19.29°C Colchester is preparing for one of its busiest periods of events yet, with around 75,000 people expected across seven gigs as part of the Colchester Summer Series in Castle Park this August and a wider programme that now stretches across venues and public spaces throughout the city.
For James Young, Operations Manager at Colchester Events, what is happening this summer has been years in the making.
“It’s no longer events in Colchester,” he said. “It’s Colchester’s events.”
James is responsible for events delivered through Colchester Events, but is keen to acknowledge Colchester Arts Centre, Mercury Theatre, Firstsite, independent venues, promoters and organisers working across the city.
“We’re certainly not there to be a competitor,” he said. “We’re there to facilitate, enable, and link.”
Making space for events
James and I have known each other for a while, and one project we spoke about regularly was the regeneration of St Nicholas Square.
We talked then about creating somewhere people would use rather than simply pass through, with the potential for events and other activity in the city centre. A year on from the square officially opening, James describes it as still a work in progress but believes substantial progress has been made.
Outdoor seating has appeared from neighbouring businesses, a stakeholder group has been established involving local operators, and events are beginning to make use of the square throughout the year.
“We are bringing a programme of entertainment to the space,” he said.
Events have already taken place at St Nicholas Square, including a Rapture Gaming Festival and The Sunday Sessions. James sees it as one of the city centre spaces that can link with larger events elsewhere.
Invasion Colchester is another example of different parts of the city being used as part of a wider event.
A programme that keeps growing
James came into events through local government, initially working on outdoor events from a grounds and horticultural perspective.
Among his earliest large-scale experiences were BBC Radio 1 events at Chantry Park in Ipswich, where crowds of around 80,000 attended free outdoor shows. He later became involved with arts festivals and other events, building a career in an industry he admits can be both rewarding and stressful.
“Not everybody’s going to like what we do,” he said. “We take into consideration everybody’s opinions, and then we make the best decision moving forward.”
That includes residents living around Castle Park as well as the tens of thousands of people attending events there.
Colchester Events’ programme includes Charter Hall, the Town Hall, Castle Park and other outdoor locations, alongside work delivered for other local authorities.
James said Charter Hall hosted 156 shows last year, with its flat-floor format allowing it to accommodate comedy, live music, gaming, dance competitions, and other events.
“You’ve got to look across the market,” he said. “You’ve got to be astute and watch what the trends are.”
He believes Colchester audiences will support events when the offer is right.
“People support and spend money here,” he said. “People can identify what quality is, and I think by bringing people quality, people will spend money.”
Part of a wider events city
The growth of Colchester’s events programme isn’t the work of any single organisation, and our conversation kept coming back to the depth of culture that was already here.
James spoke about the Mercury Theatre, Colchester Arts Centre and the city’s other cultural organisations, alongside independent venues and promoters. He also pointed to the number of Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) based in Colchester as another strength in the city’s cultural offer.
“We’re doing culture. We’re making culture,” he said.
I brought up Ipswich’s bid to become UK City of Culture 2029. James is originally from Ipswich and hopes the bid does well, but I was interested in what that conversation says about Colchester. We’ve been a city for four years now, and I asked whether we are starting to think and act more like one when it comes to events and culture.
James believes one of Colchester’s strengths is that the cultural foundations were already here.
“I think one of our strengths is we do culture and have done for decades,” he said. “We’re surrounded by exceptional venues that do that year-round.”
The larger outdoor concerts haven’t suddenly created an events and cultural scene in Colchester. They have arrived in a city where venues, organisations, promoters and individuals have been putting on events for decades.
James also used Colchester Events’ Christmas show as an example of how the growing programme can work alongside what is already established. He was clear that it was never intended to compete with the Mercury Theatre’s pantomime, but to offer audiences something different alongside it.
“As a city, you’ve got to be willing to take risks,” he said.
James believes Colchester is now capable of supporting a greater number and variety of events.
“There are enough people to go around now to support them.”
He recalled recently speaking to someone who had grown up in Colchester, moved to Brighton and subsequently returned. They described Colchester’s cultural offer as “unrecognisable” from the one they had left behind.
Castle Park steps up again
The 2026 Colchester Castle Summer Series brings Billy Ocean, Hollywood Vampires, Becky Hill, Bastille, Richard Ashcroft, JLS, and Fatboy Slim to Castle Park, along with a selection of local acts.
With seven very different shows ahead, James admits that, on a personal level, Fatboy Slim is one he is particularly looking forward to.
I put it to James that these were artists many of us would once never have expected to see playing full-scale outdoor shows in Colchester.
For James, the production and organisation behind the concerts are an important part of building the city’s reputation.
“Proper set-up. Great production, great levels of production, organisation,” he said.
Having promoters return is important because every successful event helps with the next one.
“You’re only as good as your last event.”
Planning is already under way for 2027, although James is conscious of the practicalities of staging major events in a city centre park.
“We have to make sure we have the right number of events. We have the right controls in place.”
He pointed to what the next fortnight will bring to the city.
“Look at the number of people we’re going to attract to that park over the next fortnight,” he said. “What the economic impact will be on this city, what the reputational benefit is to this city, both on a regional, national, and international level.”
James also talked about seeing Colchester increasingly appear alongside much larger UK cities on touring schedules while retaining its own identity.
Big names and homegrown events
The Summer Series is only part of what is happening in Castle Park and across the city.
Our conversation also turned to established homegrown events such as Invasion Colchester and the Anti Loo Roll Brigade Festival, both of which have built their own audiences and become part of Colchester’s events calendar.
For James, attracting bigger national and international names doesn’t change the importance of events that have grown from within the city.
“The smallest event is as important as the biggest event,” he said. “The smallest, most independent promoter is as important as the most high-profile national, international product.”
“There’s still room for great ideas. It’s not a closed shop.”
For free city centre events, one of the challenges is finding a sustainable funding model without ticket income. James said that can mean sponsorship, commercial partnerships, or other secondary income.
What events bring to the city
Last year’s Castle Summer Series generated an estimated £6.5 million in visitor spending, while Amphora Group’s wider events programme was reported to have generated nearly £24 million in economic impact.
I asked James what those figures mean for pubs, restaurants, hotels, shops, and other businesses across Colchester.
“The reason we do it is for the people and the businesses,” he said.
I suggested that this was what prevented the programme from becoming a vanity project.
“The whole idea is to see people have a great time, to attract people to the city, to live, work and play, to create a level of income in terms of business income,” James said.
He described events as part of a wider “place-making, place-shaping initiative”, bringing people into Colchester while also helping the city compete for visitors, investment and businesses.
“If we snooze for a year, we’ve lost our place in the market,” he said. “Everybody’s after the same piece of the pie.
“We’ve got to sell our USP. It’s the heritage, it’s the location. We make it easy for a promoter to come in.”
More than Colchester Events
James’s role also sits within a broader Amphora operation.
He speaks highly of the events team. David Marsh oversees Charter Hall; Melissa Faux works across the Town Hall and Castle; and Megan Pullen is responsible for outdoor events.
Colchester Events also works outside the city, delivering events and services for other local authorities, with James referencing work with Maldon and Castle Point during our conversation.
The wider Amphora business includes other services, including Fibre, grounds maintenance and a helpline service. James said bringing areas such as grounds maintenance and events closer together has made the operation more joined-up, particularly when delivering events in Castle Park.
Keeping residents, politicians, officers, and other stakeholders informed is another part of the work.
“Sometimes there are things we’re going to tell people that they’re not going to like,” he said. “We need to just be clear and transparent and share those.”
Major events can have been in planning for around 18 months before the audience arrives. James describes the operation in the run-up as calm, although there will always be things that cannot be anticipated.
“There are the known knowns, and then there are the unknowns,” he said. “We always get a surprise. We always get a challenge.”
Event safety and security are also changing, with organisers preparing for new requirements, including Martyn’s Law.
And does James ever actually get to enjoy the events?
“No,” he replied immediately.
“I enjoy watching people have a good time, and I enjoy having the people here in Colchester,” he said. “But I don’t think when you work in events you ever relax. You get enjoyment out of seeing other people enjoy it.”
I said how I recognised the feeling from putting on events myself. While an audience arrives looking forward to what is about to happen, the organiser is usually wondering whether everyone will turn up and whether everything will work out ok.
For James, it is often afterwards, once everyone has left safely, that he gets the chance to look back on the event.
What happens next
James thinks the next few years could be difficult for the wider events industry.
“I don’t particularly like the word consolidate, but we need to hold our position within the market where we are because it’s challenging times,” he said.
Growth could take different forms. It might mean higher-profile events, increased income, or finding ways of reducing costs while maintaining the programme.
“We want national, international events. We want to continue that.”
James also wants Colchester to continue working with larger national organisations and providers while finding the right events for the right locations.
“Every year, we can’t keep the programme the same. The programme’s got to change. It’s got to be fresh.”
When I asked what made him proudest, James talked about the profile and regularity of artists now appearing in Colchester, Charter Hall’s programme, the city’s major cultural organisations, independent venues and the way people are increasingly working together.
“The journey’s always been there,” he said.
“It was before, ‘you’re bringing these events to Colchester,’ James said. “Now it’s great. We put our arms around these events and bring them in.
“It’s Colchester’s events.”
I’ve spent many years writing about, promoting, and putting on events in Colchester for Keep Colchester Cool, so perhaps I notice the change more than most. The big names coming to Castle Park are exciting, but for me the real progress is that they now sit alongside independent venues, promoters, and homegrown events as part of a much bigger calendar. Colchester has always had people prepared to make things happen, and right now there’s more happening here than ever.
