Ritch Ames
Stage Manager
I’m a Stage Manager with 30+ years’ experience delivering major live events, including
Glastonbury Festival, Reading Festival,
BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend,
Electric Picnic, Boardmasters & Latitude.
I run stages that deliver on time, under pressure, and at scale, and I’m freelance.
Festival & Live Music Stage Management
I’m a UK-based Festival Stage Manager and Live Event Stage Manager with more than 30 years’ experience, running Main and Second Stages at major music festivals, concerts and live events in the UK and internationally.
I started out booking bands and running live events at Kingston University, before moving into stage management at legendary events including Tribal Gathering, Creamfields and Homelands. As my experience grew, I went on to manage stages at The Phoenix Festival, The Fleadh and, in 1996, Reading Festival - a festival I’d previously attended as a teenager and have now worked at for 30 years. Today, I Stage Manage Reading Festival’s Main Stage. Read about my 30 years of Stage Managing at Reading Festival here.
My festival stage management credits also include Glastonbury Festival (Other Stage), Latitude (Main Stage), Electric Picnic (Main Stage), Boardmasters (Main Stage), State Fayre (Main Stage), BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend, BBC Radio 2 in the Park, Lollapalooza Berlin, T in the Park and Oxegen, alongside major headline shows at Gunnersbury Park, Finsbury Park and Warwick Castle. I’ve worked across the UK, Ireland, Europe, the USA and the UAE.
My approach to festival and live music stage management is calm, experienced, and focused on keeping the show moving. Multiple artists, tight changeovers, complicated logistics and immovable curfews are all part of the job.
I run a tight but friendly ship: clear communication, proper timings and everyone knowing what needs to happen next. That means coordinating Stage Crew, Audio, Lighting, Video, SFX, Security, and Artist Liaison alongside each visiting artist’s production team; solving problems before they become bigger problems; keeping changeovers efficient; and making sure the show stays on time.
And when something genuinely does go wrong, I’m the person who is on top of it and gets it fixed.
That's essentially the job of the Stage Manager. Read more about what a Festival Stage Manager does and follow my blog, The Stage Clock
