End of Year School Speeches & Ball – Clifton College

Clifton College, May 2019

Complete event management for end of year school event in Bristol – over 5,000 guests in 4 days.

Alastair Currie Events is very pleased to have provided the event management (including full design, delivery & all logistics) for the Clifton College end of year school speeches and ball for over 10 years now.

We are very privileged to have a great long standing relationship with many of Bristol’s most well regarded schools, and we deliver events throughout the school year at many locations. In particular our event design and management, keen eye & calm approach are in demand for the end year events for Commemorations, prize givings, speeches & end of year ceremonies.

The size and busy nature of Clifton College means that the staff work closely with Alastair Currie Events throughout the year regarding the scheduling and planning for the entire event which covers three-days of jam-packed event deliveries within a busy week for the School. In addition to everything taking place on the main site we also oversee all the event deliveries to the assorted School houses around the Clifton campus (glassware, furniture, linen) for the Houses’ (both the Pre-School and the Upper School) own drinks receptions that take place during the events week.
A large 25m x 50m Clearspan marquee structure is erected on The Close, the large playing field at the front of the School, and fully kitted out with linings, carpet, staging, lighting rig and projection screen embedded stage-set. A full logistics sheet worth of chairs, tables, dancefloor, kitchen equipment, loos and decorations are all brought in and installed to time.

The schedule of events takes the form of a calendar of lunches (three in total), speeches (Prep-School and Upper School) and fun-filled evening events – for a wide ranging audience. We see over 5,000 guests in the marquee over the course of 4 days, and this all culminates in the end of year Ball put on for the Upper Sixth, their parents and teachers.

For 2019 the theme was a fantastic Hollywood spectacular, complete with Hollywood Hills backdrop, glamorous light-up movie-star frames, stunning candelabra & Oscar statue centrepieces (clapperboards, sparkly stars and scatter glitter aplenty!) and gold charger plates. We even rolled out the red carpet for the guests, with a full red carpet & silver stations/red ropes entrance unveiled specially for the evening event!

A three course meal, preceded by some fun silver screen-themed canapes (vintage style burger sliders, Hollywood hotdogs, popcorn nibbles), was enjoyed by our 400 guests.
After dinner entertainment was provided by the brilliant live band and a full cohort of casino croupiers.

Our team work until late on the Saturday night, and into the Sunday morning, to ensure that all items and the marquee itself are cleared away by Tuesday midday – it’s all hands on deck, with such a big install to come down and be removed from site. There are over 30 deliveries (& then the following collections!) that take place to the site, which incorporates multiple trucks for large orders, so there’s plenty to be done!

It is always such a pleasure to assist this client with this important annual event, creating a really well planned & well-delivered event site (remembering that School is still in session when we build, we are fully DBS compliant & put in place a variety of working procedures with this in mind) which showcases the school at its absolute best – from speeches through until the grand finale of the Ball.

We love to be on hand from the first delivery to site until the final litter pick! We would love to assist you with your event, please contact us to find out how we can assist you!

Read more about the previous celebrations at Clifton College here and about last years’ Badminton School events here.

Thanks to you for all your help and support, it ran so smoothly and nothing was too much trouble. Thanks for your continuing support.
Educational event for over 500 delegates