Here at Anomalous there have been a few exciting changes happening! And now the dust has settled and we’re in the groove of things we thought we would share the fun news with you. Some of you may already be aware, but for those who don’t- we are so excited to introduce our new Space Manager; Kay!

Kay has been with us since the new year, and hailing from the USA with a stellar background in festival events management, we couldn’t wait to get her in (and bug her for stories about the US music scene.)

She’s already dazzled us with some great new back-end systems she got from working in a tech start-up and her other roles, which I personally will also be pinching for my own personal projects. Also to boot she’s great company to have in the office and a steady hand on the wheel.

To introduce you all to Kay on a more personal level, we’ve conducted a little interview. Have a read below to see what she’s been up to before joining us here:Blue quoted text is the opinion of Kay Trowbridge (marked KT) and the rest is Aislinn Furlong (marked AF).

(AF) Where are you from?

(KT) Nashville, Tennessee, USA

(AF) What's your previous work?

(KT) I’ve been working in event production for 10 years, first as a Marketing Coordinator for AEG (the Nashville subsidiary of the major worldwide concert promotions company), then as a freelance music festival operations manager. I have marketed club to arena level tours for artists ranging from Mumford & Sons to Taylor Swift, and I’ve worked festivals like Coachella, Lollapalooza, Burning Man, etc.

(AF) How did you get into that?

(KT) I managed to get a summer internship at AEG before my last semester at uni, which turned into a full-time job once I graduated. When I got laid off a few years later, I volunteered at a festival in New Orleans, met some people, and started getting paid festival gigs.

(AF) What are you up to here in London?

(KT) I moved here in September 2024 to get a Master’s in Event Management, which will allow me to work legally in the UK long term.

(AF) What was your favourite part of the previous job?

(KT) I’m a person who craves variety. I need a bunch of different things to do and tons of different problems to solve. I could never sit at a desk working a typical 9-to-5 job because I’m not suited for it. I like the fact that no two days on a festival site are ever the same, and even though it can be grueling, mind-numbing work that requires a lot of logistical and administrative skills, crunching spreadsheets in the middle of a field – or in the desert in the middle of a dust storm, or in the jungle surrounded by monkeys – just hits different than having to do it in a corporate office!

(AF) What was the best skill you learned from it?

(KT) Well I can forklift ATV’s off the back of delivery trucks, which is pretty cool! Surprisingly, working festivals taught me to be very technologically proficient. As an Admin Manager for Site Operations crew, I am usually the right-hand person of the Site Operations Director, who hires and manages the team that builds the festival from the ground up. I have had to develop systems for everything from tracking festival permits to hiring festival staff to calculating square footage of tent walls to tracking costs and quantities of thousands of construction and build materials. Sometimes it’s just spreadsheets, but oftentimes it’s communication software like Slack, knowledge base software like Notion, project management software like Asana, boutique inventory management programs, Google Draw for creating storage container layouts and build diagrams, etc.

(AF) Can you give us your top three festivals?

(KT)

Burning Man (Nevada)
Envision Festival (Costa Rica)
Lightning in a Bottle (California)

(AF) How does London compare to the states?

(KT) I imagine it’s similar to New York in terms of restaurants, bars, shows, tourist attractions, etc., but I’ve never lived in NYC so I can only compare it to Nashville. Nashville is way smaller and obviously geared towards a different crowd (mostly country music and tourists). I like that London is a much bigger, more international city with more diversity and more options for everything from concerts and theatre shows to see to restaurants and venues to try. I could go somewhere different every single night and never run out of places to visit!

(AF) What festivals do you plan on going to here?

(KT) I’d really like to try Boomtown Fair, Wilderness, and All Points East, the first two based on vibes and the last one based on lineup.

(AF) Favourite band/Artist?

(KT) I mostly listen to DJs, Tokimonsta is one of my faves to see perform live. I’ve been to her Boiler Room set in Sydney, seen her play at Envision in Costa Rica, and again at Lightning in a Bottle last year. She had brain cancer and had to completely relearn how to DJ, which is a wild story of perseverance on its own, and I really like the way she tailors her sets really well to the events she’s at.

(AF) What's been the biggest learning curve coming here?

(KT) Aside from the “London welcome” of having my phone nicked by phone thieves 3 weeks after I arrived, it was training myself to write in British English. Since I got here last September, I’ve spent enough time writing words like colour, recognise, humour, etc. that it feels like second nature to me now – but when I’m working on personal projects or corresponding with friends back home, I have the interesting problem of now defaulting to the British spelling instead of the American one. And my new phone is a British phone, so it always defaults to the British spellings as well

(AF) What’s some of the best advice you’d give to someone who wanted to start out in events management?

(KT) Networking is essential! Who you know is a lot more important than what you know. Being willing to humble yourself and reach out to new people for a coffee, for a volunteer opportunity, etc. is how you’ll get your foot in the door and start to see progress.

(AF) What an easy mistake to make at the beginning?

(KT) Touching on the previous point, you can have a great resume and fill out hundreds of job applications, but if all you’re doing is shooting CVs into a generic form on the internet, you’re going to have to be very lucky to get anywhere in this field.

(AF) Best memory so far in London?

(KT) Right after I worked at Burning Man in July-August and relocated to London in September, I volunteered to work the Burning Man Decompression event at The Cause. I was the hire manager and ended up procuring the furniture, the office cabin, and a few other things. It was a fun way to meet new people and get some insight into how events run over here!

(AF) What's one thing that drew you to Anomalous?

(KT) Well I’ve never worked private events before, so I was interested in expanding my skill set. However, I really like the fact that despite having a lot of corporate clients that plan away days, meetings, etc., in the venue, Anomalous has a very homey, laid-back feel. Also, a lot of Anomalous’s clients are doing really cool things. We get tons of corporations in all different kinds of sectors, plus charities, education providers, TV/media companies, photographers, performers, therapists, workshop organisers, and personal party planners who are looking to use our spaces. Whether I’m showing the venue for a client who wants to book multiple days for a pasta making class or helping someone plan a Eurovision themed book launch, no two days are ever the same!

Thanks to Kay for letting us interview her and get a little bit of a snapshot into her life! Of course if you’d like to get in contact with Kay to discuss your events and bookings- probably not your festivals (at least in our venue) she can be found through our space email address.

Introducing our new space manager; Kay

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