The Entertainment Engine podcast, welcome’s Music Promoter & Co-Founder of Black Deer Festival- Gill Tee!
From Capital Radio to promoting Party in The Park for the Prince’s Trust, Bob Dylan, Prince, Neil Young and her NEW venture “The Black Deer” Festival…
On The Entertainment Engine podcast show this week, we welcome our next guest, music promoter & entrepreneur — Jill Tee…
Early days:
Gill started her music career at Capital Radio, one of the largest commercial radio stations in London. Her role at the start was to promote ‘on air’, music events and festivals for the leading UK promoters of the time.
She worked her way through the ranks becoming Head of Entertainment at the station, looking after all the live music elements, along with developing new projects.
During this period Gill was charged with pulling together, the first 100,000 capacity Party in the Park at Hyde Park in 1998.
This is where Gill fell in love with producing events. Having secured a production company to work with on the project, and watching a world build from a greenfield site, it became apparent to her that this would be her next move into the world of live music.
Gill took the massive step of leaving a secure job at Capital to start her own events business, Entertee.
Gill was determined to go it alone but was persuaded by Deb Shilling, whom she had worked with at Capital that having a business partner would be more fun, so she and Debs set about finding an office.
Fortunately, as Gill had been so instrumental in pulling together all the elements for Party in the Park, she left Capital with a deal to continue to be in charge of it.
This gave a great start to the new business and gave Gill the financial stability to take the opportunity to really learn how to ‘build worlds’ from nothing.
Debs left Entertee after 4 years to start a family and move to the West Country, but Gill continued to build the business, securing a long term contract with Capital Radio to run all of their regional Party in the Parks.
During the 23 years of Entertee, Gill has produced many high-profile events, all over the UK.
New opportunity:
Sitting alongside the event production business, In 2004, realising there was a gap in the market, Gill co-founded Entertee Hire with her son Reece.
This multi-award-winning business supplies high-quality fencing and ground protection to the event and festival industry.
To listen to the podcast chat with Gill Tee just click on the link below;
Promoting world-class festivals:
In 2009, she was asked by one of the UK’s top promoters, Vince Power, to produce a new festival in Kent, the Hop Farm Festival. There she learned first-hand the ups and downs of producing a festival from scratch.
The Hop Farm was headlined by some incredible artists, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Eagles and hundreds more. The performance that stood out above all others during the 5 years of Hop Farms' life, was the iconic Prince’s first and only UK festival appearance.
Gill has now come full circle from producing festivals in her radio days for other promoters, to becoming a promoter and festival owner herself.
Using all the experience gained from her many years in the industry, she has applied this to the first-ever Black Deer, a festival of Americana, which she co-founded with Deb shilling.
As well as being the co-founder, Gill is also is the Festival Director, dealing with all aspects of production, a role she loves.
The inaugural festival took place in June 2018 and 2019 at Eridge Park, Kent. It was an idea that became a reality, a world that was very well received, winning many industry awards.
Due to Covid Black Deer Festival 2020/2021 was unable to happen but is on target with record ticket sales to open gates in 2022 — so watch this space, it's a great festival to attend…
By Pete Moore — Seamless Entertainment
