Hogsozzle

We caught up with Anand Mavani, creative director of Hogsozzle, to find out why this year’s music festival is so hotly anticipated. How does someone go and create their own music festival? And what ridiculousness is planned for this year? You’ll find all of this and more below.

FFY: Hogsozzle is like no other music festival, how did the idea for this music festival develop?

AM: As with a number of small boutique, independant festivals, the seeds for this beautiful journey were sewn within a group of super tight friends who all studied at university in Nottingham. A team of misfits with aspirations spanning the creative, entrepreneurial and business realms, we all shared two binary values. Great food. Ridiculous party. We celebrated the end of our final year in university, with a serious blow out party. It coincided with Dan, our founding Hog’s birthday, and what better way to celebrate the whole shabang than by throwing the biggest house party Nottingham had ever seen!! The story goes….We dug a hole in the ground, welded a roasting pit, and feasted on an epic hog roast…..We hired a function one sound-system and then cranked it up for 3 days...And so it begun...What started as a humble hog roast and a party, has transpired into the most incredible, inspiring, and genuine story for this group! We sit now approaching HogSozzle 17’, close to selling out of tickets, hosting 4 stages, in a phenomenal festival site….

HogSozzle is a boutique music festival bringing together upcoming music, creative minds and some the most delicious and revolutionary street food the UK has to offer. Hosting 1500 like-minded people, we deliberately keep HogSozzle an intimate 3 day festival of good music and food lovers!

FFY: What is it that makes you want to continue to put this music festival on year after year?

AM: I firmly believe that our most prized commodity is our punter. When we articulate our messaging, breathe our ethos and values, and think, design, create with this in mind, we quickly realise that we are onto something special here. Year on year, we celebrate and welcome feedback, we invest our time, skills and resources into making the party even more memorable, and each year the task gets significantly harder and harder. We want to scale, yes, however we also want to keep it as intimate, creative and inspiring as possible. Each year, when the going gets tough, the hours crank up and the workload intensifies, we always come back to our prized possession...We come back to the fact that we want to stage something that gives people a platform to be inspired, to leave with a whole new group of friends, experiences and opportunities before them. Of course hedonism becomes part of the package, we totally get it! A weekend away where your business is your business, you can escape, be free, run wild, dress up, dress down, get involved in as little or as much as you want. There are no expectations and there is certainly nobody judging you.

FFY: What has been the best and worst moment throughout your journey with Hogsozzle?

AM: So many highs and lows come with running a small, growing, intimate festival! Let’s start with the worst moment...Undoubtedly bad weather. One of the very first years we decided to monetise the gathering and turn it into ‘something’, we put all the legwork into the festival, created a marketing plan, developed a very basic website, and spread the word….We hired out a beer garden in the Peak District, everything was going to plan, people turned up and pitched up...Our first rig was blasting out music and our the structure above our heads was holding up...Until the heavens decided to open up, and by open up, I mean OPEN UP!! Non-stop-torrential-heavy-do-not-stop-thunder-and-rain for the whole weekend. Non stop. That hurt our confidence, affected the mood and hit the footfall massively! We really did need to take a step back and think about what we did next from then! A tough time!

On the flip side though, a magic moment for us was when we broke the 1,000 punter mark! We all of a sudden graduated into this realm of possibility and we realised that not only have we achieved something monumental. But we should all be so incredibly proud of what we have been through to get to where we are! Sure we are all working on other projects, we are all career professionals; our team is built of digital marketeers, designers, doctors, lawyers, events professionals, engineers, bankers, the list goes on...But what I am most proud of is that we all come together, as a team, to create something so beautiful and rewarding. We have weekly calls, skype meetings, a clear structure of reporting and feedback, we have all the credentials of a well oiled business, but run through the best of friends and for this, I am so grateful to have the opportunity to work with my best friends, on arguable the biggest project of our lives…

FFY: Why should someone come to Hogsozzle above any other music festival?

AM: Our approach is clearly catching the eye of the industry. In 2016 we were shortlisted for awards by the UK Festival Awards, featured in Time Out Magazine and even listed in EasyJet’s in-flight magazine as a must attend festival whilst visiting the UK. Recognition like this is one thing, but it’s the feeling of putting on an event that attracts so many beautiful people along in one place. The feeling of intimacy is something that always comes up again and again in the feedback we receive. We are small enough for you not to take your phone with you, or to worry about losing friends, you have a clear understanding of where everything is located in the festival, and we offer some many immersive activities for you to get involved in as well. It’s a great place to meet like minded souls, and explore a really dynamic, boutique, sparkle filled festival. It’s like no other festival! It ticks all the boxes and then some!

FFY: What new and exciting features do you have in store for us this year?

AM: Well now that would be telling!! Let’s just say that when it comes to immersive activities, experiences to get involved, and for opportunities to meet new people and blow off some steam, you will not get a better opportunity all summer!

FFY: What is the one ‘must have’ accessory that you always take to a music festival?

AM: Pegs. You always need a good selection of sparkly pegs with you at a festival. And if you don’t know about the value of a good peg. Then come find me at HogSozzle this year and I will bring you right up to speed!