Notting Hill Carnival CEO Matthew Phillip takes us behind the scenes to discuss his life and times at the helm of one of the world’s most spectacular and popular carnivals.

The AAA Backstage podcast series meets festival bosses to explore what lies behind the events and the people that run them. From driving floats at Notting Hill Carnival as a child to taking over as the vast event’s CEO, Matthew has been closely involved throughout his life in what has been the UK’s biggest and brightest street party since the mid 1960s.

An explosion of spectacular costumes and pumping rhythms against a backdrop of colourful Caribbean culture and cuisine; the inimitable event attracts around 2 million people each year and is the biggest carnival outside Brazil. Matthew discusses how the event has for him, his family, and many in the community, long been much more than a two-day party over the August Bank Holiday weekend.

This conversation was recorded at The Tabernacle in the centre of Notting Hill, the carnival’s HQ that’s not only home to the event’s management team but also sees everything from costumes being developed to bands rehearsing.

Harvey Goldsmith CBE, the promoter of two of the world’s biggest music events, Live Aid in 1985 and Live 8 in 2005, takes the hot seat for an AAA Backstage podcast.

A celebrated producer and promoter of concerts, festivals, charity events and television broadcasts, Goldsmith has worked with a huge number of major acts including The Who, Queen and Luciano Pavarotti. Among his latest projects is Earth Aid Live – a series of stadium concerts planned over one weekend in six countries with the aim of raising money to fight climate change and empower young people to make a positive difference.

With The Live Aid musical Just For One Day currently running at London’s The Old Vic, Goldsmith is interviewed by AAA content director Christopher Barrett on stage at the Access All Areas Conference. Topics covered not only include the ongoing legacy of that landmark global event on 134 July 1985, but a broad range of topics from 1960s psychedelic misadventures with Peter Fonder to a passionate call to support the grassroots sector and advice for young promoters.

Recorded at The Warehouse Project venue Depot Mayfield in Manchester, this interview finds the nightclub’s co-founder and Parklife festival boss Sacha Lord opening up about everything from being shot at and petrol bombed, back in the days of ‘Madchester’, to projecting a huge protest film above the Tory Party Conference.

The series explores what lies behind festivals and their instigators, and this episode finds Sacha in fine form discussing pertinent industry-wide issues and reflecting on an eventful career path that has led the promoter to become the night time economy advisor for Greater Manchester. Among the many topics covered are his early career, which started with an event at the Haçienda in July 1994 and later saw him excite the inmates at Strangeways Prison by staging the first Warehouse Project, with Public Enemy, just metres away from the prison walls. Sacha also provides passionate views about the issues impacting the industry and his events today. Among the many areas covered in the conversation are drug testing at events, the importance of sustaining grassroots talent, the need for artist exclusivity clauses, the impact of the cost-of-living crisis and him very publicly sticking two fingers up at Rishi Sunak.