick up operational tasks here in the UK office.

The other major project was looking after all on site operations for Fanatics US on their WWE project across Italy, including a pop-up store and 4 live shows. Katrina looked after the store project in Turin, maintained appropriate client relations, and added a few more Italian shows before heading home. There were some minor challenges with customs, but nothing we couldn’t handle, and the project was a great success.

Large projects always provide unexpected challenges, but our on-site consultancy, and many years experience delivering the largest events, ensure the merchandise operation will always stay on track, regardless of the slings and arrows circumstance might launch along the way.

Het Laatste Nieuws

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Most people will be wondering what the title means, or wondering if perhaps we didn’t have a little too much to drink over the weekend.

However, after a number of months of effort we are very pleased to announce that FOH International BV now has its KVK number and is officially incorporated in the Netherlands.

Though we’ll be breaking out our DuoLingo to help us cope, this new undertaking allows us to offer our services seemlessly across the EU, even in the post-brexit landscape.

Wherever your tour takes you, let us help you find a solution.

the Great Escape

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Just a short few weeks until the FOH office moves to Brighton for a week.

Last year’s festival was blessed with sunshine and great music. I’m sure the music will deliver again, but the UK being the UK we’ll be packing for all weathers.

Either the way the best of Brighton will be on display, whether it’s the record stores, rehearsal rooms or independent venues platforming the best up-and-coming artists.

Highlights of last year, strolling along the sea front with Pale Blue Eyes, each of us seemingly more worried about factor 50 sunscreen than anything else, such was the weather!

Lowlights? Unfortunately there were too many artists I missed last year, but the one we absolutely wanted to catch but failed was Chloe Slater. Hopefully we get the chance again!

Do get in touch if you’d like to just catch up or if you’re keen to discuss all things merch.

Barrowland Ballrooms

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There’s not a lot of venues we haven’t been to over the years, and yet somehow December 2024 saw FOH’s first visit to the Barrowland Ballroom.

First built in 1934 to provide a space that could be used by the traders at Barrowland Markets for social events, it was extended only a few years later in order to cope with the demand.

Despite the original building being destroyed by fire in 1958 it was rebuilt, bigger and better, and was open again by 1960 before falling into disuse as dancing became less popular.

Revived during the 80s it has become home to any number of scottish bands over the years. It certainly provides a singular atmoshere and remains a historic lanmark of the UK music scene.

You can read more about the venue here.

The Halfway Kid

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It’s sometimes nice to be able to provide support for artists you have a musical interest in. Having come across a number of social media posts and gradually becoming more familiar with The Halfway Kid, we sent a speculative email to Ferocious Talent to see if we could possibly help out with the upcoming UK tour. It was barely an hour later when we were chatting with British-Sudanese singer and songwriter Saeed Gadir, about everything from music, to cats, to football.

If I don’t come home has been getting major traction across all channels, with more than a million streams on Spotify alone, and with performances at Glastonbury and a UK tour in his back pocket, hopefully we’ll be seeing more of Saeed out on the road soon, his work certainly deserves its growing audience.
Go give him a follow and maybe help an independent musician out and buy a t-shirt while you’re there!

WWE – Clash in Paris

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It’s been a busy but rewarding week in Paris, at the La Defense Arena and the Westfield Mall. With a WWE store activation and the finalé of the recent WWE European tour, the number of visitors was incredible. A very successful week was made even better by having some of the incredible staff who smiled the entire way through, in spite of the long days and seemingly never ending line of visitors.

Paris seems like a different place since the Olympics, when we here to help deliver Team USA house at the Palias Broignart. There seems to be a more positive mood in the air, even as late summer turns into autumn. Perhaps it’s just helpful being surrounded by great people all week.

Hughes, at the La Defense concession, could not have been more helpful over at the arena, and Pierre, Adrian and the team made it a pleasure to be in the Westfield mall, in spite of the humidity in the store!

As Adrian and I discussed only yesterday, the best thing about this business is the bonding; either by living in each other’s pockets for an intense period, or because of the shared trauma of a difficult production. Thankfully not too much trauma this time around, and I’m very grateful to everyone we’ve worked with this week, US, French, Welsh, and English colleagues, who have made this a lot easier than it could have been.

I’ll be staying in town for another job with UFC at the Accor Arena, but the week spent with some of the best people in Paris will not soon be forgotten. As often happens, one wishes there’d been just a little more time to hang out!