Fiona Stewart hadn’t always worked in the music industry. Being a single mum, she had to crack on with whatever work she could find. Bar work, waitressing, admin – she wasn’t fussy. But all of that would come in handy later. “I was very hardworking and I was prepared to just be useful,” she tells me over video call, explaining that working in the music industry is very much about your reputation. “So I would just try to do whatever anyone asked of me, and then eventually people sort of heard about me and then they would recommend me to somebody.”
Now 66, Stewart is the owner and managing director of Green Man, one of the UK’s last-remaining truly independent festivals and the only independent festival in the UK owned by a woman. When I speak to her a couple of weeks out from this year’s festival opening on 20 August, Stewart seems relaxed, jonesing to get onsite.
Green Man is an enormous success. Nestled in the Brecon Beacons, now known as Bannau Brycheiniog, the festival, founded in 2003, sells out within an hour every year, months before any of the line-up is released. Though many festivals have had to rely on Live Nation takeovers and corporate sponsorship to survive in a decimated cultural climate, punters still like the freer, more independent feel. And it’s the punters that matter to Stewart. “I love the fact of like-minded people coming together and creating something. It’s a kind of magical thing,” Stewart says.
