Our Events division has undoubtedly had an eventful year, which is now coming to a close. Following on from Sunday evening’s highly entertaining game against Norway, we’ve got one notable game at Hampden remaining in the event calendar. Somewhat strangely, our final big event of 2023 is the same event that kicked off our 2023 events season! The League Cup Final at Hampden Park Stadium was on 26th February when Celtic won an exciting match against Rangers, and we close out our events season with the now-renamed Viaplay Cup Final between Rangers and Aberdeen on 17th December at the national stadium. The slight anomaly is due to the timing of the 2022 World Cup Finals in Qatar.
Of course, our work goes on at Tynecastle, where we are delighted to work with Heart of Midlothian to provide an ongoing range of services at the stadium. At Hampden Park we’ve added many games to our schedule, this includes the Scotland Women’s National Team fixtures, and Queen’s Park FC now play their home games at Hampden. To finish the football round up, we wish the national team well for the finals in Germany next year. But it’s not all football; during 2023, the Events division has worked at a wide range of events.
June was the start of the busy summer months when many of the outdoor mass-audience events kicked off. The day after the Scottish Cup Final, our teams were out in force for the first of The Kiltwalk in Aberdeen on 4th June. We are proud to have supported The Kiltwalk for many years, and we’d go on to work with them at the Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow events throughout the year.
June also saw the launch of a new music event at Rouken Glen in Glasgow; The Reeling is a festival of traditional Scottish music. Spectrum was delighted to work with the organisers, and we’re excited to hear that success in its inaugural year has resulted in its return in June 2024.
Continuing with live music events, we were delighted to work again with our friends from DF Concerts at the end of June, supporting three major nights at Bellahouston Park – Muse on the 23rd, Arctic Monkeys on the 25th and Guns N’ Roses on the 27th. All three nights were a resounding success and set a high bar for our music-loving staff. And less than two weeks later, they’d get to work at Glasgow Green for the Def Leppard and Motley Crew concerts ahead of TRNSMT over the first weekend of July.
Summer also heralds the start of the golf events season, and our first event of the year was in the South for the Betfred British Masters hosted by Sir Nick Faldo at The Belfry, Sutton Coldfield. The renowned course didn’t fail to deliver with an exciting tournament and a great start top the golfing season. We were then off to the DP World Tour Genesis Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club. Many of the world’s leading golfers took part in the tournament, which provided a nail-biting finish that witnessed Rory McIlroy triumph over local favourite Bob McIntyre. Once again, this sets a high bar for our golf-loving staff members!
However, they didn’t have long to wait; the following week, the Spectrum events team were off to Merseyside for the biggest golf event of all – The Open Championship at Royal Liverpool. We love working with the R&A at the Open, and this one again lived up to everyone’s expectations.
August brought us a new event, the UCI Cycling World Championships in Glasgow, from the 3rd until the 13th of August. We played a supporting role at many of the venues. The event brought together the world’s greatest cyclists to compete across 13 UCI Cycling World Championships in the ultimate tests of talent, tenacity and toughness. And in the organisers’ words, it was the “biggest cycling event ever”.
As if the biggest ever cycling event wasn’t enough, right in the middle of the ten days, we were also providing our services in the South of England at the AIG Women’s Open at Walton Heath from the 7th until the 13th of August. Not only was this one of the most significant women’s golf events of the year, but for the first time, it also incorporated a music concert with the fabulous Ellie Goulding. The whole event was designed to attract young people and non-golfers to the sport, and judging from the response, we certainly think it was effective.
This summer months were indeed a busy time for Spectrum; in addition to the events we’ve already mentioned, we worked at Glasgow Mela, Scotland’s biggest free multicultural festival, when it returned to Kelvingrove Park. It was an incredible spectacle of music, dance and mouth-watering food from around the globe. Then, another global event marched into town – The World Pipe Band Championships.
The highly popular event was at Glasgow Green on the 18th and 19th of August.
As we approached the end of the year, we were pleased to be back in the Kingdom of Fife for one of the most popular golfing events on our calendar – The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. Contested over King’s Barns, Carnoustie and the Old Course, St Andrews, this is a much-loved event among our staff. Even though it is a serious golf competition, the celebrity element makes it great fun for competitors, spectators, and our team. We’ve worked at the Dunhill on many occasions, and it never fails to deliver a great end to the event season.
A late addition to the event calendar was the Christmas Light Switch On in George Square, Glasgow on Sunday the 20th when Christmas shoppers and families gathered to see the turning on of the Christmas light display. We were in attendance to provide cleaning and litter-picking services.
Of course, 2023 is a milestone year for Spectrum; it’s our 20th Anniversary this year. Yes, it all began in 2003, and, just like this year, we don’t know where the time has gone. Now that the bulk of the events are over for the year, we have more time to reflect on the last 20 years, so we will be sharing some exciting facts about our journey in the coming weeks.
